Here’s our fantasy premier league managers article where we introduce a new FFGeek Contributor in Harry Vernon otherwise know as Horse. Harry was one of the 10 top FPL managers I followed last season who finished the previous 3 seasons in the top 10k overall. His last 4 seasons overall ranks are 22k, 6k, an incredible 224th and 6k. It also includes his early draft FPL team
fantasy premier league managers – Interview with new FFGeek Contributor Harry Vernon aka Horse
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Hi Harry, thanks for taking the time to do an interview and it’s great to have you as one of the FFGeek Contributors this season. Firstly tell us a bit about yourself away from FPL?
You can follow Harry on twitter here
I was thrilled to be asked to be a regular contributor to Fantasy Football Geek as it’s a website which I visit regularly.
I grew up in Portsmouth and am a Pompey supporter. I have watched us ‘grace’ all the present Premier League’s grounds except Burnley. Sometimes at their current grounds sometimes at classic old grounds such as Highbury, White Hart Lane, Upton Park, Maine Road and the Goldstone Ground. Football has been a big part of my life.
I now live on the Isle of Wight where I work with children who have fallen through the gaps in the educational system. I am a keen runner too and have just signed up for Portsmouth Coastal Marathon in December.
How long have you been playing FPL, how did you get into it and what is your motivation?
I got disillusioned with football when Pompey got into major financial difficulties and we almost went out of business as a football club. It was about then I started playing FPL. I really got sucked into FPL after watching Pompey lose a must win home game against Burnley 1-5 with Charlie Austin scoring a hat trick. In the pub afterwards we could not talk about the match and the conversation quickly turned to whether RVP would reward the armband with a hat trick.
I am now into my tenth season of FPL.
I have always liked my local mini leagues but also enjoyed how high I could get in the overall ranks.
Now I get as much pleasure from Mini Leagues and Head to Head leagues.
What is your playing strategy?
It takes me forever to set up my GW1 team. I mull over it until I feel happy. I settle on a team that I would have as a ghost team for the first 6 GWs or so. This frees me up to make transfers for whichever form players emerge.
The most important thing at the start of the season is flexibility. I prefer to have at least one premium priced defender and a couple of premium priced attackers who will take the initial responsibility of the armband.
For the third or fourth midfielder I will have a popular price point so I can easily move to a new shiny player.
It sounds obvious but I like to have 11 players on the pitch each with a good chance of picking up points. It is quite difficult to achieve this though especially when money is tight early season.
In terms of team set up I like to minimize the amount of money on my bench and at the same time want players to be nailed on.
A typical bench for me is four 4.5m players who are nailed on or even another 4.0m defender if there is another Wan Bissaka or Lundstrum this season.
In the aftermath of GW1, I am happy if 15 of my players (14 in a 442 set up) play 85mins or more, my captain returns alongside 5 more players and I can save a transfer for GW3. I will take 500K gameweek rank for GW1 and anything better is a bonus. After GW1 the real work begins.
Early on I follow the money game to pick up team value. The money game goes alongside the points game. Extra money is reinvested to get better players and more points. That’s the theory anyway.
I often look out for a good run of fixtures for a team, the way a surfer may look for a big wave, then gets set and goes for it. Last season Leicester had a good run, so I watched them and got in Vardy and Soyunchu. They kept picking me up loads of points. As their fixtures and form were good few managers sold them and lots more joined the bandwagon, pushing up their prices. So, when I decided to sell up to jump on a new ‘wave’ I had made a tidy profit to reinvest in new players.
I like to keep patience with players and get them in for a long run of fixtures.
I rarely take hits. Four hits is the most I have ever taken in a season. Points are too hard to come by.
A couple of things I noted from my deep dive into the 10 top FPL managers article.
Here’s a link to that article
Your GK PPM and defensive player PPM were better than virtually all the other 10 top managers. You also had the most clean sheets by some distance. Is this an area you particularly concentrate on
Yes I do. When watching a team I like to focus on how a team is set up defensively. There is usually a few bargains in defence. Clean sheets are as easy to predict as goals and the 4 points are the same as the 4 points you get from a much more expensive striker. For the past 3 seasons I have started with a 442 as you get better value for me for it. Then as I build team value I change to a 352 or 343
Despite a fantastic rank this season you were quite low off the average of captain points and immediate points for transfers. Any reasoning and learnings from that?
I played all the right captains on all the wrong weeks! I think I got frustrated and chased last GW’s points My plans went to pieces during lock down. Too many games too soon for me and too much other stuff going on..
I never really concern myself with immediate points for transfers. This is something I can learn from Fantasy Football Geek
Are there any players you think will definitely be in your GW1 team for 20/21 through all the tinkering?
Probably Trent Alexander Arnold, Doherty and Salah.
Your best / worst FPL moment?
Captaining De Gea as an uber differential in a DGW and him returning 2 clean sheets. 24 points and a healthy green arrow.
Probably the worst moment was the last GW of this season. I was in a charity minileague where the first prize was £500 to give to charity (RNLI). I was in second place and I gambled spectacularly to win the league. I played a FH chip and got 39 points less costing me a 10K finish and a promotion to FPL General’s Elite League.
Still it was a gamble worth taking.
Time to dust myself down and go again!!
Your favourite FPL player and your nightmare FPL player
I really enjoyed watching and captaining Suarez back in the day. Big fan of Michu too back in the day
Your first draft GW1 team
This is an early draft team and will change obviously
Thanks very much for the interview Harry and we look forward to seeing more from you before and during the season
You can follow Harry on twitter here
Other posts
The FFGeek Contributors first draft team
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