In his latest article, two-time Indian Fantasy Premier League (FPL) champion Lateriser speaks about knowing when to play it safe and how changing your transfer and chip strategy can boost rank.
It’s been a good period for me, of late. I shot up from a ranking of 1.28 million in Gameweek 22 to 469k right now. A lot of that comes from some aggressive FPL play, as well as being aided from the Assistant Manager chip.
Right now, we have a bit of time to breathe. It allows me to touch on a couple of broader points here, before getting back into the swing of team planning next week.
Let’s talk about the Assistant Manager chip first. I followed the David Moyes to Unai Emery to Oliver Glasner path, bringing a substantial 56 points. Before putting faith in the Everton gaffer, I had a chance to lose Cody Gakpo (£7.5m) for Arne Slot but there are a few reasons why I went for the boss with a higher upside and ceiling.
AGGRESSIVE APPROACH
First and foremost, I was sitting near the one million mark and wanted to force a rise. I’m a fairly ambitious manager, deciding at the start of the season that I’m not afraid to fail. Reiterating that in my head had led to several aggressive gambles.
With 11 Gameweeks left, it might be a good idea for you to assess what your FPL goals are. If there isn’t one, apart from simply playing sensible, optimal stuff, then carry on as is.
I realised a few weeks ago that it doesn’t matter whether the season ends at 200k or one million. For me, it’s all the same. To have a truly good one, I want the top 100k and aggressive moves were therefore the answer.
For example, I made seven Gameweek 23 and 24 transfers, after deciding early not to Free Hit in Gameweek 29. That overhaul cost me eight points, as I banked on Everton keeping a clean sheet against Leicester City and providing me two extra players for Blank Gameweek 29.
I also bought Gakpo a week early to catch his 16-point haul against Ipswich Town, recently jumping onto differentials like Omar Marmoush (£7.2m) and Christopher Nkunku (£5.7m). I didn’t need to buy the Chelsea attacker, as that meant benching either Yoane Wissa (£6.4m) or Justin Kluivert (£6.1m). But I couldn’t resist his back-to-back games against two of the league’s most obliging teams.
The FPL gods decided to be kind to me on this occasion, as I received Kluivert’s 10 points as an autosub for Alexander Isak (£9.5m). That felt like a little gift to reward these risky purchases.
With a week to reflect on your rank goals, you can either commit to continuing your current strategy, decide to be similarly aggressive, or decide to play a more defensive game if you’re already flying high.
The advice here – based on my admittedly delusional optimism – is that you won’t often get to sit inside the top 10k from Gameweek 28 onwards. So don’t be afraid to play differently. Having said that, I do expect some upcoming red arrows. I currently have an Isak, Wissa and Marmoush strikeforce, rather than the top fixtures of popular pair Chris Wood (£7.2m) and Matheus Cunha (£7.0m).
That said, a certain Erling Haaland (£14.7m) is someone we’ll need to target in the near future.
RESEARCH THE SMALL FACTORS
If you still have Assistant Manager to use, you might want to think of it like a Free Hit. Predicting a whole Gameweek is difficult due to randomness but what could help is the ‘minor’ footballing assessments.
There is a lot of luck with this swingy chip. However, if you pay attention to a team’s key injury, or a star player coming up against a weak defender, it could pay off handsomely. Upcoming weeks could see a higher outfit distracted by European action, bringing the opportunity for table bonuses. Backing an underdog won’t feel comfortable but try pushing the luck in your favour by gauging the minor details.
CHASE OR BE SAFE?
This leads to the dilemma about whether to back a safe manager or chase the huge table bonus. Neither strategy is wrong, so it depends on your rank goals, playing style and team form.
All of this is very, very dynamic – look at what Moyes has done of late. Paying attention to some short-term trends will help. By the way, Moyes deserves a special mention because if Everton didn’t beat Crystal Palace, Glasner’s subsequent trip to Fulham wouldn’t have been a table bonus game.
Hunting these highly-rewarding upsets requires throwing more darts at the board in the hope of getting lucky. You’d hope that getting one of these calls correct would even out the steady stream of points gained by ‘better’ managers, also offering the chance to reach a higher overall ceiling.
Of course, you could also be terribly unlucky and get each dart throw wrong but let’s not think about that.
This comes from one of my older philosophies in which I like to occasionally go against the popular captain. Owning him makes you semi-insured but the theory in my head is that I need to take that gamble more than five teams a season and win 60 per cent of them.
Anyway, that is enough philosophical gobbledy-gook for now. Enjoy this mini break, reflect on your FPL goals and good luck for the rest of this season.
