A couple of days before the start of last season, our world got turned upside down.  My wife’s father, a man in his early sixties, had a stroke and passed unexpectedly. When you put into the equation that her family does not live in the country and that we were in Covid time, you begin to understand the complexity of things.

A day before the season starts, just hours before our traditional draft night, which was conducted via Zoom at the time, I found myself sitting at a funeral via Zoom, a surreal sight that to this day I can not fully grasp. From a state of shedding tears over a person I had never met before and on the broken heart of the one closest to me, I found myself after about an hour or so later picking first (again) in a draft, which nothing good could come out of. One could find evidence of that when I went head-over-heart and chose De Bruyne in the first pick over Mo Salah. The season opening meetup which I had been waiting for so long, lost all meaning to me.

Many moons have passed
Since our paths last crossed
Did you maybe lose your way?

And there was also FPL last season. Lots of FPL. Some might say a little too much FPL even.

A Covid season filled with countless postponements, completions, gameweeks spread over a week, multiple double and even one triple gameweek. A complete and utter mess, and in this mess we tried to navigate. In my case there were too many mistakes, too little luck.

Werner and Havertz who were thrown into the water too quickly (both by Lampard and myself), Dele in place of Son, Dier while Spurs were unable to keep a clean sheet to save their lives, Vinagre who became Ancient Greek tragedy even before autumn and Saint-Maximin, who would he had gotten a point for every 3 kicks he drew to his ankles could have been a wonderful fantasy asset, but sadly that is not the case. All of these found their way into my GW1 team of mistakes.

My first wildcard wasn’t much exciting neither. It would be enough just to mention the double Liverpool defence who crashed at home to the mighty Sheffield United offence to paint the picture. In general, to tell the story of my season in one short piece of stat I could just mention that I had over 20 defensive outings in matches versus The Blades last season, averaging less than 3 points per player in the process. Lovely, isn’t it? So yeah, bad luck is part of the game and I had more than my fair share of it, but also minimizing decisions that even if fail to help your luck, at least won’t make things any worse. For example, taking 12(!) hits on defensive assets throughout the season, something I realized when started working on the data analysis for the season-review episode of our pod, ‘Doubtful 75%’. Out of those 12 hits taken, only 3 came through and one of them was in a double gameweek, just to put things into context.

As if it was a mirror image of reality itself, much like humanity that had undergone a lesson in modesty in the past year and a half, I went through a similar lesson last season.

For the first time in 4 years, I finished outside the 33K and worse, outside of 300K, something I didn’t think was even possible. Although I finished the season in my highest rank all season, it probably says more about the season I had than anything else.

It was an important lesson, one that I will take with me to the upcoming season in an attempt to get better. Taking punts and aggressive play is all good and nice, but there is a time and place for everything.

So many moons have passed
Since our paths last crossed
You’re gonna have to find a way

I took the summer as a time off from anything fantasy related. I did not play Fantasy Euros (although I was almost tempted at the last minute), I treated the Euros as a mere pure viewing, without being emotionally invested in any match.

All of this has put me at the starting point when I’m filled with hunger for a new season of FPL, while many still feel overwhelmed by a Covid season that came after almost no break followed by a summer filled with sporting events.

With all I said about the lessons learned last season, there is still one thing I do not plan to change in style of play and that is to back myself with aggressive moves I believe in, that’s why I’m thinking of taking a punt on Mané instead of Bruno at the start. I just don’t think Mané can reproduce another substandard season like he had and Liverpool’s fixtures at the start look like they’re tailor-made. I believe Klopp will want to give him the chance to start strong and I would not be surprised if after the first five Gameweeks Mané will be at least on level points with Salah. On the other hand, United under Solskjaer tend to have a slow start. More than one of their players had an exhausting summer, Rashford is out until October so I have no problem starting without any of their attacking assets. If I really get FOMO I might go for Greenwood who’s decently priced. Shaw however, that ever since the arrival of Alex Telles has become Ironman, is someone I am counting on and even if it turns out he will miss GW1 (which, at the moment, does not seem too likely) I will probably go with him. Not that I trust United’s defense too much but no matter however we turn it around, Varane’s arrival, even with the decline in form he’s had in the past two season, should give more stability to United’s defense and the offensive potential of Shaw needs no introduction.

Regarding the formation, I remind myself that at the beginning of the season the number of clean sheets is lower than later on in the season (until each season we ask “What happened to all the clean sheets”? The answer is usually nothing happened and it will come later in the season), even more so in a season where fans will be back in the stands, so my plan is to go with a cheap defence + one £5.5 defender + TAA and unlike past seasons, to start the season with 3 active strikers with the intention of going 343 because traditionally the start of the season is the period of the season when there is a greater selection of strikers that deliver. Lucas Digne is another name that is, or at least was, strong on my radar, but Everton is a team that is just so hard to trust. I got burned in the past by the confidence I had in the Frenchman and even with Rafa Benitez, whom I’m sure will make The Toffees more defensive-minded, I’m not sure it’s worth trusting them at the start, more so when they start the season without Richarlison, who is currently in Tokyo with the Olympic team. In midfield Salah and Raphinha quite simply choose themselves, the rest of the places can still change.

These days FPL social media is filled with drafts of managers who are a lot of things, but they are not you. The most important thing I have learned in the past two seasons is the importance of noise filtering, probably the most important thing an involved manager should learn before and during each season. Anyone who did their homework before the start of the season really has no reason to change anything in order to forcefully resemble a template. Just remember that last season the GW1 template included Aubameyang Captain and Timo Werner. How it ended we all remember too well.

Time is my everything
For you I’d do anything
Under the sun

Going back 11 months to that emotionally charged evening in early September, so many things seemed unclear then. It felt like everything was detached, that reality is fragile and the only thing that is certain is that the next day a new season begins, and whether I succeed or not in doing so, I will at least try to draw some comfort from it.

Fast forward back to today and I have a hard time fully digesting just how much has changed; I joined Fantasy Football Scout, I started filming together with my 2 good mates our FPL podcast ‘Doubtful 75%’ (which even I was surprised at how much I would enjoy doing), appeared as guest in other pods, met new people in the FPL community from all over the world, and most of all, embracing my firstborn daughter, which my wife gave birth to exactly 9 months after returning from Mexico, after she travelled to in midst of a global pandemic, to mourn the passing of her father.

That same discomforted heart that ached so, on the eve of the 20/21 draft night, has never beaten so strong like in the weeks leading to the 21/22 season.

Good luck in the new season everyone.

Enjoy the road, it’s just as important.

Child, don’t you fear anything
For even the greatest men,
Shall have to stand in line
I know you’re gonna see it in the fullness of time