First of all the negatives, and there’s a few. I’m starting with these based around the things people say to me and I hear said on twitter regularly. 

The most common thing I hear. 
“Who wants to cheer clean sheets it’s boring”, “I play the game for the excitement of goals”. 

This is a key point and I’m sure shared with many. It’s far more fun if you are watching the games seeing your players score or get assists or even just play really well and rack up the bonus points. Nobody will actually sit watching a game cheering every time Virgil heads away a corner not even the Liverpool fans! I get the point I really do. How boring do you have to be to captain a defender and know if they concede your getting 4 points? 

My second negative is it takes away a starting place from a striker or midfielder. This could be detrimental if there are a range of high scoring low value mids and forwards that pop up the formation may need to change quickly to jump on them and not lose the premiums we have. This may take 2FTs or even a – 4 hit if I want to change. Lots of people have told me they expect me to wildcard early this year to rectify and chase the points I’ve missed and it may well be the case.

Next is the introduction of VAR. There is a lot of talk about there being more penalties therefore more goals and therefore less clean sheets which in turn will hurt the points in this system. This is something we will need to watch closely.

The next thing people warn me about when I post my drafts is chasing last year’s points. Surely the big point scoring defenders such as TAA and Robbo will not be as dangerous this year and the opposition will have plans for them? I’m sure that with their prices hiking as well they may not be as valuable assets as last year? Especially with Liverpool being the main premium defenders and conceding a fair few in pre season?

The final problem I encountered and hadn’t considered before is a ‘fodder’ spot. We all have them. Players that are as cheap as we can get that might not even play to sit on our bench and free up funds for elsewhere. Investing in 5 defenders that are more expensive and will play means my fodders have to be midfielders or strikers the cheapest of which are 4.5. However other teams without 5 at the back are getting more value with the 4 million defender options they can stick as sub no3 and not worry about and have anther 0.5 to play with elsewhere! 

With that all in mind I’m still going to try it as are many others and here are the reasons why. 

The main reason is of course PPM or points per million. With Robbo and VVD over 200 points last year and TAA just behind and a huge amount of points in the last part of the season if they repeat this they represent far better value than the equivalent 7 and 6.5 million midfielders and strikers. To be looking at the 200 point mark for a midfielder we can only really predict the premiums such as KDB and those above his price tag. Therefore there could be real value in having 5 at the back of your willing to invest heavily in it. Trying it with lower priced defenders could really not be beneficial.

The next is the response I use to the “why cheer clean sheets?” argument. Which is we all know players like TAA and Robbo chipped in with a wealth of assists last year and players like VVD and Digne scored goals and I’m expecting more from the likes of AWB, Kyle Walker and few others this year. There’s a lovely feeling when there’s a rubbish week and all the top players fail to score and your defender gets a clean sheet and a late goal or assist and you end up with a double figure haul from a player that was relatively cheap in comparison to the top assets saving your gameweek. FPLflapjack had a lovely tweet about this just the other day I retweeted you should check out. 

Also on the subject of “its boring cheering clean sheets” not all of us watch all the games… Duh duh duh shock horror an FPL manager and member of the #FPLCommunity admitting not to watching every game live!! The truth is I still play myself on Saturday afternoons and have a 1 year old and another one of the way. So sure I watch what I can from early or late kick offs and Super Sundays but I generally hear the scores in the changing rooms after the game with the rest of the lads then watch highlights on MOTD. If Liverpool have kept another clean sheet happy days but I sure as hell wasn’t thinking about it while I was out playing or spending the day out with my daughter so no believe it or not I don’t sit there cheering for a boring game.

Finally I think it’s something different. In my last article I talked about Che Adams as my differential and that I like to be different with this. Since starting FPL I’ve always personally found value in doing something different. Every year I’ve gone 3-4-3 with big name attackers and had some massive scoring weeks and then seen people with more balance in their teams run away with the MLs. I feel my squad at the moment with 5 decent defenders salah sterling barkley Kane and Adams has both balance and massive scoring potential. 

It’s an idea. It’s different. It might work it might not. It might not be something I stick with. There’s a strong chance I’ll be doing something different by Christmas and everyone will be saying I told you so. But dismissing it as boring may be the reason some 5 at the back teams start brightly. All I want from this article is for people to understand the value of it. I’m not expecting anyone else to suddenly think its genius as its not. Its a risk. A risk I’m taking.

Article written by FPL Lovey – give them a follow today

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