GW32+ Preview ...plus awful team value

I'll get my team set now, rather than wait 'til tomorrow. If I do my transfer of Leno to Martinez tonight I should save myself £0.1m if fplstatistics.co.uk is anything to go by. I'm not sure why I'm really bothered about saving "point-one" at this point in the season, but as I'm wildcarding next week I have this nagging worry that I may regret it if I don't.

I actually have an awful overall team value as it stands; £99.6m. Less than the £100m I started with. Other fpl managers have a few extra million wiggle-room by this point, but I've went backwards. I think it's because I have such an idiosyncratic playing style. I tend not to follow the herd, so I don't ride the waves of ownership that help build up player prices. I wonder how much it's costing me now. A few million is the difference between a £4.5m player and a £6 or £7m one. So it's a noticeable difference for sure.

Perhaps it's something I should work on next season, though again, it would mean switching my playing style to something very different. 170k rank isn't too bad at the moment, and last year I finished 30k doing my own thing. So my instincts aren't damaging me too much. I guess it's more a question of fine tuning things rather than a complete overhaul of the method.

GW32+ Team

So anyway, my actual team. It's not looking great is it. I get the feeling that I'll know how well my week's going pretty much after the first game (Aston Villa v Wolves). Owning no Wolves players could damage me. Likewise a Grealish goal would be very welcome. I'm half-expecting I'll be dipping into my bench too, so I may be relying on Samatta 😟 I actually thought he looked decent against Newcastle with his link-up play, but he didn't really look like scoring. Either way hopefully he'll play the full 90 minutes again just in case I need him.

After that it's then all on the shoulders of Aubameyang. Home to Norwich surely the perfect fixture for him??

Having three City players also gives me some potential, but with the risk of rotation, and with it being Liverpool they're facing, I feel it's more hope than expectation. Each player being pretty much just a dice roll. It is at least something though.

(click to enlarge)

With my team looking so clumsy and unconvincing this week I'll happily take anything over the average. I feel like I really need to hold my rank this gameweek to solidify the gains of the last two weeks.

Another green arrow before wildcarding would be ideal.

Fantasy Premier League: GW31+ Review

Another good solid week.

Gameweek Points: 76

Gamweek Rank: 1,339,528

Overall Rank: 171,629

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The average was fairly high - 62 points. So my green arrow was rather minor. Just about 3,000 places. My defence powered me through the gameweek, as my midfield somewhat disappointed. Bringing in Richarlison, Pogba and Fernandes didn't pay off, especially as it meant taking out De Bruyne. Obviously Martial bagged a hat-trick this week, so he was the one to own, and I definitely missed out there.

The silver lining was captaining Son. 12 points wasn't a huge haul, but given I could've easily went with Fernandes it goes down as a nice little bonus.

I'm now thinking about GW32+. It isn't a great eleven at the moment given it was originally picked to maximise the bench boost in GW30+ (I'm going to wildcard GW33+). So I'm not wholly confident about this week. Saying that though I was struggling to decide where my single transfer would be used. There are plenty of players I'd like to take out, but looking at the fixtures not too many in similar price brackets I'd like to bring in.

That decision has been taken out of my hands a little bit now though as Guaita has a yellow flag. Therefore to cover for that potential absence I'm probably just going to bring in Martinez for the injured Leno. This move will set me up nicely for the wildcard too, as I wanted to have two playing keepers just to cover any potential injuries or rotations. Martinez is the obvious choice for back up simply because he's so cheap.

This is how it's looking at present. Three rotation risk Manchester City players. Two Sheffield Untied defenders starting against Spurs. Nketiah a potential rotation risk, even after his goal last night. Barnes likewise not exactly nailed on for a start right now. So I could have some problems getting a decent rank this week.

I really need Aubameyang to deliver.

FPL: GW31 Preview

Free hit all set. I'm really liking this team.

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It's normally a bad sign when I start a week this confident, but still, I'm very hopeful.

I'm not wholly confident in selecting Grealish after his last two performances, but he's very capable of getting a big haul and it's a nice game. The other options in that price bracket (Jota/Traore/Barnes/etc) don't feel quite as nailed on to start. Whereas Villa can hardly afford to drop Grealish. They need a result too. Hopefully now that Newcastle are effectively safe with 38 points they'll take their foot off the gas.

Richarlison feels like a nice player to own this gameweek. He's only 11% owned so it could be very useful if he does return.

I've went with three Liverpool at the back too. So, I'm gambling on Crystal Palace frustrating Liverpool a little bit. A low-scoring Liverpool win and clean sheet would be ideal. Especially if Salah and Mane blank 😈

Obviously captaincy is a difficult decision this week. I've went with Son. Partly because of the game, but also because of his ceiling. He can potentially go crazy. So I feel like it's the most aggressive option. I'm guessing many people will be going with Fernandes - who seems like the most sensible choice, especially given his consistency. However, I'm a tiny bit worried that there'll be a bit of a Sheffield United backlash after their terrible performance against Newcastle. They might just knuckle down for a point and make it hard for United. So Son feel like the right pick.

With Pogba, Fernandes and De Gea in my side though I'm very much hoping for a good Manchester United display. So hopefully all my players just go wild :)

GW30+ Review - 112 Points :DDD

Well, a very nice gameweek 30+. The bench boost certainly paid off.

Gameweek Points: 112

Gameweek Rank: 110,261

Overall Rank: 174,925

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Very pleased with how this week went. The bench boost wasn't perfect, but I definitely cannot complain. Mahrez, De Bruyne and Sterling all did well. Which was then topped up by a smattering of sixes and sevens elsewhere.

My forwards fared quite badly, but even then I don't have too many regrets. Nketiah got game time and Aubameyang is always a decent pick. It was only really Samatta that can be considered a true mistake. I knew very little about him when I picked him and I guess in hindsight it would've been more sensible to go with a single gameweek player guaranteed to start. Still, I'll happily take the two points.

I was especially pleased with the Guaita six points, what with him just having the one game. So that pick was quite satisfying.

The Egan red card and Leno injury were mildly annoying, but overall I think loading up on double gameweek players paid off. Even with Grealish, who didn't perform well, I at least got four points. Which I'd normally happily take in a standard week. So doubling up kind of mitigates against getting the ones, twos and zeros that you normally end up with.

The deadline for gameweek 31+ is now just five hours away. So I better get cracking with my free hit team!

Overall Points: 1723

Overall Rank: 174,925

FPL GW30+ Preview !

O'Connell, who I had in for Sheffield United is now red-flagged. Fortunately I had the extra £0.2m in the bank to bring in Lundstram. The first time I've owned him this season, so hopefully he plays and bangs.

I'm now just about to go through my final little routine of Google searching each player in my team to check if there's any salient team news. Very boring, but necessary. Hopefully there won't be anything that means a full revamp.

*sometime later*

..all done

Nothing especially worrying, so I think I'm set now. Obviously given the circumstances it's difficult to have certainty about any player. Especially when many of the games are much later in the week.

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Bench boost active. Sterling captain.

I have Guaita in now for Reina. Bringing in Samatta as my third Villa player. I really didn't fancy having two Villa defensive options. So I switched it round a bit. With Palace playing away it isn't great, but they concede so few goals Guaita feels like the sensible choice.

My other two single gameweek players are Van Dijk and Barnes. Again, I'm quite happy with these options, as both are very capable of getting me some points. Hopefully they'll both be nailed on to start as well.

All eyes on the team sheets now. 👀

Preliminary Bench Boost

It feels like we're back properly now. I've spent the last few days toying around with my team. Just like the old days. A semblance of normality has returned.

I'm struggling to get it right though. The options aren't great. Four teams with doubles, none ideal. I've decided I'm going to go with three players from each - I think it's just my natural style, I can never resist loading up when players have double games. It's just too tempting. Oh, and I'm bench boosting, obviously.

Again, the options aren't the most enticing. Even with Manchester City you know there's a good chance that whoever you pick they won't play both games. So my team doesn't fill me with confidence. This is my general plan though at the moment.

Sheffield United - just go with three defenders.

Man City - three attackers.

Aston Villa - Grealish plus two more

Arsenal - Aubameyang plus two more

..and this is how I'm currently looking.

(I still haven't actually activated the bench boost yet)

I've went with Sterling over Aguero. There's no way I can afford both with Aubameyang as well, so it's a tough call. I have a good feeling about Sterling though. I may even throw the captaincy on him. So that's where I'm at at present. I'm also undecided as to whether to go with Mahrez or Sane. If either. I'm tempted to take a bit of a gamble on Sane, but he's a bit more expensive. We're starting to hear that he's on the verge of a first team return however, so team news pending I may end up going that way. He certainly should be fresh.

As for Arsenal I've kept Saka in there. He was already in my team from before the shut down and with such a nice price I've decided to just leave him there. He played against Brentford in Arsenal's warm up game a few days ago so hopefully that means he's still in and around the first team. The Arsenal options in general are pretty unappealing, so if I can go super cheap that'll be great.

I don't like having two keepers with double games. It seems like a bit of a waste. My original plan was just to have single game keepers to maximise the doubles, but the Arsenal and Aston Villa options simply aren't great value. I could switch Samatta in for Ayew I guess, but it feels like six and two threes really. So I may as well go with the guaranteed starts.

Still plenty of time to make changes though, so no doubt this team will look very different by deadline day :)

Football Politics - Footbolitics

Or should that be ballitics ?? Not sure.

I've said in the last few posts that I'm going to leave the politics and concentrate on the football. However, I've decided otherwise. Football is so politicised these days that I've decided that it's perhaps worthwhile to provide an alternative voice.

What tipped me over the edge was seeing that players will have "black lives matter" on their shirts instead of their names for the restarted games. As well as the BLM logo and an NHS logo.

(Twitter update)

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not condoning racism - in any shape or form. In fact, it's a little bit sad that I feel I have to say that. My issue is with the politics. Personally, and again this is just my opinion, I don't like Black Lives Matter. My belief is that it's a very well-funded organisation that is being used to push political agendas, and that it's actually using racial division as jet fuel to propel those aims. Just look at the carnage that has been caused in the United States in recent weeks ..and in an election year to boot.

(Here Candace Owens points out how BLM

conveniently peaks in election years)

Now you may be reading this and thinking; "why bring this into football? why put these opinions on an fpl blog??"

..but this is precisely my point. The Premier League, the mainstream media and footballers themselves have brought this into football. In a very big way. I didn't. I'm exhausted by politics at the moment (who isn't) and I thought football and fpl would be a nice escape from it all. How wrong I was.

Now there are millions of people like me. Including many, many black people. Who don't support these things. That have different opinions about these very controversial issues. So what about those fans (or indeed players) who don't agree with these organisations and campaigns? They're put in a position where they either keep quiet and go along with something they don't agree with. Or they speak out and risk being pilloried and censored for doing so.

I actually have a lot of sympathy for the Premier League itself. They likewise are in a no-win situation. They'll be criticised whatever they do. In fact, I'm sure plenty of people are going along with this heavy and overwhelming politicisation of football simply out of fear of being called racist or bigoted themselves. I'm sure they'd much rather just focus on the sport.

When I read the tweet earlier about the players having black lives matter logos on their shirts I looked at some of the comments underneath. Many were critical, and of course there were arguments back and forth between people. This is only going to get more divisive I fear.

Personally I would much prefer it if we could just keep the politics out of football. However, if it is going to be a political arena then we're all entitled to our two cents.

Hopefully I won't have to do many more of these little ballitics opinion pieces in future, and I can just concentrate on getting my team sorted. As I said at the start though, I'm really starting to feel like its important to provide a different voice. As there's simply no room for it anywhere in the mainstream. Hopefully I can do it with a bit of tact and sensitivity, but given how heated some of these issues are I'll no doubt end up offending a few people sadly.

...if anyone even bothers reading this far that is 😄

Get The Crowds Back

I promised no more politics, but I thought while we're waiting for FPL to bounce back into gear I'd do one more. I've been watching the Bundesliga, and obviously the missing crowd is a huge factor in how enjoyable it is to watch. In fact, this has really emphasised just how important the fans are to the game. I actually even wonder if at some point in the future we'll see a business model for football clubs that views fans as an asset rather than as a customer. A club could perhaps make tickets super cheap. Even maybe offer some kind of incentive scheme to reward fans that stay the full 90 minutes. Fill the stadium. Make it look good. Then, with that incredible atmosphere, make their income selling the TV rights and advertising. Of course, the atmosphere would also help the players on the pitch too. So it would really propel the team.

I digress though. My point with this article was to make the argument for why we need to get the crowds back asap. Or rather why we shouldn't have removed them in the first place.

(crowd vs no crowd)

Sadly we won't be seeing any crowds for these remaining Premier League fixtures. (Thank God for fpl, I think I'd struggle to keep my focus without the crowd if the Bundesliga is anything to go by). I want to make the case strongly though as when (if?) the next season starts in the autumn we really need to be back to normal with the crowds back in tow from week one.

"..but it's too dangerous"

I would counter that argument to anyone making it with three responses.

1) no one is forcing anyone to go

It may sound a little bit harsh to say this, but if you feel like a football match is unsafe then you are free to simply not go. It's the same with many things in life. If you think go-karting or hang gliding is too dangerous then you don't have to take part. I'm not sure I'd be too keen on hang gliding personally, but I wouldn't try to ban others from doing it.

You may then say, "but ah, this virus spreads. That's different. Someone could go to the game then spread it to me even if I don't go." Which is true. However, we then get to the wider point. You don't have to leave your house at all if you're that concerned. Again, this may sound harsh, but we can't expect everyone else to suspend their own lives simply because we have a concern about something.

(I deal with this idea in more detail here; Where The Hell Is FPL? )

2) the risk of catching something at a football match is tiny

This is indeed true. In fact, the furore surrounding large gatherings, be they at the beach or at a football match, is more emotion than science. People see the images of large crowds and get hysterical;

"OMG! Look at all those people, the virus will be out of control!"

However, this is just silly. Of course there's always the chance you could catch something from someone, but sitting or standing on a terrace for a few hours, usually in the open air, just isn't a huge risk. After all, when have you ever known someone to come down with the flu and say, "Jeez, I knew I shouldn't have went to Old Trafford last weekend."

Generally we catch things from people with have sustained close contact with, usually indoors. Such as family members or work colleagues.

3) there are numerous things we can do to mitigate the risk without resorting to shutting everything down

There are simply better ways of doings things. So shutting everything down is a hysterical and clumsy solution. It's taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut as they say. Often causing even more problems when you consider the wider implications of the actions. What will be the economic, and by extension the health consequences of football clubs going out of business in every town and city up and down the country?

To give just a few ideas off the top of my head of what could be done.

• You could advise older and vulnerable people not to go. You could even incentivise them not to. For example, by refunding their tickets, or by offering a free alternative (live feed at home for instance).

• You could advise extra hygiene for the people working in the kiosks and behind the bars.

• You could make sure there's handwash in the toilets. (These are simple things; but these little things are the things that actually make a genuine difference).

• You could even have a mask day maybe. Where supporters are given (or sent) masks, perhaps even with the club logo on. Ideally, in my opinion, the wearing would always be optional. Especially as there are also negative impacts that can come from wearing a face covering - such as lack of oxygen. However, even if just a proportion of fans wore one it would make a difference (assuming masks are even that effective of course). Plus, people already take scarfs to games, so you could even advise people to use those as a mouth covering.

• You could also promote other behaviour. Like advising people not to shake hands and so forth.

I'm sure you could think of more. In fact, you really have a duty to do this and to explore every option before going down the draconian route of simply banning things.

So let's try to get full football back as quickly as possible :)