Podcast

Scoutcast Episode 381 – Lessons learnt from an eventful FPL season

Joe and Seb take stock of a season like no other for Fantasy Premier League managers.

After 38 Gameweeks, the Covid-19 ravaged 2020/21 campaign is finally over.

The health crisis has impacted the schedule and player availability, FPL managers saw the first triple Gameweek in more than a decade, and for much of the season, we have had to endure a slow drip feed of matches over several days to ensure more fixtures can be televised.

The lack of fans also played its part, with traditional home and away form often consigned to the bin.

While tough to navigate, it has had significant highs to couple with the lows.

Trusted heavy hitters, such as Harry Kane (£11.9m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.9m), often delivered when selected as captain. There was also a wealth of budget options, with Leeds United’s promoted players among the stars.

In this final Scoutcast episode of the campaign, Joe and Seb review their own performance amid the season’s chaos, consider wider lessons to learn for all managers and answer the community’s questions.

For the final time they also look back on their Gameweek scores and showcase the community’s tales of woe and joy in Rough with the Smooth.

For Joe, key lessons to emerge include the importance of having a strong start and being as flexible as possible with transfers. While Seb ponders why he often ignored the best players from his own team, Leeds.

There are also strong thoughts on how FPL managers can deal with the ‘noise’ of social media and the fear of missing out.

Joe explains why this tricky campaign ended being his most satisfying yet across his career and why he’ll be paying even closer attention to his ‘unfashionable players’ Members tables next time out.

The Scoutcast will be back next season when Joe and Seb will be joined by a new regular co-host. Look out for further news ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

Thanks to everyone who has watched, listened, commented and featured on this season’s Scoutcast.

This episode was aired live via YouTube on Tuesday 25 May. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified of future live episodes.

In addition, the Scoutcast and all our other podcasts are now also available via our Soundcloud channel.

If you’re a traditional type, you can acquire the mp3 audio version via this link or the first player below. Or you can take in the full visual experience via the second player below.

J0E Podcaster and writer. Tweets stats and stuff via @FFScout_Joe Follow them on Twitter

35 Comments Post a Comment
  1. The Knights Template
    • 10 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Lesson 1 - sweep the leg
    Lesson 2 - don't gamble

    1. CONNERS
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      You forgot...

      Lesson 3 - Wax on, Wax off

    2. FPL price manipulators are …
      • 10 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Lesson 4 - James Rodriguez is a trap

  2. Jebiga
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    There is only one lesson.
    Quit this game on time if you want mental health 🙂

    1. Black Knights
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I cancelled my team several times this season. I missed 5-6 deadlines because my team didn't exist. At the time, I was in a bad way mentally and I was sure it was the stress of the game playing a big part.

      But I've had some pretty huge life events in 2021 that have added perspective and really enabled me to see FPL for what it is - a great game. It's fine to take it seriously, but you can't beat yourself up about decisions that don't work out. The season is too long and there are too many decisions to be affected by all of them.

      I recovered from my season low rank of 250k (during a 3 week break when I missed deadlines GW25-27), to finish 67k. But for the run-in, I definitely enjoyed it a lot more. I just rode the bad times, and enjoyed the good ones.

      We're all, ultimately, very lucky to be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of a captain scoring a goal, or getting 12 points from your second GK on a BB etc. It's all a bonus, really.

      1. snow pea in repose
        • 3 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Glad you were able to work through it...

    2. Well you know, Triffic
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I've said it before and I'll say it again:

      1. Don't go on twitter. It's fpl content overload

      2. Don't join a money league. You'll be surprised at how relaxed you feel when money plays no part.

      3. Log into fpl and make changes to your team on the day of deadlines.

      4. Don't waste your weekends watching loads of football and then feel down if your fpl assets don't perform. However, this is linked to the money league point. If you're not in a competitive league you'll be less bothered about watching lots of footy.

      1. Black Knights
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Point 4 is so true. There's nothing worse than setting up to watch a game where you have 3 assets from the home team, expecting a 5-0 drubbing, then watching all those imaginary points disappear as it turns into a dour 1-1.

      2. Botman and Robben
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Agreed on all except point 2. Those make it more fun.

        1. Well you know, Triffic
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Yes but then its pressure if you don't do well or are top and are worried about every single point you get.

      3. FPL Theorist
        • 4 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Great post! Here are some more:

        5. If you can tell that a certain match will inevitably lower your rank because you have fewer assets in it than most people, skip that match.

        Mark talks about the "Garden Centre" match, thinking of things like Burnley v. West Brom, but it could be a Liverpool match if you have, say, only Salah (not captain) and many of your rivals have at least one Liverpool defender and Salah (C).

        6. If you don't have many players in the first few matches of a GW, don't look at LiveFPL until you've caught up in terms of players played.

        7. If you can't stand to look at the Threats To Your Rank section of the page, then don't.

        8. Avoid looking at your rank mid-match if you have defensive players in the match who are likely to be on a CS + bonus at some time, and then lose it all with a late CS wipe-out. It's better not to know that they were ever on for baps.

  3. Now I'm Panicking
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Carry on making decisions (which you have to do as that is what the game is about) to the best of your ability and accept that sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

    1. FPL price manipulators are …
      • 10 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      ... but that's just dark side of probability

    2. Goro Majima
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Nah, it'll never catch on.

    3. Big boy Bowen
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Wise words.

      Good decisions can have bad outcomes

      1. Big boy Bowen
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Good/logical that is

  4. Black Knights
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Uncertainty (around postponements, rearrangements, injuries, form etc) is what i actually enjoy most about this game.

    It's great to know that a strategy and a bit of foresight gets you ahead of a lot of players. Obviously, it still requires a lot of luck for these things to fall into place, but it's very satisfying when that striker you held through a couple of tough fixtures gets his DGW announced.

    Chaos is a ladder.

    1. FPL Theorist
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I probably should feel more this way, as I've had a top 300k GW rank in all the big double/triple GWs this season, even though some of them were announced very late and gave little time to prepare properly. The high number of DGWs/BGWs stressed me out, but if there aren't as many next season, then I might actually not have as many opportunities for big rank gains.

      1. Black Knights
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Fortunately, just being present on this site means you're more aware than the average Joe, so is a huge advantage.

        Even if you don't hang on Ben Crellin's every tweet, there is a lot of valuable knowledge here that gives you a bit of a one-up in terms of preparations. It could be as simple as 'who still has a game to be rearranged in the future in case it's worth holding their GK'?

    2. Qaiss
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Well the chaos makes the game harder, therefore the more skilled players should be able to rise as a result.

      Injuries are always a part of the game but Covid cancellations after the deadline are just pure luck and very unfair. If I have a heavy hitter in a fixture which gets postponed, then for their eventual DGW, everyone can just bring that player in, so I’m losing points. Postponements after the deadline are completely unfair and down to luck. That’s why this season was a load of BS and hopefully next season there won’t be any cancellations.

      1. Black Knights
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Yeah true. I guess the lesson this year was 'have a full bench' and 'don't C and VC in the same fixture'.

        With that spate of post-deadline COVID cancellations around Christmas, sometimes the winners were those that could somehow field 8 players, or at least had a captain. Very unfortunate when that's the case.

        1. FPL Theorist
          • 4 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Not just the cancellations but the trend toward managers not fully revealing injury news before deadlines, which I expect to continue even if COVID is no longer a factor.

          I think adding a 4th outfield bench player to the squad would be the most logical response. People who just want to fill the spot with fodder could still do so, but people who are willing to spread the funds could profit from having an extra bench option. If it was a 6th mid, they could also permit 3-6-1 and 4-6-0 as new formations (a typical 4-3-3 Man City line-up this year consisted of six players classified as FPL mids, and none classified as FPL forwards).

  5. zLaTaN@uNiTeD
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Does anyone have an idea what would be Germany first xi?

    1. Tinkermania
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Doubt even think their manager knows the starting 11. Chances are it will vary depending on opposition.

    2. Bonus magnet
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Kimmich and 10 others

  6. FPL Theorist
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Unpopular opinion: Norwich still have about the same group of players as they did in 2019-20 when they finished last with 21 points and a -49 goal difference.

    That’s worse than Sheffield United in 2020-21, who ended with 23 points and a -43 goal difference.

    I don’t think Norwich will stay up. If they do, it will be because there are three really awful teams other than them. I think their success in the Championship was more indicative of the weakness of the competition in the Championship this season than Norwich being great.

    1. Egg noodle
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      You know there's a 3 month transfer window, right?

      1. FPL Theorist
        • 4 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Yes, things could change, but their owners don't like spending much money, do they? Obviously it's much harder to make predictions now than later, but lots of FPL managers seem very excited about their assets.

    2. Qaiss
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      It’s too early to say that tbh, they are a good side. But if they sell Buendia, which rumours suggest, then they might be in trouble if they don’t replace him properly. They also need to shore up the defence.

  7. Corona is not good 4 U
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    I am really disappointed and frustrated. I used to be in the top 10,000 players. Now it's difficult for me to even get into the top 50,000. I only came in 63,360 and am very disappointed and frustrated.

    I think these insane results and all of the rotation make it harder and harder to plan properly. It's becoming more and more of a gamble. Luck plays a big role here.

    All of these European Cup games, in my opinion, are mainly causing all of this rotation, these crazy results and some of the injuries. In the past everything used to be easier because there weren't that many European Cup matches. But there was no Fantasy Premier League in the past either.

    I think it's getting harder and harder to get reasonable results and it's becoming more and more of a gamble.

    I am really disappointed and frustrated.

    1. Black Knights
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Remember there are a lot more players now, and a lot more information available. The FPL team push a lot of content, and twitter has a lot of information for people to use.

      So any decline in ranking could be relative to the increase in number of players, but also because those players have more knowledge at their disposal than before.

    2. FPL Theorist
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      The season should be a bit more normal next year. At least the huge number of games won't be crammed into a season that's a month shorter than usual. Proven players from better teams should do better. This season, a lot of my ML rivals profited off their trust in budget assets like Bamford, Justin, Cresswell, etc., while I was trusting my Liverpool and Man City assets to outscore them, as they often did not.

      1. ENZO SZN™
        • 6 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        i hope so.

  8. KujaliaFC
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Are there really no prizes for the winner of the upcoming official Euro 2020 fantasy game?

    https://gaming.uefa.com/en/uefaeuro2020fantasyfootball/overview

    1. Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Probably - UEFA are a bit skint and are probably making no advertising revenue from this after all. 😉