Gabriel Triple Captain ..and my triple captaincy history

A bit of news since that last update. Firstly, there are now doubts over Konsa, which gives me an excuse to play Manzambi. Then also, as you can see, I've now triple captained Gabriel.

It just feels right. It's a very me move. I've triple captained defenders before (I think). In fact, the rest of this post is going to be me, in real-time, going back over my previous seasons. I've been blogging about fpl for a while now, so hopefully I have all the data. I definitely recall captaining Alexander-Arnold over Salah ..was it a triple captaincy though? Let's see.

2017/18:

My first season playing. I wasn't blogging at this time, so I can't be sure. I'm almost certain I triple captained Christian Eriksen and got some returns though. I finished 109k that season. So it was a lucky start.

2018/19:

I triple captained Raheem Sterling in a double gameweek and got 33 points in total.

That season's finish was 31k. Which at the time I was disappointed with, as I went into that season thinking, "If I finished 100k without even trying in my first season - without knowing about double gameweeks and everything else - surely I should be winning it this season."

And I'm only half-joking. I really did have a bit of arrogance. I was also incredibly sceptical of people that overrelied on data. I felt just understanding the basic maths of the game and watching football was enough. So I got a bit of an education.

2019/20:

It turns out I did triple-captain Trent. I don't actually have the exact points tally recorded, but he got a clean sheet in one game and an assist in the other. Salah, the player I bravely went up against, got a goal and assist across the two games. So it evened out.

That season I finished 81k. I was definitely put in my place by that point.

2020/21:

Interesting. I captained ex-Boro goal scorer Patrick Bamford. He got me one return across two games. Making 24 points in total.

I finished 90k that season. Solid, but slowly going downhill.

2021/22:

Less interesting (more points though). Triple captained Salah: 84 points.

My final rank was 115k that year. Not quite as solid. I was beginning to get a bit bored with the fpl routine by that point. The blogging in particular was getting quite repetitive. This leads me on to the next season..

2022/23:

This was the season where I played monthly. I only allowed myself to make changes to my team one gameweek per month. It was an interesting experiment, but it was very difficult. My final rank in the end was about 2.2 million. I'm a little bit tempted to try it again now we can roll transfers. Back then it meant burning a few transfers each month. Now you'd get a mini wildcard. Still, I can imagine it being hard.

I triple captained Saka and got 45 points.

2023/24:

I triple captained Haaland and got 30 points.

I finished this season at 53k, which, at the time, was my second highest finish, so the break I had the previous season did me well. Though, saying that, it could've been luck.

2024/25:

I'd prefer to ignore this season. I finished around 2.2 million again, and this time I didn't have an excuse. Though, that said, I was very distracted at the time. A siren lured me onto the rocks. The wrecked ship evident in my fpl performance.

I triple captained Salah for 87 points. No doubt the high point of that season.

2025/26:

Finally we get up to date with last season. The first season with double chips.

First half: 30 points for Bruno Fernandes in GW3

Second half: I have no idea, as I didn't record it. (I didn't blog too often last season.)

I don't even have a vague recollection. Nevertheless, last season was my best do far with a final rank of 17k.

Overall

My record using the triple captaincy isn't bad. Assuming I didn't blank last year I've always gotten something. Perhaps this is the week where my luck finally runs out?

Again though, as I mentioned earlier, captaining a defender is very me, so it's right to do it in that sense. In fact, I captained Gabriel the first week of this season. He got me five points, doubled to ten. Not a huge amount, but three points more than both Fernandes and Haaland.

Now I'm going to try to enjoy watching Barry against Coventry tonight. It might be best to go into that one with low expectations too.

Good Week - Egomania.

Just a quick update to say how brilliant am I.

I've had a good week: 72 points. (avg. 47)

I won't rehash all the luck I've had.

I'm now sitting in a position where I have two free transfers and nothing to do. Plus, I still have the triple captain and free hit.

The one player I want is Isak, but with Barry having Coventry at home this week there's no rush on that front. The other player that I'm a little worried about not owning is Van Hecke, what with the fixtures. I don't have any plans to get him though, as I'm happy with the Arsenal defenders, unsurprisingly. In fact, I'm currently planning to captain Gabriel this week.

I'm still not too impressed with Chelsea, sans Joao Pedro. I watched the first half against Manchester United and I didn't feel confident of a return. I couldn't watch the second half as I had to go and watch the US Men's National Team at the Riverside. (That was much more impressive.) Obviously, Rogers and Palmer both scored in the second half, so it worked out in the end. Perhaps had I seen the second half I'd be feeling more confident. I'm benching Manzambi, so there's a bit of inner conflict.

Sunderland are bottom of the league, so on paper that shouldn't be a bad fixture. I keep imagining Manzambi on that big open Old Trafford pitch though. The one deciding factor is that his minutes aren't great. Two 65 minute substitutions. So I guess the bench makes sense. It's a nice problem to have. Benching Barnes didn't feel too great when I did my bus team, but after watching Newcastle against Everton that's somewhat changed.

My rank is now 228k. Fantastic for me at this stage of the season. I've also racked up a fair bit of team value: £103.4m

Unprecedented. I've never had this much team value before. The emphasis on tempo has worked out well.

A lot of luck though, so I need to bear that in mind.

Jackson In

Just a quick update.

A pretty straightforward transfer. Jackson in, Joao Pedro out.

No point overcomplicating things.

I'm also just going to play all my Arsenal guys at the back. The Davis fixture away to Hull looks attractive at first glance, but the way I look at it is: Arsenal and Liverpool are two evenly matched teams; Hull and Ipswich are two evenly matched teams. So there ain't much difference in reality, even though Hull feels nicer.

The Brighton players on my bench are a slight headache. As Brighton looked good against Liverpool, in spite of the loss. Surely City will score, but will they keep Brighton out?

It's always good to have decent bench though, so why am I complaining?

It's all good. Steady as she goes.

Seven and Eight: Up and Up

As promised, an update on how my last two gameweeks went.

What the world is waiting for.

GW7 - Bench Boost:

88 points (avg. 59)

GW8:

60 points (avg. 45)

Two good weeks. Two lucky weeks. 21 points from my bench boost was very nice - and quite fortunate, as the fixtures were far from ideal. Then this week goals from Konsa and Gabriel.

I actually had a feeling Gabriel would do well. In the previous two Arsenal games he looked in the mix on corners. I watched the Champions League game against Bayern and it seemed like they were back to the old Declan Rice direct corner routine. Considering my previous post noting the short corners this was a welcome relief. When I saw Konsa had scored I thought, "Oh well, maybe next week, at least they're scoring those sort of goals again." Then later when Gabriel's name did come up on the scoresheet I felt very vindicated ..and jammy. Though his goal was a header from open play.

I'm now up to 436k in rank. So I feel like I'm in the running for a decent rank again.

I also got lucky with the Haaland vice captaincy. I could've very easily went with Palmer over Joao Pedro.

The Chelsea Conundrum.

With Joao Pedro out Chelsea really lacked a spear tip. I talked about the drama in that game last time, so I won't go over it all again. Although I do have to mention Gary Neville once more. (I don't want to pick on him, but he makes it almost unavoidable).

With Joao Pedro out they started Morgan Rogers up front. In commentary Gary kept saying, "I don't understand why they're not starting Welbeck?!" Or words of disbelief to that effect.

However, they didn't start Welbeck because they tried that against Brentford the last time Joao Pedro was out and he barely touched the ball. In fact, that game was similar to this one. There wasn't much in the game, it could've went either way, but Chelsea couldn't score and the other team managed to do so. Then the game ran away from them.

Playing Rogers upfront was just as bad as playing Welbeck in the end, perhaps worse, but either way Chelsea have a problem. No Joao Pedro, no goals. So if he remains out that's a problem. As his absence seems to make Rogers and Palmer worse options too.

Isak and Jackson

And now we have attacking alternatives.

Isak looked very sharp again. He's almost matching Haaland for consistency of returns. It's annoying not owning him, as I had him from the start. I took the gamble on him, but still had to let him go to get Haaland. (Obviously I can't really complain given I got to keep Gabriel, but still..)

Likewise Nicolas Jackson looked good, and it wasn't just the goals. His overall performance was impressive. He looks a lot more mature and serious than he did the last time he was in the Premier League. The fixtures are great as well. The Manzambi/Jackson double up is tempting.

If Joao Pedro is out the switch to Jackson looks straight forward. At least as a temporary move. The bigger question is do I downgrade Palmer too and make it permanent, to make way for Isak?

It is a conundrum.

And it all hinges on Joao Pedro. He makes such a difference to Chelsea, and when he plays you'd be scared not to own him, as with the service from Palmer and Rogers he has genuine double digit potential in any given gameweek.

In fact, this was my thinking behind captaining him ahead of Palmer - there was a logic. Obviously Palmer has penalties, and normally it makes sense to captain the penalty taker. However, I think this was the exception that proves the rule.

Imagine Chelsea had won the game 3-1, and one of those goals was a penalty. Palmer would've got a goal, plus maybe another return. Let's say an assist. However, Joao Pedro (if he'd have played) could've still hauled. He might've scored the other two. Or scored and assisted. Or won the penalty.

Then imagine Chelsea had won the game 3-1 with no penalty. In that game the potential for Joao Pedro is even bigger, but the likelihood of a Palmer haul is considerably less.

So in both scenarios there's the potential for a haul with Joao Pedro.

Of course, Palmer is good enough that he could score a hattrick in any game as well. So in theory anything could happen, but going by what we've seen this season it's tended to be Joao Pedro getting the multiple returns.

Of course, you could say. "What if Chelsea win 1-0 and it's a penalty?"

However, if you're only expecting one goal you shouldn't really be captaining someone from that team.

I had hopes that Chelsea would put a few past Tottenham. If I'd have known Joao Pedro was out I'd have thought differently.

Again, I did get very lucky though. I wasn't far off captaining Palmer. So hopefully my luck continues.

Chelsea vs Spurs: Another Rant About Gary Neville

No, this is not because I've had a bad week in FPL. I've actually been quite lucky, which I'll come to later. I'll also share how my bench boost went last week (where I had even more luck).

First I need to have my rant though.

What happened today serves as yet another illustration of the modern game being ruled to the letter of the law, not the spirit of the game.

For context, there was an incident where Cole Palmer beat his man and would've been heading towards goal, had the opposing player not grabbed the ball with his hand. Palmer, angry, reacted and did that thing that footballers do, where they square up to the other player with their chest.

It's a stupid thing to do, and you shouldn't react like that, but at the same time it's not a punch or a kick or anything serious. It's what we normally call "a bit of handbags." It's a yellow card. Nothing more, nothing less. And that's what the referee gave.

However, in commentary Gary Neville wanted a red. He was more irate than Palmer. He was talking about the incident like it was a drop kick to the head. He wasn't bothered about the deliberate handball that preceded it, that potentially stopped a goal. He even said of Palmer's reaction, "I can't understand why he's done it."

Er, Gary, he was potentially through on goal (albeit from forty odd yards out). He's desperate to score. He wants to win. It's an important game. The other guy has blatantly cheated.

It's called passion.

I then went on Twitter to give my all-important opinion, only to find that most of the other comments where just like Gary's.

"How is that not a red?!!"

Obviously it's understandable from Spurs fans, but it's crazy that the average fan is now more outraged by a bit of handbags than by a deliberate handball that's stopped an exciting chance from developing.

Ten minutes or so later, Gary got his wish. Palmer got a second yellow and went off the pitch. This time it was harder to argue against, as he stood on his opponent with his studs when going for the ball, and that generally is a certain yellow. Assuming there's intent.

Even here though there was zero benefit of the doubt given. Often it's hard to tell if such contact is deliberate. Even now watching it back I'm not totally sure it was. Again, it was a yellow by modern standards, as was his earlier reaction. So I can't fault the referee. It's just that desire to have players sent off that I find so pernicious. Wanting players punished for showing passion. Giving players yellows and potentially reds for minor infringements and accidental collisions.

Towards the very end of the game we got yet another example. Morgan Rogers was given a yellow card for a daft little kick out at a player. It was a yellow and he deserved it. He was frustrated at the end of a game where they'd been beat and he was a bit petulant. Again, Gary Neville wanted a red for it though. Like a nerdy hall monitor.

I've mentioned before that there's lots of actual cheating that goes on in games that doesn't get punished. For example, defenders dropping to the floor when they feel the slightest bit of contact to get a free kick when they're under pressure. Which nine out of ten times they get. It's deliberate diving. They're cynically cheating, but that's fine. Whereas if you genuinely try to win the ball but are a split second late you get a yellow.

It's like passion is punished, but cold cynical acts are fine. Like here where a deliberate handball isn't a big deal - Gary isn't ranting about that - but the reaction is.

It's similar when you see commentators say things like, "That was a good free kick to give away," or, "That was a good yellow," when a player deliberately fouls a player near the halfway line that's heading towards goal. That sort of cynical and deliberate foul is praised by commentators. But if you show a bit of passion and accidentally nick someone's toe when trying to genuinely win the ball back then you're deemed a violent criminal.

It really does feel like football is being ran by a HR department.

Anyway, I've decided I'm not going to tell you how my bench boost went and how lucky I've been, as I've typed too much and I have food in the oven. I'll leave that 'til the next post.

I'm Bench Boosting

It's not the most inspiring bench boost ..but beggars can't be choosers.

Leif Davis away to Man City in particular is worrisome. Conceivably that could be negative points territory. I feel I have to go now though. The next few weeks' fixtures aren't ideal, and once we get into the long grass I'll no doubt have other fires to put out.

My plan was to bench boost last week, when Davis had Fulham at home. However, he only got one point in that fixture too. So I could wait for another optimal fixture and still blank anyway. At the end of the day it's the £4.0m slot. Let's be realistic, anything higher than zero will be a bonus. Plus, who knows, in football there's always the chance of a little magic.

As for my overall team things feel much more comfortable now I have Haaland. I went for Gross as well. That one feels a bit boring, but it's been offset by Manzambi. The added spice that makes the bench boost a more hopeful lottery.

Gabriel

I still have Gabriel. It should feel like a luxury, but it doesn't. I was thinking about him vs Tarkowski earlier. Last week Tarkowski got 17 defcon, lol. It's almost like his floor is three points. Those Arsenal short corners really make a difference too. I wish I'd considered that at the start of the season. They started doing it at the back end of last season, so there's no excuse really. Saying that, it is still early in the season, and Arsenal remain the premium defensive outfit.

So maybe a Gabriel haul is just around the corner.

It doesn't feel like that though.

Either way, now the bench boost is out of the way I'll be able to focus cash on the first eleven. So even if he doesn't start firing he'll provide the funds to bring in a bigger hitter elsewhere. 

If You Can't Be Good, Be Lucky

Jam.

Big Jam.

I must apologise to every other player in the game.

75 points (avg. 58)

De Cuyper came off my bench with his fifteen points. Obviously it was totally unexpected too, as we all just assumed Szoboszlai would play. So very lucky. It's comfortably the best thing he's done for me since I brought him in.

And now he's probably going.

His injury changes my transfer dynamics yet again. Meaning Gabriel gets a stay of execution.

My plan now is to bring in Haaland, Elliot Anderson and either Gross or Manzambi.

Manzambi seems like a lovely differential, but do I want to go against Gross? Of course, I could get both and forgo Anderson. The Ipswich fixture is hard to ignore though.

I'll decide on Friday.

My overall rank is 1.7m (approx.)

Not ideal, let's hope we're at least moving in the right direction now.