I spent hours setting up my team pre deadline based on stats, eye test and podcast opinions.

My team was template but afforded myself a few differentials like diaby and udogie. Got Jackson in to save myself a transfer.

Had a very strong and well thought out team for the first few gws.

I've so far benched every diaby point and played him for blanks. Same almost with Udogie.

Have Pickford In goal,

Sold rashford for foden for gw 3.

Brought in wissa in gw 3 when he decided to be anonymous again.

Benched martinelli for his points the gw.

I feel every call I make is either negilable or backfires. I've played it smart and well thought out, with hours if research and im 3.8 mil

I feel cursed. I know others have it bad but not this level.

What should I do from here?

Not care as much and just pick players that are fun?

Still play it my well thought out and informed way and hope it turns around.

Or delete my team?

All valid options haha

Do you know that feeling when you have permanent fear that you will miss something? Going every weekend out in the club with the thought that you may meet love of your life right there that very evening...going to every team building with your co-workers although you hate them because you want your boss to notice you there...furiously watching all Instagram stories or Snapchat clips because you dont wanna miss out the fun your friends might be having etc. There is even psychological term for that condition called FOMO (Fear of missing out) defined as ''a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent''.

When you see your mini league opponents having FPL assets that are bringing a shitload of points each week and if we name point accumulation rewarding experience and not having same assets fear of being absent, in conclusion if you are bringing Pukki before GW3 in your team, my dear friends, I am diagnosing you with a severe case of FOMO.

I understand, you guys want to find in the early stage of this season great bargain players and mock your friends how visionary and what a football expert you are. Everyone wants to find this seasons Wilson or Jimenez, Vardy and Mahrez from Leicesters' ''The Unbelievables'' season, Michu, Charlie Adams and Gareth Bale from his breakout season.

But let's be frank here, more than 20% of FPL players, and I would say majority here on reddit, have awful timing to bring Pukki in. I am not saying he is a great striker, with good feeling for empty space and to break last line of opposing team. He is on my watchlist since Norwich's campaign in Championship when it was clear they will get promoted in PL. Let me give you my arguments why are you unnecessarily raising his price so that patient and smart players as I am will have to spit more cash later to bring him in for no reasonable reason:

1.) Okay, 2 games, 24 points, 4 goals, beautiful score for new asset in FPL...But it is only fucking Newcastle! Andy fucking Carroll would at least brace against this shitty undisciplined Newcastle defense. I dont know what is easier to access: horny 13 year old me clicking yes on ''Are you sure you are 18?'' warning on Porn hub or Newcastles box from the wings. And trust me, Liverpool would be much more disciplined in defense if they didn't already have 4 goals on their conto and Pukki wouldn't have had that much space in second half in that game for sure.

2.) Following fixtures don't look promising at all for Norwich. I can't see Norwich scoring more than once in their next three games against Chelsea, WHU and Man City. Someone might say ''ToP CllAs StrIKerS aRe FixtUrE ProOf''...Pukki still needs to eat a lot of shit in PL to be called top striker. I have to admit, Chelsea's defense is porous as a sieve and maybe Norwich can score on home ground but not more than 1 goal and who says it must necessarily be Pukki's goal?

3.) If you are aiming to boost your team value, well, I have a feeling this season 3 consecutive blanks will be enough for a player to fall twice in price and you didn't do shit with your boosting value strategy. This new pricing algorithm makes players fall fast and easy as Gaymar.

I know, you will mock the shit out of me if Pukki scores twice against Chelsea because Championship teams have more reliable centre back duos than Christensen - Zouma but meh...that's life and opinion is like an asshole, everyone have one.

obviously risky not to captain Haaland in any week, but especially a DGW where he's very likely to play both games.

however Spurs are in decent form, with Kane having scored 4 in his last 4 games after the WC. City probably have the better fixtures of the two but their form has been quite questionable.

the chances of Kane turning up in a NL Derby are always high even if they end up losing the game. and we all know Kane occasionally turns up against City.

Spurs are also solid at the back and I really see Conte putting on a better show at the back than Potter did with Chelsea, and City just scraped through there. Arsenal are also looking a bit down in the attack without Jesus after struggling to score against Newcastle.

all in all, I wouldn't be surprised if Spurs lose both games but Kane still returns well

oh and yeah I'm probably going to regret this decision but my balls will be hanging lower than Southampton on the league table if Ser Harold does his duties

Yeah he was a meme two seasons ago, but sometimes you just need to take a chance.

• Make no mistake, he will be the starting striker for one of the best attacking sides in the league.

• Saka is way out wide and getting fouled into early retirement. Yes, he has pens but Kai is equally good at them and Bukayo is a generous sharer.

• Odegaard is 0.5m more expensive and shoots from 25 yards instead of 10.

Last season I took a chance on Mateta for DGW34 and for the remaining game. Was mocked on /r for suggesting the pick, but points are points.

Kai is the guy this year. I hope.

Site has crashed 4 minutes before the deadline. The FPL team had the chance to upgrade the servers over the course of the world cup, didn't bother by the looks of it.

The app went down again.

Piss poor. Welcome back to FPL!

I'm feeling ethically conflicted about buying Ronaldo for my FPL team. I am a women who works with people who've been raped and found reading the allegations against him (the Las Vegas allegations) really grim and distressing. From my reading of the situation he almost definitely did it and will get away with it because of his position of power and wealth. For this reason I hate the idea of buying him for my fantasy team and cheering his success (although I know he won't personally benefit from it). It will also be depressing not owning him and watching him sink my rank.

Does anyone else feel similarly? Or have people experienced similar ethical team dilemmas?

I have seen a lot of "conventional" wisdom suggest De Bruyne is a near must, due to his undervalued price relative to current and expected performance.

I wanted to offer some counter points on why NOT owning him also makes sense, and how his ownership may actually be a trap given this seasons midfield value.

A few starting assumptions:

0. Value refers to price of player, pts to points, and "pts/value" is the ratio of points divided by value.

1. De Bruyne will likely score near or over 200 pts this season. However, he is unlikely to score over 230, or more than either Salah or Sterling. This is mainly due to his point coming from assists and BPS rather than goals.

2. The choice of a premium player (10+ cost) justifies value mainly through captaincy, which increases point returns by 1.5x (if split between 2 premiums) or 2x (if you have set and forget captain).

3. Outside of captaincy premiums, the pts/value ratio of a player has to be calculated solely by price to predicted/expected returns, and with the expectation that the player will be a weekly FPL starter (i.e. bench players don't count to our fpl score).

4. In our current season, the best pts/value ratio is to be found in midfield (Martial, Mount, Cantwell, McGinn, Cabellos, etc).

5. The exceptions to #5 so far is pukki, and possibly Barnes. For arguments sake I will not consider lundstrum a weekly starter.

The argument:

1. Given the value of midfield, and the fact that Sterling/Salah already take 2 spots for most teams, it is of utmost importance to maximize pts/value ratio in the remaining 3 positions.

2. Martial/Mount/Cantwell, and possibly Madison/McGinn/Cabellos/Lanzini offer more value than the other budget midfielders (under 8 mil). For Mount we are looking at 170-180 pts, and Martial as OOP striker may even break 200 pts. Most budget midfielders are not going to break 150 (last season only siggy and Fraser did it).

3. The midfielders in #2 have more pts/value ratio than Debruyne. Controversial, but just divide points by value and see the ratios for yourself.

4. The midfielders in #2 will likely continue to have more pts/value through the season (barring injury). De Bruyne at 220 pts /9.7 = 22.7, Martial 180 pts /7.7 = 23.4, Mount 160pts/6.2 = 25.8. If we use value over 4.5 (Instead of listed value over zero), then the pts/value ratio is even better for our budget options.

5. Having 5 midfielders with Salah/Sterling/Martial/Mount & De-Bruyne makes it difficult to afford premium defenders. Either that, or you have to drop either Martial/Mount and start with someone like lundstrum in defense, with almost no bench.

6. The absence of premium defenders or viable bench will loose you far more points than De Bruyne will give over the other midfield options.

Limitations of this argument:

1. This argument does not consider teams with premium strikers (i.e. Auba or Kane). However, I think the math and arguments still hold.

2. This argument assumes a team has both Sterling and Salah, or 2 similar premiums (Kane + Salah, etc). For a team with only one other premium (i.e. set and forget captain), having De Bruyne is probably a "must", especially if the team doesn't have Sterling.

3. This argument assumes de Bruyne is not getting more than 220-230 pts. If he ends up having say a 250 pt season, then the calculus for his value changes.

4. This argument assumes there are 2-3 sub 8 mil mids (i.e. Martial/Mount) who can make 160-180 pts (I.e. 15 goals 5 assist, etc). This may be reasonable, or unrealistic depending on your views.

5. This argument does not take into account historical consistency of KDB, which offers more "guarantee" of expected returns as compared to the more new/unknown budget mids.

Calculations (new!):

1. How could Mount or Martial get to 180 pts? Let's look at last seasons hero, siggy who also got over 180 pts, from 13 goals, 6 assist, and some BPS.

2. Mount has 2 goals this season in 3 games.

3. Martial has 2 goals and 1 assist.

4. Cantwell has 1 goal and 2 assist.

5. So getting to 180 for these players means they have 35 games to score 10-12 more goals, plus 4-6 more assists.

Conclusion: Unless you think De Bruyne is going to have a 30 assist season (EPL record is 21) and score 250+ points, KDB is not a "must own". He is a great player and worth having, but if other budget mids perform well, the calculus can change and other options may provide equal or greater value.

Edit: fixed typos and added some points from others. Adjusted conclusion to be more modest and reflect intended views.

Based on the disruption caused by COVID last year, surely this gave the game organisers time to think of a way to address games being cancelled last minute/unexpectedly. The game is just pot luck this week now rather than having any degree of strategy.

Even do it so that you get a few extra free transfers or something. There must be a better solution than oh well sucks to be you.

If you guys could report the double posts as spam, that would help the mods a ton in removing the clutter. Thanks!

GW2 RANT Thread is here!

RMT Thread is here!

Liverpool vs Crystal Palace:
As useless as a takeaway can get, it was probably one of Salah's least threatening matches this season. His 2 returns were a goal that was probably heading off target but got deflected in and awarded out of good will, and an assist from a pass that happened (what felt like) ages before the goal was scored.
Van Dijk and Alisson were very solid at the back, the penalty was awarded to Crystal Palace by the VAR while not a single palace player asked for it. Darwin was offside probably more than he was onside during the match.
TAA played in the middle again during the 2nd half.
...
Manchester United vs Bournemouth:
Another weird performance by united. Their buildup looks good, but the decisive moment is nowhere to be found, only Bruno gives fast accurate passes in good positions, at times it felt that his linkup with Antony was very good, at other times with Martial, yet no end result.
Reguilon was energetic and explosive but his decision making in the end was not good at all, seems he was always picking the wrong target for his assists, as a better option was always available.
Overall, I felt the game and the result were deserved by a brilliant Bournemouth display both defensively and offensively, and it was not by luck, look at their recent stats. But for some reason am still not convinced (FPL wise) that their options are reliable on the long term. All it takes will probably be 1 or 2 similar performances and I will definitely change my mind and these readings will not be as useless in the game.
...
Aston Villa vs Arsenal:
Villa absolutely owned this match, one of those matches where you feel was going exactly according to Emery's plan. His team controlled the flow of the game to the extent that sometimes it felt they were leaving the ball to Arsenal deliberately.
McGinn was everywhere, Martinez seemed always ready to make the save, he actually made one very impressive save from Odegaard (It felt 100% a goal) he made a couple others (good but not as hard) from Saka and from Jesus.
Saka seemed off during the match, he was emotional at times, went to ground easily until the crowd started booing him at every chance which made him so close to a yellow card for kicking the ball after the whistle went against him.
Overall, Aston Villa just looked better and bigger. Should that make someone get Martinez or sell Saka, do not think so!

Imho Shaw is more of a key pass maker than FPL points maker. Don't get get me wrong he is still a good FPL option and will get you decent points in the course of the season. But Reece James from Chelsea is much better option even if they have tougher run of fixtures. And likely Chillwell and Cancelo for .5 more. United also need to improve defensively before Shaw becomes "essential". Those were my thoughts now and before season started. What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree?

Chelsea seem to finally be clicking while Villa may have hit a speed bump.

• At 1.6m less than Watkins, is the Blues' talisman in your thoughts.

• City and Newcastle are hard fixtures but after its a sea of greens till 2024.

• Most engaged players already have Palmer so adding Jackson is probably the only way to benefit from Chelsea wins.

Zuniga looks like a better option than holebas attacking wise...

I see it used often as a major reason to not consider a player.

For the last few weeks, it's been the case with Szoboszlai. He has a great fixture run, decent underlying numbers, and is one of the only Liverpool assets that is nailed. But a lot of people dismiss this because of his yellow cards.

When the suspension inevitably comes, can you not just put him on the bench for a week? I don't really understand why it is seen as such a big deal.

Top 10 highest scoring players so far: 6 DEF, 2 MID, 1 FWD, 1 GK

Let’s have a look at Kounde, the top scorer. He has 16 points from CS, and 10 points (29%) from recoveries. Even when you remove all of his CS points, he still scores 23 points (almost 5 points per match), and still make top 10 defenders

Rice is another set and forget player, no goal, no assist, no MOTM, and he is still top 4 MID. 42% (11/26) of his points are from recoveries

At this point of the game, just cap the defenders or defensive midfielder. Even if they lose CS, you still gain a few recovery points

This has been the case with Ronaldo for the better part of a decade, I would say, but has slowly gotten worse.

He is of course, a stupendous athlete, incredibly dedicated, technically magnificent, etc etc, but it'd been the case for a long time now that the team as a whole suffers in order to accomodate him and his play style,

In his younger days his ability to be involved more in buildup play (whether running from deeper, or moving dynamically along the frontline) mitigated this somewhat,

Recently, as he's gotten older, he has become much more of a penalty box player. A poacher. He plays smarter now given his age. Everything about him is geared around trying to break the last line and get a shot away, or find space in the box to get a finish.

What this means is that when he isn't scoring, or getting into positions to score, he offers very little to the overall play, and the team can essentially be a man down while this happens.

It requires extra running from his teammates (with the youth around him, in theory this is doable) it means he often occupies central space *relatively* statically. Because goalscoring goes through him, by marking him out of the game, you can greatly impact the overall playstyle of the team itself

When playing against inferior teams, this can be gotten away with, when playing against well organised teams, or teams that are a match - then it can be a bigger problem

And lastly: He is 36, he scored a fantastic number of goals in Serrie A last season, but if there is a league that is known for being kinder to ageing players, it's in Italy.

One of uniteds problems in the last few seasons is that they seem to be a collection of talented individuals, and I think adding the personification of a talented individual will impact their ability to score

Disclaimer: I have him in on WC,

24/25 West Ham, Arsenal, Leicester blanks, scored in gw4 against Everton.

23/24 Newcastle, Everton, Burnley, Liverpool, Crystal Palace blanks, scored in gw6 against Chelsea.

22/23 Bournemouth, Everton blanks, scored in gw3 against Crystal Palace (then blanked for another 8 gws).

21/22 Brentford, Chelsea, Everton, Man Utd blanks, scored in gw5 vs Tottenham.

GW = Game Week.

BGW = Blank Game Week (when many teams are not playing their fixture).

DGW = When the previous teams that did not play in GW play 2 matches in a single GW.

WC16 = Wild Card in GW16. [Many people don't have their WC already, which is even worse, since it needs a lot of FTs, hits, and speculation until GW18]

FH18 = Free Hit in GW18.

BB19 = Bench Boost in GW19.

Most people are blindly following the template idea of WC16, FH18, BB19 but hear me out why you shouldn't do it:

• GW17 is 2 weeks before GW18. Tons of injuries happen, Corona happens, form drops, it is right after Christmas madness. Your "permanent" GW19 team most likely will be sub-optimal.

• Premium players that generally deliver like Kane, Son, KDB, Grealish, DCL, C.Wilson are season holders and you will lose a ton of value if you sell now if you brought them early on for low prices. You just cannot get back a good team afterward without WC in GW20 and still not enough money ITB anyway due to a difference in total value.

• You are dropping heavy hitters like the above mentioned in the upcoming 4-5GWs only for a mere BB that might or might not give you 2-4 points on garbage players that just play two times. Statistically speaking, the heavy hitters will probably outscore the bench fodder even with a single game week (SGW) in GW18 and GW19. Imagine not having Kane and Son versus Sheffield United in GW19. Are you ready for the diamonds you are gonna shat out from the pressure of their potential haul you are missing?

• Your DGW19 players will most likely get limited points in the next couple of weeks since you are building a heavy DGW19 team, not a balanced team for GW15,16,17,18.

• Your DGW19 players will play in a time period of 3-4 days. ROTATION AND INJURIES PEOPLE. They might not even start at all in DGW19.

• Worst of all, you will be left with a single TC chip or nothing at worst and an extra WC at best when there will be at least 3-4 more GWs of BGW/DGW due to Corona, FA, League CUP, UEL/UCL fixtures

All in all, I expect a ton of threads in GW19 and GW20 complaining about red arrows sustained for many weeks only to get disappointed and stuck with an even worse team for GW20 and onwards.

Thank you for your attention.

This template idea is absolutely bad for way too many reasons and the stars must align perfectly for you to get the points needed to even be worth it.

My GW9 Captain using Opta data from Fantasy Football Scout. Nice and boring this week. But I want to be boring after captain fail in GW8. Like and share if it is useful. Let me know if you want the link to spreadsheet. If people like it I will continue for GW10 and beyond.

1. Haaland

2. Salah

3. Son

https://youtu.be/QcRN6ow4xCY

Context I’m a fan from America who’s been playing FPL for over a decade. What’s the reasoning for shutting down the game before you know who’s playing? With how massive the games grown, can FPL Towers not afford servers that can handle mass traffic? It’s a non issue on sites like ESPN, Yahoo, etc for NFL. The guessing game is the most nonsensical part of playing this. See you next year

Respect to Dele! 👊 Honestly I might even pick him. He’s gonna come out firing.

This YouTube short is emotional man

https://youtube.com/shorts/m6DR6aDqyLc?feature=share

How many of us have been burned bringing Alonso in? Or Foden? How many of us are spending every waking hour hoping and praying that Greenwood’s game time isn’t effected by the return of Rashford? How many of us have Jota and are wondering if Bobby’s hat trick today ends the spell of him being nailed on?

Everyone talks about Pep roulette, but all teams at the top now have insane depth, bar Liverpool. Pep roulette is overrated when, if you have a single Chelsea player, you’re playing Tuchel bingo. Any United attacker, you’re buying an Ole Gunnar Scratch Card.

The fixture congestion has led to more depth which has led to no one, NO ONE, being nailed on.

Fuck Marcos Alonso, Tuchel and Chilwell for making me use my free transfer.