Interview

Interview: How the FPL Cup was won

While Saturday’s FA Cup final offered little as a spectacle, the Fantasy Premier League’s own cup showpiece was the most dramatic in its history.

Nick Smith triumphed in the most unlikely fashion as he and his opponent were only separated by goals scored.

Tied with Serbian manager Djole Isailovic on 78 points, Smith won the title in the end because his side included six goals, while Djole – who ended ranked 510 in the world – had just five.

Nick’s achievement was made all the more impressive by the fact that he snubbed Mohamed Salah, while Djole did have the Egyptian and used his Triple Captain chip on Harry Kane for the final match.

We caught up with Nick to look back on his season and, in particular, the emotion of his FPL Cup final experience.

How did you follow the games on the final day? Were you constantly refreshing Djole’s team to see how he was getting on? I imagine Salah getting an early goal had you petrified…

Nick: My friends and I were away for the weekend and we were watching the Liverpool game, as well as receiving notifications on the other key games. Myself and Djole had more or less the same team for the final. I think it was six or seven of the same players, so it wasn’t too difficult to follow.

What was it like waiting around for confirmation of the result? I imagine it was a longer wait than you expected considering it was so close in the end. Could you quite believe that you both finished on the same points?

Nick: With Salah and Kane both doing well, I thought it was game over for me. I thought I’d lost. So I was disappointed, but happy that I’d managed to reach the final. I then received a message from a friend saying: “I think you’ve miscalculated, you may not have lost after all!”

Once the bonus points were in I realised that it had ended a tie and quickly checked the tiebreak rule. Even then, having read it, I still wasn’t sure that I’d won until I saw the tweet from Fantasy Premier League. I have to say a big thank you to Andrew Robertson. It was his goal that won it for me.

Clearly, Djole is an accomplished Fantasy Football manager, given his overall position, so I always knew it would be a tough battle and it turn out incredibly close.

How much did you celebrate after your title was confirmed?

Nick: It was a really big night. I treated myself to a nice cold glass of Ribena and was in bed by 10:30. Milner style.

2017/18 has been an interesting journey for you and you ended ranked an impressive 4058 alongside your Cup win. How much thought did you put into your Gameweek 1 side and how did you spread your budget across the positions?

Nick: I gave my team quite a lot in the days leading up to the Gameweek 1 deadline. The majority of my budget was used in the forward areas with Romelu Lukaku and Kane up front. In midfield, I started with Dele Alli, Kevin De Bruyne and Cesc Fabregas, supported by a few gambles on Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luka Milivojevic.

Did you make a good start?

Nick: Absolutely not. With Kane not scoring in August and picking Alexander-Arnold and Milivojevic before they hit form, I found myself bottom of my work league, to the great amusement of everyone involved. I have politely reminded these individuals of their comments after ending up top of that one.

What were some of your best decisions across the campaign? Were there any big hauls in particular Gameweeks that you have fond memories of?

Nick: The turning point in my season was when I lost out in ‘Pep Roulette’, having captained Sterling (who didn’t make it onto the pitch) but vice-captained Kane in Spurs’ 4-1 victory over Liverpool, netting 32 points in total.

My best decision was saving all of my chips until late in the season, including the bench boost chip in GW34, which delivered a 100+ point haul.

Did you make a conscious decision at some point in the season to shift your focus on to winning the FPL Cup? At which point did you realise you had a good chance of winning it?

Nick: The first time the FPL Cup came to my attention was when there were around 1,000 players left, but I didn’t focus on it until the last 64 or 32 really. I think I had my Wildcard and all of my chips left at this point, so thought I was in good shape to progress if luck was on my side.

What was your strategy in each round? Did you start analysing the team of your next opponent and work out how you could best out-manoeuvre them?

Nick: My strategy was simply to get as many Double Gameweek players with good fixtures and good form as possible into my team for the closing weeks of the season, hoping the cup wins would follow.

I didn’t look too in-depth at the opponents until the semi-final and final. In the semi-final I was fairly confident due to my Triple Captain chip, but knew I needed to pick some different players for the final as I was on the receiving end of that chip.

I was debating Aaron Cresswell, Patrick van Aanholt and Alexander-Arnold as my defensive options and went with the West Ham man – and missed out on Van Aaholt’s 18-point haul. Wilfried Zaha and Marko Arnautovic were the two attacking players I was considering, and I went with the latter, which was a good decision, less so with Cresswell.

I saw that you changed your team name from Bare Ham Rolls Fam to ‘FPL Cup Finalist!!’ once you had won your semi-final. I take it you were over the moon to make it to the showdown.

Nick: I was definitely excited to have reached the final and as many players in my leagues were asking me about it, I thought it would be the easiest way of letting my friends know how it was going. I also just felt proud of the accomplishment as I’ve never made it more than about four weeks deep in the cup before.

You went into the final day without Mohamed Salah in your team. What was the thinking behind that?

Nick: The decision to drop Salah in Gameweek 37 was a fairly simple one on paper, given that his replacement, Leroy Sane, had two nice fixtures, against Liverpool’s difficult away game at Chelsea. It worked out well for me with Sane’s 17 points.

Ideally I’d have brought Salah back in the final Gameweek, but unfortunately, the budget wouldn’t stretch that far. Arnautovic did the job for me in the end so luckily it wasn’t an issue.

Were you particularly worried about your opponent having the Triple Captain chip available?

Nick: I was definitely worried. I used mine in Gameweek 37 to try and assure my place in the final, but Djole showed serious ‘cojones’, to quote Troy Deeney, in saving it for the final. It was a great strategy that would have paid off nine times out of 10. Thankfully for me, it happened to be the one time out of 10 where it didn’t.

345 Comments Post a Comment
  1. G-Whizz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Liverpool will contact Lyon after the Champions' League final to open formal discussions over the transfer of Nabil Fékir, according to tomorrow's L'Équipe.
    https://twitter.com/GFFN/status/998328533771542531?s=19

    1. Bad Kompany
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Not surprising although it will be interesting to see how he fits into Liverpool’s team

  2. Bad Kompany
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Bottomed. Repost.
    Asensio is going to start for Spain, right? In the telegraph’s fantasy wc game he’s only 3.6 which looks like a complete steal

    1. Cenako
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Starting 11 will be: De Gea, Carvajal, Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Koke, Iniesta, David Silva, Isco y Diego Costa

  3. 420king
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Ok, can somebody explain to me how this Telegraph game works?

    I've read the rules but still don't get it. Why go we get 26 transfers for 11 people and 2 rounds? That doesn't make sense...
    Unless you can transfer out somebody who has already played for someone who is yet to? Can someone explain?

    1. TorresMagic™
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      It's 3 rounds?

  4. 420king
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    2 rounds to use the transfers on (the first round is free). Even if you transfer out your whole team twice you're still left with 5, although could probably use more than 20 for the knockouts.

    So no transfers during game weeks?

    1. 420king
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      crap sorry, reply fail to above post

    2. TorresMagic™
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      You can make transfers every day.

    3. TorresMagic™
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      You will then have 26 transfers to use during the group stage of the tournament to replace injured, suspended and under-performing players with fresh faces to keep your points tally ticking over. Any transfers not used during this period will not be carried over.

      Transfers can be made between matches, so any players transferred in will start scoring from the next kick-off. In the case of delays to kick-offs, the initial scheduled kick-off time stands for the purposes of transfers.

      1. 420king
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Ah ok, got it now, thanks. Somehow missed that last paragraph.

  5. Eze Really?
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Which is the official fantasy world cup site?
    Please

      1. Eze Really?
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Thank you

  6. FPL Maldini
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Rate my World Cup team:

    Russia GK
    Meunier / Sanchez / Walker
    Mane / James / Hazard / Iwobi / Muller
    Griezman / Cavani

    1. The Darkest Knight
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Which site / game you are playing?

      1. FPL Maldini
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Telegraph

    2. 420king
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      4/10

      1. FPL Maldini
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        How could it be improved?

        1. 420king
          • 9 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          By bringing in players that don't play on the last few days. Meunier, Hazard, James, Sanchez, Mane etc are good picks but only on a FT. We get 26 transfers for first two round, that's 13 per round.

          1. FPL Maldini
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 9 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            Good point. Thanks for the feedback! So do you think maybe some more Brazil? Who would you say are must haves to start with?

          2. 420king
            • 9 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            My bad, it's around 8.5 per round!

            So any of those I listed that you think will be good picks for 2-3 rounds are actually viable!

            1. FPL Maldini
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 9 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              Do the whole group stages count as a 1 round?

              1. 420king
                • 9 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                3 rounds. https://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/fixtures/
                26/3 = 8.77

                If we can have 8 failures each week it makes sense to start with the earlier favorites like France, Argentina etc...or maybe take a punt on someone from Morocco, Denmark or Croatia

              2. GreennRed
                • 12 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                26 transfers for three group rounds. Then another mandatory wildcard. Can't carry excess transfers from groups to knockout rounds.

                5 points for a goal from any position. Attacking mids could offer better value than more expensive strikers.

  7. Donkey_Sanctuary
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Does anyone know if Fifa / McDonalds will be doing a world cup FF like in previous years?

      1. 420king
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        How good are Mark's feelers? I really hope that he's right and it's not the daily version of the fantasy.

        1. noquarternt
          • 8 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          He's a fantasy football professional.

      2. Donkey_Sanctuary
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Thanks TM. Hope it does happen as I quite enjoy the format of that game

  8. 420king
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    El Kaabi. This dude only played 8 games for Morocco but has scored 10 goals. Would be a nice punt vs Iran if he was in the game...

    1. FFFrog
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      He looks good but all 10 of those have either come in friendlies or friendly tournaments and I wouldn't write off Iran's defense.

  9. FFFrog
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    When I did some stat crunching last week I found that on average, 6 teams are likely to keep 2 clean sheets in the group stage, with 4 of these being group winning sides. Which sides do you think these 6'll be?

    My choices are - Uruguay, Spain, Belgium, England, France and Mexico, with Switzerland, Portugal, Brazil, Russia and Germany all having the potential to join this group.

    1. 420king
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      How come you think Mexico has a higher chance than Germany when Germany is about 50% to keep a CS in their game?

      1. FFFrog
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Because I don't trust Germany's defense - Low's mindset seems to be just to outscore the opponent and they always seem to score 3/4 but then concede 1 or 2, whereas when playing Sweden and South Korea Mexico, who play very defensively anyway, will be going all out to keep clean sheets to win those games.

        1. FFFrog
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          Australia 2–3 Germany
          Germany 1–1 Chile
          Germany 3–1 Cameroon
          Germany 4–1 Mexico
          Chile 0–1 Germany
          Czech Republic 1–2 Germany
          Germany 6–0 Norway
          Northern Ireland 1–3 Germany
          Germany 5–1 Azerbaijan
          England 0–0 Germany
          Germany 2–2 France
          Germany 1–1 Spain
          Germany 0–1 Brazil

          These are there recent records, which for me show they very rarely keep clean sheets and also that they're on shockingly poor form against decent sides.

          1. FFFrog
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 8 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            *their recent results

            1. Fantasy Gold
              • 9 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              I think we all know that Germany step up when the big tournaments come around.

              Definitely will have a Germany defender from the start.

              1. FFFrog
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 8 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                I'm not writing them off at all, I just think there are more defensive and defensively secure sides on offer in these very balanced groups.

                1. Fantasy Gold
                  • 9 Years
                  5 years, 10 months ago

                  Fair enough 🙂

              2. GreennRed
                • 12 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                Kimmich is a defender in Telegraph game. Don't even know if he's nailed for Germany.

        2. GreennRed
          • 12 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          His mindset is to win football matches. Fantasy Football is not his game 😉

  10. FPL Maldini
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Who is better value for World Cup fantasy?

    A) Modric (4.7m)

    B) Rakitic (4.6m)

    1. FFFrog
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      I think Modric takes penalties so him

      1. FFFrog
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        But neither to be honest

    2. Fantasy Gold
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      B.

      Gets into far more threatening positions

    3. Blue&White85
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Perisic is a better option than both I’d say.

      1. Ramboros
        • 12 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Definitely

    4. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Telegraph game has a Key Contribution bonus of 3 points for key contrubutions for a goal. Doesn't specify an assist. Modric could do nicely there.

  11. dunas_dog
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    If Eden Hazard did sign for Man City which player will lose out assuming Hazard starts most games? Sané?

    1. FFFrog
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      I think Sane is the reason that Ctiy won't sign Hazard but he would take a hit if they did

    2. noquarternt
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      He'd never go to Man City. After being undroppable and the no.1 pick for his whole career- why would he move and play for a Pep that makes demand after demand and keeps an ensemble squad?

    3. fattfattygavgav
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      D. Silva's knocking on a bit at 32 so maybe eventually replace him.

  12. Is 3-4-3 doomed?
    J0E
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Fantasy Football Scout daily hot topic

    Is 3-4-3 doomed?

    According to recent analysis from community writer Wesmantooth, strikers offer poor value in FPL. Instead there is far greater bang for your buck to be found among midfielders and defenders.

    https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2018/05/21/best-value-players-2017-18/

    However, many managers, veterans included, opted for 3-4-3 most often in 2017/18.

    Did you also favour 3-4-3? Will you do so again next campaign? Or look to change tact.

    Also given many midfielders are now their sides' top scorers and the days of teams fielding two frontman look largely over, are there simply not enough good forward options to choose from in FPL?

    1. FPL ZB
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Think it depends on whether any of the poorer sides end up with a nailed on striker. Barnes became a very good option for a 343 last year, but most of the teams had rotation issues, which is very rare!

    2. SW6
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      It's just about being flexible. 3-4-3 is normally best in FPL. But this season there were lots of good midfielders (similar to that year where Ramsey/Fellaini/Yaya ets were scoring big) and no reliable cheap striker. Last season King, Defoe, Benteke, Llorente all got 15 or more goals. Nobody cheap/mid price did that this year

      1. WesMantooth
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Actually King was classified as a mid last season, and was a far more valuable asset than the ones you're mentioning. atleast in terms of value through the season as a whole.

        If im not mistaken this was their seasonal value:
        King: 0,90ppm
        Defoe: 0,69ppm
        Benteke: 0,50
        LLorente: 0,66ppm

        Scoring 15+ goals doesn't necessarily make you a valuable players. Take Benteke: he had 2 spells last season where he offered great value GW10-15 and Gw30-37. 11 of his goal came during those two periods, meaning he was a big boring dud in over 2 thirds of the season.

        Also: players like Lanzini, Sigurdsson, Zaha, Pedro, Antonio and many others might not have scored 15+ goals last season, but were all more valuable players than the strikers you mentioned.

    3. Chenku╰☆╮
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      It all depends on the options available each year. The last few years striker options has been scarce especially in the lower bracket. If we get more nailed on strikers below 6m we will see 343 being very popular again.

      1. WesMantooth
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Maybe....

        But those sub 6.0 strikers would probably need to score 15+ goals to offer any value longterm.

    4. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Depends on loads of factors, price, team, where the form lies and how long it lasts. Alli and Hazard were pretty poor FPL picks last season compared to 16/17. Lukaku also because Mourinho! Vardy and Mahrez hit some decent form for a poor Leicester team. 3-4-3 is as doomed as any other position I think. We can't predict how good strikers will be next season, just play the cards you dealt yourself at the start and stuck or twist as the season unfolds.

    5. FPL ZB
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Also, if Victor Anichebe could get signed up by someone then that would be great

    6. the Penman
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      The reason you would play 3-4-3 is to maximise the number of players in your team who are the most heavily involved in the goals.

      This season, that wasn’t the main strikers in many teams. Certainly not the budget or mid price options. Next season, it might be!

      This season, the key “strikers” who were consistent enough to jump on at predictable times were Firmino, Jesus, Kane, Aubameyang (but only because of Europa nailed on-ness), Vardy to a certain extent and Lukaku. People like Murray, Perez, JRod, King/Wilson, Mounie or Deeney just weren’t consistent enough through the season or predictable enough to swap in and out.

      1. WesMantooth
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Murray, Perez, Wilson were all "more consistent", in terms of value, than jesus, Kane and Lukaku.

    7. Niemi
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      All depending on where you can find value IMO. As many have been pointing out already, there wasn't a lot of cheap and good options up front this season.

    8. Individual
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Nick made the case for 4-4-2 at the start of this season and is also advocating it for next - the central idea I guess is that we get scant value out of the 3rd striker (I can't remember getting any consistency!) so why not go with fodder there and bring in players with better vfm elsewhere. I might try it over 3-4-3 next season

    9. tisza
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Think it's just symptomatic of way PL is going.
      Most sides playing the 1 out and out striker limits the field automatically.
      Most sides using mids in attacking roles - in particular in terms of wide players in a 3-4-3.
      Most sides outside top 6 invest their money into mids who can contribute goals as good strikers are just too expensive. Think most of these sides most expensive signings tend to mids.

      Also many sides outside the top 6 (and one or two in it!!) tend to take a conservative approach in their attacking play. Not as bad as Italian football from the 80s but focus tends to on not conceding rather than scoring. Got Burnley in 7th not even managing a goal per game. No-one below 6th even managed 1.5 goals per game - Average under 1.2 goals ppg .

      1. The Rumour Mill
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        This is a great point. Jonathan Wilson wrote an article for the guardian last week which expands on your last paragraph - everyone below 6th in the league finished with a negative goal difference. These sides are barely attempting to compete with the top 6. We basically don't have "mid table" sides any more either - theres a top 6 and then everyone else trying to avoid being relegated.

        1. Witty Pun: Not good at this…
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          That's a bit unfair on Leicester. They have ambition - 7th best goals scored in the league - they also were cursed with injury and a dreadful defence, which negated their strengths

          1. The Rumour Mill
            • 7 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            Possibly yeah - their squad is decent enough on paper, but they have been in relegation battles for at least a few weeks in each of the last 2 seasons! Surely its up to Leicester themselves to ensure they don't have a dreadful defence? I don't think they were particularly cursed with injury either, Vardy, Mahrez and Maguire played over 95% of matches didn't they? I think those 3 are their key players, the rest are pretty interchangable.

            1. Witty Pun: Not good at this…
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              Couldn't get a stable midfield at any point, transfer debacle with Silva + multiple Iborra injuries, Ndidi bans, not to mention Dragovic got a shoulder injury which meant Morgan had to play in front of him.
              Dragovic out of the team was the real killer (although some of that was probably due to player power and not injury)

              They seem to have started this transfer window with defensive intent at least.

    10. tricky80
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Think we've seen a number of high level managers rely on loading up on defenders initially and I think that's what I'll do ahead of first WC.

    11. Je suis le chat
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Many teams will be stuck with a cheap third striker due to the price of Salah, surely 13.5-14m as a striker. The ppm of strikers means aside from advantages for captain picks, many will go cheap.

    12. Maximus Bonimus Pointimus
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      I think Aguero car crash injury scuppered 3-4-3 this season... around about GW8 folks were manoeuvring into a position where they had Kane-Kaku-Kun up front, all were in form, and looked like they could carry a lighter set of mids & defenders. Then Kun got injured, Kaku’s form dropped off and 3-4-3 never really recovered.

      Vardy & Firmino could resurrect it next year if they keep up their form from this year & get priced affordably. I think you see a lot of teams with these two plus either Kane or an elite striker if going heavy, or a cheaper bargain striker if one emerges.

      If Sterling and/or Salah & Arnie are reclassified as strikers then 3-4-3 will be very popular again.

    13. Balotellitubbies
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      For some reason strikers are more expensive than equivalent options in midfield, yet they get less points for goals and cs. It should be the other way around, which is why all the value is in midfield. I guess part of this is due to the crazy 15/16 season where Ighalo, Vardy and I guess Lukaku and Pelle can be put in there as well absolutely smashed it. After this season more or less all 1st choice strikers have been 6.5 or more.

      Think FPL have to adapt to the trend of single strikers and OOP midfielders, and cut the price of strikers. Firmino was someone where they followed this thought process, he was cheaper because he was classified as a striker in FPL. He would have been 9.5 as a midfielder before the season I recon? But compare that to the other rubbish budget striker options, i.e Gabbiadini, he was 1.5 more. Just doesn't make sense.

      1. WesMantooth
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Exactly!

        I hope they keep pricing players the same way they've been doing the last couple of years. Makes it easier to assess value imo.

        But what they actually should be doing to increase the value of strikers is reclassifying the likes of Sanchez, Sterling and Salah. And then the likes of those mentioned + Lukaku, Aguero, Auba, Kane etca should'nt get priced higher than 11.0.

        If that was to happen, + strikers in the region of 6.0-7.5 getting 0.5-1.0million cheaper on avg, the playingfield should get more even across positions.

        1. electrue
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          Won't reclassifying Salah and Sterling just force everyone to play some combo of big 3 up front?

          1. WesMantooth
            • 13 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            I don't think so. It would make it more appealing, but certainly not less viable to choose an alternative approach. What's hopeless is having 6-7 nailed on expensive strikers in the game, who's task is to hit between 230-350pts (depending on their price), if they are to offer the same value as Pascal Gross.....

    14. Jafalad
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Overthinking it. Just pick the highest points scorers in the game.

    15. asquishypotato
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Hoping Wolves offer some value, that will be key along with early fixtures.

      Like to have either 2 premium and one mid range or premium, mid, cheap up front for flexibility.

    16. insertcomedyname
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      To echo others, it does all depend on who is scoring well. It only takes one mid-priced striker to go an a good run and 3-4-3 becomes preferable to 3-5-2; for example, Defoe was that player for much of 16/17.

    17. Roosta
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      "When talking about value my analysis is referring to players points per game (PPG) divided by their starting price."

      Are people really still doing this?

      1. WesMantooth
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Sure.
        Halfway through the season when a player might have dropped 0.5 or risen 1.0, then their startingprice isnt useful. But when having a retrospektive look, startingprices are the most useful priced to look at. Using this thinking ahead of making transfers, one has to be thinking about the buying price and whether the players current ppg is likely to increase/decline/stay the same.

        1. Roosta
          • 6 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          Are you at all familiar with VAPM (Value Added Per Million)? which advises that one should deduct a players appearance points from their total before dividing by their price. Every player receives the same appearance points, but they make up a big percentage of a cheap players total, giving you strange results like Ayoze Perez being super value, when in reality he's probably all kinds of bad.

          1. RedLightning
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • Has Moderation Rights
            • 13 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            I prefer VORP (value over replacement player or players).

            So for example, if you want to know whether you get better value from a 4th defender in a 4-4-2 or a 5th midfielder in a 3-5-2, you could compare a 5.0m defender plus a 4.5m midfielder against a 4.0m defender plus a 5.0m midfielder.

            This system can also be used when comparing any players or groups of players (not just the cases where some of them are minimum price as in the example above), as long as each side of the comparison contains the same combination of positions and the same combined price.

            1. Deulofail
              • 8 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              Each side of your comparison doesn't contain the same combined price 🙂

            2. RedLightning
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • Has Moderation Rights
              • 13 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              * against a 4.0m defender plus a 5.5m midfielder.

              1. Deulofail
                • 8 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                Where do you people get these terms from?

                VORP just seems like common sense to me, though I don't see how halue comes into it.

                VARM seems to make sense, but as you allude to, it ignores the competition of other players in the FPL economy.

                1. RedLightning
                  • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                  • Has Moderation Rights
                  • 13 Years
                  5 years, 10 months ago

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_over_replacement_player

                  I don't know where the term VARM comes from when it doesn't mean Vulnerable Adult Risk Management. Perhaps it was invented by someone in FFS or FPL.

                  My interpretation of VORP may be slightly different from the Wikipedia definition, though, and I originally heard about it somewhere else. I consider it to be an alternative to value, by putting it into context.
                  I'm not interested in whether a defender is better value than a forward, but I may want to know, if I have a little spare money in the bank, whether my squad value would be increased more by spending it on upgrading a defender or on upgrading a forward.

                  Also I wouldn't want a squad containing just the best value players, and leaving money in the bank. My squad would almost certainly score more points if I made full use of the available budget.

            3. Roosta
              • 6 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              Sure, I really like juggling things around to make sure you can squeeze all your best assets into the side. The important part here though is how you asses the players.

              VORP, for example, can be really great when trying to simplify captaincy options. Take the big Salah debate for example, using a simple VORP you can quite easily show that with Salah as a midfielder is almost no price that would be too much.

              VORP can be great when you have iterated things down to a small number of players, but with a large data set VAPM is something the community seems to be a little behind on.

              1. RedLightning
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • Has Moderation Rights
                • 13 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                I suppose the main difference between VAPM and VORP is the 'per million' bit.
                If I have 1.0m to spend then I want to know which 1.0m upgrade will give the greatest added value. It's the value added by replacing a specific existing player by a specific new player that counts, compared with the value added by replacing a different existing player by a new player, and in this case 'per million' should be irrelevant. How the added value is assessed is another matter. - p.p.g, underlying stats, danger of rotation and fixture difficulty are among the factors that might affect it.

                But when I'm trying to optimise my initial, wildcard or free hit squad then it becomes more complicated, as any alterations might affect multiple players, and VAPM might perhaps be helpful for this.

                If Salah is already in your squad, then you shouldn't need VAPM or VORP to decide whether or not to captain him. They only really become relevant when making transfers or setting up a new squad.
                But for every player - even Salah - there is a limit on the price he is really worth, beyond which the value of the squad as a whole will be reduced, and this can be tested using VORP (taking into account that if he is in the squad then he will probably be captain most of the time). Beyond this limit, the squad as a whole might benefit from getting rid of Salah, captaining other players and spreading the cash saved around the rest of the squad.

          2. WesMantooth
            • 13 Years
            5 years, 10 months ago

            I do, and understand if you prefer to use it rather than ppm. But ppm is easy, whereas VAPM requires a lot of digging through the data to figrue out wether a player played 1point worth of mins or 2points worth of mins. When your'e assesing 300 players who's played 20-30 games, thats a whole lot of work.

            And i for one dont think it paints a much better picture. I think PPM is a good measure on its own.

            Oh, and Ayoze perez did not do badly at all this season, atleast not compared to the other forwardoptions this season.

            1. Roosta
              • 6 Years
              5 years, 10 months ago

              I think its fine to estimate the appearance points by just multiplying appearances by 2, and subtracting it from their total.

              Lets take Perez who has PPMM (Points Per Match per Million) of 124[points] / 36[appearances] / 5.5[cost] = 0.63
              And compare him to Aguero who has a PPMM of 169/25/11.5 = 0.59

              Now lets check their VAPM
              Perez (124 - 36*2) / 36 / 5.5 = 0.26
              Aguero (169 - 25*2) / 25 / 11.5 = 0.41

              1. WesMantooth
                • 13 Years
                5 years, 10 months ago

                Only thing is:
                Perez lost out on 12 appearance points.
                therefore his VAPM is actually 0,303
                And Agueros VAPM is closer to 0,425 due to losing out on 29 appearance points.

                Making the research is a must if using VAPM, as it can be very misleading if not. Son might only have missed 1 game, but he missed 12pts from appearences. Theres a stark difference to a vapm of 0,351 and 0,385.

                VAPM might very well be an even more accurate method of evaluating, but I'm happy using PMM.

                1. Roosta
                  • 6 Years
                  5 years, 10 months ago

                  I posted some thoughts on appearance points here

                  https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2018/05/21/interview-a-title-winning-debut-for-sky-sports-champion/?hc_page=1#hc_comment_18220477

                  I realise that you are happy with your system and I'm not trying to prove anyone wrong, just to provoke some thoughtful discussion.

    18. Roosta
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      1) There are too few forwards in the game to justify 3 forward slots.
      2) Forwards are more often substituted than other players, reducing their game time.
      3) Captaincy forces FPL to overprice potential top scorers, which is fine. Its easy to fill 1 forward slot and captain them a lot. But we only have 1 captaincy.

      Currently the first name on my team sheet will be the cheapest forward in the game, followed by the cheapest playing forward.

    19. Desperately Seeking Dusan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Season before last analysis of my own team on FPLStatistico showed that I had far more success with 3-5-2. So I stuck with that this season just gone and was very successful. Maybe the last couple of seasons have been anomalies though with cheap mids such as Sterling (to begin with) and absolute animals like Salah for 9.. but my gut feel is that with points for CS's and more points for goals and so many mids basically operating as forwards there is significantly better value.

    20. Deulofail
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      It depends on prices, available players, fixtures and expected form. I'm not one to build a GW1 team around the notion of flexibility, so maybe my perspective is not representitive of the crowd. However, I think most people will avoid picking their team based on their favourite formation.

      The only valid reason for doing this I can think of is if you analyse the proportion of players you could possibly want over the opening quarter in each position, and choose the formation that is least likely to implode if players are injured or not in form.

      But really this tactic seems too defensive and fairly redundant given that we will change our player preferences fairly rapidly at the beginning of the season, and so many variables are fluctuating wildly across the entire season.

      From 10 months ago:

      "Lots of people falling into the trap of looking for players to slot into their preset, predefined boxes, asking questions like, "who is the best mid-priced forward for my 3rd striker slot?" rather than questions like, "who will score more, Deeney or Alonso?" to which the answer is probably Alonso (if nailed).

      My humble and inexperienced advice would be that if you can't find someone you like to fill the box, don't fill it with someone you don't like. #buildbridgesnotboxes"

      https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2017/07/13/moving-target-ruben-loftus-cheek/?hc_page=9#hc_comment_15862001

      As always, top of the question-hierarchy is "what will score me most points?", and for me, "which formation should I choose?" is way down at the bottom of the pyramid as a (non-) predictor of potential points accrued.

  13. Pasqualinho
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Wait and see, for me. 343 became the obvious formation of choice (from discussions on here) a couple of years ago, and FPL Towers have tweaked the pricing structure since then to offer very little in the 7-9 million bracket, which has in turn made the 352 or even 442 more appealing. They could easily tweak it back.

  14. Individual
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Good morning all... Happy Monday.

    Just to mention our final pod of the season is now out: http://whogottheassist.com/pod-38-vertigo/

    Enjoy - thanks for those who listened this season, we'll be back for 2018/19 once the fixtures are out but watch out for prospecting the prospects (kicked off by a look at Diogo Jota's FPL prospects) coming over the summer.

    Cheers!

    1. FC Lackless [BALEGIUM]
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Nice ... thanks for all the assists this season!

      1. Individual
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Cheers!

  15. Maximus Bonimus Pointimus
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    When’s the last time we had a really lucrative OOP defender in FPL? Alonso is probably the closest thing recently but at 7.0 wasn’t really that cheap.

    Would be great to have a couple of genuine OOPs emerge in & around he 5.0 Mark to shake things up a bit.

    1. FFFrog
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Potentially Sessegnon if Fulham win

      1. Maximus Bonimus Pointimus
        • 14 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Great call... hope they get promoted

      2. Niemi
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 10 months ago

        Sessegnon has played more as a winger than as a full back, so I can't see him being a defender in FPL next year.

        1. FFFrog
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          5 years, 10 months ago

          Let us dream 😉

    2. Speédy
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Barry Douglas at Wolves would be a great option imo. 5 goals and 14 assists this season. Plays LWB in a 3-4-3

    3. Gooner Kebab
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Cresswell for next season imo

  16. goriuanx
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Sky sources: Manchester United interested in signing Willian from Chelsea this summer and Brazil forward wants to leave Stamford Bridge if Antonio Conte remains as manager. #SSN

    1. Good Times
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      Marriage made in heaven

    2. Witty Pun: Not good at this…
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 10 months ago

      No please Willian 🙁 don't ruin your career

  17. Good Times
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 10 months ago

    Is there stats available to as number or clean sheets or goals scored post world Cup season. More specifically perhaps the first 3 months as WC effects may be a bigger factor.
    This could play an important role whether to go with 4 at the back perhaps.