Here’s FFGeek Contributor Alon Shamir with his Fantasy Premier League season review. He looks quickly back on GW38, his 21/22 season and looks ahead to 22/23.
Fantasy premier league Season review – Alon Shamir Looks Back At His 21/22 FPL Season
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Alon Shamir
Alon’s last 5 seasons overall ranks are 44k, 1k, 123k, 4k and 2k
GW38 Points: 57 -4 Total points: 2,619, Overall Rank: 11k, red arrow 4k. Team Value: £105.3m
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It’s all done now. All of the transfers, captain choices, analysis, and strategies are now summarized into one single number – the OR. This is the only data that is recorded into our FPL accounts.
GW38 Review
I had an awful GW38. I scored 57 (-4) points, which meant a drop to 11.8K OR. Almost everything went wrong for me (the double Liverpool and double City early clean sheet wipeouts signalled what was about to happen). But just to add to that frustration – I deliberated during the last minutes pre deadline over taking a hit which was not supposed to be taken, just because there were too many rumors and uncertainties regarding my squad: Alonso, Saka, Richarlison were all rumoured to miss out (in addition to Salah but that was expected and I planned to replace him with Son many days before anyway). Nketiah was another player who I thought could have started on the bench since it was Lacazette’s last match for Arsenal, so some predicted he’ll be the one to get the first team shirt.
I didn’t want to be left with fewer than 11 playing players so I reluctantly decided to take a hit, and considered 2 options: Kulusevski for Dewsbury Hall or Toney for Richarlison. It just broke out on Twitter that Richarlison was out of squad for sure so I decided on the second option so that I’ll keep a playing Dewsbury Hall on my bench for any case. This decision cost me 15 points and actually, even not taking any hit, as I planned initially, would have been just enough to get into that desired top 10K
Overcoming Rank Drops
It’s important to remember that finishing 5 points short of the top 10K doesn’t really make my season any less impressive. I’m very proud to have achieved this rank after suffering 2 massive undeserved rank drops:
1. The infamous FPL website crashing 10 minutes before the GW19 deadline. I had always been waiting for 2 minutes before the deadline to confirm my transfers, just to make sure that I don’t miss any news or leaks. That gameweek my patience cost me a lot (40-50 points to be more precise. I did the math 🤦♂️). I must say it is outrageous that such a popular game, sponsored by 2 such wealthy corporations can’t get a tech department of an adequate level. Anyhow, since that event I have been making my transfers 15-20 minutes before deadline and I think I will carry this habit to next season as well.
2. After examining the possible rescheduling of fixtures I decided to not activate any chips in GWs 28-30 but save them for later. This decision cost me about 100-200 points during these 3 gameweeks (not kidding!) since I missed all the players who hauled big and were selected (and even captained) by WCers. I was expecting a rank drop of course, but the variance during these weeks was so massively high, and I was on the bottom of the scale. To be fair though, I got back some of these “variance points” when I successfully captained KDB for his massive haul in DGW36 while Salah was about 180% EO in the top 10K and blanked.
Going Against the Grain
I think that the second event mentioned above is important for me to ponder on some more. I consider myself as someone who thinks for himself and does not surrender to groupthink. As a result, I make decisions that are sometimes very different to the FPL community consensus. I went many times this season against the super high EO captain (even when it meant picking a single gameweek captain over a double), I sticked with Son when many switched him to Kane in the last quarter of the season, and as mentioned, I took a very unpopular chip strategy. Many managers avoid these moves because they say it is too risky. But people in the FPL community tend to forget that high risk also suggests the opportunity for a high reward. And I am happy to take it.
Many times this approach benefits me, as it essentially means I’m going for the high EV move rather than spreading the risk. But this feeling of being right when everyone else is wrong is addictive. As a result, I sometimes tend to the unpopular choice just for the sake of it, and I think that this was the case when I decided to not use any chips in GWs 28-30. In future seasons I will try to be more aware of this “addiction” and avoid it when unnecessary.
Sharing Moves
To conclude, it was a very special season for me. Not only because of my rank boost in the end of the season, but mainly since it was my first time writing content and sharing my thoughts and moves before I make them. Previously, I have always been very discreet about my moves and actually, I really didn’t like the idea that my mini league rivals would get an edge over me because of that. But I ended this season in the money in all the mini leagues I participated in. So I guess it went alright :)
Lastly, I hope I helped some of you or that at least you enjoyed reading and following me. Please let me know your thoughts on the articles and tweets I posted throughout this season via Twitter (feel free to DM me. I promise to answer). I would like to hear any feedback, positive and negative, and also to know if you have any suggestions for next season’s content.
I wish us all to enjoy the break and come back refreshed for next season. We will need it in order to get that top 10K finish 😜
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