Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. The presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.
I decided to take a look back at my long dead GW1 team
whatever happened to Aubamafang?
Phew, I am progressing, my actual points 337, OR 1.3m.
GW6 Team, 57 points, average 48.
Very happy with my core team, I have 2 free transfers, and 2 injured defenders on the bench…
and indulge in some fortune telling
The Knight of Wands speaks of hope, positivity and taking action after careful planning. Be confident and enthusiastic when this card falls upright for you. It should energize you and motivate you to move forward headfirst into any challenging situation without fear.There is a warning behind the Knight of Wands, though, and that is to thoroughly weigh the pros and cons before making a big decision and to fully lay out your plans and do your due diligence before taking action on any major projects.
Uncanny
”affecting”
Through darkness in the abyss – I see light at the end of the tunnel! Your Overall Rank will go up and down the steam train but your points won’t just rain – they will downpour in gracious portions. By the end of the road and the dust settles – in the 21st year of the millennium – I predict 21k for you.
Mystic DrayZera
foretelling
TRICK OR TREAT
I can’t make my mind up over Man City this season, let’s face it we all know Pep can’t either.
He is driven, obsessive and frankly unnerving. He keeps Mahrez in a box for special occasions, and has some outlandishly freaky formation decisions (the latest being Torres central in a front three, with Sterling on the right – yes the right). I think he missed a trick not properly replacing Dilva. Injuries have been a nightmare already for him this season, at least Laporte has returned and KdB seems back to some fitness 47/58 successful passes last night as they won 3-0 away to Marseille, who, have now lost their last 11 UCL games.
So are we in for a treat goals wise away to Sheffield on Saturday ? Who can say, I for one won’t be rushing to get any City assets in this week, ownership is low in the community, so I’m not scared. (Sterling 7.4% KdB 15.2%)
FRIGHT NIGHT
Liverpool are down to the bones, defensively, the UCL game resulted in a hamstring injury for substitute VVD, Fabinho.
But let’s talk about the attack – no not the second string front three abomination that had to be totally replaced last night. Salah versus Mane. Is Mane a differential too far ? He is owned by 9.7% (Salah 47.6%) and doesn’t have penalties ( a limping Salah took a penalty last night with Milner on the pitch). Could I have them both ? Spurs fixtures turn soon, I was going to Kdb with the Kane money. Salah usually has a dip before Christmas, should I swap Salah to Mane now with my spare transfer ?
Ever hear of divination by apple paring ? One of the lesser known Halloween rituals is that women can find the name of their future husband by throwing apple peel over their shoulder. Would it help me with the Salah/Mane conundrum ?
I had to try it, now look at this…
Definitely 4 letters, must be Mane…oh hang on, is it upside down ? g-A-m-e yes the spirits are telling me, FPL is just a game.
MONSTERS
Monster derives from the Latinmonstrum, itself derived ultimately from the verb moneo (“to remind, warn, instruct, or foretell”), and denotes anything “strange or singular, contrary to the usual course of nature, by which the gods give notice of evil,” “a strange, unnatural, hideous person, animal, or thing,” or any “monstrous or unusual thing, circumstance, or adventure.”
Wikipedia
there’s something strange In the neighborhood
something weird And it don’t look too good
Bhuna you think you can fool us with that ‘inject it’ cult, but I can see through you, that’s a syringe and you are intent on taking the life blood from the veins of the innocent and coercing the FPL community into doing your bidding.
People look closely at his logo …
EPILOGUE
It’s been a volatile opening six weeks to the season. Before the sobering 19 goals scored in GW6 the average was 34. No wonder those hits paid off, time to proceed with caution I feel, regression to the norm imminent.
What is normal ? Do we even want it ? Surely it can’t happen on the weekend that coincides with the most mischievious of celebrations.
The apple peel throw was genuine by the way, I was expecting to see an ‘S’ or some random ‘M’ shape.
-8 this week. Brewster 🔄 Kane; Pulisic 🔄 Jorghino. It had to be done.
A -20 across 2 GWs. It has to be fear of missing out. Maybe it’s being smart. Could be points-chasing. Whatever. There’s no way I was going through this gameweek not owning Kane. It’s GW6 and since playing my WC in GW2, I’m 6 hits in. Addicted. 💉
I’m going to give it up, go cold turkey! Honest.
Bollocks I am. If the hit is necessary, I’m taking it 😁💉.
Pulisic is out sooner than he was in, as I wasn’t happy with his positioning during the game. I jumped the gun, again, on another Chelsea asset, like some maniacal recidivist! I’m already on my 5th Chelsea asset! I’m going to break this habit, rewire my default neural paths. With this in mind, (it’s about time I started this list) the first of my “Rules to FPL By” this season is…
Rule #1: I must wait until all big hitting FPL assets in any team, especially where newly purchased players are involved. have started at least one match together before deciding which one to get.
What I’ll be trying not to overthink this GW, is captaincy. It’s between Salah & Kane. I was ok until I watched FFS’s captaincy stream, I was set on Salah. Bonkers says Salah too, and after my late (and disastrous) switch last GW to Pulisic, I really should go with the robot. At least it’s a Friday night deadline, I’ll have less time to deliberate into a bad choice. That said, neither of them are this week… bar a positive CV19 result on Monday morning that is!
Well, we can’t live in fear can we.
The Everton triple-up keeps bugging me. I don’t like it. Digne will have to leave at some point. I have no idea why this bugs me, he’s returned in every other game so far, I shouldn’t have a problem with him, but, I do. Maybe another RtFPLb is needed here? Maybe I’m scarred by my GW1 Chelsea triple-up, so now, triple-ups are just bad!?
FFS! I benched Bamford! 😅
Bamford gets benched as AVL are the best defence in the league (or were)! 🤪
My FT was Barnes 🔄 Rodriguez, who may now be injured and not play. Within 24hrs the news changed to, James has trained and may start! As Bhuna would say… “INJECT THAT SHIT! 💉💉💉💉
On hearing the news of Rodrigeuz’s injury, my initial thought was, ok, I can bench him. I then spent the next 15mins looking at options of hitting him out. That default autopilot neural process kicking in again! It’s ok, I regained my senses. Enough to actually say “Fuck it!” I’m starting him anyway. #SonTwoPointOh! I’ve been here before, lesson learnt!
It’s about growth right!
Being now high on shiny things (have you seen the constellation in my 11!!), you’d think I’d be satiated. Why is there now want, when just a few days ago, immediately after the TOTWHU match, I was content with my transfers and felt my team to be now invincible?! I need to understand this. Is it greed? Gluttony? Unlike in real life, in FPL, you can’t have it all. This runs contrary to the instilled belief that we can accumulate as much of anything that we desire. How do we reconcile with this season continously ramming the constraint down our throats? This is going to be a problem. If I were to truly embrace my impulses, I’d have taken an additional 2 hits: Digne 🔄 Konsa & Bamford 🔄 Maupay. Imagine if I had done that!
Rule #2: Do not make hasty decisions. Own the initial knee-jerk feeling & allow it to pass. Then, apply reasoned logic and take time to contemplate whether the move is actually necessary. Maybe even sleep on it.
Like busses these things! 😁
Our habitual thought processes manifest as neural pathways based on repetitive behaviour. These pathways become the path of least resistance that our brains will automatically follow when the related situation arises (habit). Being aware of this – with diligence – can allow you to notice that you’re about to repeat offend. You can then check yourself, arresting that default behaviour. Do this enough times and you’ll create a new neural pathway which leads to more positive results. This new “good” habit eventually becomes the path of least resistance (autopilot). Brain rewired.
To this effect, for the 1st time this season, I have no transfer plans for the coming GW! Stillness is the plan. Observe the chaos, find the pattern. I am rolling this weeks transfer!!! Whether this is due to still being high or step 1 in acknowledging my recidivism is yet unknown! 😄
It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of this GW pans out, will I get my 17 benched Bamnaldo pts?! 😆
A positive game week on my wild card, 72 points, up to 1.6m OR from 2.4m, returns from captain Salah, star player Harry Kane. I am recharged, born again – even if the wild card was played for the wrong reason, it was the right decision. And I have benefitted from a boost in team value.
The catch up line is 100 points away
I am now 92 points behind the top 10k, the probability of catching up falls as the number of game weeks falls. If I wait too long I leave too much to do. I need some maverick picks with fatter tails alongside my steady providers.
Upside chasing is trending in the community, aggressively targeting explosive players for single game weeks for (hopefully) instant points hits. Great stuff at the end of the season when you can afford the 0.1 cost per week, right now I need to temper this tactic somewhat.
For example, Son, I intend to keep him for only 3 weeks, he may continue hauling for longer, but I have more differential plans for his position.
So more maverick players means I’ll catch up faster – but in probability the benefit decreases the more I add, as the probability of low scores starts to offset the probability of high scores.
The further behind I get the more maverick I will need to go.
As it’s early days I am starting with caution. My optimal range is between 2-4, I am going with a low risk entry level 2.
Another premise I am exploring is maverick double picks.
Last game week I played my wild card, and opted for the 15% owned Son and Kane combo (current cost 20.1). I also considered the Mane-Salah pairing, at a miserly 1.9% owned (cost 24.2).
Luckily I chose the correct option, the Spurs duo got me 29 points, team Liverpool yielded 13.
I should be rolling a transfer this week, but I have just spotted an ideal maverick double pick…temptation.
Identifying Mavericks
POSITION goal scoring midfielders
COST high cost players score high more often, above 6m is my threshold
FIXTURES matter a lot
FORM a consideration, perhaps a greater identifier of budget players
ZEITGEIST the current situation. For example keep abreast of injuries/sickness, it may result in lucrative out of position players.
VAR versus Referees where do we draw the line ?
I don’t know where the line is
Klopp after the Merseyside derby.
Is it time for a rethink of who takes authority for running a football match ? The puppet on the pitch or the muppet at VAR HQ?
For me the officials on the pitch should take charge of the match, the continuous deferring to VAR undermines the authority of the referee and his assistants, and dare I say it, breeds complacency. Liverpool have asked for a review of the tackle on Van Dijk, the referee didn’t even look at the pitchside monitor during the match.
Respect is dwindling.
In your face referee crowding after an unsatisfactory ruling is commonplace, but not a new occurence.
Speaking in 2018, Pierluigi Collina called for this behaviour to be ‘killed’.
I would say it’s certainly coming from emotion, sometimes it’s also a lack of respect. Referees know that they cannot accept it. We have been clear with them. They know what they have to do. If they accept, this is their decision and they will pay for their decision.
Addressing this matter as well, by limiting approaches to the referee to just team captains, further empowers the on field officials.
No football player should ever put their hands on an official, whether they be female or male, Aguero did make a mistake on Saturday. I think it’s obviously worse by the fact that he put his hands on a female official, which he should never have done.
Gary Neville
Line crossed, nicest person you ever met or not Pep.
Bottom
33 weeks to go, plenty of time to make that top 10k target.
In last weeks results we still had plenty of goals, and our first 0-0, when Burnley travelled to West Brom, who’d have thought it – well we all did…finally something predictable.
Three hours to deadline, and the WC is not yet finalised. It’s ok I have coffee.
My experiment, catching the price rises, whilst not so joy bringing, resulted in 1 player making a profit (Son) and 4 players increasing in value (Grealish, Castagne, Wilson & Martinez).
Reading the boards this last 24 hours, I can’t help but wonder what the average hits number might be, I am looking forward to a green arrow before a ball is kicked, that’s for sure. Once again the International Break, has resulted in some injuries, notably Kevin De Bruyne. Looks like his price will drop tonight, this combined with City’s upcoming difficult fixtures, has reinforced my decision to drop him from my wild card.
My biggest WC decision was where to put the most money, to some extent my hand was forced by the emerging template midfield of Salah Son Rodriguez (De Bruyne). Further to this, is there any point putting money in defence when clean sheets are, so far, hard to come by ?
Overall, 0.5m spent upgrading at the back almost always nets you more points than spending it in midfield or attack. In the last three seasons, the best approach would have been to get the highest-scoring defenders, no matter the cost.
The thing is this season is so different to the last three, there seems to be reduced home advantage and a wide disparity in player sharpness – I think I need to add manager competence in here too, there are certain teams I am avoiding because I have little faith in the manager.
Under/over performance and returning to the norm, is also shaping my thoughts. Whilst Calvert Lewin has had an incredible start to the season, xG 3.39 actual goals 6, the quality of the players around him and the strength of his manager Ancelotti lead me to believe his value is immense, even if his form wavers.
Bamford is another over achiever, 3 goal returns in 4 matches, he has saved my game week on a regular basis, sentiment drives me to keep him this week, that and a lack lustre Wolves team. I will be watching Brewster (4.5) against Fulham, an enabler with price rise potential, hopefully nailed. This is the psycho season after all, no room for empathy.
When I look at teams in the over/under performing category, when is the Burnley defence we know and love returning ? Have Arsenal assets permanently dropped off the radar ? What’s got West Ham fizzing and Villa buzzing ? Should we avoid the Manchester men for a month or so ?
My strategy moving forward is ‘options’, no blind alleys. I am also considering team value and minimal hits. My OR of 2.4m means I need some sort of differential every week, and most importantly I need to improve my captaincy choices – Salah perma captain is a simple resolution for now.
This week’s differential is fielding both Son and Kane, I am sticking with 3 at the back, I am ignoring the popular bias against captaining a player in the first match of the game week.
International Break. Nice time to sit back and reflect on the big picture, take a breath and chill. The -8 is so long ago now. Grealish & Son are sitting nicely in my midfield. The free transfer from Jimenez to DCL continues to produce a calming effect. Forget about the team for a bit. Recharge the batteries, de-stress.
Then.
KDB isn’t just out, he’s “out-out!” Another hit!# -12.
FFS!!!
Toyed with the Salah – Mane double-up, but I can’t bring myself to invest that much in a derby match at Goodison, despite Liverpool’s two b2b home games afterwards. Sterling? Don’t really like a City team without DeBruyne. Rodriguez would be the sane pick, but, long flight from south america, also playing in the derby (it’s utter madness that I still don’t own him!). Pulisic. £8.3M! A punt? He’s fit, played 7mins (his only mins) as a late sub in their previous match. That’s the one for me! 👌🏿 If he bangs it’s Points & Profit.
I have no assets from either Manchester club in my FPL squad! This is football, 2020 style. Everything is topsy-turvy! Madness! 🤪
Am I devolving? I’m pitting chaotic management against the chaotic season we’re having. I was trying to find order, but my gut says fuck order, even chaos has a pattern, find it! If I embrace my inner Chaotician there’s a chance I can fight fire with “more fyah!” 😁 Nothing is truly random, unless you’re a quantum theorist. This is a totally bonkers approach, but, it really excites me. Above all else, I believe games should be fun, this is how I get my FPL kicks!
Pulisic gets the armband!
Head pick was Son, influenced by stats, rage and the Bonkers robot. Over a million transfers in, he must be the captain pick this GW. I should be sensible, but where’s the fun in that!
I really wanted to start Brewster! 😭
I have pre-gameday bravado again, really optimistically caught up in my own cognitive justification. Woe is me! 🤣 I’m hyped for the EliteFPL stream! 😛
LIverpool derby, 2-2. All 4 of my assets return! Amazing! I’m 14pts to the good. Hits?! Pah! 🤣 It’s nice to be finally involved with those DCL returns, he’s a points machine! Digne getting all 3 bones!
Captain blank on Pulisic. He didn’t get into the box enough for my liking, broke even on the hit though. Meh! 30pts (-12) = 18. 5 played.
Barnes hasn’t even kicked a ball yet this GW and I’ve already transferred him out, his two week disatrous punt has ended anyway, he blanked in both. I’m now finally a proud Rodriguez owner! I could’ve gone KDB to Rodriguez after all, as he got an assist (he was a consideration alongside Pulisic, but I thought 4 assets in the derby was already enough, who knew!?!).
Sometimes, firefighting can be ensuring that fires don’t start in the first place.
Sunday morning stream from Steve-O and I also hit the jackpot overnight, with 5 assets going up! 🤑 Eyes on Mitchell & Justin as starters, should I need to cash in.
The Lama Lounge’s Sunday Supplement… turns out, Brewster didn’t make the starting line-up! Thanks FPLBhuna, for talking me out of starting him ahead of Barnes.
Son, another asset I’m happy (finally!) to be getting points from, for the 2nd time of getting him in! I really should have kept the armband on him! Kane (I never played FPL when Kane was last a “must have”) an asset I’ve had a mental block on, I honestly can’t remember a time I’ve owned him! He’s certainly bulldozed his way into my immediate plans! What an absolutely fabulous match! Spurs drawing 3-3 after being 3-0 up before half-time! Cresswell 👀 WHU DFs, they are not to be ignored, a team who will dig in and also have the ability to come back against the form team, definitely need to feature in my line up! Lanzini screamer in the dying moments of the match! This is why we watch this game, for matches like this!
Jorginho is the highest scoring Chelsea midfielder. When did that happen?!
So, this -12. KDB (0) 🔄 Pulisic (4); Mahrez (3) 🔄 Son (13); Klich (2) 🔄 Grealish (3).
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