FISO member Joccki had an excellent 2016/17 season in Fantasy Premier League. His final stats were:
Overall Points: 2,470
Overall Rank: 55
FISO Forum Rank: 1
Netherlands Rank: 1
Below is a graph showing his progress and his own write up about his season managing his FPL team:
Personal belief
I must say I have had a very enjoyable season. Thanks to the fiso FPL forum and the work I did, I have reached a very impressive – though I say it myself- overall rank of 55. I couldn’t be happier with that, despite just missing out on the top 50 and not being on the first page. I also have made some mistakes along the way which might have cost me an even better rank.
This season really was a new start for me and I hope I can build on that. I will try to summarize my FPL season on the basis of a few important aspects of the game. I hope you will enjoy reading it. Joccki.
How I work (briefly)
In contrast to previous seasons I really have been a planner. Each week I based my transfers on what could happen in the next say three or four weeks. This means I’m setting my team up for the coming gameweeks with players I do already own and I then try to fill the holes with players that fit my squad structure. ‘Holes’ arise when I think I don’t want to play some of my current players or I just prefer to have others in the weeks that come. As a result of that I can see where I think I need something.
Example
GW 16 –
G1
D1 – D2 – D4
M1 – M2 – M5
F2 – F3
GW 17 –
G2
D1 – D3 – D4
M1 – M2 – M3 – M4
F1 – F3
GW 18 –
G2
D2 – D3
M1 – M3 – M4 – M5
F1 – F2
After that I look at the fixtures. I put down a lot of options I have and I start to compare those options fixture-wise. For which fixture could I have a certain player? Does that require a free transfer or a hit? And so on. Yes, I really make calculations. Do I prefer Player X minus four points in GW17 to Player Y in GW18?
This fixture-wise approach also leads to something else: the players I fear. There are so many highly owned (premium) players in the game that you can’t own them all. Which of the players I don’t own do I fear and in which specific gameweek or -weeks? Is there an option for me to get him in and is it really necessary to get him in? Does he fit my squad structure and would I be satisfied with him for more than several weeks? The names of the players I can’t or won’t bring in I write down next to my own team to see who can really cause any damage.
Of course during a season there are a few players that really seem must-haves at some points. Just like everyone else I try to fit those players in the best I can, but in some cases it is almost impossible not to mess a bit with your squad structure or to take a hit to fit certain players in. Those players are mainly, perhaps even exclusively, premium players.
Budget pick
Since you can only play seven of your front eight players, the eighth player you pick is an important one. In previous seasons I didn’t even know what a ‘budget midfielder’ or a ‘budget attacker’ was. I just tried to get decent players and I wouldn’t mind a benching dilemma. This season was very different in that aspect, despite I did try to get away without a budget pick at first.
So, what is my history? Who did I have? When did I play him and what points did he get me?
Budget pick history Weeks of ownership Player benched Player fielded Returns
£5.5 Feghouli GW 1 – 2 2 0 0
£4.5/5.5 Capoue/Snodgrass GW 3 – 8 6 6 25 (avg. 4.16)
£5.0/5.5 Allen/Snodgrass GW 9 – 12 3 5 16 (avg. 3.2)
£5.5 Snodgrass GW 13 – 15 2 1 10 (avg. 10)
£4.5 Diomande GW16 – 21 4 2 3 (avg. 1.5)
£4.5 Barnes GW 21 – 32 6 6 14 (avg. 2.33)
£4.2 Carroll GW 23 – 29 6 1 2 (avg. 2)
£5.7/5.7 Zaha/King GW 33 – 35 2 4 24 (avg. 6)
£4.6 Stanislas GW 36 – 38 1 2 (one BB) 19 (avg. 9.5)
Captaincy decisions
I’ve got 339 points doubled this season due to my captaincy decisions. That is 8.92 points per gameweek. I’d say that’s pretty decent. I always captain a premium player and I never captain a defender or a goalkeeper. Also, the player I put the band on this year has had an average captaincy of 37.12% in the top 10k. That’s a pretty high percentage in my opinion.
Captaincy Player Value Return (C) by (C) top 10k
GW1 Agüero £13.0 9 33.5% 66.8%
GW2 Agüero £13.0 13 29.9% 49.8%
GW3 Agüero £13.1 2 31.9% 60.3%
GW4 Hazard £10.3 1 12.0% 39.2%
GW5 De Bruyne £10.5 14 2.5% 4.0%
GW6 Agüero £13.0 13 18.4% 43.3%
GW7 Sánchez £11.2 3 7.8% 28.2%
GW8 Agüero £13.1 -1 24.2% 35.2%
GW9 Sánchez £11.3 3 11.8% 33.6%
GW10 Sánchez £11.3 13 11.2% 26.3%
GW11 Agüero £13.1 6 32.8% 68.0%
GW12 Agüero £13.2 2 28.9% 35.4%
GW13 Firmino £8.8 3 4.4% 21.4%
GW14 Kane £10.9 13 5.7% 19.7%
GW15 Hazard £10.5 3 8.4% 15.3%
GW16 Kane £11.3 2 9.9% 32.9%
GW17 Kane £11.3 2 10.6% 28.0%
GW18 Ibrahimovic £11.5 15 25.2% 26.5%
GW19 Hazard £10.4 5 6.8% 10.0%
GW20 Ibrahimovic £11.6 8 23.8% 20.8%
GW21 Sánchez £11.9 11 16.5% 46.9%
GW22 Sánchez £11.9 8 18.3% 52.0%
GW23 Sánchez £11.9 4 18.1% 54.5%
GW24 Lukaku £9.6 21 6.0% 14.5%
GW25 Sánchez £11.8 15 13.5% 41.6%
GW26 Lukaku £9.9 6 14.9% 48.7%
GW27 Agüero £12.8 9 15.8% 42.9%
GW28 Lukaku £10.2 12 17.6% 46.9%
GW29 Lukaku £10.4 16 24.7% 78.3%
GW30 Mané £9.7 6 2.7% 6.0%
GW31 Sánchez £11.7 3 10.2% 40.0%
GW32 Agüero £12.8 9 12.6% 33.6%
GW33 Lukaku £10.5 6 20.7% 55.0%
GW34 Benteke £7.3 14 2.3% 10.0%
GW35 Agüero £12.8 12 10.8% 14.6%
GW36 Sánchez £11.5 14 12.1% 54.8%
GW37 Sánchez £11.6 27 11.3% 52.7%
GW38 Kane £11.9 17 11.6% 52.7%
GW AVERAGE £11.38 8.92 15.25% 37.12%
Taking hits/Making multiple transfers
The first few seasons when I was playing FPL I wasn’t really taking it seriously. I was in a cash mini league -just like I was this year- and that’s how I got to know this game. Of course I did read the rules before playing this game, but I wasn’t aware of that hits could break your rank and you needed to control your transfers and so on.
I was ‘punting’ almost every gameweek. I asked myself which players I thought would get the most points that week and I just got them in. This year that particular thing changed. Yes, I still made a lot of transfers: 54 transfers worth of 19 hits. Those transfers have cost me a total of 76 points. But what I can say is that I have had far more patience with players and I ‘punted’ far less than I did in previous seasons.
Punts
How can you describe a ‘punt’? In my opinion it simply is an at the time slightly unpopular player with very favourable fixtures. I have had a few this season. When I go for an unpopular player, I’m hoping for him to get a haul sooner rather than later. My punts along the way haven’t always delivered points on a consistent basis.
Player Weeks of ownership Fixtures Returns
Eriksen GW 14 – 16 SWA/mun/HUL 39 (avg. 13)
Payet GW 16 – 20 BUR/HUL/swa/lei/MUN 15 (avg. 3)
Pogba GW 19 – 20 MID/whu 13 (avg. 6.5)
Tadić GW 30 – 32 BOU/PAL/wba 11 (avg. 3.67)
Van Aanholt GW 34 – 35 liv/TOT/BUR 2 (avg. 1)
Daniels GW 36 – 37 STK/BUR 3 (avg. 1.5)
Stanislas GW 36 – 38 STK/BUR/lei 28 (avg. 9.33)
– I put Eriksen in because he wasn’t really a popular player at the time I bought him. I only counted his first three weeks in my team.
– I picked Daniels over Davies on my wildcard. If the news of Rose’s injury had come out earlier, I would have stuck with Davies. Poor decision.
Bad luck?
Whilst I still had more patience, I also managed to have three premium players at times they performed below their average.
Eden Hazard As an owner As a non-owner
Total games 36 29 7
Total mins 2.985 2.390 595
Total points 224 169 55
Points per game 6.22 5.83 7.86
Points per 90m 6.75 6.36 8.32
Alexis Sánchez As an owner As a non-owner
Total games 38 21 17
Total mins 3.217 1.818 1.399
Total points 264 141 123
Points per game 6.95 6.71 7.24
Points per 90m 7.39 6.98 7.91
Harry Kane As an owner As a non-owner
Total games 30 8 22
Total mins 2.523 687 1.836
Total points 224 69 155
Points per game 7.47 8.63 7.05
Points per 90m 7.99 9.04 7.60
I made this table six or seven weeks ago and just adjusted the numbers. In the final gameweeks Sánchez and Kane turned over completely. At the time I made the first table, both had much worse numbers.
Sánchez when I had him: 5.93 per game and 6.09 per 90 mins.
Sánchez when I didn’t: 7.56 per game and 8.32 per 90 mins.
Kane when I had him: 4.75 per game and 5.04 per 90 mins.
Kane when I didn’t: 7.30 per game and 7.93 per 90 mins.
Especially these Kane stats hurt. Of course owning or not owning those premium players is related to the spread of cash elsewhere in my squad, so it’s hard to translate it into points lost. However…
In gameweek 18 I decided to get rid of Kane after his barren run of two-pointers in games against United, Hull and Burnley. I brought Ibrahimovic in instead, who was in the same price bracket -even a little more expensive- what indicates that there were no other circumstances. I held Ibrahimovic for ten weeks and sold him when he got suspended after the home game against Bournemouth. Accidentally Kane got himself injured in a cup game and both were unavailable for GW28, so I probably would have replaced either of them with Lukaku.
From gameweek 18 up to and including gameweek 27 Ibrahimovic got 49 points. Kane got 86… Had I kept faith in Kane, I would have been 37 points (!) better off. Not to mention it required a hit at the time. Add those points to my tally and I would have been in the top 10 overall.
Backline
I have made nine transfers all season -excluding wildcard- to change my defensive unit (including a final week punt on Matip). I don’t actually know what that means, but I think it is a pretty decent number. Not too high, not too low.
I do however regret getting rid of Walker in gameweek 19 when he had to serve a one-match suspension. After his ban he immediately had a great run of points: 6 – 11 – 6 – 6 – 8.
Thanks to…
This was my first ever season I was continuously busy with FPL. Every week I tried to improve myself -especially during the first weeks of the season- on various aspects of the game and it really helped. Though I wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much without the help and banter on this forum. That’s why I want to say thank you to all FISO members and especially to those who supported and helped me throughout this amazing season.
Shout-out to Ruth and MoSe for our small mini league, to Stem and Mav for keeping The Cave very much alive and to every other cave dweller out there (AR, Notned, Billy, TU, PB, gallus and lots more).
Joccki