The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 5

This season just won’t allow us to settle.

From one Gameweek to another, our priorities are shifting with our plans forced back to the drawing board by new doubts and concerns.

The last campaign was testing but for a whole different reason.

It delivered the unexpected and some, including myself, took time to adjust to that being the norm.

We were found out by Leicester’s ascent, and it punished those who were slow to seize on the value offered by Dele Alli and Harry Kane.

Equally, when Eden Hazard flopped, and Mesut Ozil engaged his long grind of assists, some like myself, were taken by surprise.

But once you latched on to those trends, you could almost rest easy.

It felt like there were five, maybe six or seven slots in our team safely designated, leaving us to concentrate on managing the peripheral players around them according to form and fixture.

So far, this season is very different.

It feels like the stabilisers are off and, wobbling along from Gameweek to Gameweeek, we have to re-learn the real skill involved in Fantasy Football.

I don’t think we can yet bank on a set of consistent points scorers. Sergio Aguero aside, all bets are off elsewhere in our squad.

Eden Hazard has swung from near essential to disposable in a fortnight; even Zlatan Ibrahimovic will come under pressure should he blank on Sunday.

There is no comfort zone.

Each 0.1 feels precious, each transfer a significant opportunity to swap one midfield heavy hitter for another.

Loyalty and faith in players can pay off but the temptation to be fickle and act swiftly feels greater than ever.

In this week’s ScoutCast I discussed this very subject – the fact that I believe there’s a viable tactic in swapping heavy-hitters week to week, rather than settle them in and trade mid-price and budget assets.

Phillipe Coutinho, Riyad Mahrez, and Eden Hazard have already shown that we can expect runs of blanks and, usually, we’re quite happy to absorb them.

But with so much of our funds tied up in attack, can we afford to accept it? Can we expect to make up the shortfall for their failings by trading with sub 7.5 assets?

I suspect this season demands unparalleled flexibility, pushing us to explore the idea of trading big name midfielders in and out on a weekly basis, absorbing the price losses but attempting to exploit short-term form and fixtures.

It feels like we’ve been able to trundle for the last few seasons, relying heavily on a solid spine and making transfer decisions that influence our Gameweek tally, without threatening to make or break it.

But this feels different – this feels like there are constant risks and rewards to consider.

There’s a thrill to it – there is more excitement and expectation, but it also feels precarious and dangerous.

Like the day the stabilisers came off, I’m taking things steady but aware that, if I move too slowly, I may just come a cropper.