83 with Coufal, Stones, Grealish and Antonio to go, dare say i couldnt be happier!
Fantasy Premier League 21/22
- Thread starter Samid
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
It will.
But (assuming you're doing the classic WC + BB combo) it also means you have to:
1) Play your wildcard a week earlier, as opposed to someone without a BB who can use it with a week's extra information, making as many changes as they like up til the DGW deadline.
2) Spread your funds across your team so you have a fully playing 15, where someone without a BB can concentrate their funds in their starting 11 and get more DGW premium players.
3) Either carry that unbalanced squad for the following weeks or spend valuable fts to remove funds from your bench.
4) Have players on your bench geared towards the GW, whereas a non-BBer can have a bench geared towards getting more points in the subsequent GWs. So for example if (as has happened before) we have a blank GW shortly following a DGW a non BBer can build an 11 for the DGW and a bench for the blank.
Using it in a DGW will typically get you more points from your BB. But the goal isn't to maximise the points you get from the BB, it's to maximise your total points. And using the BB in a DGW involves compromises elsewhere, not least in altering how you use your wildcard (which is a far more valuable chip than the BB).
Correct. I feel like people don't even understand the explanation. Trouble is they are judging all the chips on the week it's used only and not the weeks preceding it or after.
Bench boost got me 3 clean sheets today that I wouldn't have had with my original team and mitigated not going with Bruno as I was always captaining Salah. Would've been 4 if Bertrand didn't come down with Covid.
I'll still be building up team value throughout the season and cramming the strongest 11 i can into a dgw with absolute drek on the bench and no need to worry about rotating goalkeepers and benching headaches up to the end of the season.
Free Hit is head and shoulders the best chip in the game and has to be saved for a double or blank.
Triple captain is more of a lottery. Someone in one of my leagues actually used it on Bruno today. Fair play to him but again that would be called a madness by the 'experts' despite him raking in 60 points from it.
A combination of the early fixture runs (City/Chelsea tougher, United/Liverpool easier), the uncertainty for Kane and injuries led to a lot of teams being similar. TAA, Bruno, Salah, Shaw and (due to injury), Tsimikas probably in loads of teams.
Then assuming other sites and social media are like this thread (where everyone tells people to stick to template teams and they're stupid if they don't pick Bruno and Salah), it's no wonder so many teams are similar.
But that'll change. Kane's future will be sorted and Lukaku will come in to Chelsea's team... then people will have four expensive players to choose from and the combinations spread teams. Then fixtures runs change, some players will get injuries, some will lose form, get rotated, etc etc. It won't last.
One game week of similar scores doesn't ruin it, it just means the likely order will take a few more weeks before it appears. You can always drop Salah or Bruno if you want to be different?
Yep. The FH is an excellent chip and can be tactically important (letting you ignore a blank week entirely with the rest of your team, for example) and the TC while flukey at least has no downside. Whatever happens, you get those extra points and you don't have to alter your team to do it.
The BB on the other hand is massively overrated. The average return from it in previous seasons has been around 15-20 points in a DGW. Assuming your SGWBB players just turn up and get appearance points, those who BB in a DGW get an average of 7-12 points more than you. I'd definitely back myself to make up more than that on them with all the advantages that come from not using the BB in a DGW. And even if the worst case scenario happens and I don't, their gain will still be reduced to literally a few points, completely minimal in the grand scheme of the season. All that assuming you don't get any returns whatsoever from your SGWBB, which you might.
Yeah those are all pretty standard risks associated with every single person planning a BB regardless of when they do it. Firstly, the 2nd WC is generally used before upcoming DGWs and the primary aim is to procure the DGW big hitters, filling the rest of the squad with at least good single hitters or even better good double hitters isn't tough, and both of those would easily be better than fodder level bench that you would likely get at GW1.
As for unbalancing your WC for a BB, like I said that's applicable to every single time. If you consider the unlimited transfers of GW1, you actually get 3 WCs in the season with the GW1 being the first. So if you are planning a GW1 BB, you would be doing all those things i.e. spreading your funds across the squad instead of a premium 11, having to stick with those players beyond the BB, etc. I don't see any difference there.
In particular, this season's GW1 looked pretty shite for a BB due to the pricing. If there were loads of mid-priced/mid to high price great options then it would be understandable, but this template was absolutely premium based. The only argument people had was seeing two 4.0 defenders in Amartey and Tsimi who would start for strong teams hence having a cheap playing bench in addition to that high priced template, but as I said, their ceilings do not really contest a usual DGW BB, and I wouldn't have had both of them just for the sake of playing the BB as both of them can get dropped in a few GWs leaving you with an additional headache apart from the usual bandwagons.
And the biggest difference for me, a mid season WC BB would have you pick in form players with pretty good knowledge of teams, players, strengths etc while GW1 is usually pretty uncertain in itself making it all the more harder to plan. I saw BBs with people spreading funds across the likes of Havertz, Grealish etc who aren't even guaranteed to start.
Taking the bolded points in turn:
1) Filling your squad with those good players might not be tough but it does distort the spread funds around your team. You simply wouldn't do it if you weren't BBing, so it's a cost. And it's not always *that* easy. As I said, we've seen situations before where a DGW is quickly followed for a blank GW for those DGW teams. Which means DGWBBers have to FH or spend transfers to adjust for the BGW. Or they have single GWrs on their BB, which reduces the already limited value of BBing in a DGW.
2) You're right, if you spread your funds around in GW1 you'd be similarly distorting your team. The difference is most people will be playing their first wildcard within a few weeks of GW1 anyway, so there's a natural opportunity to rebalance. You carry that extra 0.5 in your goalkeepers for a few weeks before adjusting it without the cost of a ft or altering the timing of your wildcard. Whereas in a WC+BB scenario you'll have wildcarded into that unbalanced team with no way to re-adjust except with manual transfers. That said, for that reason I still wouldn't BBGW1 unless there were enough cheap players to keep your funds in your starting 11, as there was this year with Tsimi and Amartey.
The other crucial difference though is that GW1BB doesn't come at the cost of having to play your 2nd wildcard a week before a DGW rather than in the DGW itself. That cost only comes with the WC + BB pairing and it's huge. All it takes is the wrong injury or red card in the games before the DGW and your Wildcard + DGW combo (which is where the value really lies, not in the BB + DGW combo) is damaged, causing you to spend fts/hits to repair. Or even if it's not damaged it could be suboptimal. For example, if a player gets injured/suspended, leaving another player you don't own primed to start both games in the DGW. Whereas there's no DGW anywhere near GW1, so that's a non-factor.
3) I massively disagree with your assessment of the current template price structure. You say it was premium-based but there were only two key premium picks in Bruno and Salah (and a half premium in Son). Beyond that you're left with players like Mane only owned by less than 5% of the game. That's the least demand for premium options there's likely to be this season, with Lukaku, Kane, KDB, Sancho et al still to become options (and make it even more costly to spread funds across your team). The rest of the current template is made up nearly entirely of an array of mid-priced options. Ings, Antonio, Toney, Wilson, Bamford, Raphina, Barnes, Benhrama, Greenwood, Jota etc.
I agree with that. I spent weeks last season building up for DGW and BB and ended up getting 15 points coming from my bench with a team I did not want afterwards which took me 4 weeks to get out of. To get a full team of doubles pretty much always means you are stuck with someone you don’t want.
This year I am basically able to keep Amartey/Tsimikas as my 4.0 defense fodder, I still have a viable team for the next 4-5 weeks and probably won’t have to take a hit and I got 12 from Tsimikas and Amartey. If Antonio gets a return tomorrow this will have been my best BB yet.
I do agree BB is an overrated chip too. The only time I saw someone properly hit with it is when my mate got it when Shaw v City was on his bench, a move that would have had all FPL experts scratching their heads.
Besides I am playing mostly focused on my two mini leagues and I thought using BB early would allow me to build up a lead over some of the others and would force them into panic moves and overthinking early on if they have to play catch up game. I am Mahrez/Antonio/Wilson return away from it to be fair. I know these people all too well.
Wahey, top of the Caf league! 106 points with Coufal and Benrahma to play. All downhill from here!
Apparently I'm 90th in France on only 93 points which seems ridiculous. Can only assume its because City haven't played yet.
I agree it is not ideal, but it is pretty hard to get a full playing squad with doubles.
Thus you need a wildcard and using it for other than bench boost can be good.
It worked ok for me last season since I had like 3 players injured and Kane plus Son with a single.
86 points with 12 points on bench. I always screw up my starting selection. Not sure if I want to exchange Greenwood for Pogba. It seems Pogba will be our playmaker and bruno our main scorer Until cavani and rashy comes in
104 with Antonio left to play and the 2 above me in the caf league used there triple captain
It's funny seeing majority of FPL twitter begging others to not make any transfers, sticking with your initial team etc so as to somehow stop the price rises.
Meanwhile FPL muppets:
Meanwhile FPL muppets:
Okay so it’s seems pogba at 7.5 has to somehow enter my team.
My decision to get rid of Bruno for Sancho just to get in TAA, was a horrible decision.
Made even worse that I captained Sancho instead of Salah.
Worst start ever for me with 44 points.
Made even worse that I captained Sancho instead of Salah.
Worst start ever for me with 44 points.
101 with grealish and Saint-Maximin to hopefully playWahey, top of the Caf league! 106 points with Coufal and Benrahma to play. All downhill from here!
Not much odds between 17 and 20 in fairness. Could have been massively worse.I'll admit, it does soften the blow a little.
But I'll be honest, I'd be delighted to see a rival in my league bang his triple captain in week 1 and probably only end up 8-10points ahead of my score!
Oh mate. We've all been there and got on the big new signing too soon.
Sometimes it pays off, like Di Maria, but it never seemed a given Sancho would start this one.
It's not a given to get all of your 15 players playing in game week 1 though either. And you probably have to spread the value load equally, meaning you'll still have to do surgery to get Kane or Lukaku in.
Plus it's too soon to know who to get on from Chelsea n City etc
Bb can be an absolute game changer.
I was sat about 5th or 6th in my work league, did the bb in that double week where Stones scored 2 and took about 30-60 off almost all of my rivals. Similar for a rival and although she dropped back eventually, I held on for half aseason and won the league, massively on that one superb bench boost.
You would have normally had Stones in your first team though that week, wouldn’t you? They were on a massive run of clean sheets and were playing at home against Crystal Palace.
I am not really keen on looking at exact players you have on the bench that week but rather players would normally leave out.
80 points for me this weekend with 54 coming from Bruno Fernandes and Mo Salah. Starting Martinez and having Schmeichel on the bench wasn't a great idea.
Well it jumped me up from also ran to 1st and I held on. Not much more evidence needed really. But I can respect other views on bb. I'd certainly never used it to any sort of effect before last year. Same as treble captain!
I think the dude was asking who would have been your bench if you didn't play the BB. That's the way to see that chip and what it did for you.
Some people this GW gone played their BB but had Salah, Bruno and Ayling on the bench for example. We know that wouldn't have been their bench of they didn't play BB.
Not saying you did that but that's what the guy is trying to figure out.
If you were trying to maximise the points you get from your BB then you might have to pour value onto your bench but that's not the aim. It's to maximise your overall points. A bench of say Bachmann, Tsimikas, Amartey and Gilmour would have got you 15 points yesterday while being dirt cheap, completely template and with two of those players only getting 2 points or fewer. And even if you swap Amartey for Veltman ( a supposedly more secure player who didn't turn up at all yesterday) you still break the 8 points threshold I mentioned while keeping the amount of money you have in your first 11 at a normal level.
As for requiring surgery to get Lukaku/Kane in, you have a wildcard that the large majority will have played within six weeks regardless of how they've set up their GW1 team. I know I have it loosely in mind for GW6/7 already and there's absolutely no need to own Chelsea players before then given their fixtures.
But if I hypothetically *did* need to bring Kane or anyone else in, it would just require swapping one of my current big hitter for him with 2fts. Bruno + Ings > Kane + 7.5mid, for example. Hardly major surgery and completely unaffected by whether I BB'd or not.
Yeah always hard to figure out looking back, but I expect he's also trying to console himself that banging his bb off in week 1 is wise.
If it really was,it'd be an established tactic from those who win the game.
This is pretty much the gist of it.
60 always my weekly target, so at 69 with Cancelo and Grealish to come.... best start ever. Happy with that, well placed in my money league, guys above all have Bruno/Salah which I didn't(Salah only)....but out of the 8 above, half of them have some absurd shit or clearly don't keep up to date much, so should catch them up with eye on the ball.
Sanchez - TAA - Cancelo - Shaw - Tsimikas - Barnes - Grealish - Salah - Greenwood - Toney - Ings for wk2.
Aylinh and SmithRowe on the bench with home fixtures too... 4.5m in the bank..... might just rollover the transfer this week, Lukaku is the target... so I need a double to get him anyway. I'll probably drop Grealish once KBD/Foden are back.... need to find out who's the real deal at circa 5.0 in midfield so I can then switch Mason to Sancho too.
Sanchez - TAA - Cancelo - Shaw - Tsimikas - Barnes - Grealish - Salah - Greenwood - Toney - Ings for wk2.
Aylinh and SmithRowe on the bench with home fixtures too... 4.5m in the bank..... might just rollover the transfer this week, Lukaku is the target... so I need a double to get him anyway. I'll probably drop Grealish once KBD/Foden are back.... need to find out who's the real deal at circa 5.0 in midfield so I can then switch Mason to Sancho too.
Being at 84 points, I'm happy to be back after more than a decade away from PFL. This was fun.
Now, I need to figure how not to be so obsessive about studying every last bit of spare time away on this.
Now, I need to figure how not to be so obsessive about studying every last bit of spare time away on this.
78 with a couple to go, quite respectable in the normal run of things, only good enough for 262nd place in the the Caf league. You lot are ridiculous.
Is anyone who did well this week considering any changes over the next 2 or 3 weeks? The fixtures look decent for most of my players. Only thing I was considering is taking Ings out since villa looked awful. That wouldn't be this coming week though. He'll get 1 or 2 more chances, see how he fares.
I don't understand the week 1 BB play. There's no way to even know who is going to play GW1 so surely better to just let the season settle a bit?
As a rule I wouldn't make a transfer after GW1 unless one of my players is injured/suspended. It's the one week in the season where saving your transfer gives you literally double the amount of games to base your decisions on.
After that Villa players will need to go when their fixtures turn and I guess most people have one of their players. If you have the likes of Jota/Greenwood then they might soon become transfers out too.
Won't say I did too well, my score is 72 right now which is exactly the top 10k average but I started with a risk of not having Bruno and having Mane instead on the single condition that if it backfires I would instantly switch it back.
Gotta stick to my plan so Bruno is back in. Nothing apart from that.
I need two changes after week 3. I’ve planned well for the opening fixtures. So hoping I don’t make need to make wholesale changes till I use my wildcard around GW 6 or 7.
Seems a popular time for the wildcard week 6/7. Is that around the international break or something?
Yeah 2nd break I think. Plus City and Chelsea fixtures turn for the better and United’s turn for the worse.
I don’t really have to console myself, if Antonio gets anything above 2 points this will have been the best bench boost in my 4 years of playing, while still coming slightly underwhelming as I expected points from Pickford too. And both previous years I waited for DGW before using the chip.
What I am saying is it’s typically hard to get much more than 20 points extra with a BB anyway, unless you inflate it by keeping players on the bench that you would not normally leave out. It’s hard to get 15 players in with a double game week and even then inevitably at least 2-3 of them will not play both games - or more. It’s not really controversial, most of the top ranks on forums are also of the opinion BB is worth around 20 points typically. The average for the last two years for top 10k players was below 20. So basically if Antonio gets me anything, I will be exactly on that. The average for top 1m is 13.
So if I felt good about having this particular team and I was going to build my GW1 around similar players and team concept anyway (having two 4.0s in defense etc.) I don’t think it was a terrible idea. Worst case scenario someone from my league will get 20-22 from their bench vs mine 13 (assuming Antonio blanks).
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Was looking at that area as probably bringing lukaku in. Wildcarding would be the easiest was of doing that I suppose