Here’s Andrew Ferguson with his 2018-2019 Telegraph Fantasy Football review. Andrew Has finished in the top 1,000 in the previous 4 seasons
Andrew Ferguson with his 2018-2019 telegraph fantasy football review
Overall Rank: 88
Variance from Last Season: 400 improvement
Last 5 Seasons Trend: 1238, 476, 875, 488, 88
Summary
My best season in TFF by some distance which I am very pleased with particularly due to mass multi-entries, it is very difficult indeed to finish in the top 100. I had a decent start, quickly settling inside the top few thousand teams and never exceeding 5000. A little bit of inconsistency as the majority used their transfers earlier than you should saw me flounder a little before some really big weeks between GW14 and GW21 saw me jump inside the top 1500 which I never left.
For anyone who read my articles at the time, this was then the time I used my fixture planner to determine that Man City had more games than anyone during January and I loaded up which catapulted me into the top 500 which a good amount of transfers left which helped me consolidate to the end of the season, peaking at 51st before finishing at 88th following City’s destruction of Watford in the FA Cup final.
In terms of transfer use below (the green dotted line is my actual), I had my most disciplined season yet, having 22 transfers left at Xmas, 9 left after the final international break going into April, before using them quickly at the end of the season when I probably could have used them more sparingly.
The red line is a representation of my previous use and the proof is in the pudding that by using them more sparingly that my final overall rank improves. The amber line is what I want to try and achieve next season transfer-wise to be able to challenge the top 50 and even higher as, similar to Sky, as my transfers diminished, so did my overall rank.
The picture below is a monthly review of my team compared to the average. October aside I was very high in the monthly averages with May, to my point above, the second worst as I ran out of transfers.
Post-Season thoughts
As per my pre-season thoughts, value is key. The PPM (points per million) in defence is superior to any other position. The graphic below shows that the top 3 PPM players are defenders with a total of 9 in the top 15. There are 2 goalkeepers in there with 3 midfielders and 1 striker. Value is obviously only one indicator of a winning team, and using transfers to bring in players for ‘runs’ of good fixtures are key to get that winning edge.
Utilising a 5-3-2 using the players below (extra striker needed), without using any transfers would have yielded around 2000 points, an overall rank of around 17k. This, whilst swapping players around during the season for Salah, Mane, Sterling, Aguero, Son etc and it gives interesting thinking ahead of the new season with likely price hikes for the Liverpool and City defenders in particular.
· Another point was going big on City and Liverpool players full stop. Whilst this will be more difficult next year due to expected rises, just planting 6-8 of these players in and rotating your other players would have been a great play as they juggernaut past everyone.
· My fixture planner was incredibly valuable this season, as it usually is, as it highlights good runs of fixtures from December onwards to maximise transfers until the end of the season.
· Having the most expensive player (or as good as) in each position was good practice as this minimises the need for multi-transfers. Having Salah and Aguero in my team not far off all season meant I always one move away from a player I wanted.
· I hokey-cokeyed a few players around for 1-2 good fixtures which I will try and avoid next season. Son to Sterling and back with my final two transfers were good examples of this for no reward from two transfers.
· Quite the opposite of FPL, there is very little TFF coverage around so I play my own game as I have to! This has helped me massively instead of over-analysing with all the noise that comes from social media.
· Looking at the all the points I have made in regard to my own season and the stats and points above, the strategy I will likely follow next season (assuming the same formations apply) is a 5-3-2 with a premium keeper, 4 premium defenders, 1 budget defender, 2 premium midfielders, 1 budget midfielder, 1 premium striker and 1 budget striker. I will minimise transfers through to December then look to use them as the opportunity arises due to fixture runs on midfielders and strikers only. The starting team will likely include around 6-7 Liverpool and City players. Sounds simple, but the last few season’s stats point to this and it makes sense.
Please feel free to comment, add more points or let me know how your season has gone @Fergi222 on Twitter.
Thanks for reading and following this season and I am already looking forward to GW1!
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