FPL manager interviews – Kris who finished the last 5 seasons with ORs inside the top 1%

Contributors, Fantasy Premier League

Here’s our 4th FPL manager interviews article with new FFGeek contributor Kris. Kris has been a consistent FPL manager finishing 44k last season and 46k, 23k, 12k and 19k in the seasons before that.  Here he talks about his strategy for playing FPL, his motivation and best/worst moments.

FPL manager interviews – Kris who finished the last 5 seasons with ORs inside the top 1%

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See also interviews with Rick PorterKev from Canada and Andrew Whitfield

There’s also contributor draft teams part 1 and part 2



Hi Kris, thanks for taking the time to do an interview.  Firstly tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a ‘typical’ mid 30s fantasy football family man! I enjoy watching sports; football and formula 1 in particular. I used to play too, but now I focus on the gym and running. I enjoy taking my two kids swimming and my three year old son to football classes (my daughter gave up age three!)

I’m an Arsenal fan; though unusually I live in Manchester. I used to watch them live 15-20 times a season, but I only make a handful of games these days. In fact, last season I went to more Arsenal Women then Arsenal matches as my five year old daughter has started to build her interest – getting autographs off your favourite players after the match is a great draw for the kids.

I work in finance and have a maths background, however as you will see I don’t focus fully on stats for my FPL decision making 😊

How long have you been playing FPL, how did you get into it and what is your motivation?

I started in 2010/11 following an invite from a friend to join his league. I was still playing the Telegraph edition at the time. I lost interest during my first few seasons (though I appear to have finished 64k in my second season?!), primarily because of the need to manage the team each week. The price change took me a while to come to terms with; I can’t remember the season but I had Tevez (at City) when he stormed the start of the season, but when I checked my team a few weeks later he’d lost about a £1m in value.

It was the 2014/15 season when I joined a paid mini-league or two which started me to think a bit more about tactics and keeping interest through the season; but even during the past five seasons there have been points where I take my eye off it for a few weeks. Although that would suggest my motivation is money it is primarily just competing with my friends and work colleagues!

Lets see your rank history

2018/19 44855

2017/18 46491

2016/17 23802

2015/16 12102

2014/15 19302



What is your playing strategy?

I use a combination of stats and gut feeling to make my decisions. This means I am willing to take on a risk or two; including taking hits – 40 points worth last season (almost the anti-geek!). I listen to football podcasts (Football Weekly, Sunday Supplement) which helps expand on anything that I read or watch. Most important to me is enjoying the game and avoiding getting dragged down by a bad week or decision. Some more specifics around my strategy:

· Building team value to maximise my squad around the double game weeks; being careful not to mix this with chasing lost points given their strong correlation. This means I am happy to perform an early transfer to maximise price moves.

· There is so much uncertainty at the start of the season so I avoid planning the use of my first wildcard; I simply use it when I feel it is needed.

· In past seasons I’ve found myself making lots of changes on my Wildcard to “get my moneys worth” selling players I later regret, so I will be challenging/reminding myself that even 4 or 5 changes justifies a Wildcard.

· Like most players I save my free hit and second Wildcard chips for the single and double game weeks. I am open to using my Triple Captain at other times; I find this chip can feel like a chain around your neck if used too late in the season.

· When picking my first team I’ll go through each club and add players of interest. I then try to remind myself to revisit the watchlist as the season goes along; trying to spot the player who has dropped in price and has the potential to come good. I’ll chat more about my formation and team selection in my upcoming last draft team articles.

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

Not really. I enjoyed The Telegraph World Cup 2018 game and did quite well. I had some credits left over so I joined The Telegraph last season and was well placed but lost interest/concentration around maximising my transfers between matches so let the team run on its own for the second half of the season – I have no idea were I finished!

You best / worst FPL moment?

My FPL memory isn’t great, but my best moment from last season is GW24 when I transferred in and tripled captained Ageuro for a 57 point haul; this was the start of 10 consecutive green arrows taking me from 1.3m OR into the top 50k.

Again calling on last season my GW34 wildcard with an OR of 5.5m. Only Mane scored points; which I highlight to explain why captaining Duffy didn’t make my top three mistakes for the gameweek!

Your favourite FPL player and your nightmare FPL player?

A couple of nightmare players for me are Martial and Ozil. Over the past few seasons I’ve had them both in and out of my team; but their inconsistency (and my bad timing) means they’ve never scored well. Both are very talented – I still think Martial has the potential for a big season so I wouldn’t be surprised if I am tempted again! The same can’t be said about Ozil despite the fact, unlike at the start of his Arsenal career, he has two quality strikers to feed – as a fan I hope he does have a great season and the recent stories of a happy harmonious relationship with Emery results in a significant improvement.

One of my favourite players is the pre-United Lukaku. I seem to have him in my team when he was on fire, for example I remember in the 16/17 transferring him into my team in GW4/5 and captaining him to a Monday night second half hat-trick for Everton against Sunderland giving my team a much needed boost.

Kris, like our other contributors and members can be found on the FFGeek Patreon site. Kris appeared in a podcast which you can also find on the Patreon site and talked about his strategy and last season in much more detail.  Despite the consistent results in the past last season was an interesting roller coaster ride.

Other articles

See also interviews with Rick PorterKev from Canada and Andrew Whitfield

There’s also contributor draft teams part 1 and part 2

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