Report Card (2)

 

A couple of months ago, I was giving myself a rueful C- for my performance in the first quarter of the season,... though indulging in some light optimism about a slow-but-steady improvement after a string of early misfortunes in the opening weeks of the season. How have things gone since then?

Well, I continued dogged - but not too spectacular - upward progress: 110 points above global average (3 'bad' Gameweeks, very slightly below the average) over the next 9 gameweeks, scrabbling up almost back into the top million (it can take a very long time to drag your way clear of bad beginnings: by GW5 or 6, when most of the eventual global leaders were probably at least in the top 500,000, if not the top 100,000, I was still barely inside the top 5 million!). I take particular comfort from the fact that my squad value leapt by nearly 4 million quid in those two months - a sign that a lot of my picks are proving quite shrewd.

However, I was still suffering quite a lot of bad luck. I'd decided to take a chance on Iliman Ndiaye, being impressed by his early-season form before he'd actually scored much; and he gave me a nice return in his first match for me, against Ipswich, but then had quite a long fallow run (came back into form for a while, after I'd dropped him; but then got injured again.... one to watch for a budget forward option next year, perhaps). I got on Matz Sels, Jarrod Bowen, Lewis Hall and Jorgen Strand Larsen quite early, and in December, Amad Diallo too; but only Sels proved a strong long-term hold, the others soon picking up injuries. I dropped Mbeumo during his lull in form in November, and then he suddenly started scoring like a monster again - despite some unfavourable-looking fixtures. I took a punt on Giorginho Rutter as a fifth midfielder for a while, but his points dried up, and then he got a season-ending injury. And I retained optimism in Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson perhaps a bit too long after Chelsea's form began to falter badly in early December. (Not sure how long I would have ultimately held on to them, as I stopped playing at the end of January, in protest at the absurdity of the new 'Assistant Manager' chip. Jackson, of course, picked up an injury immediately after that. But Palmer was still giving intimations of threat, and had some appealing fixtures - so, there was certainly a case for retaining him until some time in April....); I was gutted that I hadn't given Palmer the captain's armband for his last really big haul, in Gameweek 15. Even worse, I'd gone in for Enzo Fernandez during his brief hot streak - which abruptly ended when Romeo Lavia got injured, requiring Enzo to revert to being one of the deep pivots, rather than pushing up alongside Palmer.

In general, I would say, my selection decisions all looked pretty sound, often prescient; but few of them gave me any long-term returns - I had a lot of bad luck with injuries or crashes in form almost immediately I brought someone in. The most egregious of these was Bukayo Saka, who I only managed to find room for in GW12, and in GW17 picked up a hamstring problem that would sideline him for nearly half the season.

January went rather nicely for me, with 100 points above the 'global average' in just 5 gameweeks (although that was with the benefit of Triple Captain and Bench Boost chips working out quite well in Gameweeks 23 and 24). But then I quit the game in a huff, just as things were starting to go well...

So, the second quarter of the season was probably a solid B for me, maybe even a B+ (and getting near to an A in January...). Alas, the stupid innovation of the 'Assistant Manager' Chip spoiled the season, and drove me to abandon the game for the year. But honestly, it was going to be a godawful year for me anyway. I still hadn't quite got back into the top 1 million at the end of January, and probably would have struggled to reach the top 500,000 by season's end - which might have made it my second worst year ever.