Vote in the Captain Poll for Gameweek 3

a bit harsh calling those repliers out imo… they were asked 2 basic Qs & from my reading replied as they saw fit... so it wasn't up to any high standard in your opinion... maybe the HT should have been worded dif?

ps. agree a lot just reply/post with no discussion in mind

Excellent post. Really not enough data in yet though to get some correlation however you have to start somewhere.

Very good point re TAA/Robbo - TAA produced 2/13 decent crosses so it seems like Palace did their homework on that setup and were content to shore up on their right side. Also shows what a great job AWB was doing till the sending off.

Re Burnley I think its clear that Europe is going to hurt them. Shipping 3 at home to Watford is just not them, New keeper to adjust to as well. I'd steer clear for now. Palace D double up may well be an option now if no other fires, though Schlupp may lose his place.

When deciding on whether to bring in Alonso I just beat my chest a few times before hitting the transfer button. Thankfully no chest hairs were harmed during the making of this transfer.

not sure if you want answers, but I've got some anyway 😉
Why are left backs doing so well? most teams have a better defender at right back, left footed players are rarer and usually play on the wing as youngsters, making them more attacking ... or something like that 😀
Where have all the clean sheets gone? they will come
Why have strikers stopped scoring? they haven't, also Arsenal had two tough games - surely Auba/Laca come good
Why have wingers started scoring more? more teams are set-up in that way now - Chelsea, Liverpool, City last year, maybe Everton this year all play with a false-9/hold up player with inside forwards
Can Etherington keep saving penalties? might not get many more to save
Does Steve Cook play Left Back? no
What effect does choosing Kamara or Stephens have on your team long term? means your bench is shite (no biggie pre-WC)

Hulk this!

Simply adding "and why" to that hot topic should in theory get better responses.

Always good to pose an open question.

So in this case, questions such as....

Which of Alonso, Mendy and Robertson should Fantasy managers include in their back line and why?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a premium backline?

..... could gain a bit more insight.

But hot topics are often just there to start the conversation, it is up to posters to interpret it in as much detail as they want.

But a good old fashioned "why?" can work wonders.

Cheers for this.

Important stuff and makes me realize I can do more to change the type of answers and conversations that are happening. I'll put more work into making it clear why I'm asking what I'm asking, going forward, and change the format to try to get developed answers.

Good post and tbh what i imagine majority of us have been thinking for many years now.

I really use to appreciate the time and effort that posters like Ruth NZ and Triggerlips (through his blog) used to put into their posts. These guys posted stuff I thought was incredibly insightful and a nice change from the endless RMTs which are horrible to constantly read. It’s why many people were initially drawn to this site like myself. These posts should be incentivised by the FFS team (I don’t know how tho) as they are critical to the site’s success.

Spot on Ginkapo. If there's going to be a useful debate we have to start with the underlying reasons for outcomes. This season has already thrown up some really interesting questions - some of which you've posed above. I'd love to see the community sink their teeth into them in depth. Your post is well timed and constructive imo. Also happy to see Geoff keen to facilitate this to a greater degree with future HTs.

Tl;dr

I had personally replied to somebody else a page or two before this got topic explaining my defence and the reasons I preferred to invest more in the defence this season. The pages fly by so fast it’s disheartening to get ignored and then to be discussed further. The set up of these pages changing over so fast some times is still a major offput for good discussion IMHO.

It's the nature of the site. Pages move so quickly that it is impossible to have an in depth conversation. If it was set up like a forum with topics for discussion in different threads it would be different currently but by the time anyone posts a well reasoned argument the post they replied to is already pages back and nobody will read the reply.

Great post and why

Good post, refreshing to read.

Don’t think we can look at Aguero’s 20 pointer and make PPM comparisons based on that though, considering the sample size is 1 and well above his average.

If a 6m defender can score 1pt per GW more than the best 4.5m defender, you'll earn 38pts for the. 1.5m spent on the upgrade. That's 26pts per million which is excellent marginal spending and where you can eke out those margins that separate stronger FPL managers from weaker ones. If such options exist, they are a "fire and forget" approach.

That 1pt per GW is only 2 goals, 5 assists and 11bps which, when looking at Alonso or Mendy looks easily achievable.

None of this bars you from holding Salah and Aguero. In fact the decisions to buy them are essentially the same but with the added complexity of armband choices.

The cost of the extra spend in defence falls more on your support strikers and midfielders. So now the comparison is between 9m mids and 7m mids. Or 9m strikers v 7m strikers. It is my view that a strong team can be constructed with solid support provided from that lower price bracket. And while they are firing and the more expensive ones aren't, shoring up with an aggressive defence can make a lot of sense, particularly with a very useful 4.1m defender available.

Fashion will change in a moment and funds will get reallocated back to the offensive options. As things stand, money in defence is where the markets are pointing and rightly so.

Aguero being 5.6 above base is based on 5.5 holding several "nailed" options? If not, he's certainly 6.6 above base.

I don't think that last part about prem v budget defenders + prem attackers v budget attackers is flawed logic, but also did'nt like your examples using an outlier like Aguero's 20point haul this weekend is neither representative of his ppmatch-average during a hot spell, and certainly not over a season. But if we follow your example one could argue that:
The extra 5 mill in defence added 3*3=9pts across the backline. Which, at the very least, gives a red hot 20p Aguero over Ings a real battle.

My view is that larger investment in defence comes with a greater security of points than rotating cheapies and additional funds to spend in mid/attack. At least that was the justification i used to convince myself to go that route last season. And studying pointsaverages on players season totals at least confirmed my logic after aswell. But thats not to say that a "heavy defence" is now a must, im sure there will be plenty of veterans sticking to their tried and tested methods of jumping on and off the premium mids/attackers at the right time, whilst rotating cheap defenders. Most likely, they'll finish high in the ranks, as theyve done, using these tactics in seasons past.

One thing more on defenders:
If Clean sheets follow the trend of seasons past, the top 6 sides will get 4-5 more Cleans on average than the rest. If some of the attacking defenders from the top sides keep up momentum from seasons past, they'll average more attacking returns than everyone bar a few exceptions. And largely but not least, the one thing thats almost never included in discussions like these. When prem defenders dont return, they dont pick up nearly as many "minuspoints" from letting in goals, as cheap defenders do. In some instance this could be as much as 20-30 pts over a season.

I see no reason that left sided players should better their right footed counterparts. I can however think of historically a lot more attacking left backs than right backs.

I don't see the clean sheet total being statistically out of range. It does almost seem that evenly matched sides can offer as many clean sheets as the 6-1 thrashings.

Strikers role is evolving. Wingers now form a front 3 in a lot of teams