Three-time top 200 finisher Lateriser on Aguero, Villa and a polarising FPL season

The 2019/20 number one Fantasy manager in India, Lateriser addresses a rollercoaster campaign, FPL ownership, Brighton, Villa, Sergio Aguero, his Gameweek 6 team and more in his latest Pro Pundits piece.

This season is not for the weak-hearted and there are just way too many good options in this game at present.

Before Project Restart last season, the premium player conversation primarily revolved around Liverpool and Manchester City assets. Now we have a Spurs team that have accumulated the most number of big chances in the league in the premium conversation, in addition to assets from Manchester United and Chelsea who have shown us enough in the recent past to be a part of this conversation.

You are going to have to develop a very thick skin this season as there will be many Gameweeks where players you own don’t get points and others are getting monster hauls. But on the flipside, the opportunities in this game are very enticing too.

We have Liverpool and Manchester City enjoying a decent bunch of fixtures in the next two Gameweeks and the likes of Sadio Mane (£11.9m), Raheem Sterling (£11.5m) and Sergio Aguero (£10.4m) all have ownerships of under 10% at the time of writing. Mane has looked very sharp this season and has the highest xG amongst all midfielders, and next faces an obliging Sheffield United side that have lost one of their best defenders for a long time and who just don’t look like the team from 2019/20.

Manchester City scored 95 goals in their season without Kevin De Bruyne (£11.5m) and that makes Sterling and Aguero perfectly viable ‘differential’ captaincy options should you fancy it – which brings me to my point.

This is something I’d spoken about in my very first article for Fantasy Football Scout and it is just something I want to reiterate. Given the wide range of options that we have this season, it is very important to find your identity as a Fantasy Premier League manager. This is what I said back then:

If you are going to get sleepless nights going without Mohamed Salah, don’t do it. It doesn’t suit your personality. It’s not good for your blood pressure and you don’t end up having fun. You’re better off playing the odds and percentages game because that is where your comfort zone lies.

The game has opened up very nicely for the ‘dullards’ as well as the ‘opportunists’ with the wide variety of options we have. Given the increased impact of social media on everything mental, if you can’t handle a huge haul from a highly owned player, get that highly owned player because going maverick isn’t for you.

I never talk a lot about ownership percentages but given the nature of the season, I thought it was important to address. Seeing the high cost of transfers that FPL managers have had to pay on the ‘Rough with the Smooth’ section on the Scoutcast this season made me want to talk about this because I get the sense that there are going to be many difficult FPL decisions this season leading to a high variance in outcome. You need to be aware of your personality and tailor your FPL approach accordingly. This season, variance is a lot higher than usual and I expect that trend to continue. Be prepared for it and remember that this is only a game, one which involves a fair amount of luck and unpredictability as well.

Now that philosophy is out of the way, I want to talk about a few more objective things.