Jairzinho et al
‘I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'born' soccer
player.’
Words echoed by Edson Arantes do Nascimento the man
synonymous with coining the phrase “The Beautiful Game” or was it Stuart
Hall? The modern game is ubiquitous these days with a vast majority of
games televised via the multitude of TV Sports Channels available around the
globe.
Prior to the Premier League era
there was a limited amount of live televised football on Planet Earth. Growing
up I looked forward to the FA Cup and the World Cup or European
Championships to satiate my cravings for a sport that I couldn’t get enough
of as a kid. If only I had been old enough to witness the World Cup of 1970 in Mexico
I would have drooled at the mesmerizing skill and technique of the Brazil
side of 1970. The South American’s are arguably the greatest side ever to take
to a football pitch. The Samba nation have football running through their veins
and the 1970 World Cup winners were no exception to that. This remarkable team
have gone down in history with names never to be forgotten, Pelé, Rivelino
and Jairzinho et al.
Memories of repeats of that
competition on TV and reading reports as a child obsessed with football in the
80’s, Brazil were simply irresistible in the final and brushed aside the
talented and stubborn Italian's 4-1 with aplomb. Afterwards, Pele was carried
from the pitch by his exultant team mates and the players morphed into legends.
For FPL Rogue the “Enterprise” Strategy
outlined in CaptainKirk which resulted in 3 green arrows out of 4 over GW11-14 and
has metamorphosed into a squad full of FPL flair but also resilience. Let’s
face it folk’s half the battle in a successful FPL season is asking your
inner conscious “Am I satisfied with my starting 11 and my squad in general?”
If not then start making changes, good vibrations encourage positivity,
positivity breeds success.
In a similar way none of us are a born “FPL Player”
and it takes certain skills, talents, invested time and some lady luck to make
your way up the OR ranks.
Before I divulge how my squad is
starting to beat to the sound of the Samba drums first the regular;
Rearview Mirror
⚽ Predicting
the unpredictable ⚽
If you had said to me at the
start of the season we will have stages where the in consecutive weeks the
Dream Team will NOT consist of Aguero, Kane, Salah, Sterling, TAA,
Robertson, VVD, Son, DDG, Ederson, Jimenez, Doherty etc I would have said
“Bonkers, your absolutely bonkers”
But GW11 & GW12 was
exactly that!
Only Son & TAA
made it onto that selection in GW13 or GW14.
Over 4 weeks in November only 5 players
made it twice or more times in the official Dream Team, Fleck, Tarkowski,
Harry Wilson, Vardy, & Son apart from the latter two names the others
(and no disrespect to them) were not names flooding initial GW1 team sheets.
Dream team selections for GW11
through GW14 were as follows! Some pause for thought required when
looking at this list!
⚽ Too template
or to template ⚽
The term Template is very
often associated with negative connotations in FPL e.g. your team is very much
template or a template is forming etc. yet ironically the Holy Grail of FPL is
predicting The Template before the Template forms.
Even when The Template
forms I still see merit in forming a backbone based on The Template for a
multitude of reasons. In the past I have made the all too familiar mistake of
trying to pick those untapped differentials in order to steal a march on my
rivals. This tactic is fine but I prefer to use that card closer to the end of
the season when chasing ML leaders or cash. At the early and mid-stages
of the season it is all about keeping pace with the leading pack, not losing
ground while maintaining your strategy, squad value and expressing your own
style of playing the game.
⚽ P(n,r)=n!(n−r)!
⚽
The argument against The
Template is typically the inability to improve your global OR rank
but think about this for a second. The number of combinations and captain’s
choice permutations gives you ample room for gaining ground while remaining
with the unpopular Template pick.
Therefore, if your backbone and
core starting 11 contain 7 or 8 players from The Template then the peripheral 3
or 4 with an astute captain pick can drive you up the OR rankings on a
consistent basis.
⚽ Utopian to
Dystopian ⚽
I reached out to the community to find the players with the
highest consecutive number of green arrows. @BlinderFPl weighed in with
8 consecutive green arrows up to GW12 then the call jinxed him in GW13, we also
had @chrissyrowes who made to 8 in GW13 and @FPL_RubberDucky who weighed
in with 5 up to GW13.
The cult movie Brazil named after the recurrent theme song Ary Barroso's
"Aquarela do Brasil", known simply as
"Brazil" and Sam Lowry’s quest to find a woman who appears in
his dreams (Utopia) only to end in …(no spoilers) but it is Dystopia.
In a parallel FPL world, our efforts
to amass and preserve those Utopian ↗
which ultimately descend into ↘ but some
helpful advice from our FPL Players mentioned above can alienate those bad GWs “For me patience with transfers....then definitely luck!”
“Planning, being patient with my WC (GW9) to get
as much info as possible. Luck plays a part as always.” “Luckily my transfers have worked well. Brought players in
at the right time as their fixtures improved.”
So common themes from all 3, patience,
astute transfers and a certain degree of Lady Luck.
To counterbalance the climbers, I
equally sought out the sliders and @ginger_assassin who amassed 6 weeks of
↘ before a ↗ ended that remarkable run and among the
despair come calming reflection from our maximum slider. “The
points spread is so tight I'm not concerned by it. Early on I committed to not
wildcarding, taking some hits and trying to hold on. That's gone ok. Got most
captaincies wrong. With correct capts I'd be up a lot. No panic :)”
Strategies
⚽ The Brazilian Way ⚽
The Brazilian front five from that remarkable 1970 side
consisted of Jairzinho, Pelé, Gérson, Tostão and Rivelino. This
famous five were all Number 10’s in their own right and together they created an
irresistible attacking momentum previously unseen in World football. I’m
looking for this same attacking momentum for my team through December so what
have I don’t and why?
Having jettisoned Salah in GW9 and the
returns from Aubameyang vanishing into thin air despite what seemed like
very favourable fixtures (drafted prior to GW14 😊
) compounded by Mané damaging by OR. I brought in Mané alongside Jiménez
at the expense of Mount to create a front five of Vardy, Abraham,
Jiménez, Sterling and Mané. Let’s face it the latter two midfielders
are really OOP Forwards.
My secondary goal for the initial 3 GW’s of December is
to clean up the fringes of my squad to ensure I have a playing 3 on the bench
and a set of goalkeepers I can rotate through the festive period.
! Did you
know?
The
World Cup was first televised in Switzerland at the 1954 World Cup, but it
wasn't until the 1970 World Cup that it was broadcast worldwide. Now it is one
of the most viewed sporting events in the world. The World Cup in South Africa
attracted an audience of 3.2 billion people: around 46% of the world's
population.
⚽ Biochips
Predictions ⚽
I add a section each month and ask 3 guest FPL players on
Twitter to represent Rogue’s 3 Biochips
i.e. Gunner, Bagman & Helm to
provide their predictions for the following categories:
- Monthly Maestro (Top Scorer over calendar month)
- Cech Mate (Top Keeper)
- Bandwagon (Next Pukki)
- Tom Daly (Biggest flop)
First a recap of the results from our November
Biochips predictions and for November I calculated their scores based on 3
games out of 4 to keep in in line with September & October. Thank you to
all 3 for contributing @Oldirish007,
@DhillonAjit and @FPL_RubberDucky
November
|
|||
Prediction
|
FPL Player
|
Score (Adjusted)
|
Month
|
Monthly
Maestro
|
@FPL_RubberDucky
|
27 Pts
|
Nov
|
Cech Mate
|
@Oldirish007, @DhillonAjit @FPL_RubberDucky
|
16 Pts
|
Nov
|
Bandwagon
|
@FPL_RubberDucky
|
631,570 Net Transfers
|
Nov
|
Tom Daly
|
@Oldirish007 @DhillionAjit
|
5 Pts
|
Nov
|
Leaderboard
|
|||
Prediction
|
FPL Player
|
Score (Normalised)
|
Month
|
Monthly
Maestro
|
@FPL_RubberDucky
|
27 Pts
|
Nov
|
Cech Mate
|
@Oldirish007, @DhillonAjit @FPL_RubberDucky
|
16 Pts
|
Nov
|
Bandwagon
|
@FChieftan
|
1,856,499 Net Transfers
|
Sept
|
Tom Daly
|
@FPLLens
|
3 Pts
|
Oct
|
So, for December
prior to the festive season (GW15-GW17) we have @BlinderFpl, @fplhangover and @FPLLens with
their deliberations.
BioChip
|
FPL Player
|
Monthly Maestro
|
Cech Mate
|
Bandwagon
|
Tom Daly
|
Gunner
|
@BlinderFpl
|
Kane
|
Alisson
|
Aurier
|
Digne
|
Bagman
|
@fplhangover
|
Vardy
|
Henderson
|
Ings
|
Grealish
|
Helm
|
@FPLLens
|
Sterling
|
Alisson
|
Pulisic
|
Maddison
|
A mixed bag in our Monthly Maestro picks with @BlinderFpl
opting for the forgotten man Harry Kane for the opening games in
December but why? “Following the
arrival of the ‘special one’ I fully expect Spurs to enjoy an immediate
honeymoon period. I wonder whether Kane can become Mourinho’s new
Didier Drogba?”
@fplhangover aka Ger
part of the duo from the excellent Hangover Podcast backs the man of the
moment, Jamie Vardy, to continue his remarkable run into December. “The man has 13 goals in 14 GW and hasn't failed to find
the back of the net since GW 9. With Watford and Norwich giving
goals away for fun and Villa being suspect to the odd defensive leak,
should see Vardy continue his quest for the Golden Boot.”
A brave choice from @FPLLens for the one player in a
slight slump with a fair few off-the-field aspects potentially affecting his
performances of late “Sterling
at a low point. City at a low point. Beware of the desperate animal as Sterling
reminds us there are no bad fixtures for city assets.”
Some semblance of a consensus for Cech Mate with 2 from
3 deciding for Alisson. @BlinderFpl goes out on a limb “Alisson maybe a naïve pick but I think we may see
the return of the ‘clean sheet’ with Liverpool leading the way. With favourable
home fixtures and the win against City in GW 12 I expect them to really push on
now!” And @FPLLens quips in with “Fixtures
reign supreme here for the best team in the league.”
A different perspective from our man from Limerick @fplhangover and a brave pick but can
United sustain the momentum. Sheffield United that is!!! Ger pins his hopes on Henderson
and adds “Sheffield United are currently
one of the best and most well organised teams in the league. Similar to Vardy,
coming up against some of the weakest teams in league throughout the Xmas
period. All assuming Lundstrum can stop hogging the limelight.”
The Bandwagon throws up
some interesting choices with @BlinderFpl keeping to a revival of Tottenham
under Jose with “Serge Aurier with only 2.7% ownership and the return of Jose ‘park the
bus’ Mourinho, plus his assist in GW13 it really wouldn’t
surprise me if he is sat nearer to 8-10% ownership come Christmas!”
The Hangover Podcast
representative perhaps shows solidarity with his partner in crime Seamus or was
this choice influenced by recent celebrations at an FPL meet of the Gowls in
Cork? What happens on tour, stays on tour! “Danny Ings
3 in 3 from Ings. SOU have some tasty fixtures and it all to play for. Ings
has talismanic qualities that rarely get released due his well noted injury
record. This may be set to change.”
@FPLLens perhaps
needs the return of the injured Abraham for Chelsea assets to keep
attracting attention from the Community and his choice of Pulisic.
“No player more in form. Pulisic
captures the hearts of the fans as he embodies what's exciting about Chelsea
these days.”
An early season favourite comes back into contention but for
all the wrong reasons the Tom Daly prediction for @BlinderFpl in Lucas
Digne. “Everton’s defence probably have
the hardest run of fixtures in this period, so I am choosing none other than Lucas
Digne (sorry FPL Prince!). With two own goals to his name in 48
appearances, plus a fiery of a Merseyside Derby, it will be all or nothing for Digne!”
Some sobering words from @fplhangover for any Villa fans buoyed by “Super Jack’s” performances
at OT. “Jack Grealish, I like
the cut of Villa this year and I also like how Grealish has looked since
getting moved further forward. That's why I think it will sting the most when Grealish's
returns dry up over the next few GWs. Tough away match to a Chelsea needing a
win and one of the toughest home games they'll have this season makes for bleak
reading.”
What the FPL! Another favourite on the chopping block for @FPLLens
in Maddison. “A lot of well-deserved
love showering Maddison these days, but as the fixtures begin to pile
up, Maddison is the first of the Leicester attacking options to drops
little deeper. Stats aren't great compared to others at his price point.”
If you want to add your thoughts on the Biochip predictions please
do. 3 people are lined up for the 2nd half of December but if you
want to get involved for January just drop me a DM.
⚽ Next Update
⚽
Back prior to the festive period games so until then enjoy
the FPL madness, interact with the Community and remember rule no.1 “Play your own game”.
#RogueAgainstTheMachine
@FplRogue
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