GW20 Review ..plus transfers for GW21

Well, GW20 felt quite average for me, but I ended up with a very nice rank boost.

Gameweek Points: 59

Gameweek Rank: 851,174

Overall Rank: 114,140

The average was 42. I was expecting my benching of Soucek to have damaged me more, but it didn't. I said in my last post that it was "six and two threes" between Soucek and Coufal. In the end it was 14 points 😭

I did get quite lucky with the Trent Alexander-Arnold returns though. I missed the game, so I still have no idea how Liverpool even played, let alone how well Trent did. It's one of those where I was just happy to see the points. It really took my gameweek from average to decent.

The Cancelo returns were slightly less surprising, though I was beginning to wonder if attacking returns would ever come. Hopefully the dam has burst now.

Moving on to GW21..

I'm currently just putting the finishing touches to this week's team.

Gündogan and Mitchell in, Coufal and Lookman out.

It's a bit sad to see Coufal go, I'd have liked to hold him, but I need the cash. I may have missed the boat slightly with Gündogan, so I'm psychologically preparing myself for a blank this week. It's the smart move though. He looks really sharp and Man City do too. So it's best not to be too clever and to just go with the obvious move.

I'm going to slap the captaincy on him as well 😬

I've also finally started looking at the upcoming blanks and doubles. It's still too early to have a real plan, but I at least have a picture now. I think it means I'm going to have little leeway in making any ideal moves. It's going to be more a case of ticking as many fixture boxes as possible.

Lastly I've updated my graph.

This is the highest I've ever been at this point in the season so I'm very happy. Just need to keep the trajectory in the right direction now.

Overall Points: 1235

Overall Rank: 114,140

GW19: Double Gameweek Review

I guess I should be pretty pleased with my week. For some reason though it feels a little average, even though I broke the 100 barrier and got a nice rank rise. I think the blanks from both Wilson and my Liverpool players in those last two games have dampened my elation maybe.

I also have no idea what I'm going to do next.

Gameweek Points: 109

Gameweek Rank: 504,463

Overall Rank: 156,371

The Bench Boost

My bench boost paid off quite nicely. Anyone reading may think it's cheating a little to include Antonio in my bench points and not Wilson or Bamford. However, I took a (-4) specifically to bring in Antonio for the bench boost. So if I wasn't bench boosting I would've just went with the first eleven on screen and not took a hit.

Consequently I ended up with 29 (- 4). Meaning a net bench boost of 25 points. Which I'm very happy with. The 8 points from Lookman especially was a bonus. I literally only brought him in with this week in mind, so it was very lucky that he delivered.

Even the 3 points from Johnstone and Taylor weren't too bad. I was going to leave in McCarthy and change Taylor to Yedlin - the only 'playing' defender with two games I could've afforded - to get the 0.1m needed to bring in Antonio. In the end McCarthy got just the 1 point and Yedlin didn't play at all. So in a weird way I'm 2 points up on that one.

The First Eleven

As for the team itself my defence did very tidily, but the rest was fairly average.

It once again illustrated how reliable Fernandes is though. Even with slightly worse fixtures he still matched or outscored De Bruyne and Salah.

That wasn't hard to be fair 😄 Still though, he's my default captain from now on.

Going Forward

Going forward I really have no idea what I'm doing. It would be nice to have a City attacker going into these next few games, but I'd either have to lose Salah (not as scary as it once seemed) or take a hit. So I think I'll just leave things as is and hope for the best.

We also have all the future blanks and doubles to worry about, which I haven't even considered yet. Rolling a transfer is therefore probably a sensible move.

I'll also need to decide whether to start Coufal or Soucek before tomorrow's deadline. Currently Coufal is in, but it really is six and two threes.

Overall Points: 1176

Overall Rank: 156,371

GW18 Review - blank blank

Well, the blank was something of a non-event. Not a great deal of goals, no outstanding points hauls. Nothing remotely interesting really. However, having eleven players on the pitch did mean I got to steal a march on a lot of the casuals. The gameweek average was 30. I finished up with 47. So a small green arrow, which I was very happy to take.

Gameweek Points: 47

Gameweek Rank: 1,170,764

Overall Rank: 214,094

It was just Man City and Rashford that pulled me over the line, and even with them there was nothing overly impressive. I was quite relieved to get the De Bruyne assist, even taking into account the Sterling penalty miss. In fact, when De Bruyne went down for the penalty I felt apprehensive. I thought he looked very tired in that second half, and I had this weird feeling he'd miss it. When Sterling stepped up I thought; "Ah cool, I'll take the assist".

However, when Sterling was stood waiting over the penalty spot he didn't look convincing either, so I wasn't at all surprised to see him sky it over the bar.

In a way this brings me nicely to GW19 and the doubles. I'm forgoing De Bruyne, which seems a big risk. Yet in my gut I'm not too worried. Man City just don't look that free scoring, and De Bruyne, though obviously very, very capable, doesn't look on fire to me whenever I watch him.

I actually mentioned him looking tired in games a few weeks back, so though it was a little odd he didn't take the pen because of "tiredness" it wasn't that shocking to me. He always looks like he's just finished a 12 hour shift at a factory this season whenever I see him play.

Still though, not having him is my real big worry this week.

My GW19 Team

I've been toying around trying to suss out what my transfers will be over the last few days. I've settled on bringing in Antonio & Johnstone for McCarthy & Adams.

Two double gameweek players for two single ones. So those two extra games should pay back the (-4) ..hopefully.

The other player that has been troubling me is Charlie Taylor. He's on the verge of returning, but is still a "doubt". My worry is that he misses the West Ham game then returns to get thrashed by Liverpool. So it could end up being a wasted spot. I've decided it's not worth another (-4) to change him though.

If I get two points from him this week I'll consider it a bonus.

So there we are. Bench Boost active.

I've also updated my graph.

I feel like I'm in the mix now for a good finish. My aim was to be in the top 100k after GW19. No doubt that's out of reach now, but with a little luck hopefully I'll edge further in that direction over the next 8 days or so.

Then the real work starts.

Overall Points: 1071

Overall Rank: 214,094

GW17 Review ..and free hit now active

A very weird and average week. Eight points above the average, but a red arrow of about 5k places. If just one of my two keepers had managed to start that might have bumped me into the greens lol

Gameweek Points: 64

Gameweek Rank: 2,500,414

Overall Rank: 233,804

I had to laugh when I got up on New Year's Day to find Ederson flagged. I think I made the transfer at about 4 o'clock in the morning New Year's Eve. I'm not even sure when the news broke that he'd be missing, so perhaps I should've done a bit more research. I wasn't quite in the perfect frame of mind though.

I still feel it'll be a decent move however. He should be back for the double gameweek, and the games, along with the three that follow, look like they have good clean sheet potential.

The real disappointment this week was the Liverpool blank. I was hoping for a bit more than 5 points from Salah, Robertson and TAA going into that final game. In fact, I needed a swing of 23 points going into it to win my cup game 😅 The guy I was up against also had Salah, but nevertheless I still had a secret hope that Robertson, TAA and Che Adams could somehow turn it around.

As it turned out Coufal coming off my bench for Adams got more points than my three Liverpool players combined.

Fair play to the guy who beat me, he had a decent week, getting 77 points in total. He also had a better team name than me - "Cheers, Son's Crying" - lol. So I was dumped out in style.

Free Hit Active

I finally have the free hit active too. I'll be toying around with things now until next Tuesday. I'm currently looking like this;

No Kane at the moment, which would be a gamble. I feel like I need the cash spread around a bit though. Plus Villa are half decent, so I'm not sure about the double up.

Plenty of free time to move things around though. Especially now it's another national lock down ..arrrgghhhh!!

Overall Points: 1024

Overall Rank: 233,804

GW16 Review - Charlie Taylor 1 Point Extravaganza

So after four gameweeks where Charlie Taylor went unused I finally got a chance to start him. Home to Sheffield Utd, great fixture. At last a chance for him to earn that (-4) back. He then, of course, went off injured after eight minutes 😅 It was doubly disappointing too as I hadn't realised. It was only after about seventy minutes when I checked the fpl site, noticed he still only had one point and thought "Where's my six points?!! What the hell's going on here?!"

On top of that Kilman actually started this week and picked up two points. So had I just left things as they were five weeks back I'd now be a huge five points up, and not just four.

That tiny bit of misfortune aside though I actually had a very jammy week indeed.

Gameweek Points: 51

Gameweek Rank: 1,039,880

Overall Rank: 228,605

In a week where two games were called off at short notice and many quite highly owned players were rested I was one of the lucky ones who got almost a full team out.

Cancelo, Son, Lookman and Coufal all missed out. Leaving me with ten starters. Many people had far fewer though, with some having Kane and Son as captain and vice-captain. So I can count myself very fortunate.

I noted in my last post how luck seemed to be with me at the moment, so that seems to be continuing.

Now it's straight onto the next gameweek. Deadline in a day and half's time as I type. The injury to Taylor swirling round my plans once again. I'm now considering bringing in Fabianski instead of Johnstone this week. Then transferring out Taylor for another defender (perhaps Dallas) with my final free transfer before the double (I was planning on switching out Wilson, which I may still do if Taylor recovers).

With all the chaos surrounding fixture pile-ups and cancellations it's probably best to wait to get more information first though. So I'll sleep on it tonight then think some more.

Overall Points: 960

Overall Rank: 228,605

GW15 Review (+ 16 preview)

I can't help but feel I'm going through an incredibly lucky period in fpl at the moment. I had what felt like a very average week, yet still ended up 16 points above the average.

Gameweek Points: 57

Gameweek Rank: 891,462

Overall Rank: 269,906

I'm now up to 270k in the rankings. My aim is to be within the top 100k by the end of GW19. So that's looking a bit more realistic. I just need some more luck now ..and some good judgement.

I've already made my transfer for GW16. Son in for De Bruyne. It's a little bit of a sideways move, but the fixtures look better. It also feels like the safe move.

As it stands the deadline for GW16 is just an hour or so away. Currently my side looks like this;

With my bench being so strong in preparation for GW19 I have a bit of a headache over who to start. It feels a little daft having Wilson sat second on my bench, especially given that Liverpool still have issues at the back. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see him return. I have to play the fixtures though. It's Liverpool at Newcastle. Liverpool should hammer them ..at least in theory.

I feel like Soucek needs to start. He's getting goals quite frequently at the moment. So it's a question of Taylor, Coufal or Wilson taking up that final spot.

Taylor is the boring choice, with the least potential upside, but Sheffield United ain't scoring many. So a clean sheet wouldn't be surprising. The Coufal fixture isn't too bad either however, and with him the assist potential is fairly high. So it's tricky.

I guess it's a nice decision to have though.

Next gameweek I'll bring in a bench keeper for the doubles. Then it's the freehit GW18. After that I'll probably transfer out Wilson, possibly for Rodrigo.

Overall Points: 909

Overall Rank: 269,906

GW14 Review: Sooo greedy

91 points. A truly great week. However, I think I'm just getting greedy now, as I still find myself a little bit disappointed that I only got one point from Coufal last night. I didn't even see the game, and they were up against Chelsea, so I don't know what I was expecting. It's always the case though when you have that one player left in the final Monday night game. On the Sunday night you add that potential to your tally, no matter how unlikely a return is.

"90 points ..and I've still got one player left!"

Anyway..

Gameweek Points: 91

Gameweek Rank: 212,323

Overall Rank: 354,182

My ungratefulness aside it's all going quite well. I can proudly display the graph again.

Obviously it was quite fortunate for anyone with both Salah and Fernandes. Salah clocked up 16 points in half an hour of football, and Fernandes grabbed his 17 then came off after 70 minutes. So it was quite good going, even by their standards.

After that everything else was just a huge bonus.

Transfers..

I've already made my transfers for GW15. I went early. Struijk and Mahrez out. Alexander-Arnold and Ademola Lookman in. Obviously these have been made partly with an eye on the double gameweek.

I don't feel good taking Mahrez out before City's home tie against Newcastle - he could be a great player to own this week. However, it was the only way I could do it and keep my plans on track. It was either lose him or lose De Bruyne.

I thought TAA looked almost back to normal at the weekend, so hopefully he'll match or better Mahrez.

Charlie Taylor

Finally a little note about my Charlie Taylor transfer. I've now had him three weeks and I said it would be a 'four week calculation'. That (-4) working out as one point per week for the four weeks.

So far he's yet to come off my bench once, meaning I'm still four points down. However, each week so far he's returned. A six, a six, then a five. So if Cancelo or another defender had missed out he would've paid his way. Kilman, who I transferred him in for, just getting one point in the three games during that time (though he did play 90 minutes yesterday, which makes the Taylor transfer look even more unwise now).

Therefore, on paper I think the Taylor transfer has to go down as a mistake. Especially if he remains unused in this last of the four weeks. Conversely though, I think in theory it wasn't too bad a move, and his upcoming fixtures remain very decent if he is needed. In fact, I could potentially start him in weeks 16 and 17.

He also slots in for the double gameweek nicely too. I can't claim that as part of the equation though, as I simply wasn't aware of the doubles at the time. Likewise the games he has then aren't a great deal of use anyway (West Ham and Liverpool away). So it's not exactly a masterstroke.

He has had a £0.1m price rise however, so that's something :)

Not quite worth the (-4) hit though.

Overall Points: 852

Overall Rank: 354,182