The Season After – An FPL Title Defence

In the late afternoon of Sunday, May 21 this year, Ben Crabtree became Fantasy royalty, seeing off the challenge of close rival Uwais Ahmed to secure the Fantasy Premier League title for 2016/17.

He was on top of the world.

Four months on and he’s closer to the Fantasy gutter, his FC Crab Dogg team currently defending the title from a lowly perch some 2,998,645 places off the top spot.

It’s fair to say that his FPL reign has not started well, but winners never quit, and the Everton fan has a plan to turn things around.

In the first of a series of articles from the champion, Ben details where it’s gone wrong and where, he hopes, it will start to go right all over again.

It’s tough at the top

After Gameweek 4 had closed last season I had an overall ranking of around 20,000 and my biggest dilemma was whether to start Etienne Capoue or keep him benched.

A year on and my OR has seven figures, I’ve played my Wildcard and my biggest dilemma is how to prioritise what my biggest dilemmas are.

What’s happened?

I think a poor pre-season has led to a poor start.

I picked a team quite early, didn’t change it much and then felt I may regret changing it so kept it. A trial and error-style comparison of different-looking teams is definitely a more thorough and rewarding method.

Lesson learned.

My patient approach that led me to keep faith in my players and only make 42 transfers last season has gone out of the window.

After two poor Gameweeks I Wildcarded out the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Jamaal Lascelles, Alexandre Lacazette and Matt Ritchie.

A Wildcard error? Maybe, but I was able to bring in Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Paul Pogba and Marcos Alonso, who all look consistent picks and should have been in from the start.

My only transfer this season has been an injured Wilfried Zaha for the then-to-be-red-carded Marko Arnautovic.

Injuries happen, and so do red cards, so I’ve got no ‘luck’ complaints. Last season I was carrying blankers like Jordi Amat, John Stones, Gerard Deulofeu and Yannick Bolasie in the early weeks, but good picks elsewhere covered for this.

I need to make some good picks again.

What’s happening?

I’m attempting to get back to basics, identify the essentials, find the value players and interlock them in my team (picture a Ricky Gervais hand movement).

This identification process is tricky. There’s seemingly so many options, it should be easy to get big scores no matter who I pick, yet I’ve only scored over 50 points once.

I’m finding the balance of where to focus the money difficult.

At the back, Alonso (potentially essential) is in, as is Phil Jones (great value), along with Cedric Soares and Ahmed Hegazi (good value).

But I’m looking at Benjamin Mendy, Sead Kolasinac, Ben Davies and even Michael Keane and wondering if I’m missing out on a lot of points, which just requires a bit more money invested into my defence.

Up front, Kane is now essential and will likely be my captain pick for most of the upcoming Gameweeks. My thinking is that this makes Romelu Lukaku an expensive non-captain, so I could release some cash transferring to Alvaro Morata, Jesus or Lacazette.

With the Pogba news, I’ll keep Lukaku for now and that could be the best thing to do anyway.

Javier Hernandez as my third forward is someone who looks like good value, but I wish he was one of the other big-hitting forwards. If his shot that hit the bar against Huddersfield had gone in I’d be a lot more content, but at least the result could be a turning point for West Ham, so I should give him a bit more time.

The midfield brings the most headaches and, due to money being tight when you have Lukaku and Kane, I’m finding it having an impact on the third forward budget and the whole defence.

Eriksen should bring points, and I’ve settled for Jese, Richarlison and Tom Carroll.

I could get money elsewhere and upgrade one of these, or choose to play 4-3-3 predominantly, free up 1-1.5 million and get one of those tempting big-hitting defenders in.

But at the same time, part of me is saying ‘be patient’ – Jese was denied by a world class David de Gea save and Watford are looking good, so points could be around the corner.

What’s going to happen?

My crystal ball from last season may be red flagged and injured, but at least I still have 34 gameweeks of decisions to make – and that’s a lot, regardless of what the Crystal Palace bigwigs think.

There will be plenty of spurts of form, cheap options and differential hauls all to come, and I need to get on some of these early.

Pogba’s injury changes the direction of my thinking and could be a good thing. Whereas Arnautovic’s sending off felt like it only affected me, nearly 40% of teams have Pogba (at the time of writing) which gives me the opportunity to react to this better than others.

People who made transfers early are already worse off and with no obvious go-to player, the replacements will be diverse.

I don’t fancy Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the best option based on how he’s played in the last couple of games, and his upcoming fixtures may not be to his preference.

Gylfi Sigurdsson is another who is a similar price but even as an optimistic Everton fan, I’m struggling to see us score lots and don’t feel left wing is the best place for returns from the Icelander.

David Silva is a little uninspiring as a Fantasy asset and Pedro is a bit risky with a fully fit Chelsea midfield.

After that it’s spend money or release money.

Hazard, De Bruyne, (whisper) Alexis Sanchez, a Spurs attacking triple-up with Dele Alli? Or downgrade in an attempt to find the gem off the long list of cheaper midfielders, hedging my bets further alongside Jese and Richarlison, with the upturn of a defence or possibly Hernandez upgrade?

I’m none the wiser at the moment, but feel Pogba’s injury could be a turning point, my best week of the season could be this weekend, I could finally receive my first green arrow.

I need to keep faith in my current team and, over the next few weeks, concentrate on transferring in players who I’m confident will return a good output over a six to eight-week period.

They say it’s tough at the top, but it’s definitely tougher at 2.9 millionth.