Now that the 2010/11 Fantasy season is finally over we can start to look back and digest exactly what kind of year it has been. We’ll be bringing you a variety of season review articles and even look ahead to those players jostling for a place in our squads next term.

However, just as I did last year, I’ll be start things off by assessing just how well our Captain’s Poll has fared throughout the season.

Just how difficult has the captaincy conundrum proved this season? How has it compared year on year? Those questions and many other little nuggets of interest follow, as I grab my calculator and make a few sums for you…

We’ll start exactly as we did last year by looking at the breakdown of exactly how the poll topper’s fared on a weekly basis. Extracting gameweek 19, where the weather put pay to our best laid plans, it’s clear that captain selection has been tough…

0-3 points: 12 times
4-7 points: 9 times
8-11-points: 7 times
12 points or more: 9 times

Looking at those numbers alone highlights that the captain’s choice this season has been much more hit and miss – certainly compared to last season. Just under a third of the time (32% to be precise) our leading candidate has walked away with little to show for their efforts. That’s compared to an 11% figure last year.

Cesc Fabregas is perhaps a perfect example of how we have suffered. The Gunners Captain topped our poll just twice all season (at home to West Ham and Newcastle) – he walked away with just three and one points respectively. His three goals compared to 15 scored in roughly the same spell last season, clearly took him out of the equation as a captain choice this term.

The most successful poll topper is, as is often the case, a player who’s been given two cracks of the whip in a double gameweek. Having scored a brace in each of his last three double gameweeks Clint Dempsey is not only deserving of a place the annuls of Fantasy history for his bi-fixture habit, but his 18 points in gameweek 34 makes him the highest scoring vote winner. Carlos Tevez’ hat-trick 17 points at home to West Brom in February comes a close second.

There are plenty of cases of “what might have been” Notably the likes of Dider Drogba’s hat-trick in gameweek one (picking up 17 points) – more than doubling poll winner Frank Lampard’s score of 8 points. There have also been plenty of viable top scores pass us by altogether – the three occasions that Dimitar Berbatov picked up mammoth scores -gameweek 5: 17 points v LIV, gameweek 15: 25 points v BIR & gameweek 24: 29 points v BIR/bpl- he failed to make the top three of the poll; the one time he did (this final gameweek) he collected just 5 points.

The same can be said for Frank Lampard away at Blackpool scoring 18 points – he was not in even in the top three, while poll winner Carlos Tevez returned just 2 points at home to Wigan. When Tevez did come good – scoring 12 and 16 points away at Blackpool and Fulham in gameweek’s 8 and 14 respectively – it fell under the captain poll radar. As did Nani picking up 14 points at home to both West Ham and Spurs in gameweek’s 3 and10.

If we take an average score of all of the captains across the season we get an acceptable, but not staggering figure of 7.19 points per gameweek. Compare that to last season’s average of 10.23 and we’ve another indicator of just how we’ve suffered this term.

Obviously if points scoring on the whole was lower across the board then a 7 point average isn’t as bad as it may initially seem – unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. By simply comparing our last two FPL Champions Jon Reeson and Chris McGurn, scores this season are 88% of what they were last year. We may have scored less points on a whole this season then, but the captain’s poll clearly still hasn’t been as successful this time around.

Here’s some final morsels of poll analysis that may also be of interest:

• Wayne Rooney ended up having a fair few good weeks this season after his tumultuous start. However, the only time he topped our poll (gameweek 30, Bolton at home) he walked away with just 2 points.
• Didier Drogba was the most captained player this season with seven top rankings in the poll (first four scores: 13, 9, 6, 10. final three scores: 2, 2, 2). What’s more, all of these came inside Chelsea’s first 13 gameweeks highlighting not only Drogba’s dip in form but just how kindly the early fixtures seemed to be for Chelsea.
• Carlos Tevez came a close second in that race with five poll victories – five of his times in the spotlight came in the second half of the season.
• The top three in our poll registered three points or less just twice all season; clearly then there was predominantly (95% of the time) a ‘valid’ captain’s choice picking up points somewhere.
• Nani was the most consistent captain’s choice. In the five time’s he topped our poll he never failed failed to pick up points for his Fantasy faithful.
• The second and third choices in the poll quite often scored a notably higher score (3 points or more) than the actual leader. This was the case 11 times. By comparison, the leader beat the second and third choices on nine occasions.
• However, if you wanted to hit that big score (12 points or more) then based on the top three each week, the leading candidate worked out as three times more likely to bring you success.
• Marouanne Chamakh’s solo point at home to West Brom in gameweek 6 wins the wooden spoon of the season. With Fabregas and Van Persie injured it was Samir Nasri’s eventual 12 points worth backing in this fixture – he only came seventh in our poll that week.

There is clear evidence that selecting a FPL captain has been far more difficult this season. The days of backing Cristiano Ronaldo each week are long gone and, with heavy-hitters like Fabregas, Rooney, Gerrard, Torres and Lampard often going missing – we’ve had very few safety nets to fall back on.

For me, that’s been a good thing. Having fewer obvious choices has given us Fantasy Managers something to “manage” – a tough decision to make each week that can ultimately shape our gameweek and our seasons.

We can only speculate how next season will go. Van Persie’s consistency at the end of this season suggests that, if he can stay clear of the treatment table, he could make our lives far easier. That’s a big “if” however. Team-mate Fabregas will need to stay on at the Emirates and be given a role that will see him redisocver his scoring touch; again that looks a big ask. Then there’s Luis Suarez who, based on what we’ve seen so, could emerge as an Anfield Fantasy favourite with assists and Bonus Points to compliment a strong goal haul.

What we do know is that our Captain Poll will be there to offer an opinion once more – only time will tell if your votes prove to have more success next season.