Libero

“If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”

Out of the traps as quickly as possible is the objective for 20/21 season with the ultimate goal of beating that Personal Best OR of 3198.



As the opening passage of The Libero: Football’s Forgotton Man states “It was a majestic sight. Go back 30 or 40 years and watch teams defend. The majority of them will feature a type of player that seems to have been lost from the modern game. You’ll see an elegant defender sitting behind the defensive line, picking up a stray through balls from an attacker. As he effortlessly brings it under his control, he marches forward with it, stepping past the other defenders and moving into the midfield zone. From there he acts as a modern-day deep-lying playmaker, initiating the play and spreading it out to the flanks, or playing it forward into midfield or attack. This is the Libero.”

This versatility of the Libero position allowed the defender to step into midfield which in turn created a domino effect whereby a midfielder could move into a strikers position.  This transformed the 4-2-3-1 into a 3-3-1-3 or 3-3-3-1.

In FPL formations there is a tendency for people to choose the 3-4-3 formation opting for a heavily loaded FWD line or 4-4-2 with a BATB (Big at the Back) mantra.

As the weeks progress and the “Lords” of this world appear, that OOP defender emerges and with it players will adjust to a 3-5-2 (from 3-4-3) or 3-4-3 (from 4-4-2) depending on your budgets and player preferences. Points discussed in a thread by @FplRogerForever & @FPLTRUEMAN in pre-season which you should check out.

Now if we apply that Libero principle to FPL and bear in mind that teams will be more cautious at the start of the season, defend first and foremost and conscious that we did see BATB coming into play early on last year then my strategy is to start with a single proven goal scorer. Waiting for last year’s Greenwoods and “Lords” to appear while investing in defence and midfield with a 4-5-1. One caveat to this strategy is depending on squad selection then the 5th playing midfielder needs to offer more potential than a 5th playing defender in a 5-4-1. 

In a similar manner to @FPLCowboy I will be starting with a budget of £27.5m or less in Defence

7.5 - 6.0 - 4.5 - 4.5 - 4.0 (26.5m)

Why am I starting out with emphasis on my Defence? Rashford was the 5th highest scoring FWD last season with 177 pts and cost initially 8.5m rising to 8.9m yet 3 DEFs which cost less outscored him.

So let’s say I nail down my Premium DEF take TAA for example and a 6.0m & 4.5m DEF for the first 6 weeks thus allowing me time to assess the new Greenwoods then I can easily switch to a 3-5-2 by GW4. Assuming of course that I nail my 5 in MID and require no changes in that zone.

This will grant me the luxury of 3-4 GWs to tie down my top 3 DEFs and 2 main strikers. In phase 2 of my plan then I can assess my midfield pack and/or the peripheral differentials. Prior to deploying the 1st WC chip of the season in GW5 or later depending on my start.

To complement my starting 4-5-1 formation, other aspects I need to bear in mind based on my “end of season” review from the 19/20 season are: 

  • Captain picks
  • Starting 3 GW’s
  • Final 4 GW’s (in which I capitulated to some extent)

If I set last year’s overall winner* as the barometer to gauge where I slipped up, these are 3 main areas where I need to improve.

(* note at the time of drafting this article the news of TooGood’s suspension had not yet broke but as my analysis is based on his points/performance I will leave it as is)  

The first two elements form the basis of my starting strategy but other areas I am going to concentrate on are;

  • Reduced number of hits, I worked on this last year as I found I took too many hits in 18/19
  • Not fixate on team value and with it value invested in any one player.

As the new fixtures throw up a BGW for MUN & MCI then I have decided to modify the starting formation from a 4-5-1 to a 3-5-2 with the intention of reverting back to the 4-5-1 after 3-4 GWs. A caveat to this move is Brewster going out on loan as there are very few if no 4.5m FWDs worth benching at present. 

So, is it a Libero or Reverse Libero strategy I ask myself?

As outlined in Wilde Card and the importance of keeping the WC until after GW4 therefore if I have to make major adjustments in GW2 or 3 then I have already made a mistake in my pre-season planning. 

Note the quote at the top of the article is not from Beckenbauer himself but rather that other great stalwart Maldini.

⚽ An interesting read ⚽

A great article from 2015 for those who have the time and inclination to read up more on Beckenbauer et al.

The Libero: Football’s Forgotton Man

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/08/12/the-libero-footballs-forgotten-man/

⚽ The Magic Number ⚽

Coming soon: My preferred 3 Differential Players (<10% ownership) for 3 GWs;

⚽ Rogue-grams ⚽

Coming Soon: Walks on the wild side…….

⚽ Next Post ⚽

If TAA is my FPL Libero who then are my Muller and Breitner? find out next week. 

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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