Bantasy Football: Eyes on Everton

This is it - the big'un. There are few secrets left in fantasy this season - don't expect to unearth another Ramsey-esque gem - but there is value to be had. Scout them and they will come. 

With today being Budget Day and all, I thought I’d avoid yammering on about the obvious choices from cash-splashing Man City – although I will point out that Silva (9.2) and Nasri (8.1) are not just phenomenal picks, but provide excellent differential at 6.2% and 3.0% ownership respectively – presumably due to the unrivalled pecks appeal of one Mr. Toure Yaya. 

A Briefcase Wanker tries to keep his GW 31 transfers on the d-low

Everton

Two wins on the trot have not totally coincidentally followed Lukaku's return. The big Belgian has ten goals this season and despite not contributing against Cardiff, Romelu was back in for the full 90. 

The Toffee's have The Swans first up - who haven't defeated a team outside the relegation spots since they won against Newcastle on 4th December - their only win against a team outside the bottom five all season. 

Gary Monk has failed to plug the gaping holes Laudrup left in defence (rumour has it the Loch Ness Monster resides somewhere in the vast chasm between Chico and Rangel) and they've managed to concede eight in their last four. 

The second game is against a shaky Newcastle side who are ravaged by injury, won't have a manager in the stadium and have nothing to play for but 'pride' (yes I'm aware I raved about them last week - no I don't want to talk about it).  

Can you Lukaku?

For 8.5 you could have this sexy beast in your line-up - 

Lukaku famously sprinkles creatine on his cornflakes

You're now thinking one of three things: 

1.  Hasn't he cut his hair now? Will the Samson effect come into play? 

2. "Holy inconceivable lats, Batman - I need to start doing pull ups!"

3. What is this, Men's Health? Why is this relevant to my fantasy team? I'm all about the Benjamins points. Shut up and show me the money. 

Well ask and ye shall receive - 

1. Yes. No. 

2. Yup. According to Chuck Norris: "Any man incapable of lifting his own body weight is essentially just a walking meal that it would be illegal to eat." 

3. You seem like the sensible ones so I'll answer yours in a bit more detail - 

Lukaku fills a crucial gap in the fantasy market - we all know about SAS, Rooney etc. but for those banking on spenny mids like Silva, Toure and Mata, there's no other mid-priced striker who competes with the potential value of Romelu. The only viable competitors are Giroud (8.6), who plays at the impenetrable Stamford Bridge as part of the double GW, effectively negating its value, and Bony (7.1), who in similar fashion plays Arsenal and our new best friends Everton - both away. 

Lukaku scored the winner against Wham despite only playing 32 minutes, is a dead cert to start both games and, crucially, is genuinely a very good footballer. He gets a decent amount of assists as the lone forward (6) and is the focal point for an attacking Everton side. 

Strangely he's the most transferred OUT player so far this week - as well as the fourth most transferred-in. If that's not free market economics at work, I don't know what is. 

(I don't know what free market economics is - but apparently this is funny)

Coleman (6.7) v.s. Baines (7.4)

Ah, the age-old debate. Everyone's already repping Coleman but expect his price to rise even higher after his late winner against Cardiff (1.4 mil people have put him in already this week!). Seamus was once the bargain of the season - a cheap attacking full back who scores and can pick up clean sheets. 

Now he costs just 0.7 less than Leighton - and while he's scored twice as many goals, it remains hard to argue (successfully at least) that he presents a more potent attacking threat. Baines takes free kicks, corners and penalties. Coleman's goals mostly come from bundling into the box and tapping it into an open net. Only once this season has he scored in a game Everton did not win. Baines is a bona fide game-changer - a real-life playmaker from the back - just look at how he single-handedly burst bubbles at Upton Park:

Now put him in your team. 

Mirallas (7.5)

Kev seems to have won Martinez's trust - he's started all but one of the last nine games. He buys and sells speed for a profit (pace merchant) and isn't shy of a shot. Similarly to Lukaku, Mirallas is the stand-out choice in his price bracket. His closest competition would probably be Nolan (7.1), also a good shout for the double GW - but Kev no.2 has a propensity to get sent off this season and has to play United and Hull - both of whom are desperate for points. 

Let's get statistical

Mirallas provides more of a creative threat, receives more passes per minute (3.1 to 4.6), has more touches in the penalty area (103 to 97) and has a far itchier trigger finger (70 goal attempts v.s. 41). He takes half as many minutes to create each chance (39.4 to 88.2) and takes corners (65 this season) while Nolan lazes about picking his nose or scratching his arse or something. 

"I knew I shouldn't have licked this"

A word on Barkley (5.1)

While it's more painful than sliding down a razor blade in the buff to cut a double GW player, Barkley's gotta go. In his last five games he has played this many minutes: 45,27,28,6,9.

That's not altogether or nothin'. That's in each game. Yuk. He's 5.1m but that's no excuse for the 1.4 million Mugbook Pros who've put him in this week. Yanoozay (Januzaj; also 5.1) or Mutch (4.4; two assists last week) would be much better budget bargains.


Pic of the week

Related? No. But funny? Well, that's kind of subjective, but I thought so -

For more Bantasy Football, go to: bantasyfootball.blogspot.co.uk or follow us @BantasyFootball

How Do You Solve A Problem Like...Arsenal's Midfield?

Is it a problem? I would argue "yes". And in truth it isn't just the midfield, it's the whole bloody Arsenal team! The problem in hand is one I'm guessing most - if not all - of us are struggling with; WHICH three players to pick from a high points scoring team.

I will concentrate on the midfield specifically, but let's quickly look at the other positions that are no doubt influencing your decision making:

With Arsenals normally leaky defence tightening up in recent weeks (4 out of 5 clean sheets with only the 1-0 loss to Man Utd to break the run) it is tempting to include at least one of the Arsenal back line in your team. They do have two home games in a row coming up, (Hull & Everton) but then go to Man City in GW16 and face Chelsea at home in GW17.

Szczesny is 2nd in the overall points table for goalkeepers. Mertesacker is 7th in the overall points for defenders. Koscielny, Gibbs and Sagna sit in 19th, 20th and 28th position respectively. All of these are displaying good form and are worth considering for your back line.

Giroud is still hanging around the top of the leaderboard for strikers, ahead of Suarez and just below Aguero and Rooney.

But why "waste" a place in your team with a goalkeeper, defender or striker when Arsenal have a midfield that is - and could continue to be - an FPL goldmine?

Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott, Cazorla, Wilshire, Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky, Gnabry.

Well, ok, let's discard the last 3 - although Flamini did come on in GW13 and score a great goal. This is the exception, definitely not the norm for him!

That still leaves 6 players that would walk into most PL sides, and who are currently, or have the potential, to score big over the next half a dozen or so GW's when squad rotation is almost an inevitability.

So, who do you pick?

It's impossible not to start with Aaron Ramsey. Who could have predicted what a season he was going to have?!? He has already scored 8 and assisted 4 this season, compared to scoring 7 and assisting 3 during the previous 5 seasons COMBINED. Available for £5.5 million at the start of this season, he will now cost you a staggering £7.4 million and rising weekly. But why am I telling you this? You already own him right? Well, not everybody. Admittedly, an astonishing 60.3% of all FPL managers do, but some of you are still holding out (I'm looking at YOU @matejp23!)

Ramsey is head and shoulders above all other midfielders in the FPL at the moment with an overall score of 94 points (second only to Aguero with 100) and is 5th in the Form table with an average return of 6.7 points per game. He is this years Gareth Bale! What more evidence to you need! Buy now, or forever curse your stubbornness to conform!

Moving on then, you could go for Ramsey's more expensive sidekick, Mesut Ozil. The master of assists with 7 already this season (Hazard comes in second with 5) and 2 goals to his name. Inexplicably, managers have been rushing to offload him recently because he had a couple of poor points returns in GW11 and 12. In fact, nearly 200,000 of you have bombed him out since GW10, despite a decent points return in GW13. This has seen his ownership percentage drop to 28.1% - still the 4th highest of all midfielders. He sits at 6th in the overall points table with 64 points, with an average return of 5.3 points. Personally, I strongly suspect the hurry to sell him is down to the fact that managers have realised that they must find a way to squeeze in Aguero/Suarez/Rooney (or certainly at least two of them). Sacrificing Ozil is probably the only way to do this. For those of you with the cash, you could now pick up a relative bargain. The rush to sell Ozil has seen his price drop from a peak of £10.8 million in GW10, to £10.3 million at the time of writing.

The alternative is to take a calculated risk on what is still (at the time of writing) a great differential. The return to action of Theo Walcott. Missing from GW5 to GW11, he returned for a 21 minute substitute appearance against his old club Southampton in GW12. Picked on this site as Matej's "Called It" for GW13, this looked like it was going to backfire when he was again on the bench and only came on for the dreaded 1 minute cameo. However, this was just enough time for him to provide an assist for Ramsey, a points return of 4, and a 'get out of jail' card for Matej!

In all seriousness though, this could just be the differential you are looking for. His return to the starting line-up could reduce the pressure on Giroud and see Walcott shouldering some of the goal-scoring burden. His ownership is currently at a meagre 3.8% and he costs a relatively cheap £9.1 million. Under 3000 managers have put him back in their squad since his return to action, so is this a risk or a nailed on certainty to jump onboard before everyone else does? Depends how desperate you are to make up some ground I guess...

The next option for you is last season's player of the year (for Arsenal), Santi Cazorla. The Spanish maestro hasn't really picked up where he left off unfortunately. Missing from GW4 to GW7, his only goal so far this season came in GW10 against Liverpool. One assist is also poor, especially when compared to last seasons return of 12 goals and 13 assists. But he is now getting game time, albeit only an average of 70 minutes. If he finds his form he could yet recapture the points return of last year. A decent differential, but I would say riskier than Walcott. He is currently owned by 2.2% of you, but has only returned 31 points to date. The other thing to put you off is his high price of £9.6 million - the second highest overall, level with Yaya Toure and ahead of Eden Hazard.

This brings us onto Jack Wilshire. For a player who is rated so highly (alledgedly) I personally think the only consistency he shows is to annually underachieve as an FPL player. Low goals return, low assists, low points. Currently sat on 34 points with a couple of goals and 1 assist, he is owned by 6.6% of you. Quite high I thought. Again, probably by some undeserved reputation not borne out by fact. Surprisingly, 9634 managers bought him in for GW13, despite absolutely no evidence to suggest he was likely to do anything. Oh wait - he scored twice against Marseille in the Champions League four days previously! One of my personal rules in FPL is to TOTALLY DISREGARD what a player does in Europe, or for that matter at International level for their country. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Your final option is Mikel Arteta. He missed the first 4 GW's but since his return to the starting line-up from GW7 onwards, he tends to complete 90 minutes more often than not. However, a return of 1 goal and no assists is pretty rubbish for a player that costs £6.8 million. Still, historically he provides about half a dozen goals a season, and the same number of assists so maybe worth a punt if you are still searching for that elusive differential. I predict he will do well over the hectic Christmas period, but would I be willing to put him in my team? Not a chance! 1.3% of you seem to think he's worthy of a place in your squad though.

So, in summary, on current form you are probably looking at the League Champions*. So surely it's worth finding space for the maximum number of three in your starting XI? My personal view is that Giroud is finding it tough up front of his own, but Walcott could release some of that pressure. Walcott is certainly a bit of business I am looking at doing in the next few GW's.

There is a school of thought out there that it is "dangerous" to have two players from the same club in the same position. To that I would say Suarez/Sturridge, Lovren/Fonte, Hazard/Oscar?

My own team currently has Koscielny, Ozil and Ramsey in it. I admit to being one of those above mentioned managers who has agonised over ditching Ozil for Rooney, but his GW13 performance just confused me more than ever! Ramsey is an absolute "must have" and has been since GW4. If you didn't have Gareth Bale last year, chances are you didn't finish very high come the end of the season.
Enough said.

How do you solve a problem like Arsenal? Look at the stats, decide if you need a differential or if you can afford to play safe, and for the love of God...buy Ramsey before it's too late!!!!

*I do not think Arsenal will be League Champions!

@Meet_the_Gadfly

GW6 FPL Wrap-Up

Another crazy FPL gameweek is in the books, and owners of Liverpool forwards and Jose's table scraps are living large and smiling big.  Crazy stuff always comes in pairs.  For the first time in 5 years, both Manchester sides lost a league game on the same day.  In other news, for the first time in who knows how long, two goalkeepers notched assists in the same gameweek.  Also noteworthy, two grown men in the EPL wore hairbuns on the field of play.  Pretty crazy, huh? Oh, and did I forget to mention that Arsene Wenger has found himself at the top of the EPL table?  No joke!  Here's the rest:

Tottenham 1 - 1 Chelsea

Old pals face off as new adversaries

Mourinho goes defensive in away games vs top opponents

Terry provides equalizer as Torres showers early

Aston Villa 3 - 2 Manchester City

No Benteke, no problem

Pelligrini "We're entirely focused on Villa and not Bayern". LIAR!

Bacuna nets quality freekick and Guzan to Weimann provides the knockout punch

Fulham 1 - 2 Cardiff

Caulker strikes in 12th minute as Whittingham provides quality set pieces throughout

Ruiz shows 'em the home side can impress as well

Mutch stoppage time stunner bags all 3 points for the visitors

Hull City 1 - 0 West Ham

Soft penalty in 10th; but Brady converts despite hernia

Livermore rattles post but nothing doing

Andy, where you at, bro? Your boys need some offense in your absence

Manchester United 1 - 2 West Brom

Wait, are you serious......this was at Old Trafford!?!

Moyes hears some noise - and not the good kind. The pressure builds.

United hold on tight - to 12th place in the table

Southampton 2 - 0 Crystal Palace

Osvaldo notches first EPL goal; Lambert soon follows

Southampton defense proving tough nut to crack

Holloway dresses nicely; behaves himself

Swansea 1 - 2 Arsenal

Ramsey strikes again - 8 goals in 10 shots on target - gotta be some kind of record

Too little too late for Swans

Arsenal go top!?! - YES - Arsenal go top!!

Stoke City 0 - 1 Norwich

Howson fools Bego in 34th with stunner....whoops

Norwich up to 14th; Stoke to 15th

Stoke manage just one shot on goal - what's up, Sparky?

Sunderland 1 - 3 Liverpool

This Sturridge-Suarez combo is not too shabby! (Matej #CalledIt)

Liverpool score in second half for first time this season; move to 2nd in table

Giaccherini spoils Liverpool defense clean sheet points with nice follow-up

Everton 3 - 2 Newcastle

Lukaku shows Jose who's boss and Barkley notches one (Chief #CalledIt)

Everton stay undefeated and look young, fast, tough and impressive

Newcastle make it interesting in the end with Cabaye stunner and Remy poke

Well, there it is; one for the books.  Hope you fared well this gameweek and are looking forward to gameweek 7.  Bring it on!

Walt

"WOOHOO - I'm On My Wildcard!"

So the past few weeks have been great. Well, let me take that back; it's not all been great... it's been relaxing. No, let me take that back too. It's not been relaxing; it's been without pain. Yeah, let's go with that.

The two-week break between Gameweek 3 and Gameweek 4 started out with a resounding thud. It was the kind of thud that greets you at the end of an FPL freefall; where your Captain plays against a newly promoted side at home in the early kickoff, has a little bit of a shitfest, gets yanked after 45 minutes and notches you 2 points to set the tone for the gameweek. Without sorely needed contributions from others, and having 8 guys in your squad bring home 3 points or less, the gameweek closes, you look on in horror, scan all of your minileague rivals while the FPL site goes into update mode, and you just feel yourself drop into the dark thin air.

Arms flailing, legs kicking, looking down into the seemingly bottomless pit, you gain speed, watching all that was once below you rocket on past as you whizz by, knowing that the landing is gonna hurt, but having no idea just how far you're gonna drop while bonus points are being tallied and distributed and the league tables are updated; when finally, after almost blacking out, you smash into the ground and do your best to limp away, seeing stars all the while and wondering if you'll ever heal.

Click the screen shot to zoom in!

That's how gameweek 3 ended for me; and how the past two weeks started. Luckily I was cognizant enough to activate my wildcard immediately after the gameweek closed, but I was still dizzy, battered and bruised. After a few days of recuperation, I got my wits back about me and felt brave enough to revisit the scene of the accident. The crash was serious, the damage was heavy, there was still mangled pieces of debris and heavy layers of dust scattered over a widespread area, but that beautiful little wildcard gave me the piece of mind to know that there was time to clean up the mess. And the real healing began.

I know; kinda crazy, but that's a little bit how it feels, right? These wildcards are priceless. But they are extremely limited and must only be used after carefully examining all other options AND the consequences, including the lost opportunity of not being able to ever ever ever get it back. Once you've reached that place though and are convinced that the time is nigh, they're wonderful. Once you click "Activate Wildcard", you get to breathe a little. And when you've activated it during a two-week break, the pain of the crash subsides and you're left with a renewed feeling of optimism; a chance to relax and forget about how shitty the squad full of you-know-whats you carried for the past 3 weeks has performed. You can turn your attention from the ranking "they left you with" and focus on getting "better" guys in to get you moving back in the direction you want to go.

And just like the start of the season, having that wildcard puts the world at your fingertips. You don't have to worry about the 6-7 step sequence it would take to rearrange your squad to where you want it or the injuries that might set you back at steps 2, 4 and 6 that would cause you to deviate from your master plan. And most importantly, you get to dream again.

Let's face it; we all do it. We scan through the FPL listings, starting first with the multi-position "Total Score" listing, and we come face to face with all of the guys that we considered having in our original squad but didn't. We get on Twitter and lament the fact that "Of course I had that guy in version 284 of my original squad!", "If I had done what I wanted to do in the first place I'd be 150,000 spots higher!". And my personal favorite, which I have painfully experienced first hand this year, "I swore back in June that that guy would be the first guy in my squad this season; I can't believe I didn't follow through!"  Seamus Coleman, thank you very much. You have proven me quite wrong my friend, and I will now gladly pay 0.4m more to get you today than I could have spent in August, so don't start sucking now. I really don't have a good reason for not selecting you for GW1 like I had planned, other than the fact that I tried to outsmart myself by considering your opening fixtures and had this new defensive strategy that blah blah blah okay I'm just a freaking idiot.

But it's okay; because I'm an idiot with a wildcard! And I can live with the stupidity I've exhibited over the past 3 gameweeks while carrying this do-over card in my hand. I know that the last three gameweeks are still shit for me and forever will be, but I can get 9 or 10 new guys now; even though the 9 or 10 I just let go of are about to reach levels of FPL greatness that even they never dreamed possible. And it's okay. Because it hasn't happened yet. I'll worry about that on Saturday. (Okay, I've already started worrying about it today and the stress will increase like a balloon being blown up between now and Saturday morning, but you know what I mean).

Here's to two more days of freedom!

If you've activated your wildcard as well, have fun with it over the next couple of days. Mix and match all kinds of combinations and permutations of EPL'ers. Sometimes in the randomness we display while simply fooling around with different options, we open up windows into new ways of thinking about FPL that we hadn't before, and you just may surprise yourself with a squad you feel 10x better about than the one you almost locked in yesterday. It's the only wildcard we get until 2014 and is one of only two chances during the entire season that we get to reset our entire squad for free. Plus, I for one am left with the almost guaranteed assurance that there is no possible way I can pick a squad that will do WORSE than the one I've had for the first 3 gameweeks.

See; no pressure;)

Cheers,

Walt (EPLFanForLife)

Gameweek 3 FPL Wrap-Up

Gameweek 3 is over and in its place are fond memories for some, good riddance for others, and a little bit of "meh" for others still.  Before the internationals are over and the frenzy of pre-gameweek 4 begins, let's recap the goings-on of the 9-fixture gameweek that was.  Since it's a recap of gameweek 3, I'll give you a 3-line summary of each fixture, plus a short list of the top 5 FPL point earners from each fixture. Away we go....

Manchester City  2  - 0  Hull City

Captain Dzeko; no collecto. Captain Zab, you're feeling fab.

Hull City supporters leave the Etihad with heads held high

Negredo on target and Yaya slots home a beaut

FPL managers were smiling because of:

Zabaleta 12, Y Toure 11, Hart, Kolarov, Lescott, Negredo  6

Cardiff  0  -  0  Everton

Cardiff follow up huge home win vs City with scoreless home draw to Everton

Mirallas and Kim both squander good chances

Baines not fouled in box at 41st minute; or was he?

Happy happy joy joy to those of you who had:

Distin 9, Baines 8, Jagielka, Coleman, Marshall 7

Newcastle  1  -  0  Fulham

Newcastle finally score - and win!

Cabaye does not say Goodbye

Ben Arfa makes the home supporters happy

Good stuff from:
 Ben Arfa 9, Coloccini 9, Yanga-Mbiwa 8, Krul, Santon, Debuchy, Riether 6

Norwich  1  -  0  Southampton

Redmond seals 3 pts in 3rd EPL match

2 penalties that "weren't" - Lallana and Snodgrass

Elmander starts; new boys Fer and Redmond shine

Fortunate FPL managers started: 
Redmond 11, Fer 8, Bassong 8, Ruddy, Whittaker, Turner, Garrido 6

West Ham 0  -  1  Stoke City

Pennant highlights bore fixture with fantastic 82nd minute free kick

Jaaskelainen comes up big on Wilson volley and Walters' follow up

No 3rd point of interest; 2 is more than enough for that borefest!

Despite the bore, some FPL managers could smile:

Wilson 9, Pennant 8, Begovic, Shawcross 7, Huth, Pieters 6

Crystal Palace  3  -  1  Sunderland

Palace result leaves Holloway dancing and DiCanio craving a candy bar

Crystal Palace fighting spirit / great atmosphere earn them fans who love the underdog

Paulo cries foul-o on his own Captain O'Shea

FPL high earners include: 
Gabbidon 9, Gayle 9, Fletcher 7, Colback, O'Keefe 6

Liverpool  1  -  0  Manchester United

Pool crowd celebrate birthdays of Bill Shankly and Daniel Sturridge with 1-0 victory

Liverpool yet to concede amid 3 straight 1-0 wins - all goals from Sturridge

United held scoreless for 2nd EPL fixture in a row for first time since May 2007 - WOW

To the victors go the spoils:  
Agger 12, Mignolet, Sturridge 8, Skrtel, Enrique 7, Johnson 6

West Brom  0  -  2  Swansea

Davies delivers in 22nd - cracker of a volley

Hernandez follows up with nice second goal of his own

West Brom yet to score this season - uh oh

FPL All-Stars: 
Davies 15, Hernandez 13, Chico 7, Vorm, Williams 6

Arsenal  1  -  0  Tottenham

North London Derby on Deadline Day Eve - Yes Please!

Olivier rules the day

Wenger has last laugh - for now

The icing on the FPL gameweek 3 cake provided by:
Giroud 9, Szczesny, Mertesacker 8, Gibbs, Jenkinson 7

Well, there you have it.  Gameweek 3 in a nutshell.  Here's a nice little screenshot of the Gameweek 3 Dream Team.  FPL managers carrying these players will look on and shake their heads with proud satisfaction while those who have activated their Wildcard during the international break can use it as a teaser as they build their "new" squad.  Good luck in gameweek 4 everyone!

Cheers,

Walt (EPL Fan for Life) 

6 (Un)conventional "Wisdoms" on How to Finish in Top 100 in FPL - part 6

So, it has finally come down to this – the final chapter of the series. The 6 (Un)conventional “wisdoms”, as I call them, chapter 6.

In the first 5 chapters I have shared with you all of the “technical savvy” and tricks I have in my arsenal that have enabled me to finish last season as 15^th player overall in the FPL. And, I have to admit; I have had so much fun writing these posts, that I even neglected my own team for the new season in order to prepare the posts in time (errrrr, my team is still in total disarray at the moment). And, boy oh boy, was I blown away by the buzz the series generated on Twitter and the enormous number of people flocking to the official FPL Hints blog to read my ramblings. Thank you for this, it really means a lot. [wipes away tears of joy, sobs] Moving on.

To be completely honest, I already kind of started my vacation this week, while the previous week I had home office (really HOME office, back in Slovenia) for the entire week and hanging out with family and friends in the evening. You can imagine that my schedule didn’t really leave much time for writing. But, I need to do it now. As of today, I am off to the Croatian coast where I have no guarantee of internet access (which worries me as, because as said, I don’t really have my GW1 team put together AT ALL!). But, we’ll worry about that when sh** hits the fan, as the Americans like to put it. It’s not like GW1 is the most important GW of the season. Ahem, ahem.   [sarcasm off]

As of today, we are T-9 days until kickoff and I assume most of you reading this blog have already assembled your respective teams, took them apart completely, tried to squeeze in both RVP and Bale (which is borderline impossible if you want to have a strong TEAM), contemplated whether Baines is worth the investment this year (while I have NEVER EVER had him in my team, I had actually read a really cool article on FFPundits regarding this conundrum that had me thinking – no final decision made yet - link), let out a scream of enthusiasm when the news of Bale asking for a transfer to Real Madrid came out, tried to be smart about newcomers like Soldado, Bony, RvW and others, somehow built the team again, read a different opinion on one of the TOP20 FPL sites that Walt from #fplhintsteam put together, completely changed your mind, cursed, cursed again, turned to gods for help, started screaming, lashed out on your computer and started inconsolably crying because you just can’t fill your team with ALL the players you would want...and then went back to the drawing board. Too bad you cannot take a loan on FPL money, something like 20M GBP would probably do the trick, huh?

You see, the (Un)conventional wisdom #6 touches exactly that and MUCH more. However stupid, simple and straightforward this last wisdom might seem, it is actually my TOP recommendation for all FPL players out there.

Huh? Has he gone mad? What kind of a dumb*** lame advice is this? I bet these are some of the thoughts currently running through your mind, coupled with the annoying feeling that you have just lost 2 minutes and 13 seconds of your life that you will JUST never again get back.

Relax. Let me elaborate on my advice.  It has three distinctive parts:

PART I – Really, just have FUN

For me, there is nothing like the Saturday morning. First off all, you know you still have today AND tomorrow before you need to go back to work. Second of all, you already know that in a couple of hours there will be the first game of the week and you sense the adrenaline rush building up. The siren goes off. No more transfers. It’s just you and your team right now. You check the points for the current GW for the very first time. The game is still being updated. Sigh. You wait for the starting lineups to be published on your Twitter feed. Ka-ching. First 2 points registered. You made the right choice fielding the differential midfielder just for this week. Then the first game starts and every time the player you have on your team gets the ball you observe with anticipation if there is a possibility he can smack one down the middle and score a goal from 70 yards down. Sadly it does not happen. But hey, you can always hope for some bonus points as the game ended in a draw. You refresh your score for the GW and quickly check the guys in your private league if someone actually had the guys who scored or assisted on their teams. When you find one, you think to yourself “You lucky son of a gun…PURE LUCK!” 

Before you know it, the rest of the games start. You pick one to watch, but always keep an eye on the game where your captain is playing, hoping he will score at least three goals and have five assists. With all the reservation you possess you limit yourself to refreshing the data on your smartphone of choice only every 5 minutes.  Every time you hit refresh button you hold your breath and pray to god that it will show a massive improvement over the score total you had before. As the games move into the second parts of second halves, you already cash in the 4 points for defenders with clean sheets and nervously cough every time the opponent makes it over to their half of the field. And god forbid your defenders concede a goal in the waning moments of the game – you really feel cheated about those 4 points. And so on and so forth. This, for me at least, is by far THE BEST PART – this is what I mean by having fun. Enjoy it. Even if you don’t do well, the sheer anticipation of what happens every GW is enough to keep your juices flowing. Don’t berate yourself or congratulate yourself too much either, just enjoy it. Repeat after me: 

PART II. – Don’t overthink and/or overcomplicate

You see, this is one advice I would like to put out there that does not only come in handy when playing FPL, but also in real life.  Too much information leads to overcomplicating and causes confusion. My advice – LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF FPL INFORMATION you soak in. For me it means no more than 3-4 dedicated FPL sites. No more. I have my sites, I trust their judgment and advice and apart from looking for a replacement for one of my favorite sites (Never CaptainNicky Butt – you will be sorely missed!), I have no intention of adding new ones. Thanks to Walt’s list of Top20 FPL sites, I should have no issues finding a replacement.

PART III. – Don’t be too smart for your own good

I have seen this over and over again – people who know a whole lot about Premier League tend to, and I will use the same word again, overcomplicate and fill their teams with differentials. Play it smart, but not too smart. Have you fair share of “players who everyone has”, “must-haves”, jump on one or two bandwagons a year, just because it really makes sense. You do not have to reinvent the wheel… (feel free to re-read my differentials chapter to learn more about this).

After last year, I can see myself going in that direction as well – looking for non-obvious players choices, having too many differentials in my team vs. the proven, more obvious ones, and I realize I need to wipe my slate clean and start from scratch. It’s a new season. Anyone can win it, just like Matt has last year (btw, have you read his story?). Will it be you this year?

I have already started implementing all of my wisdoms (especially the last one) in my team for the upcoming season and I must admit – it is harder than last year. But the more challenging it gets, the more fun it will be during the season, right? All the best to all of you and make sure you come back during the season, I will continue to write for FPL Hints blog all season.

And that’s it, folks! The last of my wisdoms for you. I hope you make use of all of them and they will make your season a memorable one!

And, as always, looking forward to your comments – reach me on Twitter (@matejp23).

In case you have somehow missed the (un)conventional “wisdoms” from #1 to #5, make sure you read them before the start of the season!

Wisdom #1 – “Spend all your money”

Wisdom #2 – “Buy only 1 mid/high tier goalkeeper – no alternating”

Wisdom #3 – “Invest in a disproportionately strong midfield”

Wisdom #4 – “Avoid bandwagons as much as possible”

Wisdom #5 – “Be smart about how you play the differentials”