FPL Family’s Sam discusses not drawing too many conclusions from Gameweek 1 and keeping positive throughout the season.
When you are a dedicated FPL manager you tend to spend hours, days and even weeks pondering on your team for Gameweek 1. The summer is spent thinking about players, fixtures, budgets and pre-season. This can take over other aspects of your life. This year, I regularly found myself waking up with £4.5m defenders on the brain. So when you have committed so much time and headspace to FPL planning, it can be hard if Gameweek 1 doesn’t go to plan.
This season, I have started well. However, I am well aware that one good week doesn’t mean a good season. Likewise, one bad week doesn’t mean the year will be a bad one. I am also well aware that difficult Gameweeks hurt, especially if your mini-league rivals had a good start to the campaign.
A bad Gameweek 1 result, or even an average one, can make managers overthink all the decisions that they made this summer. Especially if those around you have done well. I would urge caution though.
FPL Planning: Learning from the past
Back in the 2022/23 season, I had the worst Gameweek 1 I have ever had. I remember looking at my team following an FPL Family live stream and thinking what do I do here? Do I cut my losses and hit the Wildcard? Do I hold the Wildcard and take some points hits? Do I remember that I built this team for a reason and stick with them? In the end, I decided to give them another week. Ninety more minutes of knowledge and understanding.
Coming out of Gameweek 2 with no changes to my team, I had one of the best single Gameweeks I have had in my history of playing FPL. The difference in my mood was marked!
What did I learn from this?
Well, the same players one week performed at opposite ends of the spectrum. After Gameweek 1, I was doubting everything. After Gameweek 2, I was thinking maybe, yet again, I don’t need to make a transfer. Honestly, the contrast was striking.
Those two weeks were a big learning point for me. I learned not to overthink a bad week, however hard that may be! It encouraged me to believe in my own decisions and that sometimes Gameweeks just go badly – regardless of how much time and planning had gone into it.
My rules
Fantasy Football is a huge part of my life. I make content, shows and podcasts every week and I am the General Manager here at Scout. I am even helping teach my son the intricacies of FPL by acting as his adviser! Fundamentally, I am just an FPL manager like everyone else but my job and life are so tied to the game that it comes with some pressures. Pressures I must say that I mostly put on myself.
This is why I have some rules to help maintain my enjoyment of the game.
Captaincy
I will not captain someone in the 12:30pm match. I know a lot of managers will think this is bonkers. But a captaincy blank in the first match ruins my weekend, so if I have the choice, I must prefer a Monday night skipper!
Chips
I try to avoid using my chips early, if only for the mental boost of knowing I still have a rank-boosting quick fix in the locker. It may be the sub-optimal play this season, of course.
A lot of managers will Triple Captain Erling Haaland (£15.0m) this weekend, for instance, but I’m not keen. For me, knowing that I still have my chips to play gives me comfort that later on in the season there might be the perfect week. I like to wait for the stars to align – great fixture(s), great player form, great team form. This early in the season, we don’t have enough data for me to play a chip. I also think that Man City aren’t fully up to speed after a disjointed pre-season and that puts me off.
Not listening to the noise
Since I started FPL, the content around the game has grown. Not only has it grown but it has become better and better. Even as a content creator myself I still read, watch and listen to a lot of content. In previous seasons, I think sometimes I have engaged with too much content. Now I pick my favourites. Neale’s team news stream for example is unmissable and I listen to that. By spending too much time listening to other people, I sometimes lose track of what I think. Having a team of Scout creators I trust for me is the best way to go.
No transfers on deadline day
Now people may think I am crazy for this. But the ‘who’s starting/who isn’t’ thing plays havoc with me. In a standard Gameweek, I lock my team in on a Friday night and don’t worry about team news after that. The only exception I make here is when I am on Wildcard – but mostly this is because I am still making decisions right up until that final morning. Locking the team in the night before means I can go on Sky, take my son to football practice or accompany my daughter to our gym class and be present. Not thinking about who might be starting at 12:30pm!
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