I'm still here..

I haven't posted in a while. Don't worry, I haven't quit. My season's been appalling, but I'm going nowhere. I do tend to quit football entirely during the international breaks though, so I've had a little sabbatical.

My string of bad gameweeks continued, however, last week (GW29) came off very nicely. I used the free hit and it went fairly well, so I've gained a bit of ground back.

Here's the lowdown since my last post:

GW27: 36 points (avg. 53); end of week overall rank: 3,608,018 😡

GW28: 32 points (avg. 52); end of week overall rank: 4,163,093 😡

GW29: 69 points (avg. 40); end of week overall rank: 3,646,011 😁

With an overall rank of three and half million that grinning emoji isn't really justified, lol. Still, I have to take the small victories at this point.

Onwards and Upwards

Going forward it's all plans and strategies now. The way the doubles and blanks have fallen has suited me. I should be able to navigate blank GW34 fairly easily. Meaning the decision to play the free hit last week didn't come at too large a cost.

Now my general plan is to:

Switch Wood to Mateta this week.

Play the Assistant Manager chip in GW31 (probably putting it on Glasner).

Navigate the GW34 blank with transfers.

Wildcard GW35.

Bench Boost GW36.

Potentially I could also take a minus 4 to bring in Foden for Palmer this week. It would make sense to get the extra game. Plus, this week's Man City fixture (Leicester) is very nice. So that's feeling likely at the moment. Then next week I can bring in Dan Burn to get the extra Newcastle fixture (and cover for GW34, where Newcastle play Ipswich).

So it's all systems go.

I only come to share pain..

Another week where I can safety say it's a disaster after the first round of fixtures, lol

9 points :((

To be fair there's some bad luck here as well, so I can't self-flagellate too much.

- Semenyo blanks (and gets a yellow card), as Kluivert scores (just looked - he's on three bonus too).

- Robinson doesn't start, then comes on and gets a yellow.

- I bring in Cunha and bench Rogers. Rogers scores, Cunha blanks.

- Captain Palmer. Chelsea score four, he gets nothing.

😅

There's nothing more I can add really.

My Season Is OVER :(

Okay, we've finally reached the point: my season is over.

It's been a terrible season for me, comfortably my worst ever. However, up until this point I'd always held out hope that I could somehow turn it around. That with a good enough run and a bit of application I could somehow propel myself to somewhere near the 100k mark. Nothing spectacular, but a respectable rank, on a par with my other lower-end circa 100k ranks. Now even that is in the realms of fantasy. Actual fantasy that is, not fantasy football fantasy.

I ended up with a bit of a red arrow in GW25, thanks to Watkins and Trent Alexander-Arnold scoring. It's the current week - GW26 - that's delivered the fatal blow though. Just look at it !

Just twelve points so far :/

I made the mistake of gambling on the captaincy. I did have it on Salah yesterday evening. As I watched the Let's Talk FPL deadline stream though it occurred to me that my opportunities for differential moves were running out. 'Salah away to Man City' - if I can't gamble with the captaincy then when can I gamble?

I was already thinking in terms of differentials with my transfer of Luis Dias to Semenyo. Obviously Kluivert was the popular choice, so I thought I'd go different and hope for the best. (I have always been a big fan of Semenyo, so it felt apt.) Luckily, that didn't damage me as well, so I guess it could've been even worse. Of course, it's possible that Salah could blank tomorrow. With just twelve points it barely matters though at this point. Many will have Isak captain too.

Going Forward

I will still keep trying. And I'll stick with my general plan in regard the chips. I do still have a lot of chips to play, so you never know (oops, I'm getting my hopes up again - stop that!). It's the hope that kills ya. When I was sat watching Everton 2-0 up with three Everton defence I had my hopes up. The triple clean sheet and the Palmer hattrick was very much in play at that point. The minute Fernandes stepped up to take that second freekick I had the feeling it was curtains though.

Anyway, I'll switch off for the rest of this weekend. Write it off - along with the season. Then come back raring to go on Tuesday. Do I captain Palmer against Southampton then? I stuck it back on Salah when I did my bus team after the deadline. Perhaps I should switch it back now I've really got nothing to lose?

[2 minutes later]

I've put it back on Palmer,

 - Let's go for it!!!

On the March ..and another double gameweek.

We're still in GW25 and we've now finished GW24 ..and it's actually going fairly well.

Triple captaining Salah in GW24 saw me finish up with 145 points. It was my best week of the season so far, and it got me quite a large green arrow (up around 800,000 places to circa 2.5m).

145 points (avg. 87)

The Tarkowski goal was especially enjoyable. My triple Everton defence most certainly paid off.

Thus far in GW25 I'm looking like this:

I was kinda forced to bring in Wood for the injured Jackson and it paid off; keeping me up with everyone else who has him. My only other returner so far (aside from the ever-scoring Salah) is Luis Diaz, with a haul of thirteen (long over due and very appreciated).

We still have the Aston Villa vs Liverpool game to play on Wednesday, so I'm in with a shout of having a decent week. This one was always going to be hard to gain ground with so many people still having the Assistant Manager chip active, so I have to be pleased that I'm in the mix.

GW32 Double

The good news in regard my own use of the Assistant Manager chip is that we now have a double in GW32, with Palace and Newcastle having an extra game. This is very fortuitous for me, as I'm planning to activate the chip in GW31, so I should get two doubles from it, to match those fpl managers that have taken advantage of the last two doubles.

Eddie Howe looks the obvious choice at first glance, going by the fixtures, but Glasner could have lots of possibility for table bonus, so I could go with him and save a bit of cash too.

With another transfer used up it's really starting to look dicey as to whether I'll be able to adequately navigate the GW29 blank with out taking hits. It's four weeks time, meaning four more transfers, and I have Salah, Gordon, Isak, Robertson, Diaz and Rogers all blanking. Plus flags on the bench 😦

Very tricky.

Gameweek 24: So Far, So Decent

Currently on 94 points for GW24. So it's looking quite nice as I head into that final Everton vs Liverpool fixture. With three Everton defenders you would suspect points will cancel out a little bit. Salah (or dare I hope, Diaz) goals will negatively impact things there. However, anything I get from those Everton players now will just be a huge bonus, as that first game went better than expected: three clean sheets, two assists ..and a bonus point to boot.

I also got a bit of jam with Robertson outscoring the injured TAA by a single point.

GW25

We have the double confirmed for GW25 now too. (Spurs were really awful against Liverpool last night in the cup. Yes, Liverpool are massively better, and you'd expect them to win, but still, conceding four goals and offering nothing going forward was poor. If it was a Championship side up against Liverpool, then sure, a drubbing is excusable, but a Premier League side should put up more of a fight than that. Especially when they're starting the game with a goal advantage. Ally McCoist was way too generous in the commentary ..in my opinion.)

So, Liverpool and Villa now both have an extra fixture.

This is how I'm currently looking:

Three Liverpool - not the ideal three, but it'll do.

One Villa player.

My current thinking is that I'll just leave things as is. It would perhaps be wise to use my free transfer to bring in another Villa player, but nothing really appeals to me. With GW29 on the horizon I need to start removing players that blank in that week as well (Liverpool/Newcastle/Villa/Palace).

I have six players from those four teams. Plus, I'm now down a bench player, as Adam Armstrong has went out on loan. Making seven.

From now until then I'll have five free transfers. So it's not too many. I'll no doubt hold Salah. Likewise, I'd quite like to keep Isak. I'd then have one more bench spot for someone. I also have to start planning for the GW33 double as well (and my planned GW31 use of the Assistant Manager chip). I'm dead-ending into GW33. Therefore it's precision transfer time.

The mention of the Assistant Manager chip reminds me how difficult it's going to be to claw back rank over the next few weeks. The luxury of having Salah triple captain goes after the Everton game, but those with the Assistant chip active still have two more weeks of bonus. One of which is a double. That's going to make a difference.

At the moment I'm sitting on a green arrow of around 400k, my first for five weeks (I'm now at 3 million overall :| ). I really need to keep getting more. Every red from now on will be an absolute killer.

Three Frees Triple-up on Everton

Another red arrow, albeit a minor one. When I saw that Gvardiol had scored and Jackson has assisted in the City game I thought I was on course to have a half decent week, but it trickled away. Certainly not a bad week though, by any stretch. At least when measured against my recent form.

58 points (avg. 59)

Now we're straight into double gameweek 24 ..and I've already made my transfers. All three.

I've used all three of my frees to triple up on the Everton defence. Not wise, but it's at least ambitious. I'll now go into the week with the maximum amount of doubles and Salah triple captain.

Having made the transfers early there's the danger that injuries or team news could do me over. I was little bit worried about price changes though. Plus, it really does feel like time to throw caution to the wind.

Once this week is out the way it'll then be planning for the GW29 blank and my planned use of the Assistant Manager chip in GW31. So it's all stations go.

Another Harsh Week

From bad ..to worse. The season that just keeps getting better.

34 points. The average was 46. I've now dropped to 3.3 million in rank.

(click to enlarge)

I don't feel too bad about this week. I feel I was a little hard done by. Bringing in Gordon and Isak was sensible, though belated. The six point swing thanks to Fernandes scoring was a bit unlucky. I think I was a tad unlucky with the captaincy too. With Chelsea getting three you'd hope for at least something from Palmer. So for both Palmer and Jackson to leave with nothing was a harsh end to the week.

I think what really did me in was not owning TAA or Chris Wood. With Robertson starting the game benched that proved to be quite the downgrade.

Now, going forward, I think I'm just going to leave the team for this week. Seeing Man City smash six against Ipswich doesn't give me much confidence for Palmer and Jackson, but I like the Chelsea fixtures heading forward, so I'll stay the course with them.

Once GW23 is out of the way we'll be on to the double of GW24. My plan there is to triple captain Salah and to hope for the best with Diaz and Robertson. I may also bring in two Everton players. Currently I'm thinking that I'll downgrade Gvardiol to Tarkowski and bring in Pickford. That'll then free up the extra funds to switch Diaz to Mbeumo once GW24 is over.

As bad as my rank is I at least feel my plans are coming together. It's slowly becoming mission impossible though.