FPL 19/20 - My Learnings thread

Hi Folks, I finished my first season playing FPL with an OR of 24,511. Posting a thread on the lessons I learnt while they are still fresh in my head. Hope it helps other new managers out there.
#FPL #FPLCommunity @OfficialFPL

1.) Keep calm and enjoy the ride - Over the course of 38 weeks, you are sure to experience some massive disappointments. A hit may backfire, benching or captaincy may go wrong or you might simply come out at the wrong end of the infamous Pep roulette. Just keep calm and...

...don’t go overboard with your reaction. Knee-jerk reactions make things worse. It's a long season, and you have enough time to make up

2.)Plan a few GW ahead: The nature of the game is such that you cannot think of simply one GW at a time. Plan your transfers for at least the next 3-4 weeks. Things will not go as per plan most of the time, but you will feel more in control and your decisions will be more...

...thought through. Also, having 2 free transfers is very useful and good planning can help you carry forward a transfer from time to time

3.) No chip strategy is perfect: There is no perfect strategy for using your chips especially when it comes to Wildcards. Some choose to WC early, some hold on to it. Do what suits your team the best. Be proactive - use the WC whenever you feel your team needs immediate surgery

4.) Aggression doesn't equal hits: It’s important to play a little aggressively if you are looking for quick rank improvement. Simple risk - reward relation. A highly templatised team might help you protect your rank, but you may not gain much. You can play aggressively...

...by going for differentials even without taking hits. Different players have different styles, but my recommendation is that only take hits when there is a possibility of a big haul.

5.) Team value is important but only up to a certain extent - A high team value gives a certain level of flexibility towards the final weeks. But I won’t recommend chasing it by making transfers early in the GW or holding onto out of form players just for the sake of not...

...losing value. Enablers will keep popping up - the likes of Cantwell, Foden, Traore, Greenwood, Mousset, Connolly were decent cheap options at different points of the season. Using them gives you enough flexibility for the rest of the team

6.) Eye test is super important - While you can always look at stats to help you make decisions, nothing beats the eye test. Watch as many matches as time allows you, especially of players in your team or watchlist. You can easily notice players whose actual performance and FPL..

... points are not in sync. Helps you get ahead of the curve in terms of getting players in or even moving them out before others do.

7.) Gut calls aren’t unscientific: There are times when you will have a strong intuition to make a certain transfer. Go with your intuition and make the gut call. Gut calls aren’t unscientific. Your subconscious keeps collecting a lot of info, especially by watching games,...

... and it's important to listen to it from time to time. A friend made a gut call to captain KDB over Sterling in the last GW and won his mini-league.

8.) Teams need tweaks not wholesale changes for DGW / BGW: Moving out TAA before his BGW and delaying his return by one week was one of my biggest mistakes. Lost out on a 24 point haul. Don’t screw up your team just to maximise over one week. Think about the few weeks before ...

...and after the BGW / DGW and maybe use your chips to ensure you maximise the week without compromising the overall team. There are certain constants in your team who you can carry on the bench even through BGWs.

9.) Don’t be emotionally attached to players - As a United fan, nothing gave me more joy than tripling up on United attack after the restart. I could cheer for United without feeling bad about my FPL team. But I realise it’s not gonna happen every week. Take transfer...

...decisions rationally without being emotionally attached to your favourite players. Hoping for a Salah or a Sterling goal seems weird for me but then that’s how the game is :)

10.) Always remember FPL is just a game: There were times when I felt I was spending way too much time on my team every week. It can get stressful and you can start ignoring other things in life. My mood swung based on whether my GW was going well or not. Always..

...remember we play FPL to have a good time and that at the end of the day it’s just a game. Life > Football > FPL :)

Big thank you to @BigManBakar, @lateriser12 , @FPLGeneral , @FPLFamily , @WGTA_FPL - whose thoughts helped shape a lot of my decisions over the season. The FPL Community is amazing and I hope to contribute as we go ahead. Can’t wait to get started again!