GW34: On the slide

Another bad week. I'm really beginning to fear for my top 100k finish. I was starting to look up towards the top 50k, or perhaps even higher !, but I think that was a little premature. The battle is now on for respectability.

Gameweek Points: 49 (-4)

Gameweek Rank: 5,006,527

Overall Rank: 72,424

It's quite fitting really. I need a top 100k finish so I can have a good barometer to measure next season against. I'm doing gamemonths instead of gameweeks next season (I'll explain this more fully in coming posts).

My record so far in fpl is respectable and consistent, if not spectacular. So I'll take the average of my five season history (which includes this season) and use that to see how much I drop off next season. If I even do - who knows, perhaps I'll even do better.

I don't think there's too much to say about this gameweek. It was quite dull and disappointing. A disappointment that was compounded by the fact that my "coin toss" decisions didn't work out. With both Pope and Konsa comfortably outscoring Sanchez and Luiz. It would've been a good week to bench boost, though in hindsight choosing Sanchez over Pope feels like a rookie mistake.

GW35

Going forward I'm thinking of just rolling a transfer. Saka is flagged, but with it just being a knock I'm happy to leave him in there. We'll see if there's any team news tomorrow that changes that.

In fact, I'm currently thinking I could roll a transfer next week too, in spite of the doubles. I think I should be set up fairly well for that one, so I might just keep things simple. I also really like the idea of having two free transfers for the final gameweek. Though I think it really is optimistic to think I could hold a transfer through two double gameweeks.

Overall Points: 2226

Overall Rank: 72,424

GW33: Not Great, But Another Green Arrow

Not quite as late this week too. I'm managing to post in the early hours of Friday night/Saturday morning, before the GW34 deadline.

Gameweek Points: 76

Gameweek Rank: 2,086,774

Overall Rank: 55,085

My GW33 free hit was a little disappointing. I totally got the captaincy wrong. My instinct said Salah, so I should've really stuck with that. I was too tempted by the double gameweek glory though. In fact, what finally swung me was seeing the "expected points". I saw a tweet with Fernandes top, followed by Ronaldo, then Maddison. At that point I'd already switched the captaincy to Ronaldo, but seeing that - along with the knowledge that Fernandes was more likely to get both starts - made me think:

"Damn, I better go with the robot."

So I flipped things round, brought in Che Adams (which clearly didn't work out), and brought in Fernandes (originally I had Cornet in that slot).

Had I have stuck with Ronaldo I'd have had a great week. However, that would've been fairly lucky, as I wasn't feeling that pick either. Again, I should've stuck with my instinct and went with Salah.

Saying all this, it wasn't all bad, and I did get another green arrow, albeit a small one. The Newcastle clean sheet really saving me in the end.

GW34

Moving on to GW34 I've took a minus 4:

Son has became Salah

Calvert-Lewin has became Werner

I'm not happy about taking a hit, however, with Calvert-Lewin injured and Chelsea having a double it makes sense.

Also I'm starting Douglas Luiz. It's a coin toss between him, Konsa and Maupay. I'm guessing Maupay is now out of favour, and I can see Leicester scoring, so I'm hoping this is the week Luiz can chip in with a goal or an assist. I'm expecting two points, but it's a nice little differential to add to the weekend's excitement.

It was also a coin toss between Sanchez and Pope too. I've gone Sanchez. Mainly because I fancy Brighton to have the slightly better prospect of a clean sheet

And this time I will be captaining Salah.

Overall Points: 2181

Overall Rank: 55,085

GW32 - Always Late

I'm always falling behind with these blog posts. I can't remember how many times I've been reviewing one gameweek after the next one's already started. GW32 seems ages ago, especially now I have my last free hit active in GW33. Anyway..

Gameweek Points: 73

Gameweek Rank: 816,654

Overall Rank: 57,899

I had Son captain - so that was my huge bit of fortune, and propelled me up another 10k or so. Other than that it was a little flat, showing how massive the captaincy is when you get it right.

This week I've been endlessly tinkering with my free hit. I ended up going like this: with Fernandes captain.

I quite like the set up, though I'm not especially confident about the Fernandes captain pick. My instinct said to go with Salah, but the double gameweek pull overrode that. I'm also a little worried that going without Trent Alexander-Arnold could punish me. In fact, I had to remove Trent to get Fernandes, so if Trent hauls and Fernandes does very little it'll be doubly frustrating.

A goal from United in that Liverpool tie would be very useful for me.

GW34

As for GW34 I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to lose Son to bring in Salah. I've been racking my brain trying to find a way to keep Son, but there's no route that makes sense, so I've just had to reduce it to who I need more. I think Salah is a must own for this final run in, so he gets the nod.

Though saying that, I've just had a little play around with my team (the game has literally just updated) - I had a little more money in my bank than I thought !. So it's possible to get Salah without losing Son (just about) with a minus 4. So now I'm not too sure. Surely I'll keep Son, but it would mean downgrading either Coutinho or Calvert-Lewin to a non-playing bench option. Decisions.

Overall Points: 2105

Overall Rank: 57,899

GW31 - Gamble Pays Off

I went without Salah ..and it paid off.

Gameweek Points: 59

Gameweek Rank: 1,058,253

Overall Rank: 68,349

Son came good as captain, so things worked out really well. The Maupay penalty miss was a bit disappointing, but I really can't have too many complaints.

I'm now waiting to bring in Reece James for van Dijk for GW32; before free hitting in GW33. I'll then finally get Salah back in GW34.

Overall Points: 2032

Overall Rank: 68,349

GW30 Review: Top 100k ..finally

In the end the free hit did pay off, and it propelled me into the top 100k.

Gameweek Points: 73

Gameweek Rank: 259,279

Overall Rank: 82,082

I'll keep it short, as it's quite a while until the next deadline and I'm not 100% certain what my plans will be. So I'll just bask in my five digit rank while I have the chance and hope it continues.

Currently I'm thinking about keeping Son in for the next two fixtures - i.e. going without Salah. Meaning I won't have Salah for the scary Watford home fixture, but also the less scary City away tie. I can then use my free transfer to bring in Calvert-Lewin for Jimenez. With Everton's poor form and Calvert-Lewin's recent injury history this doesn't fill me with confidence, but it does mean I'll get an extra game this week. Plus potentially two more extra ones later on.

Gambling against Salah again feels foolish though, so fortunately I have plenty of time to think things over.

I'll probably be using my second free hit in GW33.

Overall Points: 1973

Overall Rank: 82,082

GW29: Survived Without Salah

We're halfway through GW30 and I still haven't posted 29's score.

Gameweek Points: 87

Gameweek Rank: 1,980,861

Overall Rank: 115,373

I gambled on continuing without Salah and it paid off, with TAA outscoring him by 3 points. This was quite lucky, what with Salah picking up that slight injury in the first game. So I survived just about, and ended up with just a minor red arrow.

Anyway, moving quickly on I've used my first Free Hit this week.

This is how it's looking so far:

I gambled on a Wolves clean sheet, and that clearly hasn't paid off. I don't have too many regrets though, if they'd have kept one it would've been nearly 20 points straight out the gate. So I thought it was worth the punt.

I then picked up two more blanks from today's Villa/Arsenal match.

It would be fair to say the free hit hasn't worked out so far. However, I like to keep things simple. This was a blank gameweek. If I pick up a few more points than most other players by using it then I'll be happy. Even with just 18 points on the board I'm on a green arrow, albeit a small one. So it's good enough, if dull.

I'm a little more worried about my team for GW31 at the moment. I need to bring in Salah, but Jimenez is out and Trent is flagged. Meaning I'm considering a minus 4 (or 8 even). Something I do not want to do.

Luckily we have a bit of a wait until the GW31 deadline, so hopefully I'll have more information and a clear plan of action by then.

Overall Points: 1900

Overall Rank: 115,373

GW28 - Bench Boost Disaster !

Good week, bad bench boost.

Gameweek Points: 104

Gameweek Rank: 778,011

Overall Rank: 101,137

3 points for the bench boost ..that's quite bad isn't it.

😅

To be fair in some ways I actually got quite lucky again too, so it wasn't all bad. My original plan on the Friday was to bring in Reece James and captain him. With that plan I wasn't going to bench boost at all. However, when I saw later in the day that Dias was definitely out for Manchester City that all changed. Suddenly Laporte and Cancelo seemed almost nailed on, so the bench boost became an option.

I then brought in Coutinho instead of James, captained him instead, and hit the BB button.

Meaning I got better captain returns and missed out on the Reece James injury.

Still though, the bench boost failure was a little annoying.

Instincts

I didn't feel instinctively good about using the bench boost. I wasn't focused on fpl last week, and I think I used it lazily, feeling that sooner or later I had to use it.

"I guess it makes sense to use it now."

Looking back though there simply wasn't enough upside on that bench. I was a little unlucky that Konsa missed both games, though in my original line-up it was Bowen on the bench and not him. Bowen against Liverpool was never a great fixture. Likewise the Pope fixture against Chelsea wasn't ideal.

I rarely feel bad about making mistakes, but when I go against my instinct that's when it gets me. I like my logic and my instincts to be synchronised. People often view 'instinct' as something wishy-washy or illogical. However, I believe our instincts are responses to the information that our bodies are receiving - i.e. they're a way of processing information. Albeit a way that's quite different to the logical, chain-of-thought, monologue way our brains work through information.

Our senses receive a constant flow of sensory information, and our bodies respond with a feeling that this flow is good/bad/normal/weird/etc. Our instincts aren't always right of course, but they can act as a good guide, and are definitely worth paying attention to.

So my gut was telling me "This doesn't look and feel quite right," but my brain was too lazy to take the time to think about why that was.

Anyway, still, I got very lucky and had another green arrow. Pushing me to just outside the top 100k - I'm literally teetering over the edge of a decent rank now.

GW29.

As for this week I'm currently planning a minus 4. To take out Raphinha and the injured Bowen, and bring in both Saka and Kulusevski. Currently there's talk that van Dijk might miss out because of Covid, so that's giving me a little pause for thought. However, my instinct is I'll just leave him in there whatever the case is. I don't think it's worth moving my team around and taking hits to bring in someone else.

I'll also still be without Salah (I plan on doing Son to Salah in GW31 - GW30 being free hit time). It's a concern, but again I don't think Son to Salah this week is necessarily worth a minus 4.

Trent Alexander-Arnold will be my captain. So I'm hoping for a bit more luck this week too.

Overall Points: 1817

Overall Rank: 101,137