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The Rough With The Smooth – Gameweek 38

Welcome to the last in this season’s regular article series, gathering our community’s tales of joy and woe from the last Gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game. This will look at the key decisions made that proved either inspired or saw overall ranks plummet. We also find out what lessons our community has learned from their key captaincy, transfer and benching decisions over the week.

In the final Gameweek there were plenty of smiles amongst Theo Walcott owners, while those who selected Christian Benteke and Romelu Lukaku were left disappointed

The Rough

Van Gallelujah’s eight-point hit provided disastrous as he jettisoned Harry Kane, Eden Hazard and Santi Cazorla, who accrued 24 points between them, and replaced them with Yannick Bolasie, David Silva and Romelu Lukaku, who all failed to gain a single goal or assist. It was his worst ever Gameweek rank and cost him a top-5,000 placing in the overall rankings.

Another to ditch Cazorla’s 10 points was Albertini, who opted for the non-scoring Juan Mata rather than the goalscoring Charlie Adam. If he had done nothing he would have finished with a top-100 overall rank. His lesson learned is that “even in Gameweek 38 you can always save a transfer”.

Forza also discarded Cazorla, as well as Eden Hazard as part of an eight-point hit. His new recruits, including Yaya Toure, failed to deliver and saw him plummet from 1631 to 3035 in the final overall rankings. His two lessons learned are that “taking hits on the final day is rubbish” and to “completely ignore Chelsea press conferences” in reference to Jose Mourinho’s claim that Hazard was a doubt following dental surgery.

Holmes may retire permanently after his audacious 12-point hit let him down badly, with new recruits Silva, Willian, Gary Cahill, JonJo Shelvey and Lukaku all failing to bring in significant returns. His decision to captain Willian further compounded his miserable end to the season.

The lowest score of any of the top 10,000 was 13 and belonged to Atletico Timbo. He sold Aguero and Kane for Benteke and Lukaku which saw him register his lowest ever points total as an FPL manager.

The Smooth

Hull’s Paul McShane proved the unlikely hero for The Sarjeant, who also drafted in Diego Costa, who scored, and Theo Walcott, who registered a hat-trick.

Sess was among those that not only drafted in Theo Walcott but also captainted the Arsenal midfielder. This helped give him his highest ever Gameweek rank of 363 and finish 1,783rd. The move also ensured he finished first in his cash mini-league, which was an incredible achievement considering he went into the Gameweek 39 points behind the leader. His lesson learned is: “Go with your gut. If you have a strong feeling on someone, don’t be swayed by others who say it’s too risky.”

Another to thank Theo Walcott for a mini-league victory was initial xp who ditched Sanchez to make the move. In addition he also gambled on handing Walcott the captaincy. He not only won his mini-league but also achieved his highest ever rank, of 8,492, in nine years of playing.

This week’s Dimitar Berbertov smooth operator award goes to Jinswick, who rose from fourth to second in the overall rankings after bringing in Theo Walcott and Diego Costa for a hit. Although he captained Costa and missed out on the number one place the move represents considerable coolness under pressure and the best effort by any of the top five FPL managers to unseat eventual winner Simon March, aka Dufflinks.

To see more rough with the smooth tales of joy and woe click here.

J0E Podcaster and writer. Tweets stats and stuff via @FFScout_Joe Follow them on Twitter

9 Comments Post a Comment
  1. J0E
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    8 years, 10 months ago

    Thanks for submitting. Good to see people having a worse week than me 😉

    (I was another Kane and Hazard ditcher and Benteke and Silva purchaser btw)

  2. Rhinos
    • 10 Years
    8 years, 10 months ago

    Gw37 I took Mark chosing Ryan Taylor as the final sign to play him. This meant no room for PVA so my transfer instead was Mane to Larsson lost 34 pts on that deal
    So gw38 in rage (cash league locked up, chance of top 2k gone) I angrily decided to make my other mini league interesting and took a 16pt hit losing Sanchez Ozil Larsson Kane and Zamora bringing in Mata Walcott Brady Costa and Vardy.
    This reduced my lead from 32 to 16 BUT I scored 71 (-16)

    1. Rhinos
      • 10 Years
      8 years, 10 months ago

      Point being it's all swings and roundabouts this game of ours 😆

      1. faux_C
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        8 years, 10 months ago

        Totally. With the Mane thing, it's important to remember not to beat yourself up over completely unpredictable events. It was an utter black swan, and making decisions based on outliers isn't good strategy.

        1. Rhinos
          • 10 Years
          8 years, 10 months ago

          I had no issue with Mane out other than it was a good fixture and he their main threat. Had to get 5pts to beat Larsson just for turning up.
          My issue was it was v bad play to not get PVA instead. Newcastle are rubbish, I was too blinded by Taylor being on set pieces

  3. faux_C
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    8 years, 10 months ago

    I should've posted this when you asked initially, but here we go. It's rough.

    My final 2 GWs (2 cup finals no less), saw one triple transfer mess up my entire team, and I blame no-one but myself.

    GW37 : Vardy, Hazard, Heaton -> Giroud, Cazorla, Given (-4)

    I was bizarrely fixated on getting 3 Arsenal mids/attackers, and further fixated on getting Giroud despite his awful form. Had to do Heaton->Given to get the cash to get Giroud, but was positive Given would play GW38 and I had Panti for GW37. Vardy easily outscored Giroud despite having 1 less game, Heaton got a CS in GW38, and I didn't have a playing keeper. Fundamentally, all went tits up and I'll never buy Giroud again.

    Wasn't helped by selling Cazorla GW38 when I could've just sold Sterling instead.

    1. Rhinos
      • 10 Years
      8 years, 10 months ago

      Giroud could be essential next season 🙂

    2. J0E
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      8 years, 10 months ago

      Ah, but look it at this way, you reached two cup finals - that's a first and had a great run to get there. I'd consider your season a success even with that late blip.

      Seasons success are about these moments, cup finals, mini league tussles, rank records being broken. You had a memorable season, many didn't.

      1. faux_C
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        8 years, 10 months ago

        That's true. Even though I didn't quite reach the heights of my best ever (1.5k) finish, I won't be forgetting the last few weeks of this season in a hurry, especially after I nearly conspired to derail my own season with a disastrous January wildcard.