Efficient Management: The Captaincy Conundrum
Long time no see everybody. I took a long hiatus after my less than stellar start last year.
The FPL season is officially well under way and I trust we are all regretting our decisions by now, except for maybe a small minority, but don't worry, you'll probably end up regretting your picks in a few weeks time too. As of right now I sit comfortably at 8916 and just 2 points ahead of the top 10k. But this article is not about finding comfort in our shared misfortunes 😉, but rather a focus on how to effectively manage our time throughout the season.
I'm willing to bet if you are reading this article then you're not a casual. You take this stuff seriously unlike the majority that play this game. You do your homework, take your time, and perhaps sometimes like me, spend countless hours doing nothing significant. I'm talking about those masterful late night hits that just never pan out. I myself managed to create an elaborate plan which involved the transfer of Pickford before making two penalty saves in just two games... That's why I'm writing this, to zone in on what really matters and where our time is really best spent. Punts are fun but largely unimportant.
Now it goes without question transfers will take up a significant amount of your time. Form, injuries and potential bandwagons are all things we consider, and ultimately our transfers have a significant impact on our FPL success. That's why my first key to success is a paid subscription to sites like Fantasy Football Scout (FFS) which offer relevant statistics pulled from OPTA to help enhance your decision making. The numbers are not the end all be all (ahem, Tadic), but they do tell a story, and interpreting them correctly can give you an upper hand against managers that don't. Note: I am in now way affiliated with any of these sites. Also, there are many sites to choose from.
The secondary key to success is going to be undoubtedly captaincy management, from my point of view of course. As of right now I am averaging 66.7 points per game, and if I could somehow sustain this pace for the entire season, I will probably have a shot at the top 1000. My argument in this post will revolve around the idea of relying heavily on captaincy points each week to build your score by ensuring you always have a very strong captaincy choice. In other words, finding your holy trinity of captaincy.
This is my current team going into game week 13, and as we all probably notice, my captain is on Richarlison... Not necessarily a bad choice, but he's certainly not a high percentage point machine like Aguero/Salah/Hazard playing at home. In order to fully illustrate my point I will begin by showing you my captaincy data up until this point. Note: Data can be retrieved from https://fplmystats.com/
The FPL season is officially well under way and I trust we are all regretting our decisions by now, except for maybe a small minority, but don't worry, you'll probably end up regretting your picks in a few weeks time too. As of right now I sit comfortably at 8916 and just 2 points ahead of the top 10k. But this article is not about finding comfort in our shared misfortunes 😉, but rather a focus on how to effectively manage our time throughout the season.
I'm willing to bet if you are reading this article then you're not a casual. You take this stuff seriously unlike the majority that play this game. You do your homework, take your time, and perhaps sometimes like me, spend countless hours doing nothing significant. I'm talking about those masterful late night hits that just never pan out. I myself managed to create an elaborate plan which involved the transfer of Pickford before making two penalty saves in just two games... That's why I'm writing this, to zone in on what really matters and where our time is really best spent. Punts are fun but largely unimportant.
Now it goes without question transfers will take up a significant amount of your time. Form, injuries and potential bandwagons are all things we consider, and ultimately our transfers have a significant impact on our FPL success. That's why my first key to success is a paid subscription to sites like Fantasy Football Scout (FFS) which offer relevant statistics pulled from OPTA to help enhance your decision making. The numbers are not the end all be all (ahem, Tadic), but they do tell a story, and interpreting them correctly can give you an upper hand against managers that don't. Note: I am in now way affiliated with any of these sites. Also, there are many sites to choose from.
The secondary key to success is going to be undoubtedly captaincy management, from my point of view of course. As of right now I am averaging 66.7 points per game, and if I could somehow sustain this pace for the entire season, I will probably have a shot at the top 1000. My argument in this post will revolve around the idea of relying heavily on captaincy points each week to build your score by ensuring you always have a very strong captaincy choice. In other words, finding your holy trinity of captaincy.
This is my current team going into game week 13, and as we all probably notice, my captain is on Richarlison... Not necessarily a bad choice, but he's certainly not a high percentage point machine like Aguero/Salah/Hazard playing at home. In order to fully illustrate my point I will begin by showing you my captaincy data up until this point. Note: Data can be retrieved from https://fplmystats.com/
To begin, I do not take credit for the fact that my captain has scored every single week. I do however take credit for strategically planning a 12 week captaincy schedule which greatly increased the odds by taking advantage of the alternating home and away schedule of Man City and Liverpool. Besides game week 8 when I captained Hazard away to Southampton, every other captaincy was a home fixture. The fixture list is as follows; WHU/HUD/BHA/NEW/FUL/SOU/BHA/sou/BUR/CAR/SOU/FUL
For anyone with access to OPTA statistics, you are probably well aware of how well Aguero and Salah play at home. If you're not, check out last years home statistics;
I don't think any further analysis is necessary... If we factor in the relatively easy strength of the schedule plus Aguero and Salah's home form, it seems like a no brainer. At this point you also might be thinking "well no duh" and how this might not be much of a significant suggestion to make, and to that I ask, did you do this as well this year?
In hindsight it all seems so obvious, but prior to starting the season I was not quite sure whether or not I wanted to spend so much of my budget on three very strong attacking players. What I did note was a very rare opportunity where Liverpool and Man City switched home fixtures every week. The best part about this? I only captained my highest scoring player 3 out of the 12 weeks.
The pro's: Aguero, Salah and Hazard are point machines at home. You can plan your captain schedule many weeks ahead. It makes captaincy very easy and it will greatly maximize your return potential over the captaincy schedule that you've planned.
The con's: It's expensive, so you will have to be very resourceful. You will miss a lot of bandwagons (My apologies David Silva, Siggy and Martial). Injuries and loss of form can of course derail everything. Less expensive players may match your holy trinities output.
Overall this may seem very simple, maybe even too simple... And that's because it is. The reason why I wrote this is because I still see managers struggle with their overarching strategy, whether or not they are even aware that they have one. If you're someone who is somewhat lost with their team planning then this framework is a great start. It goes against the theory of maximizing team value, as you will spend greatly on three players, but it makes up for this with high captaincy return potential. All it takes is a little foresight into the future game weeks and a few transfers.
For anyone wondering what to do next, Harry Kane happens to have a very reasonable run of fixtures to come 😉, and that's what ultimately makes this strategy so viable this year, the large amount of captaincy options at our disposal. And of course all of the high scoring budget players, but that's for another post.
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