Season 2013/14: Your key points

gimmick

What mistakes did you make this year and what cunning transfers did you make at the right time which gained lots of points?

My season is effectively over. I am 3rd in my main league, about 35 behind 2nd, 55 behind top and about 40 ahead of 4th, so I think I am staying put in 3rd.

My season didn't really start until week 8 and I was left bottom on my league by about 50 points at the end of week 7. I made some terrifically bad decisions early doors.

Firstly, I decided on a tactic to put feck all into defense so I could have a strong midfield and forwards. This worked so badly I got 33 points in week 1. Wildcard time. I brought in van Wolfswinkel. Enough said. 30odd week 2 as well.

My next decision probably cost me my league, I was wondering who to bring in, Ben Arfa or Ramsey. I went for the former. I didnt bring in Ramsey for another 4 weeks, and in that period he scored and assisted for fun.

My turning point was GW 9 where I scored 81. I made up plenty ground and was off the bottom. I didnt drop below 50 points again until week 20.

Anyway, that was my bad moves. Key moves made were -

Dumping Ozil for Hazard on St Stephens' Day. Ozil did feck all for ages after that. Hazard scored plenty including a captains hat trick in January

Dumping Hazard for Toure about a month ago. Goals galore for Toure, nothing for Hazard.

Taking in Puncheon who immediately hit form and has got me 6 goals.

Taking in Bony about a month ago in place of Adebayor.

Finally getting in Suarez. I was late onto the bandwagon and was relying on Sturridge. Not sure what match it was, but I actually made my gameweek transfer before the end of a match in which Sturridge was subbed and had not scored. Decisive action paid very nicely.

Signing Leroy Fer and captaining him one week. A Norwich player. Captain. The mid boggles.

Captaining Victor Moses Vs Southampton after his debut a few days previous where he scored. He did nothing.

so thats my season summed up in a few paragraphs. Onwards and upwards for next season.

My total at the moment fwiw is 2154

jimmii

Pretty much every close decision I have made this season has gone against me hoping thats not the case next season! If I can squeeze out a top 100k finish some how i'll accept that. Looking forward to UFPL next season crazy reserves selection for me this week Murray, Baines, Adrian, Noble, Fonte & Lambert all of them picked up points 37 between them considering they all had tricky fixtures thats pretty crazy! Season has gone much better for me in that game outside of GW3 which sent me tumbling down the rankings massively i've been pretty consistent just wish some of that would transfer to FPL been all over the place in that!

From GW2-10 I only had one week with a GW rank inside the top million so was playing catch up straight away followed that run with a few good weeks and was at 107k after GW15 but have been treading water since then.

FutureGuy

1) Injuries and suspensions destroyed me from weeks 15-24. Nothing I could do but suck it up and get on with things. Went from a very steady 50k to 250k. Have been recovering ever since. Back to 67k.

2) Not sticking with my hunches. I doubled up on Palace at Christmas and was going to get in Speroni for the treble up. Never had enough faith to start them and I think they scored more points on my bench than in my team.

3) Using my WC in GW4 to build value (which I usually do) but moulded my final team around Van Persie. Disasterous.

KevIRL

7 weeks of poor choices both transfer and captain wise between GW25 and GW31. Nothing or nobody to blame but myself.

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

POKERKING

I had a three figure finish last year and thought i could do no wrong until this season.....i am too fond of "masterstrokes" and none worked this year...summed up by three weeks of playing steven fletcher in January which looks like it may cost me my main league.

roryc

Not getting Ramsey in. Other than that I haven't made any more minor mistakes than I would generally have made in a season. I've taken a few more gambles like captaining Hazard when he scored his hat-trick, and this has shot me up into the top 5k, but clearly I played it safe too much for the season that was in it. This was the season when gambles paid off. Bandwagons lasted longer than any year previous, and managers time and again trolled us with the big name players. I'll console myself with the fact that I'll make cash off people who will play the same next year and fail.

keano_afc

Not having Yaya for any sustained period.

Players doing diddly squat for me as soon as I bring them in. Puncheon, Bony, Phil Jones, the list goes on. Had some horrible luck with injuries.

Didnt bring in Hazard until the end of his big run.

alchemist33

Being too slow to get Yaya cost me. Having both Suarez and Sturridge before it became cool got me from about 250k to under 100k.

What I take from this season is, don't try to be too clever. Get the 5-6 most popular players and you'll hold your own (Ramsey, Yaya types). Let the other 5-6 be the ones to move you up the table.

CSF

alchemist33 wrote: »

Being too slow to get Yaya cost me. Having both Suarez and Sturridge before it became cool got me from about 250k to under 100k.

What I take from this season is, don't try to be too clever. Get the 5-6 most popular players and you'll hold your own (Ramsey, Yaya types). Let the other 5-6 be the ones to move you up the table.

There is no set formula like that. That's just what happened this year. Next year it may be completely different and the winners again will ultimately be those who spot the point chasing bandwagons before they become bandwagons.

Blatter

IMO two players made this a year to forget for me, Suarez and Toure.

Not that I didn't have Suarez, I was quick in getting him in after his ban. It was not making him captain enough. I fell behind a bit early in the season for a variety of reasons, partly because I started lax and didn't put much thinking into the game. Most people had Suarez captain throughout the season so in order to catch up, I felt I needed to go against that when there was another viable option to go with (Aguero in a home game for eg.) and this killed me at times as Suarez had one of the best FF performances ever.

I could never justify bringing Toure into my team at his price due to his position. He was one of two deep CMs along with Fernandinho (albeit with more freedom) in a 4-2-3-1/4-4-2. It's so rare for a player in that position to score so many points on a consistent basis. Ridiculously rare.

I suppose I could throw Gerrard into the mix as well. I couldn't justify paying that price for a player that sits so deep. Cue Liverpool winning a freak number of penalties and scoring from plenty of set pieces...

Santi101

Brought in Yaya too late, wasnt impressed with his early form when he was scoring the odd free-kick. Didnt think he would keep it up but he made it impossible to leave him out.

Didnt get Ramsey in the opening months either.

And was a week or two behind on Suarez, thought he would need time to get back into his stride.

Paully D

Mistake 1 - Starting to play the game

Mistake 2 - Starting the season with too many new players and no idea of how they would settle in (Soldado, Van Woflswinkel, Negredo).

Mistake 3 - Thinking that Yaya and Ramsey were just going through a good patch and wouldn't maintain it, thus not getting them in until it was fair too late

Mistake 4 - Not having Coleman until it was far too late

Pretty much sums it all up for me.

SkySter

Paully D wrote: »

Mistake 1 - Starting to play the game

Mistake 2 - Starting the season with too many new players and no idea of how they would settle in (Soldado, Van Woflswinkel, Negredo).

Mistake 3 - Thinking that Yaya and Ramsey were just going through a good patch and wouldn't maintain it, thus not getting them in until it was fair too late

Mistake 4 - Not having Coleman until it was far too late

Pretty much sums it all up for me.

Exactly the same. You could be me! I'd add:

Mistake 5 - Placing too much faith in a crocked Aguero coming good at crucial stages.

Mistake 6 - Playing my wildcard too early. Played at week 4 and it actually made things worse.

SlickRic

after finishing in the top 300 last season, I've learned a lot of valuable lessons this year.

1. Not every year is the same.

Last year, I would've never dreamt of making transfers early in the week, getting in bandwagons at a whim or taking massive points hits to get my team in shape. i had a way of playing last year that worked, but i wasn't adaptable.

when Ramsey was on his run, i waited too long.
when Toure went on his run, i waited too long.
when Hazard was on his run, I got Oscar instead, and waited too long to get on Hazard.

i missed out on far too many big scores to remain in contention.

next year might be different again, so you have to be adaptable. we were all quick to think a really expensive defence would be the way to go this year. people adapted, i didn't. lesson learned.

2. I need to watch games

Last year, I watched pretty much every game. this year I'm newly married, have been moving into a house, all sorts. It's affected my ability to watch games and know what's happening in teams. this is vital. it's why i assumed Ramsey and Toure would stop scoring. if i'd watched them enough, i'd have known it wasn't just a purple patch.

Since things have settled in my real life, i've moved from 400k to 100k in the last 5 or 6 GWs in my main leagues, and beat them all by about 100 points in April.

3. Trust your instincts and take an early gamble.

My ability to take punts has been decent this year, and I'll continue to trust my instincts on that.

I got Carroll in ahead of his Sunderland performance recently.
I got Borini in last GW.
I got Ramsey in ahead of Hull.
I got Eriksen in ahead of his run of points.
I got Suarez in and captained him on his return to the team away to Sunderland.
I kept Sterling ahead of the City game when many sold him.

you have to look for an edge, and get ahead of the game. it's not enough to just get on bandwagons. you'll get to a certain level doing that. you must get people in on returns from injury, or just before you feel a run might come in. that can put you over the top IMO.

anyway, in conclusion, my season is summed up by the fact I was decent at spotting a run before it happened, but was far too patient when it came to getting onto the right bandwagons, mainly due to not seeing enough football.

Rosco79

First season involved ...

Critical mistakes

1. Playing 4-3-3 for most of the first half of the season and not giving enough though to the balance of spend between defence and midfield, I averaged 14.5 per week over the season in defence and 17 per week in midfield whereas on review the top 3 players in the world (as currently ranked) averaged c. 15 and 21 respectively.

2. Double Game Weeks - I placed 2.4m in world in GW32 (after first DGW), 1m in world for w35 second DGW and 900k in world for w37 third DGW. Certainly filling my team with DGW players as numbers as opposed to being satisfied with just form players cost me going into GW32 and in GW35, I changed my strategy for GW37 but key injuries and player rest makes it impossible to assess that week.

Key positives:
1. Captain choice - I averaged 9.4 per week from my captain which is on par with the top 3 in the world

2. Striker choices - I averaged 20.2 per week on strikers which is within 1 point of the top 3 in the world

TacT

mistake 1 -- joining my first FF league.
mistake 2 -- not getting suarez in fast enough
mistake 3 -- not getting yaya in fast enough
mistake 4 -- armbanding aguero instead of suarez
mistake 6 -- too many transfers for points
mistake 7 -- too much money up front or in the mid and no balance with defence or gk.
mistake 8 -- keeping DDG in goal for the first few months.

season highs -- armband onto hazard for a hat-trick and my first DGW selection racking up plenty of points and breaking into the top 5 in my league. Hitting the 2k mark in points was a milestone too. Beating the guy who invited me to the league who is 5 seasons in and it's my first was nice too.

season lows -- . The opening game when mignolet makes a double penalty save. Injuries killed my season and I couldn't catch a break to rack up some points. Taking a 4 point hit to get cabaye only to see him sold to PSG. My weak bench in the mid-season whilst coping with injuries.

It has been good fun and some great banter has been enjoyed though. Plenty lessons learned for the next season.

alchemist33

We should pay special tribute to GW 31 where almost everybody recorded record scores. I must remember to take a screenshot before it goes away.

irish son

Similar to many others here, to slow getting Ramsey and Yaya and also not captaining Suarez enough.

Aguero getting injured in January was also a big blow as I had just used my wildcard to fit in Suarez Aguero and Sturridge up front which was a differential frontline to have at that time as most only had 2 of them, others then did Aguero to Sturridge or didn't have to get Aguero in and had a more balanced team to me because I went top heavy and it took a while for me to distribute the funds back through my team which I didn't do well.

JPA

Mistakes:
No Sunderland players in their recent run
Missed out on a lot of Toure and sturridge points
Never signed a palace player
Shouldn't have ever changed C off Suarez when he was in beast mode

Pros:
Had Ramsey and Suarez for most of their points
1 points hit all season

iroced

CSF wrote: »

There is no set formula like that. That's just what happened this year. Next year it may be completely different and the winners again will ultimately be those who spot the point chasing bandwagons before they become bandwagons.

I'd say a mix of the 2 posts I quoted below is a formula for a top 5-10-15-20k finish (choose your expectations level ). Of course you're gonna need some part of the luck factor the higher you're getting. At least that's what I've been trying since I started playing. 2 finish between 15-20k and this year should be inside top 2k. Only difference this year is that I played my WC early (GW4). I may continue that strategy from now on...

I also found that "pride" and stubbornness have to be prohibited in this game (doesn't it Mr Prodston :pac: ?). It's better to get a performing player a couple of weeks late than hope he might eventually end his scoring run.

Finally I must thank you all and say that this forum is a gold mine for FF. So much valuable information regarding the game!

alchemist33 wrote: »

What I take from this season is, don't try to be too clever. Get the 5-6 most popular players and you'll hold your own (Ramsey, Yaya types). Let the other 5-6 be the ones to move you up the table.

SlickRic wrote: »

after finishing in the top 300 last season, I've learned a lot of valuable lessons this year.

1. Not every year is the same.
[...]
2. I need to watch games
[...]
3. Trust your instincts and take an early gamble.
[...]
you have to look for an edge, and get ahead of the game. it's not enough to just get on bandwagons. you'll get to a certain level doing that. you must get people in on returns from injury, or just before you feel a run might come in. that can put you over the top IMO.

roryc

Martin Skrtel. 1 point in the last 360 minutes in the most crucial part of the season. Safe to say you will never be in my FF team again!

El festino

El festino wrote: »

I have a 30 point lead. My mate has yaya but I have nasri. Would be be worth an 8 point hit to bring yaya in to protect my lead?

Will just highlight this because there might be a lesson for all of us..

I made the transfer above at the last minute today to ensure I won one of my leagues. I brought in Yaya and Sterling for Nasri and Ramsey. I correctly predicted my mate would captain Yaya so I brought him in, in case he went wild.

However the sickening thing is I would have won another league too if I didn't drop Nasri and Ramsey. I could have won a nice lump sum but I a decent amount anyway. Point is, I didn't really want to get rid of Nasri/Ramsey but I got fixated about my mates team and to get Yaya in I had to get rid of Ramsey.

Two lessons
1. Just worry about your own team looking at the fixtures
2. Go with your own gut instinct always ( I have often preached this but I didn't follow it this weekend!)