Fantasy Football Team of the Season

Fantasy Football Team of the Season – FPL Fantasy Premier League

The players get to pick their team of the season as do the football writers (apparently I don’t count as a football writer!!!), so I’ve decided to pick my FPL team of the season…in years to come this will be the team to be on! Now obviously the easiest thing to do would be to look at the end of season dream team but that would be boring and while the majority of my team do in fact feature in said dream team I did want to include a number of players whom I felt offered value for money over the course of the season. Before I started I needed to decide on my formation and as I’m someone who dislikes change I’ve gone for the tried & trusted 3-4-3. Now I realise that many managers veered away from 3-4-3 at times this season but I still believe that it is the most popular and common formation. I’m quite sure many of you will disagree with some of my selections but life would be rather boring if we were all in agreement all of the time.

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Goalkeeper

When it comes to selecting your squad at the beginning of the season and again when you have a wildcard active quite often very little thought is put into who to play between the sticks and regularly it comes down to how much cash you have left over after selecting the rest of your squad and to be honest I’ve adopted that strategy myself at times. So who have I chosen as my keeper for the team of the season? Well it might surprise one or two of you to see that I’ve gone for Sunderland’s Vito Mannone. Vito was a somewhat popular choice at the beginning of the season, as at £4.5m he was cheap and many expected Sunderland to do well under di Canio, unfortunately for those of us who picked him di Canio hadn’t read the script and instead made Keiren Westwood his number 1! Westwood picked up an injury against Hull in GW10 allowing Mannone to take over the gloves and the Italian didn’t look back. By the time he became first choice his price had dropped to £4.2m and this would prove to be excellent value as he went on to keep 11 clean sheets in the subsequent 28 games. It’s also worth noting that on five occasions he picked up a double figure score which is pretty impressive for a keeper, while he also picked up more bonus points than any other keeper.

Also considered: Petr Cech & Julian Speroni. Cech was primarily considered due to the fact that he picked up a very impressive 12 clean sheets in 18 games between game-weeks 17&34, however I went for Mannone instead of him as I felt Mannone offered better value for money. Speroni was considered as he played an integral part in the Pulis revolution at Selhurst Park that saw Palace become one of the most solid teams in the league, but I went with Mannone as despite playing 732 minutes less than Speroni he only accumulated 10 points less than the Argentine.

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Defence

As a result of a perceived number of extra clean sheets early in the season many fantasy managers opted to field four defenders rather three which had previously been considered the optimum number, however, I’m a traditionalist so for the purposes of this team I’ll be selecting just three defenders. First up is Everton’s Seamus Coleman which is unlikely to surprise many of you. When Roberto Martinez played a 3-5-2 formation in a couple of games pre-season there was quite a lot of excitement in fantasy circles as it appeared that Coleman was set to become an out of position defender and while this did not materialise he was certainly one of this seasons more attacking full backs. When he scored one & created another in GW1 and followed this up with three clean sheets on the spin the Coleman bandwagon had well and truly left the station. The fact that Everton were quite solid at the back coupled with his attacking capabilities meant that Coleman was soon bordering on ‘must have’, especially when you consider that he had started the season at just £5.0m. Obviously his attacking exploits tailed off during the latter part of the season but Everton remained a solid unit throughout and this saw Coleman finish the season with 6 goals, 2 assists, 15 clean sheets and 20 bonus points.

With City, Arsenal & Chelsea keeping 16, 17 & 18 clean sheets over the course of the season I felt the need to pick at least one defender from one of these teams and I’ve decided to go with Chelsea’s John Terry. Defensively Chelsea started the season quite well as they kept three clean sheets from their opening five fixtures, however in the subsequent eleven games they kept just a solitary clean sheet and it looked as though Mourinho was trying to play the sexy football that his Russian master craved. This clearly didn’t sit well with Mourinho, so he resorted to what he knows best, making his teams difficult to beat and this resulted in Chelsea picking up 14 clean sheets in the remaining 22 games of the season. These figures made a Chelsea defender a ‘must have’ and in all honesty I could have made a case for any of them in this team, however it was the 29 bonus points he accumulated over the course of the season that swung it for him and with three goals to his credit for the season he always offered an attacking threat.

My final defender might come as a surprise to some of you as he certainly isn’t a fashionable pick like the first two and it’s Joel Ward of Crystal Palace. Every season without fail the three promoted clubs offer up a number of fantasy bargains, the problem is sorting the bargains from the bogeys! While Ian Holloway was in charge it didn’t appear as though there were any bargains to be had down Selhurst Park way but poor old Ian decided he’d had enough and in October he left the club by mutual consent. Tony Pulis replaced Holloway and he set about turning Palace into a side who were difficult to beat and not long after Pulis’ arrival it was clear that Ward was one of those aforementioned bargains. Pulis utilised Ward in both full back positions as well as in central midfield, with the 24 year old finishing the season with 3 assists, 12 clean sheets & 13 bonus points which equates to 123 points and in my book that isn’t bad for a player who was still available at £4.0m in GW17.

Also considered: Where do I begin? With City having kept 16 clean sheets and Arsenal 17, Pablo Zabaleta and Laurent Koscielny were seriously considered, however I felt that Coleman & Terry were better choices than either of them and Ward offered such great value for money. With seven goals to his name Martin Skrtel may have gotten a look in had Liverpool managed to keep a few more clean sheets and the fact that he scored three own goals didn’t help his cause.

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Midfield

So onto my four midfielders the first of whom simply picks himself and it’s Manchester City’s Yaya Toure. The Ivorian’s talent has never been in doubt but anyone who claims they foresaw him having the season that he has just had is telling porkies! Quite simply he won the league for City, of course others played their part but without him I firmly believe they wouldn’t be champions. Toure started the season priced at £8.5m but by GW8 his price had already risen to £9.5m, so those that didn’t jump on the bandwagon early got well and truly burnt, in fact as the season progressed there were many who kept saying that he couldn’t continue scoring at the rate at which he was scoring, but that’s just what he did, he was just like Ariston he just kept going on and on and on! He finished the season with a staggering 20 goals, 9 assists and 34 bonus points, making him an absolute bargain for those that jumped on board as the train departed the station.

Bandwagons have always been a part and parcel of fantasy football but never more so than in the season we’ve just left behind. Just like Toure another bandwagon that just didn’t stop rolling once it got started was Aaron Ramsey. In the previous two seasons combined the Welshman had picked up just 3 goals & 11 assists and he was therefore never considered a fantasy football prospect, especially with the likes of Walcott and the addition of Ozil to the Arsenal squad. However, he came to life in GW4 with two goals away to Sunderland and he never looked back, by GW14 his price had risen by £2.0m. Ramsey ended the season as the 7^th highest scoring midfielder in this seasons FPL and while on its own that doesn’t appear to be an achievement it should be remembered that he missed 14 consecutive games in the first three months of the year. What’s just as impressive is that in his first game on his return to the starting XI is the fact that he scored one and picked up two assists. Arsenal fans must be wondering what could have been had Ramsey not been injured.

Next up is Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard. As I mentioned in a recent tips article Gerrard’s season, if not his career, will be remembered by some for that infamous slip against Chelsea and while I don’t agree with that we’ll leave that argument for another day. By FPL terms Gerrard had a quiet start to the season as he failed to pick up any meaningful points from the opening five game-weeks, however in the subsequent 29 games in which he featured only on 8 occasions did he fail to register either a goal or an assist. So if consistency is what you look for in a player and in my opinion you need a number of consistent players on which you can rely, well then Gerrard is the man for you. Some folk will argue that the majority of his goals this season came from the penalty spot, but my response to them is so what, at the end of the day a goal is a goal particularly in the FPL. Gerrard ended the season with 13 goals, 15 assists & 30 assists, making this his best scoring season in the FPL since 2008/09.

Onto my final midfielder and this came down to a straight choice between Adam Lallana & Eden Hazard and many of you are likely disagree with me as I’ve gone for Adam Lallana. Southampton were one of the surprise packages this season, particularly in the early part as they lost just once in their opening 11 games and they eventually finished 8^th despite somewhat fading away as the season progressed. Lallana played an integral part for the Saints this season and that saw him weigh in with 9 goals and 9 assists. These stats might not sound overly impressive but they saw Lallana end the season as the 4^th highest scoring midfielder and again it goes to show you that consistency is rewarded although this often requires a modicum of patience! Another reason for my choosing of Lallana is that he offered excellent value for money, particularly in the early part of the season when he was priced at just £6.0m.

Also considered: The only other midfielder I seriously considered was Eden Hazard and as I’ve mentioned already it came down to Lallana and Hazard for the final spot and at the end of the day I went with Lallana as I felt he offered better value for money.

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Forwards

And so we reach the forwards, so often the key players in our teams as we rely on them for a significant % of our points and more often than not we will captain one of our forwards. Not since the halcyon days of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo has one player dominated the FPL in the way Luis Suarez dominated the past season. As we all know Suarez missed the first five games of the season, although clearly some people who play FPL live under rocks as he was selected in a number of teams at the beginning of the season! When the Uruguayan eventually took the field in GW6 he announced himself with two goals against Sunderland and it wasn’t very long before he was elevated to ‘must have’ status…will we ever forgot that glorious four game-week period before Christmas when he scored nine and picked up seven assists? Suarez finished the season with a mind blowing 30 goals, 25 assists as well as 40 bonus points and on 13 occasions this saw him pick up a double figure score, making him an obvious captain choice each and every game-week. The question on everyone’s lips is how much he will cost in next seasons game? Perhaps the question should be, will he be around for next seasons FPL?!!

Daniel Sturridge joined Liverpool in January 2013 and enjoyed a great start to his Liverpool career scoring 10 league goals before the season ended, however many wondered could he replicate this form over an entire season. These same folk also wondered how Liverpool would cope without Suarez for the opening five games but they needn’t have worried as Sturridge scored in each of the clubs first four games. Many then wondered how Sturridge would react when Suarez was reintroduced but again they needn’t have worried as he scored in each of the Uruguayans first four games and with that the SAS was reborn. Despite missing out on 9 games during the season Sturridge still managed to finish up with 22 goals as he and Suarez forged one of the deadliest partnerships the PL has ever known.

And so we come to my final pick for this FPL team of the season and again I’d be quite sure that a few of you will disagree with me as I’ve gone for Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez. Of course this wasn’t Rodriguez’s first season in the PL but it has been the season that has made people sit up and take notice of him and with 15 goals to his name he could very well have been on the plane to Brazil had injury not cut his season short. Of course there were quite a number of strikers who scored more than Rodriguez and with only three assists there were plenty with more assists but I’ve gone for Rodriguez because aside from a quiet start to the season he was relatively consistent and he offered great value for money, starting the season at just £6.0m. For me the great thing about Rodriguez was that he was good enough to be played as your 3^rd striker but he was cheap enough to allow you invest elsewhere.

Also considered: Wayne Rooney, Olivier Giroud & Edin Dzeko. Rooney may have scored 17 goals this season but for me he wasn’t consistent enough and when you pay that much money you expect a certain level of consistency. Giroud? Ah there’s just something about Giroud! And good old Edin Dzeko…if he just didn’t miss so many sitters!

Finally, it’s worth noting that the value of these 11 players at the start of the season was just £74.5m which means should you have selected them you would have left yourself a whopping £25.5m for your four substitutes! It’s also worth highlighting that should you have selected this team at the start of the season and sat back, relaxed, put your feet up for the season, you would have accumulated 2020 points without a captain. Now let’s just say for the sake of argument you selected Suarez as captain for every game in which he was available you would have ended the season on 2315 points which would have seen you finish in 62,060^th position!!!

So that’s my team of the season. Do you agree with? Let us know your thoughts and why not post your own team of the season.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Team of the Season, this article was written by Kop.

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