I thought before the normal articles got going that I would put a few words together on my team, the gameweek ahead with the FA Cup 5th round and a few words about early transfers
fantasy premier league GW27 – A few thoughts on the FFGeek team and the season to date, the gameweek ahead and early transfers
So with the FA Cup 5th round weekend it seemed a good time to review the season to date as well as specifically look forward to the gameweek.
A good week for my team moving up 91k but it has to be looked at in the context of a horrific rank of 463k. After 2,700 last year it’s hard to take but if I try and be philisophical and positive about it then I would say every disappointment is a learning experience. If that is the case then I should have a PHD this season.
If I try and figure out why, a reasonable part of it is obviously the season being so different than many others. Chelsea failing, Leicester top and the struggles of Hazard and Sanchez (apart from a few explosive weeks) are just a few surprises. The money into the premier league has evened teams out and fixtures haven’t been the dominant force they once were.
This year I felt that that a good start is a great help. Getting behind is difficult as you then face the issue of trying to catch up. If you stick to the template then your progress is slow without good captain picks. Take risks and move outside the template too much to gain ground and if you get it wrong you drop in rank very quickly. That has been the tricky bit. I’ve tried to neutralise the captain picks to avoid falling in rank further. That hasn’t been the problem. The problem has been getting the 50/50 captain choices wrong.
To show how the start helps, if I look at the leader of our top 10 FPL managers he’s at 16k and he got to about 40k in GW10 and has held that place through a fairly template team with one or 2 differentials but certainly not many. A good start is a big advantage.
What is also apparent from the top 10 managers teams is that from 16k to 600k overall rank the teams aren’t that different and a few 50/50 decisions gone wrong can really hit you. The fact that all the top 10 managers I follow have finished in the top 10k for all of the last 3 years and many are struggling this year says alot.
You may have heard of a fairly nifty gadget called gargatron which analyses your team. If I compare the results to my team last year it shows that I roughly earned this season 3 points per game less from my captain. That would have got me 75 points better off and a ranking of around 75k. Still not great but certainly a vast improvement and it shows how important the captain pick is.
I’d welcome other peoples thoughts about their reasoning for good or bad positions.
Please don’t take this as a woe is me, I’m so unlucky type post it’s just trying to realise why and learn from it.
Here’s my gargatron for this season, last seasons and our 16k rank 10 top FPL manager leader
FFGeek this season after rd 26
FFGeek team last season 2700 finish
Top 10 FPL managers team so far this season 16k rank overall
Looking ahead at gameweek 27
Gameweek 27 has no Liverpool v Everton and Man City v Newcastle due to the Cap 1 final and is 2 weeks away with the FA Cup 5th round in between. That will give us, subject to replays, more info on the blanks of GW30.
Here’s a link to my catch up article to give a bit more detail:
So Leicester v Newcastle and Stoke v Southampton will survive GW30 no matter what. Unless you’re transferring in those teams (Newcastle apart) then I would definitely wait until after the FA Cup before you make your transfers. The situation is even more complicated with the Europa league involving Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd this week and next week. The Champions league is spread over 2 weeks with Chelsea this week and Arsenal and Man City next week. So if you’re thinking of transferring the European teams after the FA Cup then you need to get through next week to be risk free apart from Chelsea. Obviously this ignores training injury risks.
The FFGeek team
With Leicester playing Norwich in GW27 my 2 transfers are definitely going to be Mahrez and Vardy in. It’s just when. I don’t want to wait too long and lose out massively on value but also an injury to either in training or to someone else will cause me problems as I have little room for movement in GW27. The outs will probably be Lukaku and Firmino with Payet home to Sunderland . Also, Coutinho and Sturridge looking like they will dilute Firmino’s returns if the Villa game was anything to go by.
Unfortunately the Simpson suspension could literally not come at a worse time. It will mean on my bench for GW27 will be Aguero, Moreno and Simpson. Unfortuantely the sudden loss of place by Mertesacker isn’t helpful although Gabriels injury may just save me. In addition, the rotation of the Spurs FBs meaning it’s 50/50 whether Walker or Trippier will start is another risks. Wollscheid at least held his place for the Bournemouth and hopefully will start.
Thats it. Hope you found it useful. I may have to defer some of the posts to after the FA Cup for them to make sense but will try and fill the gaps with some interesting articles.
Keep the commenst and views coming. I may not respond much due to time but enjoy reading everything especially pointing out typos!
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