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Learning from ‘The Great and The Good’ FPL managers – 2021/22 season review

Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead continues with his series of articles analysing the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfers and strategies of some noted Fantasy managers, from serial top 10k finishers to well-known faces.

The Great and The Good this year are the Scouts Joe LepperNeale RiggGeoff Dance, and Tom Freeman, FPL Wire’s Zophar, from the Hall of Fame Fabio BorgesFPLMatthewYavuz Kabuk and Tom Stephenson, Blackbox’s Az and Mark Sutherns, FPL “celebrities” LTFPL AndyMagnus Carlsen and FPL General plus last year’s mini league winner Les Caldwell.


“So, gather up your jackets, move it to the exits. I hope you have found a friend. Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

Time gentleman, please! So ends another FPL season with many giddy on the success of their campaigns with wins in their mini-leagues, whilst others stare at the bottom of their half-empty Fantasy glass muttering something about variance.

Amongst The Great and The Good, it was Fabio who was left celebrating with back-to-back wins in this fictional league of legends. Az, Magnus and Andy will no doubt also be happy to buy a few rounds as they all finished in the top 10,000, whilst others will be looking forward to the reset button being pressed on a season that gave them nothing but hangovers.

The final day brought its usual share of madness with IIkay Gundogan (£7.1m) etching his name in the history books with two goals to win Manchester City the title – well done to the 2.6% of FPL managers who owned him – but elsewhere it was the likes of Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m) and James Maddison (£6.9m) who proved key in determining the final colour of your arrow in Gameweek 38.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Fabio proved again to be the greatest of The Great and The Good, ending his season in the top 300 and recording his sixth straight top 2,000 finish in the process, which is all the more remarkable considering he was ranked outside the top 350,000 in Gameweek 10.

I am going to have to search out some new faces for The Great and The Good next year in order to make it more difficult for him, although I wouldn’t put it past the Portuguese maestro to do the three-peat.

Az and Magnus both had strong seasons and there were just two points between them as they ended in the top 5,000, while Andy took time away from his 24-hour streaming on the final day to score 82 and achieve his fourth top 10,000 finish. Overall, it was a great and good season for most of The Great and The Good as 11 of them finished with five-digit ranks.

Geoff Dance was the best performer on the last Sunday of the campaign with Danny Welbeck (£6.0m) the unlikely hero, and overall, the Canadian Kingpin has had a strong end to the season, outscoring the rest in the last five weeks with a weekly average score of 88 points.

TRANSFER TRIUMPH

The transfer wheeler-dealer of the season was definitely Yavuz Kabuk, who was aiming for his eighth consecutive top 10,000 finish. Whilst he fell short of this, he was top of The Great and The Good for immediate transfer points (558).

He was also the most active manager with 96 points in hits over the season. Mark was also aggressive with 80 points in transfer penalties, while FPL General took a more hands-off approach with only 40 transfers all seasons.

As for this last week, this is a summary of the transfers in Gameweek 38:

  • Az – Toney (Ings)
  • LTFPL Andy – Son (Salah)
  • Fabio Borges – De Bruyne (Salah)
  • Joe Lepper – Toney (Richarlison)
  • Geoff Dance – Welbeck (Pukki)
  • FPL General – Son (Salah)
  • Les Caldwell – Kane, Sessegnon (Watkins, Rudiger)
  • Magnus Carlsen – Sessegnon (Cash)
  • Mark Sutherns – Toney, Mount, Sessegnon (Saiss, Coutinho, Richarlison)
  • FPL Matthew – Robertson, Son (Dias, Salah)
  • Neale Rigg – James, Son (Dias, Salah)
  • Tom Freeman – Son (Salah)
  • Tom Stephenson – Son (Salah)
  • Yavuz Kabuk – Vardy, Son, Sessegnon (Dias, Salah, Richarlison)
  • Zophar – Mane (Salah)

Son Heung-min (£11.2m) was quite rightly a popular choice and six of The Great and The Good brought him into their squads to make his ownership 100% amongst this group, so they all benefitted from his Golden Boot-winning brace against Norwich.

As mentioned, the most astute transfer was Geoff’s pick of Welbeck. Neale Rigg’s move for Reece James (£6.5m) feels like it deserved more with Watford wiping out his clean sheet points, while Yavuz lived up to his reputation with a late flourish on Jamie Vardy (£10.3m), Son and Ryan Sessegnon (£4.4m) for a minus eight.

CAPTAINCY CALL

Captaincy calls were big business this year with a season dominated by doubles and huge swings of fortunes if you nailed your armband. There was only one victor amongst The Great and The Good, with Magnus winning out in the end.

The Chess Grandmaster was always the one willing to gamble during the season with 19 different picks; the selections of Matty Cash (£5.3m) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m) in the final weeks were my favourite but whatever his methods they worked, with 30 more armband points than any other manager.

CHIP CHAMPION

Chip strategies were varied this year with all of them adopting slightly different approaches, as you can see from the below table:

FPL Matthew and Magnus came out top on the least popular of the chips, the Bench Boost, with 46 points. I suspect Az will still be talking about his Free Hit chip in Gameweek 28 for years to come but Andy wasn’t far behind with a Maddison-inspired 115 points last week. 

Meanwhile, the success of the Triple Captain came down to whether you were in the Gameweek 26 camp as Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) did Mo things against Leeds and Norwich, or whether you were less fortunate with his game-time in Gameweek 29.

THE NEXT GREAT AND THE GOOD

Who will be joining The Great and The Good next year? Well, first a mention to Les Caldwell who performed admirably despite being hacked. He responded with 15 green arrows in the last 15 weeks and throughout the season proved to have a fine eye of the transfer. He has been a brilliant addition to the squad and whilst he brought experience, he is even older than me, and he is replaced by the youthful bravado of Suvansh Singh.

Suvansh was no. 2 in the world and no. 1 in India so it’s fair to say that he deserves his place next year; he also had the challenge of supervising Az in this Community Tournament, so he is clearly used to managing egos. Let’s see whether he can repeat his success next year and maybe even challenge Fabio?

Congratulations also to Tony Yorath, Tanveer Singh and all the others who joined the feeder league and had such fabulous campaigns. The mini-league will be open for new joiners again at the start of the next season so keep an eye out on here and my Twitter if you want to join the battle.

CONCLUSION

Another year, another 30-plus articles following the fortunes and misfortunes of The Great and The Good, so a few self-indulgent thank yous to finish us off. As always, more than a nod of appreciation to Scout for sharing my ramblings and even promoting me to the big boy slot this year, and particular appreciation to Tom and Neale for editing my words into something consumable by the human eye.

Geoff was the one who got me started and deserves his moniker of the Canadian Kingpin. Thanks also to Az and Mark for taking The Great and The Good onto the BlackBox, although I suspect Mr Sutherns sometimes regrets that decision. Thirdly, thanks to all of The Great and The Good for allowing me to poke a little fun at their expense along the way.

Lastly, thanks to you for reading along. I hope you enjoy following along as much as I do when I’m writing these updates. Now go and enjoy your break, get some fresh air and we’ll be back soon enough arguing over who are the best £4.5m enablers.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now – and remember, don’t have nightmares.

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19

160 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Piggs Boson
    • 12 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Fulham losing Fabio Carvalho to Liverpool is not the best start to their Premier League return. He was a key player for them.

    That's a deduction to Mitrovic's xPts.

    1. R.C
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I'm sure they'll sign a good replacement. They have good owners

    2. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      next shaqiri

    3. Hazz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Was agreed well in advance of now. It'll affect them, but it's not like they haven't planned for it.

    4. Jebiga
      • 11 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Yes but Matic will go to Fulham

  2. R.C
    • 6 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Any thoughts on Ten Hag's presser and first interview?

    1. Monklane
      • 14 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      No

      1. R.C
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Good

    2. Grande Tubarão
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 2 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I think Utd fans can be very optimistic about next season

      1. Mario Balofail
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        ...not being relegated 🙂

        1. Grande Tubarão
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 2 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Haha. I’m not a fan of theirs but do hope they do well - the fans deserve it after all they’ve been through to have still remained loyal to the club. Hopefully this guy can sort them out

          1. Philosopher's Stones
            • 3 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            Whom do you support?

            1. Grande Tubarão
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 2 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              I don’t support anyone. Just love the beautiful game

              1. Nate(U)dog(ie)
                • 3 Years
                1 year, 10 months ago

                Lol mate you've made it very clear you're a ManUtd supporter, not sure why you're trying to fool anyone

                1. NorCal Villan
                  • 2 Years
                  1 year, 10 months ago

                  The act was funny for a brief bit. Now it’s just confusing and sad 😎

          2. DBW - Slug's Mortgage …
            • 3 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            United fans haven't been through enough. They were very successful and loads of glory hunters jumped on the bandwagon even though they live hundreds of miles away from Manchester.

            It's beautiful seeing them fail. It's my morning glory.

            1. Grande Tubarão
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 2 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              Haha, I think that’s very harsh mate. I dislike them as much as you do but I think the proportion of their fans you’re describing is tiny relative to their fan base as a whole. Much as I’m not very keen on them I think there’s good reason they’re renowned as being one of the best, most fiercely loyal, fan bases in the world.

    3. Piggs Boson
      • 12 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Not much to take from it. He keeps his cards close to his chest.

      But I am excited for him to take over. He comes across as stern, intelligent, and hard-working, and that's going to serve this Manchester United squad well. It will take several windows for the squad to evolve into a Ten Hag squad, but I think they're heading in the right direction. Can't wait to see the story unfold.

      1. R.C
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I'm excited to see him develop our existing players, both from the current squad and from the academy

      2. Pep bites Kun
        • 7 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I really haven't been following this much. Your opening description makes me think of AlexF.

  3. DycheDycheBaby
    • 8 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Today I am of course very sad being a Clarets fan. It was a tough season and a bitter way to end it.

    But at least I did win one of my mini leagues and I would like to thank everyone on here who (in a small way) helped me do that. I enjoyed all the banter on here and look forward to doing it all again next season with you guys. Cheers! 🙂

    1. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Chance of a swift bounceback a la Norwich/Fulham/Bournemouth? I could imagine quite a lot of that group sticking around with the exception of maybe Tarkowski, Cornet, Weghorst and perhaps Pope?

      1. DycheDycheBaby
        • 8 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I hope so pal. Think it will be crucial to keep some of the core of the squad and hopefully have a good transfer window. But yeah I can't see us keeping some of the players you mentioned.

    2. Corona is not good 4 U
      • 3 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I will miss your team. But I think that you will be back soon.

      In the recent seasons there have often been the same relegated teams who have quickly come back (Norwich, Fulham, Bournemouth, Watford and Huddersfield also have a good chance of being back).

      Maybe it is more fun to celebrate victories in the Championship than to digest defeats in the Premier League.

      All the best and see you very soon!

      And remember it is just a game. Last year my best friend passed away and I would have preferred it much, much more if my team had been relegated instead.

      1. DycheDycheBaby
        • 8 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Thank you that means a lot, and I am sorry to hear about your best friend.

        Yes we had some good times in the Championship before and hopefully we can bounce back soon. Cheers and take care!

  4. TanN
    • 3 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Thanks all...

    Achieved 2346 points which is moderately acceptable.

    It did mean I won by a margin of 55 points in my ML

  5. BrockLanders
    • 9 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Another superb season. Thanks for everyone who helped on here. Disappointed to finish circa 279k but considering I was over 1m rank in GW25 I'll take it. Bring on next season 🙂

    1. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Lateriser 2.0! Enjoy the summer, Brocklanders

      1. Skonto Rigga
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        That sounds like I'm trying to get rid of you - do stick around if you want 😀

        1. BrockLanders
          • 9 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Haha!! Cheers mate.

  6. Fulham/Bournemouth fans - we need you
    Skonto Rigga
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 6 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Any Fulham or Bournemouth fans out there in the FFS ether? Myself and Tom will be writing The Promoted series soon and while we do plan on watching the 2021/22 Championship boxset to brush on your Mitrovics of this world, it'd be good to get a fan's perspective on each team, too.

    1. R.C
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Ooo Mark has already been shortlisted for Forest I see

      1. Skonto Rigga
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        You're onto me

    2. CherryBoys
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I am a Cherries fan and was really upbeat about our second spell in the prem… until I read this morning that we are odds on favourites to go straight back down (8-11)!

      1. Skonto Rigga
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        There's often a Wolves, a Brentford, a Sheff Utd or a Leeds who makes a mockery of the odds!

        Would you fancy answering a few questions on Bournemouth via email, Paul? Only if you have time.

        1. CherryBoys
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Sure, I’m no great tactician and I’m very unlikely to give you inspiring quotes, but I’ll give it a go. Thanks for the small uplift regarding the odds!

          1. Skonto Rigga
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • Has Moderation Rights
            • 6 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            Have dropped you an email there, Paul - thanks very much!

      2. Riverside Red
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 4 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I'm a Boro fan and think the odds are a little harsh...but unless Bournmouth invest heavily....they are doomed.

    3. FPL Theorist
      • 4 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Not sure if he's on here but @FPLScofield on Twitter is great for Bournemouth.

      1. Skonto Rigga
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Thanks, MLS! Much appreciated.

    4. CherryBoys
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Email sent with answers to your questions. Congrats to Forest on joining us and Fulham in the prem.

  7. FPL price manipulators are …
    • 10 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    Pages flying

    1. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      It's almost like the season has finished

      1. Gazwaz80
        • 4 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Good to see Steve McClaren coming back as Ten Hag’s 2ic 🙂

        1. out for a goalkick
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          I hope he's got an umbrella for those wet nights in Manchester...

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

            The banter with brolly will be funny

        2. Old Man
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 12 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          I'm looking forward to hearing that Dutch accent again.

          1. NorCal Villan
            • 2 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            From a big-bosomed lady?

            1. Old Man
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 12 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              Yeah, if he can arrange it - why not!!? 😀

    2. cravencottage
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I kind of like the respite

  8. Pep's Money Laundry
    • 8 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    I experimented this season and played safety first approach like many do, I took minimal hits basically about 15 hits compared to 30 to 40 I would normally. I waited until Friday to do my transfers unlike previously when I would do transfers really early to build tv.

    I finished with a decent rank of just outside top 100k but I'm disappointed as I always finish in top 10k to 20k

    Anyway my point is play the game to the style that suits you the best or at least experiment and see if there is a better approach for yourself.
    Back to the aggressive approach for me next season

    1. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Do you think the (still good) rank was to do with not playing in your usual style or more that this was not a good season to experiment in? With all the cancellations, short-notice rearrangements and DGWs, it seemed like maybe this was a year to take more hits than usual, not fewer.

      1. Pep's Money Laundry
        • 8 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        For me personally its the style I think, when you can see your players in your team whose form is getting worse by the week makes it harder to recover later on if you don't act quick enough.

        One other issue I think that didn't help is the constant dgw's, you end up holding onto players unnecessary who have a double coming soon. They end up doing nothing of course and the replacement you had your eyes on hauled in the mean time

        1. Baps hunter
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 6 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          It doesn't matter too much, if you have good enough starting XV and you are able to bench some of them. That helps also with ilnesses and short term injuries. People fear too much wrong benching order, but it shouldn't be an issue. It is better to have benched next bandwagon than being forced to sell someone for him.

    2. Baps hunter
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I'd recommend you to play your own best game and try (multiple) experimental teams on livefpl.net. It's totally legal. Or you can perhaps advice your wife / girlfriend etc to play with another strategy and advice her to play the way you want to.

      Patience works sometimes or at least has worked. However Ville Rönkä kind of aporoach hasn't been too succesful lately.

    3. MrZ
      • 9 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      This season hits is more valuable due to many DGWs... Not going to happen next season though

  9. Pascal
    • 3 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    I finished with a rank of about 197 k with an average of 64 points /gameweek the overall winner has an average of 74 points/gameweek.
    He has a total of 2844 points, has it ever been this high ?

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

      Probably not, but that's due to the continuous template hauls and the obscene number of DGWs. Hopefully next season will be a bit more normal (on both counts)

    2. bitm2007
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Doubt it almost everybody's total points will be up on previous seasons due the number of DGWs this season.

    3. Better off with a pin and a…
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Not sure, but you'd expect the overall trend to be upwards simply because there are more players in the game. Maybe other reasons this season was higher as well with the extra doubles and an additional chip.

  10. Can any lessons really be learned from 2021/22?
    Camzy
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    1 year, 10 months ago

    I'm seeing a lot of season review and learnings type of posts, which are nice, but I genuinely don't think you can take 'broad learnings' from this past FPL seas. It's just been such a strange and unusual season. We've had COVID postponements, tons of DGWs, huge captain swings, and also FPL points have come from unusual places as well.

    Premium defenders basically retired one of our forward slots. All the forwards were huge disappointments. Captaincy points this season have also carried huge additional weight. Getting a captaincy '50/50' wrong swung like 30 points per week consistently.

    We've seen huge rises from just 3 good weeks and also huge falls.

    The guy that won FPL this year was ranked 1.1K in GW33. That's absurd that he could go from that far back to win. Meanwhile, I fell from 9K > 30K in ONE week as a counter example.

    I'm seeing posts saying - I'm gonna take MORE hits or I'm gonna take LESS hits. Or I'm gonna have all the premium defenders right away or I'm never gonna own Mahrez again (this one I agree with btw :P)

    FPL isn't like that. The trends change and it's about how you adapt. We all had Antonio in our teams at the start of the season and then he dropped off the map never to return. We had double Chelsea defense and were convinced that was a season hold. We vowed to always captain Salah for a time. There was even a time where GW4 WCers went Kane, Lukaku, Ronaldo.

    Next season it'll be the same. We'll proclaim that we'll never buy a premium defender again when City and Pool don't keep a CS for the opening 3 games. We'll swear by the 3 cheap forwards as Mitrovic and Solanke become mainstays. We'll say we will never own a premium FWD again after Haaland scores 1 goal in the opening 10 games.

    You just gotta adapt, look for value and not be afraid to admit you're wrong. That's it. I don't think you can make any more generalizations than that going into next season and to do so would be dangerous.

    1. Grande Tubarão
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 2 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Brilliant post

    2. Corgz Dark side of the Loon
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Very well summarised and I 100% agree with you. The one thing I would add is to be careful of what now feels like so many content creators and there views, there are far more now than there was 3 season ago and most are not very good.

      1. Camzy
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Being a good FPL manager nowadays means being able to sift through the good and the bad opinions/news.

        Same for team leaks. It's part of the skill set.

      2. Haa-lala-land
        • 3 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I stick to Andy, Blackbox, Planet FPL, and Focal.

    3. Baps hunter
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      What's the situation with Pro pundit teams? I would basically like to join, and it would be great extra fun to be around. However, I got never drafted, since my team was too expensive and I have been here on FFS too late. Could it be possible to create a Challenger (Championship) league, even with less amount of teams. 1-3 teams would go up and same amount drop, depending on some variables or something. Now it is basically restricted to those managers who are on it and it's basically closed league for them. Naturally a couple of players retire, but it's prolly over 90% same players every year.

      1. Baps hunter
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Reply fail, was supposed be new post. This can be deleted, thx.

    4. Better off with a pin and a…
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Good post.

      There's a real danger of 'narrative' taking over; "this is the season of the premium defender", "this is the season to play no forwards" etc. It's always just about some combination of form, fixtures, statistics and the eye test - and everyone probably has their own preferred combination of those. Don't get sucked into any one story.

      Captaincy has played a bigger part than usual this season, I think (no stats to back that up, though). The number of doubles must have led to some very big captain swings; some will have been on the right side of all of them and some on the wrong side of all of them.

      1. Camzy
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Agreed.

        My GW35-37 captains (not even that differential): Kane (12), Salah (8), Coutinho (6) - 26 points
        If you picked the 'popular' alternate captains: Son (42), KdB (60), Richarlison (38) - 140 points

        That is an absolutely ludicrous difference from just 3 weeks.

        1. NABIL - FPL otai
          • 11 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Unlucky.

          You hate to hear it, but casuals rewarded again and again 🙂

        2. Better off with a pin and a…
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Indeed. I was Kane (12), Salah (6), Richarlison (38), so at least I caught the last on a FH. Son killed me over that period, but I had Kane and Kulu so was hesitant to get him. On such small decisions large swings rest. When so many play, someone will be on the right side of nearly all of them.

          That's not to denigrate the people who do well. I don't think you can get a good rank by luck alone, but a lot of decisions are very marginal and there's a lot of luck in coming down just on the right side of them

        3. internal error
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Picking Coutinho as your captain was a really bad decision though so part of that difference was down to your decisions. Son was also looking in much better goal scoring form compared to Kane who hadnt scored in his 5 previous games before gw 35.

          1. Camzy
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 13 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            Replace Coutinho with Ings then. A lot of good managers picked Ings in GW37 for captain. Also scored 3 points.

            1. Cheeto__Bandito
              • 3 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              Richarlison was the clear standout as it was pretty clear Ings and Coutinho were only getting one game. Coutinho was far from nailed with Buendia around and with Ings injury record there was no way he would play 4 games in a row during a 2 week period.

              Also it is more of an EO discussion than captain, as the Salah captain did fail in DGW 36 but the high EO made that not really matter. The real issue was your transfer decisions, as in 36 taking out Kane and Kulu was wrong, especially for Mahrez and Richarlison, as Mahrez was far from nailed off the back of the CL midweek. Kane and Kulu both guranteed 90 in the double and a good fixture against Arsenal. Especially as you could just free hit in richarlison the next week, there was no need to use a transfer on him AND then you would still have Kane and Kulu back for the prime Norwich game instead of being stuck with Mahrez and Richarlison.

              1. Camzy
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 13 Years
                1 year, 10 months ago

                I certainly made mistakes.

                I had Kane + Kulu > KdB + Nketiah open and I chose to go with Mahrez + Richarlison. Genuinely thought Mahrez could be a powerful differential that week. Promptly goes and doesn't start either game. A mistake for sure.

                But still, as I was saying the tough part was that I got punished to the maximum.

                Easy to say in hindsight that picking Richarlison was the correct pick in GW37, but Villa had the better games on paper and Rich also had a knock. If Richarlison got a red card in game 1 would you really say that it was better? There's a lot of luck involved.

                I'm not blameless. I'm just saying the variance meant that I lost out by a lot more than I probably should have.

                1. Cheeto__Bandito
                  • 3 Years
                  1 year, 10 months ago

                  Richarlison was pictured in training day before game and all signs were pretty clear he was fit. I agree if Ings starts both he is the better captain, but that was never going to happen with Villa bench depth and his injury record and the fact it would mean 4 games started in a row, you may have been sucked in by the odd community push to captain him, I try block out that noise. Coutinho though statistically and rotation wise was for sure not better than Richarlison.

                  On the Kane v Son I agree you should not have lost that much, but next week the Salah captain EO meant captain wasnt the biggest factor that week as most captained him, your decisions to bring non-nailed players was the biggest factor to the red arrow, as KDB only actually had 25% EO that week, and you removed all tottenham exposure who are 100% nailed with Arsenal at home and Norwich coming up. Then lastly the Richarlison captain did also over perform, but it was the correct conclusion to captain him given villa rotation, so that variance swing could have been easily avoided, it was not like the Kane v Son outcome in 35, which are always similarly projected.

                  1. Camzy
                    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                    • 13 Years
                    1 year, 10 months ago

                    I don't agree that Richarlison was clearly the correct captain in GW37.

                    We're talking about a forward from a relegation threatened team. Yes it worked out this time but it could easily have been another King or Dennis. Forwards have seriously underperformed this year so captaining one, especially from Everton, you can't say is definitely the right pick.

                    Maddison was the correct pick.

                    Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

                    That said, you are right that I should respect xMins more. It's cost me quite badly with Mahrez, Coutinho etc. A learning for next year. Pick nailed on players.

                    1. Cheeto__Bandito
                      • 3 Years
                      1 year, 10 months ago

                      This is not a time to relate hindsight, as Richarlison was also the best pick by most predicted points models you could find that week, so it was pretty clear cut and not out of nowhere.

                      Also, what has happened previously with forwards in general this season and players in completely different teams was not related at all to Richarlison in GW37, try to clear unrelated noise like that from your decision making.

                      Yes he could of blanked, just as any good pick can blank any week, that is the nature of FPL, but when a player is a pretty obvious captain by models and common sense, it is not the time to go for a different captain.

              2. MrZ
                • 9 Years
                1 year, 10 months ago

                Ings in gw37 is good shout, with better fixtures than ings & watkins possibly injury.

                Who would have thought that city bottled gw37 so Gerrard field weakened team in game 2 gw37? That's what i call x factor...
                3 big chances missed for ings in game 1, surely he'll profit in game 2 if given enough time...

                1. Cheeto__Bandito
                  • 3 Years
                  1 year, 10 months ago

                  Ings had 0.2 xG in the first game, was a pretty big rotation risk too in general.

          2. Camzy
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 13 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            I think it's fair to say the captains I chose to go with weren't correct. I'm not saying they were.

            But should they have cost me 114 points?

            It's the harshness of the punishment that I was more hinting at. If I missed out by like 30-50 points it's still bad but it's not season ruining.

    5. cravencottage
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      really well said. I also think that the data doesnt lie; use the tools here to your advantage

    6. Walter White (WW)
      • 2 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Interesting.

      In my opinion, the luck factor is higher than what people think. One needs to be extremely lucky in every aspect of the game in order to do well & most importantly, to win it.

      Like you stated, the fella who won it was around 1.1k in gw33 & by gw 38 he was crowned champion.

      Skill is also important but luck is the main factor. So even if we make plans now, it doesn’t guarantee anything but at least there are lessons this season & every season that we can learn from which should help improve our ranks in the future.

      I still think there is nothing wrong in learning from these mistakes as long as we accept that a season is always different from the other, this is also what differentiates fpl managers.

      1. MrZ
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Yes luck play more role this season.
        Who would have thought KDB can score 4 in 1 game? Not in the wildest dream of everyone i guess...

    7. @persecuted_by_mods
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Agreed, the only part I'd add is that while these past covid seasons may have more variance than average, I apply the logic of not taking broad learnings to any one season of fpl in general

      • Old Man
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Absolutely spot on.

      • Deulofail
        • 8 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I agree about not being able to make some of the generalisations, but I think that's true of every season.

      • Collie01
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I agree with you for the most part. It's definitely about adapting to what is in front of you.

        However, I do think this season has highlighted the malaise of the striker positions. It has been going this way for the last few years but now I think it's at a point FPL have to seriously think about changing their pricing model. Either that or offering forwards more routes to points.

        It's more and more clear now that a lot of the traditional forwards now aren't their teams main goal-scorers. Its more about inverted wingers.

        I just don't see how forwards can keep up with defenders and midfielders as things stand. TAA was only outscored by Salah and Son this season. Cancelo wasn't far behind him. Ronaldo scored 18 goals this season and was still outscored by Matip and Laporte.

        TAA will be the most expensive defender next season so if he is 9mil or lower, then I think pretty much everyone will go with 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 formation because people will be able to afford a back line of something like TAA, Cancelo, James, Digne.

        Of course this could change if Liverpool or City take a dip in form, forwards emerge, etc. And I know it was a particualy poor year for forwards. But I think this year has reinforced the notion that forwards in general are overpriced and I'll be remembering that next year.

        1. MrZ
          • 9 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Historically forwards score less than mids & defs... but this season it become more obvious. The gap between top & lower clubs is wider due to fixture congestion. More CS & attacking returns for top club, because they have squad depth & can field fresh players every game.

      • Nanoelektronicar
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Couldn't agree more. Most clubs are in the state of flux, or if they are consistent, it's in the wrong things, so it reflects on fantasy too. Only thing I would emphasize, and maybe it's recency bias, is that Son has established himself to be on another level, he's now genuinely in heavy hitter bracket. Imagine if he was on pens, too. Destroyed me in the final rounds of the season.

        I am against reclassification of wingers, but think that strikers need to be on discount next season. Maybe I am harsh, but it should be something like 7.5 for the likes of Jota, Firmino, Werner. Others, from 6.0-7.0. 4.0 for bench fodder striker could be a move in the right direction too imo. I mean Watkins and Schmeichel are same on points.

      • tisza
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Have to accept (hopefully) that this is the last season where the game has suffered from the effects of COVID.
        The volume of DGWs (which provided many of the huge point swings this season) will be drastically reduced and chip usage will become far more concentrated on just a few weeks.
        Also the large volume of DGWs this season has caused far more hits to be taken than normal as seen to have a greater impact when applied to 2 games in a GW.
        If we resort to just the one FH and DGW numbers fall thinkthe game will be far more "stable" next season.
        Learning lessons from an abnormal season doesn't seem a sensible strategy moving forward. Maybe one that needs to be relearnt is that players from bad teams in a DGW seldom pay off!!

        1. Andy_Social
          • 11 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Good post Camzy. I think we have to identify issues this season that (1) won't happen again, (2) MAY happen again and (3) WILL happen again (oh, and (4) will happen next season!).

          1. Covid. The postponements massively disrupted planning and led to far more arbitrary outcomes than the game can tolerate. That won't happen again, so we can dismiss changing chip strategies to cater for such chaos.
          2. Premium players starting the season poorly due to being in a transfer funk or with the wrong manager. Always a possibility: hello United. The centre of gravity moving towards premium defenders with forwards being less effective? Quite possible. I won't be tied to a 3-4-3 formation going forward.
          3. City and Liverpool dominating the season? Yup, tripling up on both from the outset (with a generous helping of Spurs) is what I'm looking at.
          4. The World Cup in mid-season. England players post-Euro2020, Salah post-AFCON: form shot. Be ready to ditch some of your best performing pre-WC players. Watch out for clubs with smaller squads being affected by the greater fixture congestion too. This one is going to be huge!

      • Grande Tubarão
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I’ve been mulling this over and one thing I will take into next season is to not overrate some of the ‘top’ teams when they’re playing the actual top teams (i.e. City and Liverpool). An example would be I didn’t captain Salah for either of the games vs Utd. Next season if I see City or Liverpool vs a Utd or an Arsenal for example - I will be thinking about Utd/Arsenal as though they were Southampton. I think these fixtures are pretty much as easy for City/Liverpool but they have a bit of added motivation.

        1. Corgz Dark side of the Loon
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          100% agree. I took out premiums assuming low returns to go "differential " and it backfired more times and more painfully, plus the cost of getting them back....

      • Dunster
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Excellent points. You speak sense.

    8. Baps hunter
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I'd agree with this. Two years ago my hit cost was "only" 64 for points (I think) and I ended up losing top 10k with 1 pt. This season my hit cost was 112 and Robbo 89th minute goal meant "losing" top 5k with 1 pt. With a lot of double gws selling deadwood for dgw players who have decent fixtures afterwards or who can be sold to another about similarly priced dgw asset for -4/(-2) was viable strategy. If we expect an average sgw asset to have about 4 expected points and the best possible dgw (still very average) dgw asset to have only even 2 x 4.5 = 9 pts, immediate expected net gain from the hit is 1 pt. When sellling injured player out, it becomes 5 pts. Therefore hit averse players were probably not doing too well. However, it isn't just the number of hits. I made a huge mistake with my original team. H Barnes and Harrison over Benrahma and Raphinha cost me huge amount of points and tv. I also had to take -8 to ditch them. Bringing in bad differentials is going to hurt in many ways. If you start with good assets, you don't need to sell them. You get their first haul and others are forced to take hits to get them and they are already late for the first haul. This is easily 15 points swing without captaincy calculated.

      1. Baps hunter
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Reply fail to Pep's laundry above...

    9. buzzkill
      • 8 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Just a quick thank you (and a bonus humble brag) to this community, to everyone who shares their thoughts and wisdom each week and also any member that was kind enough to reply to my questions.

      With your help I managed a personal best of 4,569 OR with 2654 points and won all 10 of my mini leagues. Absolutely thrilled. My goal was top 100k for the first time and I achieved that and then some, mainly thanks to a whopping 184 point DGW36 bench boost.

      I hope everyone can now relax and have a bit of time away from FPL before we go again in August. Cheers all 🙂

    10. internal error
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      The stories being leaked today/yesterday about Utd reveals how bad a mess the club is right now. Ten Hag has a huge job on his hands. Far bigger than I thought

      1. Grande Tubarão
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Total mess. It’s the fans I feel sorry for, they’ve backed the club through thick and thin - they deserve so much better than this.

        1. Haa-lala-land
          • 3 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          So you keep saying

      2. NorCal Villan
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Man United- putting the “fun” in dysfunctional

    11. mvtaylor
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Much like my club I clawed my way back into the "Top 4" (percent) after a few really rotten seasons.

      Mixed bag on the chips. I correctly triple captained my highest scoring individual player score of the season (Salah GW26) and bench boosted my highest bench score of the season (GW28) but also finished with GW ranks of 1mil and 5mil in the weeks I used my free hits (GWs 18 and 22).

      I think lessons learned for me have to be:

      1/ The post about setting teams and captains and doing transfers early if you're 100% sure what you're going to do. I was on the wrong end of a fair few too many price changes, and even missed some deadlines entirely.

      2/ STOP PUTTING HARVEY *&^$£%( BARNES IN MY TEAMS GW1. Done it about 3 years now ffs and come GW4 I'm always shipping him out.

      As for changes I'd like to see to FPL... I think I'd prefer them to follow UCL fantasy in terms of allowing changes right up until the first match of a GW starts. Separately I'd also really like them to take a serious look at which players are classed as forwards and midfielders. There are 9 pages of midfielders compared to barely more than 2 pages of forwards and of those there's only 4 "big hitter" forwards in the game, and OF THOSE for half the season only two of them were worth owning. It would really shake things up a touch if Salah, Son, and all those others who have four times more shots than tackles per game were moved around.

      Ah well, enjoy the summer everyone, see you for pre-season!

      1. bitm2007
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I TC'd my right players as well and I had a 37 point BB in GW36, but like you my FHs were a disaster, my original team outscored my FH team on both occasions. I should have just burnt the second one. I was left with a choice of using it in GW37 or GW38 where I already had strong starting 11's, resulting in a 15 point FH lose after my DGW37 D failed.

        1. mvtaylor
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Ouch, yeah I remember doing the maths at the time and working out my second FH team scored less than if I'd not used it.

      2. Pep's Money Laundry
        • 8 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Whilst I agree with to some extent about midfielder/strikers it's a difficult one. Salah is a winger pure and simple, so he has remain a midfielder regardless of shot and goals. Son on the other hand has been playing up front alongside Kane, a lot times in advance of Kane

        Where do the man city players like Grealish, Sterling & Foden get classified as, in any given game they could play as no9. Haaland is all likelihood prevents that now any way.

        I'd like fpl to make dm's a little more attractive to own, eg get extra points for certain amount of tackles

    12. Baps hunter
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      What's the situation with Pro pundit teams? I would basically like to join, and it would be great extra fun to be around. However, I got never drafted, since my team was too expensive and I have been here on FFS too late. Could it be possible to create a Challenger (Championship) league, even with less amount of teams. 1-3 teams would go up and same amount drop, depending on some variables or something. Now it is basically restricted to those managers who are on it and it's basically closed league for them. Naturally a couple of players retire, but it's prolly over 90% same players every year.

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

        Have you lodged your bribe into the right account yet? LOL

    13. Baps hunter
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      "Season keeper" and "Perma Captain" are funny terms. TAA and Salah were probably the only ones who at least some kept the whole season. However, both could and should have been sold this spring. It's starting to sound like a religous cult 😉

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

        I want to be baptized ESSENTIAL next season.

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

        Son as well, never left my side. Was in it from GW1

    14. Pep's Money Laundry
      • 8 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Hands up, who here is going to fall for the Mitrovic trap at that start of the season yet again?

      Fixtures permitted I'll do my best to go with Solanke instead

      1. lugs
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        me probably depending on price, i'll have 1 premium striker Kane/Haaland, 1 mid priced Wilson maybe until he gets injured, and 1 lower priced which will probably be Mitro if he is around 6m

      2. NorCal Villan
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        I highly doubt I will go with him

      3. circusmonkey
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        He's not going to be better than two years ago, I won't but hopefully a lot of others will.

      4. Grande Tubarão
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Possibly. A lot of people seem to be dodging because they’ve been burnt before. 2 years is a long time in football. If he fails again what’ve you really lost by opting for him over another 6.5m striker or even a mid if it impacts the structure of your team? You’re not expecting them to set the world alight at that price. And if they do - you move to them.

    15. The Mighty One
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Hi all. Does anyone know the total FPL player count for all years (back to 2006/2007 if possible)?

      I am missing the total players number for the following years:
      2006/07
      2007/08
      2008/09
      2009/10
      2010/11
      2011/12
      2012/13
      2013/14
      2019/20
      Thanks.

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

        Replied a couple of posts down (RF)

    16. Big boy Bowen
      • 7 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Be interesting to see how much Bruno Fernandes is next season

      1. Zimo
        • 5 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Should be 9 but will end up being 11

      2. internal error
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Im not even sure he will be nailed in Ten Hag's team

        1. Zimo
          • 5 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Yeah so many other options that'll do much better. Why risk Bruno who's not even on all penalties anymore and playing deeper

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

            That’s assuming Ronaldo stays

            1. Zimo
              • 5 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              Ten Hag has already said he's part of his plans. They have no strikers other than him either. Unlikely he leaves this season.

    17. Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      21/22: 9.1m
      20/21: 8.2m
      19/20: 7.6m
      18/19: 6.3m
      17/18: 5.2m
      16/17: 4.5m
      15/16: 3.7m
      14/15: 3.5m
      13/14: 3.2m
      12/13: 2.6m
      11/12: 2.5m
      10/11: 2.4m
      09/10: 2.1m
      08/09: 1.9m
      07/08: 1.7m
      06/07: 1.3m

      Source: FPL Focal (Twitter)

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

        RF to The Mighty One (total teams for FPL each season)

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

        Double the amount of players since 16/17, crazy

      3. Philosopher's Stones
        • 3 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Pretty constant and gradual rise till 15/16, and then it just grows exponentially from there on. Interesting.

      4. The Mighty One
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Thanks Jarvis! Much appreciated. I have always seen you be helpful around here so thanks for the great work. Have a chill offseason.

      5. I am 42
        • 10 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        more and more multi accounts lol

      6. circusmonkey
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        The increase will reflect the number of serious players but you can't take the actual number seriously.

        You've got all the one week teams in Egypt, then just take a look at the disengaged players in your mini leagues and see that they still have a rank well in the top half of that 9.1m.

    18. Corona is not good 4 U
      • 3 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Why are the bonus points not added? For example Matip has still 7 points, but it must be 10. Or I am not correct?

      Thank you!

      1. lugs
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        7 is correct for Matip with no cs, 3pts assist, 3pts bounus, 2 appearance pts - 1pt for a yellow card = 7pts

    19. NABIL - FPL otai
      • 11 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Dropped 15 places with 74(-4) score, maintained 32k OR. But frustratingly, lost my ML (the only thing I care about for the past few years) by 29 points.

      My transfers were decent (Salah & Gordon to Mane C & Wissa (-4)), but my ML rival was exceptional (KDB & Nacho to Kulu & Vardy C (-4)). His luck is atrocious as always, getting Robbo for Alonso. I had Robbo too and TAA was a major disappointment.

      At one point I was only 1 point behind at HT (Mane Martinelli Nketiah doing the job), and I was given hope due to Mount, Diaz Toney all blanking, but in the end no Spurs killed me big time. I went too big finding differentials, maybe that was a mistake. In the end, it felt like I am in a similar boat with Klopp, losing after given false hope. 🙂

      Not the best way to end my FPL swansong, but yeah it was a frantic, emotional ride that I will never forget.

      Will probably write an FPL farewell message and FFS appreciation post in the DZ. See you again sometimes 😉

    20. L S P
      • 8 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      By any stretch of the imagination, I had a good season.

      My lowest OR was GW1 when I was 150k and I was ranked in the top 100k from GW9. I hit my highest OR of 16k in 37 but got a red arrow in 38 to finish at 23k. This was disappointing but I knew my chances of getting Top 10k in 38 were very, very low (what I would have given to have a FH/WC in 38).

      But my chips all paid off: TC'd Salah in 26, BB in 36 (just 2pts off my highest bench points of the season) and did well with my FHs in 27 and 37.

      That said, what a slog. I made mistakes but we all do. But most of them were those 50-50 calls and odd benchings (I got crushed in 35 when KDB, TAA, Salah were benched and I gave up Son on my WC the week before).

      I hope to do better next season but it will be very tough. But again 23k with 9.1m players is pretty darn good. And I'm no "elite" player by any stretch but Top ~50k four of the past six seasons ain't horrible (or that's what I'll tell myself). Still dreaming of and chasing that Top 10k though.

      Enjoy the offseason everyone.

      1. NABIL - FPL otai
        • 11 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Well done, 23k is very commendable. And to maintain top 50k in 4/6 seasons is a proof that you are indeed an elite FPL player.

        I agree that 50/50 calls are decisive and detrimental this season. I got some of them right (KDB C in 36 over Salah, Cout C in 28) and some were horribly wrong ( Captained Kai in GW9 and Ings in 37, obviously).

        Chips usage is also a major factor with loads of DGWs. I nailed my TC with Salah, but wasted my WC in 31 (ditched Son!) and BB in 33. Decision fatigue caught on me big time, so I hope next season will be calmer for you guys.

    21. Nate(U)dog(ie)
      • 3 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Finished just inside 90k, can't complain too much. I've only been playing properly for 2 years now and I still did pretty badly last year so I'm happy, especially since I was still above 600k after GW24. Was hoping for a late surge into the top 50k since I was sitting at 70k in GW36 but a poor FH37 and final day messed it up but ah well.

      Give me some of your stats guys. https://www.anewpla.net/fpl/report/index.php

      Few for me to ponder:
      - Had an above-average GW score in 34 GWs
      - 766 Captain points, with my captains getting 7+ in 30GWs (which is a huge change for me, although Salah made it easier in the first half of the season of course)
      - Took 17 hits (definitely should have been less)
      - Played the "wrong" keeper only twice
      - Had 12 captain choices I only picked once
      - Benched 6 double-digit hauls

      1. lugs
        • 6 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        2635pts
        weekly average pts 69.3
        688 Captain pts
        256 pts benched
        63 transfers 120pts worth of hits 😆
        520pts immediate gains from transfers
        only 11 auto subs gaining me a measly 26pts

    22. bitm2007
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Team ID 22535

      Total Points : 2544
      Total Benched Points : 188
      Total Weekly Points Averaged : 66.9
      Total Transfers : 48
      Total Points Hits : 68
      Total immediate points gained from transfers : 312 (this is low since Christmas hardly any FT works out)

      It's the captains points that stand out for me however

      Total Captain Points : 698 (more than 3 times my VC)
      Total Captain Points as % of Overall Score : 27.44%
      Total Vice-Captain Points : 198
      Captain scores for each gameweek :
      34, 6, 4, 16, 24, 14, 4, 26, 48, 10, 10, 16, 12, 30, 12, 16, 16, 4, 2, 0, 42, 4, -2, 32, 24, 84, 6, 6, 20, 26, 8, 20, 6, 12, 38, 6, 38, 24,

      1. bitm2007
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Reply to post above.

    23. Tomsk
      • 3 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      How does a template get set at start of season?
      Does it kind of form organically or are certain individuals key influencers?

      1. Zimo
        • 5 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        All the people at the start of the game get the players they think that'll do good from the start. Then the people who come in later look at the most owned players and get those and this keeps happening until they're selected by everyone

        1. Tomsk
          • 3 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          Ok thanks, so it is kind of organic. For example Benrahma had a good pre season last year so people went with him over Bowen and then everyone ended up with Benrahma for fear of missing out.

          1. Gazwaz80
            • 4 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            Precisely, a lot to do with the ‘eye test’ regarding pre-season and friendlies, as TOMSK says, Benrahma had a great pre-season and carried that on into the start of the season…

    24. Piggs Boson
      • 12 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Fulham release Jean Michael Seri on a free.

      They paid £25m for the ex-Barca target, and he played 33 times for them in the Championship last season.

      Another loss.

      1. Zimo
        • 5 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        So you're telling me they're going down this year

        1. Piggs Boson
          • 12 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          He was on big wages they couldn't afford, despite having the option to extend another year. So they must believe they can make better use of that money. We'll have to see who they replace him with.

          But yeah, they're probably going down.

    25. The Ilfordian
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      I’ve just seen there was a cup going on in my mini league since GW 32. Who knew!!

    26. RogDog_jimmy
      • 3 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      looking through these review sites and none of it really makes me feel better/worse
      the thing that jumps out to me is that my two best individual gw ranks were;

      gw 1 - 8,680
      gw 38 - 20,464

      just about everything in between sucked.

      1. NorCal Villan
        • 2 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        Think about the friends you made along the way

        1. RogDog_jimmy
          • 3 Years
          1 year, 10 months ago

          i do like some of the folks on here for sure!

          the previous season was my first ever and i got an OR of 1,913 - so i thought with the gw1 start this season i was a fantasy genius.
          alas...

          1. Nate(U)dog(ie)
            • 3 Years
            1 year, 10 months ago

            At least you know you're the best dog on this site

            1. RogDog_jimmy
              • 3 Years
              1 year, 10 months ago

              there are many top dogs!
              we're a whole pack.

    27. NorCal Villan
      • 2 Years
      1 year, 10 months ago

      Wow, that is really impressive rank for that first season, kudos to you

      1. RogDog_jimmy
        • 3 Years
        1 year, 10 months ago

        cheers! was obviously super lucky - but definitely got me hooked