Hello to the Geek community! My name is Craig and here are my FPL awards for various categories of players. Before that I’d like to say that I’ve been a regular visitor to the site over the last couple of years, and I, like all of you have been helped greatly by Mr Geek’s time, effort & attention to detail. Thank you, thank you and thank you again!
FPL awards 16/17 by Craig Bevan
The 2016 / 2017 season has revealed itself as a very tough… But wholly enjoyable season. (Certainly for me, I won my cash mini-league & recorded my best rank by far, 37,722 thanks to the info on this site!)
I’ve written a little awards piece commemorating the players that we’ve loved… loathed… depended on… and launched our phone over the other side of the room over this season. These are my findings only. I’d absolutely love to hear your personal experiences too, so get the comments section lighting up!
Without further ado… I present to you, my FPL Awards 2016/2017 sponsored by Fantasy Football Geek & Supa-Strong-Phone Covers
Bargain Bin Bestie:
The most coveted of gems! Each and every FPL player tries to unlock the ‘Bargain Bin Bestie’ Achievement. The trick is getting him in your team before anyone else to claim bragging rights (“I’ve had Mahrez since the 2001/2002 season…! So there!”). Previous gems include Michu in the 12/13 season, and indeed Mahrez in Leicester’s 15/16 season.
Some people try to resist… “They can’t possibly keep up this form!”, but in the end we all bow to a cut-price prize asset! At a price of £4.5m Etienne Capoue was looking likely to be the main man here… But in this case the doubters were right and he suffered the same fate as his Watford colleague Odion Ighalo of 15/16 – He simply couldn’t maintain his over performance and eventually gave way to the tremendous… Josh King! Starting at a price of just £5.5m (rising to £6.2m) King’s fairly slow start gave way to an incredible 2nd half of the season. He contributed an incredible 13 goals, 2 assists & a whopping 15 BPs from January till the end. It was gutting to hear he was left out of the last game week, but nonetheless… Take a bow that man, and bench him at your peril!
Rip Off Merchant:
The opposite of the above. This is the player that costs an arm & a leg, but simply does not deliver the goods! I’m thinking Hazard in 15/16! One of last year’s heroes, Jamie Vardy was well on course for this award until he finally found some form following the departure of Mr Dilly-Dong. Similarly, despite a price-hike, Riyad Mahrez didn’t live up to his heroics of yester-season. But for me, the biggest rip-off merchant for the 16/17 season has to be Daniel Sturridge. We know he has pedigree… But we also know he has injuree…(s) for most of the season! Not only that, when he is fit, he seems to be so far out of favour with the Klopp-Meister that we simply don’t see him. £10m at the start of the season for 54 points? No thank you!
Most Frustrating Player:
There’s one player that might spring to mind immediately… But I’m saving him for another category! Instead I’m going to award this prize to… The Liverpool Midfield. Yep! A collection of explosively blanky benchy injury-y individuals all capable of making and/or breaking a game week! It was a lottery at best to pick the performing player each week! Great for Liverpool that they have so many goal scorers, but a pain in the Arsenal for us mere Fantasy leaguers, as we constantly wasted transfers on the ‘form’ guy! Eventually Coutinho emerged as the star pick this year, but the only option was to pick one and roll with the peaks & troughs, or perhaps avoid altogether. I hope a trend emerges much quicker next season.
Reliant Robin:
I’d love James Milner to win this. But he didn’t quite produce the goods this season, especially considering he missed a penalty! That hasn’t happened since 2009! Anyway… We all need someone to depend on. To lean on. To simply stick in the team week in, week out and know you’ll get a decent points haul regularly to keep your total ticking along nicely. For me this season, there are 2. Gary Cahill & Marcos Alonso. The top 2 defenders this year with 178 & 177 points respectively.
Alonso has been a constant in my team since he made his 2nd start in GW 8. Playing as a wingback in a clinical title-winning team, but listed as a defender he was always going to turn heads. However, starting at the hefty price of £6m – Was it a premium worth investing in? GOD DAMN YES… 6 goals, 5 assists, 14 clean sheets & 11 BPs more than justified it! Cahill has been an ever-present force in the backline, and had a habit of popping up in the right place in the box during set pieces. 6 goals, 18 clean sheets & 15 BPs was very rewarding indeed. Perhaps a struggle to get them both in, but 1 was essential for a decent rank and ML glory!
Goldmine Team:
Who better to take up this mantle than the Champions? You simply HAD to have 2 or 3 Chelsea players this year. No questions. Spurs put up a very solid case for consideration – Their players were also essential, but were just ever so slightly lacking at crucial times. Chelsea were rock solid & consistent throughout and very deserving of the title. The likes of the aforementioned defenders (and also Luiz, Azpi & Courtois) along with Hazard, Pedro, & Costa gave us a wealth of reliable options to draw upon this season. They were the bread & butter of this FPL campaign.
Slim Pickings Team:
It’s no surprise that the team with the fewest collective FPL points is a relegated team. We all look for budget defenders and midfielders, but with this search we hope to uncover a secret gem of a performer who’ll grind out a clean-o or a 5th mid who’ll chip in with a cheeky assist jumping off the bench to save your game week but unfortunately in Hull, there was precious little to get excited about from an FPL perspective. The early season form of Curtis Davies was a orange & black beacon for a brief time until his injury… In fact, Hull were horribly plagued by injuries all season and their small-ish squad suffered greatly as a consequence. No one could hit form. Even the heroics of the newly installed Marco Silva couldn’t stop the rot as
eventually they succumbed to the drop. Even Sunderland had value in Defoe & Pickford. Even Middlesbrough had Negrado… Nuff said!
Trolly McTrollface:
True story of an FPL Troll: “A player playing for a top-half of the table team, who shows great promise and goal scoring ability, who draws you in with a great debut to his season, prompts a bandwagon… Then crushes all your hopes and dreams with a series of 2 point hauls which hurt the most when they’re against lower league opposition!”
I think we’re united behind this award… Manolo Gabbiadinni. Such promise… Such raw, amazing semi-bargain excitement… Oh dear Manolo, what went wrong!? He burst onto the scene scoring 6 in 4 games in all competitions! Gold! But then, an injury. We waited… We were poised… Southampton had TWO double game weeks! Great… I know the perfect man for the job! How wrong could we be? Even when it was presented on a plate to him… He missed the penalty! What. A. Disaster! Will we see him in a Southampton shirt again? Time will tell. Charlie Austin will be kicking-on in pre-season, and he won’t take any prisoners.
Star Performer:
I’m wondering if Spurs would have come closer to the title had they not had to deal with Harry Kane’s 3 month absence? Ladies & gents, this English man scored a Golden Boot-worthy 29 Goals, 7 Assists and joint top 33 BPs over the 16/17 season, putting him 3rd overall (1 point behind his team mate Alli) despite being sidelined for 3 months! A colossal 87mins per goal! 3 months out! 3rd overall! 29 goals! Have I covered it? He cemented many a ML triumph with his 8 goals over the last 2 game weeks, I think it’s safe to say he is officially now FPL royalty, and I’ll be amazed if he isn’t the most expensive striker next year… But whatever his cost, he’s number 1 on my team sheet!
So there it is! I hope you enjoyed this fun little musing. If you’ve got any other suggestions then please join in the discussion below and help fill the summer void we now face! I look forward to the banter again next season! All the very best!
MrCB
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