Welcome to the first of my blog posts on what is rapidly becoming one of the best sites out there for FPL information; especially if you rely on stats in order to inform your decision making process. But you knew that already I guess, otherwise you wouldn’t be here...

I’ve decided this week to focus on one of the many unique aspects Fantasy Football Fix offers the FPL manager, and that is the “Points Projection” feature. At the time of writing I am currently undergoing a bit of a personal wobble with regard to the continued “essentialness” of Diego Costa. Now, I realise you’re probably thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. After all, surely Costa is this year’s Suarez, and is probably the only player currently worthy of being labelled as a “Must-Have”. Even when flagged as an injury doubt, he has dragged his dodgy hamstrings onto the pitch and provided points returns for all of us. But that’s my inherent problem; the words “all of us”. His current ownership stat is 67.1%, and only three types of FPL manager don’t own him. The stubborn ones, the crazy ones and the ones who abandoned their teams after the first couple of gameweeks, leaving them destined to drift along in the lower rank echelons as ghost-ships.

However, over the past couple of days, a small group of hardcore FPL managers, myself included, have discussed the possibility of dumping Mr Costa in the very near future. Indeed, I have been tinkering with the Squad Optimisation tool on this very site, and it is consistently advising me to not only bring Sergio Aguero in, but captain the Argentine in GW8. I believe that Costa may not even FEATURE against Crystal Palace in GW8, with Mourinho saving him for the midweek UCL tie against NK Maribor and the away game against Manchester United in GW9. After all, we know Costa cannot play 3 games in a week, despite his titanium hamstrings.

There is one thing stopping me making the transfer though. And that’s the realisation that if I do, I could fall massively down the rankings as a non-Costa owner, especially if I am wrong and he does play against Crystal Palace in GW8. Because he is predicted to score some major FPL points over the next few weeks. How do I know this? Because this site has predicted it, and their predictions since launching 5 weeks ago have been spookily accurate. I don’t profess to understand the algorithm or voodoo behind these predictions (that’s Adam’s area of expertise) but just go now and check out the “Points Predictions” area of the site and take a look at who is top of the tree. Diego Costa. In fact, I don’t want to lose you before you’ve finished reading, so check out the screenshot below:

As you can see, the Chelsea front man is streets ahead of his nearest rival. Of particular interest, and hard to miss, is the big blue bubble next to Costa’s name for GW10. When Chelsea face QPR. At home. This is virtually guaranteed to be a massacre, and there will be nobody better placed to provide huge FPL pointage returns than the Brazilniard, Costa.

So, to be honest, that’s made my mind up. Despite my gut feelings, on this occasion I am prepared to go with the stats and keep him in. But that’s not the end of it. It was this Points Projection feature that HAS influenced by transfer choice for GW8. The fact is there are THREE Everton players in that Top 11. That cannot be ignored. And even though I already have a premium defender (in the form of Ivanovic) in my FPL team, I am bringing in a second. I haven’t yet decided if it will be  Coleman or Baines. Only 0.1m separates them, but the continued lurking presence of the yellow injury flag next to Coleman leaves me reluctant to push the button just yet.

So in summary, amongst many useful tools on this site, the Points Projection tool is a fascinating addition, and one I will consult before making any future transfers, and to check if my existing squad members are on the downturn and should be earmarked for a possible dumping.

If you’ve learned nothing else from this article (because you had never considered selling Costa) then it should be that you should definitely consider getting yourself some Everton coverage immediately!

Hope you enjoyed the read.

FLY

@meet_the_gadfly