The FPL success story of Magnus Carlsen ♟ (Thread)

With 3 consecutive top 25k finishes, @MagnusCarlsen is now 9th overall and is chasing Joshua for that number spot!

What makes Magnus so successful and what are the similarities/differences between him and Joshua...?

Some things I noticed while looking at his gameweek history:

- Only taken 3 hits (-12)

- Has never owned Bruno except for when he used free hit in GW31

- Didn’t own an Arsenal player until GW29 which we will return to later...

- Has hit right with a lot of differentials:

Jota GW27-28 (38 pts)
Antonio GW35 (26 pts)
McGovern GW8 (9 pts)
Mousset GW13-14 (16 pts)
Otamendi GW6 (15 pts)
Haller GW3-4 (21 pts)

- But he has also missed with some:

Maupay GW20-26 (15 pts)
Gazzaniga GW13-24 (38 pts)

Captaincy:

Salah: 15
Sterling: 8
KDB: 3
Abraham: 2
Mané: 2
Son: 1
Vardy: 1
Auba: 1
Kane: 1
Pulisic: 1

Total pts: 606

Magnus captained has returned points for him 69% of the time this season

In comparison, I am at 50k overall and my percentage is 51%

Playstyle ♟

These are some recent quotes from Magnus himself:

How do you apply statistics in your evaluation of FPL players?

“If you have a good feeling, you should always try and confirm it with statistics...in cases where the answer is
not obvious, by all means go with...

your gut feeling and that’s something I do plenty of times”

Which FPL players don’t you like?

“I really don’t like Aubameyang! I just find Arsenal uninspirering and don’t feel like watching the team play...sometimes I get him in my team but I always regret it”

These 2 quotes reflects the way Magnus plays the game, especially the first one.

Magnus always strives to find the new differential before everyone else by looking at stats and eye test and trusting his gut feeling.

This also means that anyone can be dropped from Magnus’...

team. He doesn’t have any players left from his GW1 squad and this is because when a player does no longer perform, even though his name is Salah or TAA (Magnus’ favourite FPL players), he will transfer them out to try and find a new sort of differential who is playing better...

at that current time.

This is very different from Joshua’s play style, where he trusts and believes that his players will get back into form when they are struggling. Both strategies obviously seems to work very well.

Why is Joshua slightly ahead even though Magnus has earned almost 100 points more from captaincy

Because since Magnus goes with a lot of differentials, when they get big scores they are often a flash in the pan (Mousset, Otamendi, Jota etc) and it makes you hold on to them...

for too long, getting you 3-5 consecutive blanks after the explosion

If you want to look at it in from another perspective you could just point out the fact that Joshua has had Bruno since he arrived while Magnus hasn’t for whatever reason.

Similarities:

- Barely taken hits (0 in Joshuas case)

- Nailed captaincy, Magnus especially

- Haven’t captained any real differentials

- Neither has ever captained a defender

- Both has held their 2 wildcards for a long amount of time

Differences:

- Joshua has kept hold of his favorite players (6 from his GW1 squad) for the entire season while Magnus has transferred players like Salah and TAA in and out even though he has expressed that they are his favorite FPL players of all time

- Magnus always strives to find the new differential before everyone else by looking at stats and eye test while Joshua keeps it more safe and brings in players that has already proven themselves.

Players like Maupay, Jota, Gazzaniga, Mousset etc. are players that Joshua...

would never bring in, or at least at the time when Magnus did.

This is why it wasn’t a coincidence that Magnus owned Antonio in GW35 for 26 pts and Joshua didn’t because Antonio hadn’t really proven himself until that point. It also wasn’t a coincidence that Joshua owned TAA...

in GW19 for 24 pts while Magnus didn’t because he was struggling for form at the time so Magnus decided to transfer him out while Joshua kept him.

- Therefore Magnus get’s these extreme highpoints because of the differentials but also lowpoints like GW18 and 19 when Magnus got

scores way below the FPL average. Joshua however has always been very consistent. Not really had any high/lowpoints and right now that has helped him to that number spot!

Conclusion:

There is no right or wrong when it comes to playstyles in FPL. Magnus’ and Joshua’s are almost the exact opposites to each other yet they have still collected very similiar amount of points.

If you want to look at some of their similarities and try to focus...

on them to improve your own FPL playstyle, I don’t think that is a bad idea

Hopefully you have enjoyed this thread and learnt something new that you could take into next season! I wish all of you a great rest of GW36