By The Numbers End of Season
I love the end of the season.
I know that’s at odds to many of you who’ll despair over what to do before next season, especially with no summer tournament, but I do. I don’t think that any fantasy football writer actually gives credit to what a large undertaking a full season of fantasy football is for manager – it’s a labour of love. If I had a pound for every time I’ve searched airports for Wi-Fi to complete my team or forced myself to create my team through a Saturday morning hangover I’d be a rich man.
It’s a substantial job and I for one am glad that I can have a little rest to recharge my batteries and get my head back together.
It’s also a good opportunity to stop and give yourself the chance to look back over the season to figure out what you did well, what you didn’t do so well and where you made real mistakes. Personally I reached the heady heights of 5,219th overall after a pretty disastrous start to the season so I’m happy with that.
The King is dead, long live the King
I have no intention in restating the great words that both Neal and Nik have already written about the suspected demise of the yahoo game. It is undoubtedly a shame and I’ve just about got my head around it now. My point of view? The King is dead, long live the King. Yahoo had some great benefits – unlimited transfers, a reasonable salary cap, free to play etc. but it was also very buggy and it was never really supported by Yahoo in the way that some others are. I think that there’s every chance that we’ll be sitting here next year, having had a great season, asking – Yahoo who?
The great thing for my column is that the majority of the work I’ve done this season is transferable to almost every other fantasy game. The ‘Poisson calculations’ give predictions of how many goals are expected, the ‘predictor’ an indication of aggression and match result and the ‘goalkeeper’ graphs show performance compared to value for money. This is all usable information.
I was concerned that whichever game we choose to follow might require a ‘bedding in’ period where we learn its ‘ins and outs’ before we can compete successfully. I was wrong. The managers who play our next game are the ones who should be concerned as we undoubtedly direct thousands of new skilful managers, all armed with the best fantasy information you can get, into their stadium. I know which side I’m happy to be on.
What makes a great performer?
I wanted to include in this season review a look at the standout performers in each position and venture a blueprint for the sort of players you should be looking for next season. Let’s start with the player Arsenal fans refer to as “flappy-hand-ski”.
Fabianski
You’ll see from my nifty diagram that the vast majority of the points that Fabianski secured were through saves, not through Clean Sheets as many would expect. This performance comes from having a great shot stopper placed behind a relatively leaky defence. Whilst many think a solid defence is a massive positive that limits you at just six points for a clean sheet. In short, your goalkeeper needs to both be good but also needs the opportunity to be tested.
Trippier
Tripper is another example of where commonly held beliefs aren’t necessarily true. I have personally always searched for a defender who is expected to keep a clean sheet. Trippier though has developed his outstanding score from attacking points. I believe that a good old fashioned wingback is your best bet – a chance of a clean sheet but the confidence to get forward into the midfield and give the opposition a hard time. Couple that with the confidence to provide assists and shoot in the final third and you have a defence star in the making – offence is the best defence.
Hazard
Does it help being on the winning team in the premiership? Undoubtedly, although the previous two players show it’s not essential. It is surprising that his highest score comes from winning fouls. This is to be expected though – goals are infrequent at best but a good midfielder should be intercepting passes, winning tackles and winning fouls all the way through a game. The lesson, concentrate on the ‘phantom’ fantasy points primarily but keep one eye on an aggressive midfielder rather than a defensive one.
Sanchez
Top premier goalscorer? Not even close, he was 10 goals off the pace. What it does show though is a tendency to shoot regularly, covert those shots into goals but to also assist and successfully cross. This means that you need to be looking for an all-round forward who is just as happy to support the team as he is to take the glory. Think Aguero, not Defoe.
That’s it from me, I hope you had a great season and I’ll see you all again soon.
