Living on a comfortable FPL-cloud with current OR being a lofty 316, I thought I would write a piece before it all comes crashing down. I have thoroughly enjoyed this season, obviously because of the rank, but also because it has helped to have a nice focus while covid problems seemed to last an eternity. Like many reading on here, I do enjoy listening to, and learning from, podcasts about the game. Also, to give a huge bit of credit to this site, I have not had a season close to this before downloading the Transfer Planner from the beginning of the season. By the way, I am not in any way employed or connected to the site other than being a member. Just offering free kudos in return for some good tools.
Not everyone likes to plan in that way with an excel-sheet, and it is true that you must be adaptable in FPL, but for me, easily getting restless and taking hits when nothing is happening, it is a perfect way to channel the feeling of inactivity into non-hit-taking activities. If I want to take players in or out of the team, I just do it in the planner and leave it there for later. Losing a lot fewer points that way.
What it has also helped me do, is get some more perspective when it comes to the planning of the chips, and it has led me to take some different routes with chip strategy. I must admit that I kind of do like second-guessing popular opinions, but as I have harshly realised the last few seasons, sometimes that can cost dearly. So instead of being different for the sake of it, I have managed to go with the flow when needed, while also sticking to my guns when I meant I had reasons for it. Not everything has gone great, and several times I have of course had a bit of luck, but I am playing much better than any season before. That I am sure of.
It is difficult to ignore the hive mentality, and quite often you should not. I have captained Kane a few times more than I should have, trying to capitalise early on his revival and owning Wood for the double double has left me with only two points so far in GW28 (he will be leaving my team in GW31). I will not regret owning him by the way. Strikers are performing badly. At least Wood has four games in two GWs. But these are kind of small things. I believe fun punts are allowed here and there. Just trying to avoid the stupid and costly ones, like stubbornly continuously refusing to buy Vardy a few seasons ago.
Chips are something else though, and I want to address some popular truths that I find to be, if not incorrect, at least more debatable than popular opinion leads one to believe. The most obvious one for me this season is how it seems “everyone” is treating a potential free hit in GW30 as looney play (exaggerating for emphasis). Free hit GW30 was early dismissed for the rubbish fixtures and adding a few teams does not seem to change the collective “No to Free hit 30-rally” marching down the plazas of FPL-s most beautiful virtual spaces. The argument being that you isolate GW30 against a DGW with more “upside”, make up a number you will gain from using it this or that double GW, and voila: case closed! The only problem often alluded to, joked about, and sometimes bemoaned, is the state of your team as you have set it up exactly for that rubbish game week.
People are now selling Cancelo, ignoring Newcastle’s four games in two, playing only two Liverpool players in their double, and waiting on Chelsea while loading up on West Midlands players just to be able to survive GW30 without the Free hit, completely ignoring the points lost before or after, because those are impossible to quantify, and as such they seem irrelevant.
Instead of using the free hit for optimising a singular game week, one could for example have considered using it to build the best wild card one could imagine for DGW28, DGW29, GW31 and forward. As a nice bonus, one would then also get the chance to gain ground in GW30 with the free hit, even though the games are “bad”. In principle, one would be optimising at least four GWs, in which two are doubles, instead of using it hoping for one massive DGW score later.
To no one’s surprise, since I am the one writing this, it is the strategy I have chosen. With 101 points and seven players to go this week, while nicely set up for GW29, and a sea of blue fixtures waiting in GW31, this dog is wagging its tail, hoping to have set itself up to get even luckier.
Good luck with the rest of your season and play the game the way you want to!
Kim-Tonny Henriksen
