“Meet the FFGeeks” – Meet another Geek Andres Rodriguez

Fantasy Premier League

fpl..andresRodriguezPic

Here’s our 4th article in the “Meet the FFGeeks”  series.  We meet Andres Rodriguez from Spain.  He’s been very successful this season and the interview is really detailed and comprehensive and well worth a read.

“Meet the FFGeeks” – Meet another Geek Andres Rodriguez

Hi Andres, it’s great to meet another regular visitor and commenter on the site.  Tell us a bit about yourself.

 Hi, my name is Andres Jose Rodriguez de Medina Quevedo, I know it’s impossible to remember my name for somebody outside Spain, so everybody calls me Andres Rodriguez. I’m 39 years old. I was born in the south of Spain, but I’m currently living in Madrid.

I’m a really big fan of football and a big supporter of Real for years, so I spend a lot of time following information about football on newspapers, twitter or blogs. Although Spanish domestic leagues and UEFA competitions are my main interest, I’ve also followed EPL since 90s, when Spanish TVs started to offer highlights and information about English football. I remember watching on the TV a younger Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona in Old Trafford, the first steps of Bergkamp in London or Alan Shearer’s Newcastle (although my favorite player will be always Matt Le Tissier). I also follow Bundesliga and Calcio but what I really love from Premier is the intensity of game, the passion of supporters in the stadiums and the chances of small teams for beating big teams. Here is Spain it’s impossible for most of clubs to make competitive squads or picking some stars players in their teams. So, when I see Payet playing for West Ham, Wijnaldum for Newcastle or Xhaquiri for Stoke I’ve got always the feeling that these teams can play face-to-face to Arsenal, Chelsea or City in a football match much better than Betis or Levante do to Real Madrid or Barcelona. Anyway, although European leagues have some coverage in media, what football followers prefer to talk about is about la Liga, so the fact I follow Premier league makes me a little bit “geek”. You could say I’m “double geek” then.

To be honest, I don’t have a favorite team in Premier, I don’t know if this is an advantage or disadvantage in Fantasy game. The same for Spaniards in Premiere, I put some attention in Fabregas, Mata, Silva, Cazorla or de Gea, but I don’t buy them for my team for any special reason.

In real life I have a degree in Engineering and work in a multinational company inside Supply Chain, so you see numbers and football are part of my life. I’m married, one daughter who says “Daddy’s playing football” when I’m in front of the computer managing my team.

How long have you been playing FPL and what is your motivation?

This is only my second season in FPL. In last August I was happy if I finished instead TOP 1% global. I was quite optimistic, as after 2nd wildcard (and discovered FFG  ) last season I moved up from a position around 2 Million to 180.000 aprox. at the end of season. I hoped that tendency was continued this year and it seems it works until now ,as I’m quite close to the objective.

I’m also participating in local mini leagues of Spanish media and communities and other some blogs…. I would be happy if a win Marcador Internacional League, that’s the league for followers of an Spanish life-score radio show on Saturdays afternoon that give live information aobut Premiere League, Bundesliga, Calcio… I discovered FPL listening to this program, so I have an special sense for winning the league. I’m currently in position 13th, so not too far from leadership. Winning FFG league would be even greater, but impossible.

Lets take a look at your rank and history which is fantastic btw

fpl..andresRodriguez

fpl..abdresRodriguezHistory

Do you have an overall playing strategy?

First strategy: to get as much information as possible from media in order to take decisions every day. Every morning at breakfast I read news in Twitter, in Reddit or blogs about performances of players, rotations, injuries, statistics… that’s the trick of FPL, I don’t have a lot of interest in this round of FA Cup but I have to follow in order to know if KDB plays or was benched or which defender has played for Liverpool on Wednesday. I think all the information you have will help to get a better decision.

Secondly, ownership and price are quite important for me. What I learnt last season is that a rise of price in next hours is not an only reason for sell/buy a player, but It’s a strong argument for doing it. So a secondary objective is to get funds for buying Aguero, Alexis or Silva at the last part of season in case they’re on fire. The ownership is quite important for me too. When I’m in a good position of classification, not having a player with high ownership is a risk and something to take care about, especially this year. Not only for losing points but also for the points who get your opponents. To know the ownership in Top 10.000 is quite important for me and also the players they buy/they sold after every gameweek. FPL discovery is fantastic for that.

Third strategy, fixtures ( in FFG J)

Beside this, I have a different strategy for every line of my team. I always play with 3 defenders as I’m really inconsistent in foreseeing CS. For defenders, I use to look more for the team than for the player. I consider the mindset of the Manager of Club and the way of his teams use to play. Pochettino, Koeman, Pulis and Quique have always build highly defensive teams in their careers, so defenses from Spurs, Saints, WBA or Watford are good investments and guarantee some CSs. After that, I look for differential, in price, attack points and bonus. I.e. I don’t buy Clyne as I can get Moreno for lower price and I know that points will be more or less the same for both at the end of season. I always buy DEF with low risk of rotation, and I don’t like spend changes on it.

For midfielders I try to keep a basis for my team, those players that I hardly will sell during the season. I look for consistency and “close my eyes” about price. KDb, Ozil, Silva, Alexis, Hazard, Payet… they have provided goals and assists for years in the teams they play, so they have to guarantee points and consistency. I use to get always three of them in my team.A kind of rule for me it’s that I know If they give me more than 20 points, that gameweek will be good for me. For the other two positions in midfield I use to have a “middle class” midfielder and a cheap one. My last tip: Before buying, one thing that help me a lot are the shots and passes statistics for midfielders as I know goals use to come when a player shoots much (except Coutinho).

For forwards, I have only two strategies: “buy them when they’re scoring” and always questioning my eternal dilemma (“to Kun or not to Kun”).

Last, something I’m expecting this season, DGWs and chips, DGWs have a lot of potential to collect points, with TC or BB will be even more profitable.

Do you play any other formats of the game or other fantasy sports. 

Yes, I play a local Fantasy of La Liga. It’s more boring than FPL, as it consider points per winning matches and also qualifications from newspaper. Easy to play if you fill your team with Real and Barcelona players that provide 20-25 victories per season.

I also play fantasy of UEFA( UCL and UEL) and Bundesliga.

My only rule is one fantasy game for competition, as I don’t have time for playing more fantasies!

Your best ever/worst ever fantasy moment

The best moment : My fist round in Cup last year. There was the last match of week, I needed more than ten points to beat my opponent and only Terry remained for playing in my team, impossible to win… and suddenly he scored a goal, and he got CS against West Ham I won this round, that’s the things that happens when a defence scores!

The worst one: Maybe every week when I have to select the Captain. I definitely need to learn how to do it, as I’m the king of “blank-captains”. If I did better, my qualification would be higher.

Your favourite fantasy player and player who consistently has let you down

My favourite is Cech. I heard Terry to say (again Terry) that Cech provides 15 points per season for the team he plays. The fact is that I don’t want to change my goalkeeper too much, Cech is a good option although without Coquelin Arsenal is not the same than at the beginning of season.

The opposite is Rooney. I don’t know what’s happen to Rooney when he is in my team, he forgets to score a goal or something like that. Last season I bought him three times and promised not to do it again. But in Summer I heard LVG to say that he would play as Center Forward and we will see the best Rooney for years, not RVP, Falcao or Hernandez in the team… 20 goals per season. I did it again and only hardly got a few assisrs. I promise again not to do it.

8. Do you have a twitter handle for other geeks to follow you?

A Twitter account, but not related to FPL .

Thanks very much Andres for your time in doing this interview.  Good luck for the rest of the gameweek

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