Learning from the mistakes of a dreadful FPL season

It’s hard to believe Gameweek 38 is upon us already. It’s going to be a long summer without FPL.

For most, the season ending is a negative, but for me, it will be a relief.

When those final whistles blow on Sunday evening, it will feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The nightmare will be over.

In over 10 seasons, this has been my worst by a long distance. I’ve been unlucky in many ways but there have been plenty of bad decisions too. Bad luck alone doesn’t get you a poor rank.

Not doing enough tinkering/research ahead of Gameweek 1 led to a poor start to the campaign from which I never recovered.

Chasing the pack was a new position for me to be in and it didn’t suit my patient style of play.

Selling players at the wrong time occurred too often, Callum Wilson (£6.8m) early in the season when he wasn’t scoring goals but had good underlying statistics and good fixtures is a prime example of that.

Shipping Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) just before the festive fixtures was another.

In hindsight, it was poor decision-making. I’ve had most of the right players this season, just at the wrong times.

The biggest reason for my poor season is overthinking things and spending way too much time on FPL.

Anyone who plays the game seriously often overthinks every move but when you work full-time in the field and spend 9am – 5pm, Monday-Friday every week discussing FPL with other managers, it clouds your judgement.

When it came to making my own transfers on a Friday night, my head was usually fried. Transfers should only ever be made with a clear head.

To combat this next season, I intend to scale back on how much time I spend on Twitter/Reddit/listening to podcasts etc. and spend more time focusing on my own team/strategy.

With all the great content available to fantasy managers nowadays, the biggest challenge is managing yourself.

Playing your own game has never been harder.

Reading/listening/watching too much content can have a negative impact on your season. Trust yourself.

Captaincy picks have let me down big time this season. This is the one aspect I’m most determined to improve on in 2019/20.

I’ve had roughly 15 blanks from 37 captains which just isn’t good enough. If you are not consistent with the captaincy, chances are you will struggle.

Avoiding bandwagons is another thing I want to improve on next season which has been a problem this year.

Players like Ross Barkley (£5.0m), Theo Walcott (£5.9m), Anthony Knockaert (£5.2m) and Roberto Pereyra (£5.9m) all found their way into my squad at some point. These are the types of players I’ve typically avoided in previous seasons.

I want to avoid injury-prone players next season too. Marko Arnautovic (£6.7m) and Danny Ings (£5.4m) caused me problems this season for example.

Bandwagons and injury-prone players usually result in you having to waste a transfer to get rid of them again down the line. We talk about fighting fires in FPL, when you buy a player like Arnie, it’s like going to the shop and buying matches, firelighters and kindling. You are looking for trouble.

I managed to go ten years without captaining a defender, then I gave Shane Duffy (£4.7m) the armband for his Double Gameweek. I plan to go another ten years now without falling into the same trap again.

The one and only time I made an early transfer this season it burned me. Marcos Alonso (£6.2m) was shipped for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.7m) on a Sunday night only for news to break on the Tuesday that TAA was injured.

My tried and trusted strategy of waiting until after all the press conferences before making moves will be a staple in my strategy for next season.

I’m relishing the challenge of coming back stronger next season and hopefully bouncing back from a testing season in style. Good luck all in Gameweek 38 and enjoy the summer break. We all need one!