fantasy premier league double gameweeks – a few short words on gameweek 33

Fantasy Premier League

I don’t normally do a post gameweek article especially since the gameweek isn’t over yet.  However a score of 44 against an average of 46 when using your wildcard warrants special mention so I thought I would write a few words

fantasy premier league double gameweeks – a few short words on gameweek 33

This season is different in that the chips changed how you could think about the double gameweeks. Logic dictated using the bench boost or triple captain chip during a double gameweek in order to maximise points.  However as you can’t use the chips in the same gameweek then using the wildcard the week before the double gameweek seemed to be the way to maximise points.  The double gameweek 34 (with a DGW37) to follow was unusual in that the 2 teams trying to win the league in Leicester and Spurs didn’t have any double gameweeks.  A double gameweek 33 made it more palatable to wildcard in the week before DGW34.

High ownership player risk

People who come to the site know I’m a fairly conservative manager.  I generally capture 5/7 of the high ownership attacking players and then use 2 differential maybe fixture based  players for moving forward.  50/50 captain choices and the defence are the other ways of moving forward.  This season has been difficult but recently has seen decent moves forward.

However I will generally look to gamble with my wildcard as it can be a big rank winner.

Come the wildcard then the wildcard risk came down to the high ownership Spurs and Leicester players.  They were both defences (Alderweireld particularly) , Mahrez, Vardy, Kane, Alli.  With Vardy and Kane being sold in reasonable numbers during the week then the big risk players came down to both defences Mahrez and Alli.  Leicester not scoring above 1 goal recently and Spurs home to a defensive Man Utd seem to mitigate that risk to some extent.

Ironoically the 2 players I thought about keeping were Kane and Mahrez who both didn’t score in GW33.  Vardy scoring 2 wasn’t helpful but not the end of the world.  Alli and clean sheets for Spurs and Leicester though weren’t helpful but the goal and 15 point haul from Alderweireld was the killer.

To be honest only going back 60k in overall rank was a relief.  I thought it could be alot worse.

There’s nothing new in this though.  Anytime you go against high ownership players there is a big rank risk.  Spurs and Leicester players above 50% in the top 10k (a proxy for active managers) were both defences, Mahrez, Alli and Kane.  3 of 5 returned plus an Alderweireld goal.  Thats going to hurt.

Keeping all those players would have severly diluted the wildcard and bench boost.

So was the wildcard and bench boost worth it?  It’s not a great start thats for sure but still time for improvement yet.

Rotation

The other issue was the rotation of players in the European competitions.  De Bruyne given he just returned from injury wasn’t so much of a surprise although the other midfield injuries seemed like he would be forced to play.  The Liverpool defence also wasn’t too much of a surprise which is why I went for Mignolet reluctantly.  However Coutino given he seemed to be at a good fitness level after a decent break was a big surprise and added insult to injury of the day.

The gameweek isn’t over.

It is worth remembering that the gameweek isn’t even over yet.  There’s still the Palace vs Everton game.  I have 4 players although when 2 teams play each other there are limitations on the maximum score.

There’s still DGW34.   A bench boost, a blank GW35 and a DGW37 plus a triple captain still to go for me so there is scope for improvement.  The main risk seems to be the form of Spurs.  Leicester seem to be grinding out results so that at the moment seems to be mitigating that risk.

Given the poor season getting a rank under 100k is still my goal and with the die cast for the rest of the season it’s a case of hiding behind the sofa for the Spurs and Leicester games at the moment.  There is still the possibility of bring them in for GW35 if that becomes too much of a problem

It’s not just me

One of the reasons I did the top 10 FPL managers article is that when you have a bad gameweek it doesn’t seem so bad when 10 Managers who in the last 3 years have never finished outside the top 10k have a similar experience.  8/10 used their wildcard in GW33 and have similar issues to myself.  So even the best have had a difficult week.

None have Alderweireld.  Only the 2 who didn’t wildcard kept Alli, and only 1 who didn’t wildcard has Vardy.

Thats it hope the above helped.  Welcome any comments on the gameweek and what you’ve learnt or felt

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