GW3 - Lukaku In

My GW2 was fairly average..

Gameweek Points: 61

Gameweek Rank: 2,625,888

Overall Rank: 841,081

Pickford, Digne and Wan-Bissaka did nothing for me again. Some returns from them this gameweek would be handy, as at the moment they're putting a dent in my potential score each week.

As per the title of this post I've removed Toney and brought in Lukaku. To fund the move I've downgraded Fernandes to Benrahma.

The fixtures aren't ideal for Lukaku just yet, but it feels like such an easy move. Chelsea are looking good, and in a team where it's hard to predict the line up Lukaku looks like the most reliable and the most explosive option. He's also captainable for that reason.

It's risky removing Fernandes, but as I noted at the beginning of the season I feel he's a bit expensive. I was very lucky to get his hattrick in the first week as I only had him in as options were limited. So perhaps I'm showing poor judgement again thinking I can go without him. I always tend to trust my gut though.

As for my team this week I'm starting Ayling for the first time this season, and I'm captaining Son.

Hopefully it goes well. After two very dull and templatey weeks I feel like my team is now starting to reflect my natural playing style a bit more.

Overall Points: 159

Overall Rank: 841,081

GW2: FPL Autopilot

Firstly, my GW1 score: 98. Very solid, very template, very lucky.

Gameweek Points: 98

Gameweek Rank: 510,413

Overall Rank: 510,410

Normally I have an awful start, so to be stampeding with the herd straight from the get-go is good - if a little boring.

This week I'm going more boring still. The exact same team, with the exact same captain.

As for the team overall, Toney is still a question mark for me. I'm also a little disappointed that I didn't put a bit more thought into my bench. Other than that it's just wait and see. I don't have any strong feelings about where I'll go from here. So patience is the order of the day.

It Begins.. in a most mediocre fashion.

Please try again later when the updated scores / teams will be available.

Team sorted ..and it's looking a little too template for my liking, but with a few minor tweaks.

I'll roll through the players below.

Pickford.

This is probably my most interesting pick. I'm also slightly worried as apparently Everton have a few players self-isolating now. So hopefully he isn't one of them.

It's the fixtures plus Benitez that's moved me in this direction. Also Pickford tends to be quite consistent each season; points scoring wise, in an average sort of way. So he should tick along even if Everton are their mid-table standard.

Tsimikas.

This is one where I've most definitely just copied the crowd. £4.0m playing Liverpool defender. At one point I had a team with both Mane and Salah in, but when I thought about it I realised I was just ignoring a gift horse (or looking it in the mouth - however that works) just to be different. So I followed the herd. Perhaps it might be a Trojan horse though which should've been ignored.

Either way everyone else is doing it. So safety in numbers I suppose.

Trent Alexander-Arnold.

I also briefly had a team where I'd took out Trent to bring in Coufal. With Firmino coming in for Toney with the freed up cash. I actually quite liked that move and would've stuck with it had it not been for the uncertainty over whether Firmino will actually play. It felt a little boring changing things back, but it's probably the sensible move.

Digne.

I really like owning Digne. I think the upside is potentially very high ..that's if Everton tighten up under Benitez. With both him and Pickford in my side a lot will depend on this.

Wan-Bissaka.

This is one where I've strayed from the template a bit. Most are going for Shaw, but I prefer the reliability of Wan-Bissaka. He tends to be an ever-present. Plus, though his attacking returns aren't great, I think he did improve in that department last season.

Hopefully having him means I won't have to make too many transfers. Digne is quite injury (and red card) prone. So having a set and forget player in there too balances it out a bit.

Salah.

Next.

Raphinha.

The first few games aren't great, plus I'm a little worried about second season syndrome with Leeds. The price is so nice though. £6.5m. Making this an easy option.

Son.

I'm always a big fan of Son. £10m is a super price in my opinion. He's definitely a big hitter, so I think he's slightly under-priced given what he can do and how consistent he is.

Fernandes.

I only brought Fernandes in after Robertson got injured and freed up a bit of cash for me - and even then my instinct was to bring in Mane (as noted above). It's a pick I'm not really feeling at the moment. He tailed off a bit last season, and in the Euros he did nothing. Of course, he's still a great player to own, and it would've been a bit nervy going without him, but I would've preferred to have put the cash elsewhere.

In the end he's only in because there isn't an obvious alternative that's guaranteed to start. Mahrez would've been a more exciting pick, but I'd like to see City play a few games before I start taking risks.

Antonio.

I'm not entirely confident with this one. Feels like an injury waiting to happen. In fact, I've really struggled with choosing strikers all pre-season. No one really stands out to me. Last season it was great going with Bamford - I was quite confident he'd be worth his £5.5m (!) price tag and it was a fun little differential. This time out I'm just picking in hope more than expectation.

Toney.

Which leads me on to this one. There's no doubt Toney is a goal scorer. I've watched his goal reel on YouTube, and he's obviously a good finisher. Other than that though I know very little about him. So it's a gamble; and one I don't really have a gut feeling for.

Most of his goals seemed to be goals from in and around the six yard box too. Plus penalties. So he's going to be very dependant upon Brentford being able to get a decent amount of attacking play in the opposition's third.

Kick off is just a few minutes away though. So we'll soon find out...

FPL: Does Rank Matter?

I won't share my team just yet. I'm quite pleased with the way it's looking, but with a week to go there's still a fair bit that could change. So I thought I'd talk about rank. A topic that seems to pop up quite frequently these days.

Is Rank Important?

I would say 100% YES. -- and I'll explain why below ..but first a little caveat.

FPL in the grand scheme of things isn't that important. Compared to life's bigger issues football and fantasy football are not serious things to worry about. So fpl in general (including rank) isn't that big a deal when you really think about it.

Plus of course different people invest different amounts of time in it. Some people play casually, others may start a team then lose interest. Some (like myself) put hours of thought into it each week. So what importance there is will be different for different individuals.

However ..saying all that, if you are someone that does put a lot of time and effort into fpl, then yes - rank is important.

It's the whole point of the game. It's the whole fun. That element of competition. The reason we spend hours researching or listening to podcasts each week is in order to make decisions that will get us more points than the other people that are playing.

Gambling vs Safety

The debate about rank seems to be a debate between: "playing it safe" to get a "respectable rank"; and playing "your own game" and "not caring about rank".

Essentially gambling or playing safely.

Now I don't think either of these things are right or wrong. In fact, my own style is probably a combination of the two. My main issue is that both styles "care about rank".

For example: Let's say it's near the end of the season, there are only a few weeks left and you're around the 100k mark. You can either play safely and consolidate that rank, or you can gamble. Hoping you can have a few amazing weeks and climb up into the top 50k, but accepting that you may tumble down another 100k or so if it goes wrong.

Now if you play safe you're doing that because you care about rank - you want to cling onto that semi-respectable finish.

However, if you gamble you're doing that because you want an even higher ranking. You're not content with 100k, you want 50k. So you're also doing that because you "care about rank".

So I think when people say they "don't care about rank" I think they're being a bit dishonest.

And I should say I don't mean that in a nasty way -- I don't think they're lying or being deliberately deceitful in any way. I just mean dishonest with themselves. It's a little comfort blanket so someone can think "Well, I would've had a better rank ..if I'd took it more seriously."

A bit like when a child tries something (takes a penalty say) and gets it wrong, and then says "No, that wasn't my proper go !"

You gambled. You would've enjoyed the rank boost and the good vibes had it paid off, so you have to own the fall when it doesn't.

Consistency or Brilliance

The more interesting discussion beneath all this is whether it's better to be consistently above average or occasionally brilliant.

 - i.e. is it better to have nine awful finishes but win it once; or ten top 10k finishes and never win it at all.

This is a truly interesting debate ..but it's still a debate about rank, and which set of rankings is ultimately better.

You might prefer the former, you might prefer the latter, but either way you're caring about rank. If you didn't you wouldn't care about this debate at all.

Final Gameweek - Season's End

Lucky, lucky finish.

Gameweek Points: 74

Gameweek Rank: 237,989

Overall Rank: 89,880

At four o'clock yesterday afternoon it was looking very dour. Bale benched, Greenwood benched, Bamford benched. So it could've, and perhaps should've, been a terrible final week.

That changed around quite dramatically though. Bamford off the bench to score a penalty. Bale getting two very late goals, and to round it off Greenwood staying on the bench meaning I got Calvert-Lewin's 2 points instead of his probable 1.

So quite fortunate.

It meant I jumped up into the top 100k, achieving the highest position I'd achieved all season. At one point (back in GW21) I'd climbed as high as 93k, but I slightly outdid that this time reaching the 90k mark.

I've now had three top 100k finishes on the bounce. So my record is respectable, but not especially impressive. Obviously the aim is to reach the top 1k, or even win it (yes! I'm that confident). However, my record so far suggests I'm a second rate fpl manager, rather than a top tier one.

Still though, there's always next season, and with that in mind I'll need to learn some lessons from this one.

The failings that immediately spring to mind are: I didn't plan my captaincies with enough care. I didn't own Dallas at any point this season (yet again it's a season where I've failed to get on the optimal attacking defenders). Also, I put too much importance on previous seasons, and didn't adapt to this season's form - Liverpool being the obvious case in point, where I ignored the fact that they weren't looking good in the hope that they'd find their previous brilliance.

(Though saying that investing in their dodgy defence did pay dividends for me in the final run in).

There are no doubt myriad others. So over the summer I'll have to have a more in depth look.

I've also done one last final update of my graph.

It's looking a little crowded. So I may need to find a slightly better way of illustrating things next season.

Time for a well-earned breather now though :)

Enjoy the summer 🌞

Overall Points: 2398

Overall Rank: 89,880

FPL: GW37 Review...

Luckily I've turned it round somewhat.

Gameweek Points: 67

Gameweek Rank: 249,581

Overall Rank: 120,148

The Mahrez transfer didn't quite pay off, as I would've had Lingard's 7 points instead. Plus an extra transfer for this last week. I'm also not expecting Mahrez to start in GW38 with the Champions League final on the horizon. Though it's hard to second guess things.

Still a very nice week however. The Salah blank meaning I've been given a reprieve and been allowed to go into GW38 with the top 100k (just about) in sight. Another blank this week would be lovely.

It's now just a case of what to do with my final transfer of the season.

I'm pretty certain I'll be taking out Fernandes. Surely they won't risk him so close to a Europa League final. I'll probably just bring in Raphinha to replace him.

With it being the last week I'd like to bring in someone a bit more leftfield, but nothing pings out at me. Son's also an option, but they play Leicester, and Leicester still have something to play for.

On the last day of the season it always seems like there's quite a few high scoring games. So ideally you want to hit one of them. It's so difficult to predict though. Maybe I should just put Son in and hope that game blows up.

I still have the captaincy on Bamford too !

Overall Points: 2324

Overall Rank: 120,148

..and into GW37

Well, well, well .. horrendous gameweek in GW36 😖😭😭

Gameweek Points: 29 (-4)

Gameweek Rank: 6,054,162

Overall Rank: 156,935

Quite a sorry state. It's absolutely demolished my dreams of the top 100k.

Once again, going without Salah has proved to be a very, very costly mistake. In a gameweek like this, when he was the obvious captain, and stepped up with a goal and three bonus points only a fool could be without him.

My substitute of Digne clearly didn't quite work lol

Sheffield United getting a 1-0 win feeling somewhat typical. Though to be fair Everton have been awful at home this season, so perhaps I should've expected it, in spite of Sheff Utd's impressive lack of goals.

GW37

Anyhow, onwards and upwards into this gameweek. I've made a very late last minute transfer. Taking out Podence for Mahrez. Meaning Lingard is now relegated to my bench.

As I type we're about ten minutes away from the team reveal for Man City, so we'll see if it's been a worthwhile switch. In fairness it was a total spur of the moment punt. I need a player with a big ceiling if I'm to have any hope of turning things around, and Mahrez can be explosive -- when he actually plays a Premier League game. So I'm rolling the dice.

Once again Salah could punish me this week. So I'm hoping for a boring Burnley 0-0 in that one. I was tempted to start Phillips over Digne, but Digne again has that high potential. (No doubt Saïss will roll up with a big haul and remain snugly third-placed on my bench).

As GW37 is now active I can see my team for the final GW38. I currently have the captaincy on Bamford. It seems a nice touch. Though if I can come up with a decent gameweek this week I'll probably bottle this call and go with a more sensible choice.

No idea what my final transfer will be.

(Mahrez starts, and I actually have Ederson this week too :) )

Overall Points: 2257

Overall Rank: 156,935