Thread by @FPL_Architect

Analyzing the world number 1️⃣ (THREAD)

This year’s FPL winner, Ali Jahangirov, has obviously had an amazing season. If we take a closer look at it, how has he played to get where he finished?

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His season in words:

Ali started the season with a solid 75 pts and a 630k rank in GW 1, his fairly template team (with the differential addition Darwin) delivered. He followed that up with two really rough GWs (partly due to Darwin’s red in GW 2) and was ranked 2.9m after GW 3.

After 4 solid weeks he climbed back to 940k, after which he went on to have some incredible GWs in GW 8-10. With a total of 273 pts in 3 weeks, GW ranks of 196k, 34k and 183k he went from 940k to 8k. Notable important hauls in these weeks are the 15-pointer from Saliba in GW 8…

… and in GW 9 there’s 19 and 18 from Foden and Maddison respectively, Haaland © with 46 and then again Foden with 11 in GW 10. Ali broke into the Top 4k in GW 14, mainly thanks to a Wilson 19-pointer, and managed to stay inside for the rest of the season.

But it wasn’t until GW 22 that he entered the Top 1k, when the Rashford TC took him from 1060th to 173rd. After 3 more green arrows he entered the Top 5 overall and ranked 2nd after GW 26 (he kept Salah for the 21 pts vs Man Utd), and he stayed Top 5 for the rest of the season.

In GW 28 he became the number 1 in the world for the first time after a Saka captain 36-pointer, and 12 differential points from Mings. He immediately dropped to 5th in GW 29 despite playing his Bench Boost, and didn’t get back to number 1 until GW 33 when, again, a Mings haul…

…proved significant. Ali managed to stay in the number 1 spot from GW 33 and on, and the Wilson captaincy in GW 36 (48 pts) played a huge part in securing that. Wilson actually saved him in GW 38, as he came off the bench and blocked the world number 2 from getting Pinnock…

…off his bench for 15 points, a haul that would’ve changed the outcome of the FPL title race. There were a lot of important players that helped win FPL for Ali, but singling out two it has to be Wilson and Mings, who time and again delivered and ultimately won him the title.

Notable facts about his season:

🔹 He’s taken 9 hits all season, only 3 pre GW 25
🔹 Played his WCs in GW 12 and GW 34
🔹 Bench boosted 27 points in GW 29
🔹 Triple captained Rashford (60p) in GW 22
🔹 He’s been ranked Top 5 since GW25
🔹 Kept Salah for 21 points vs Man Utd

🔹 His rank last season was 215th

His season in stats:

Worst OR: 2.9m (GW 3)
Best OR: 1 (GW 28, 33-38)
Worst GW rank: 7.2m (GW 16)
Best GW rank: 12.7k (GW 28)

Players he owned a lot:

Cancelo (GW 1-21)
Trippier (GW 7-38)
Trent (GW 1-9, 25-28, 32, 34-38)
Salah (GW 1-2, 12-19, 25-27, 32, 34-38)
Martinelli (GW 1-33)
Saka (GW 17-32)
Rashford (GW 15-31, 33-38)
Haaland (GW 1-26, 30-31, 33-37)
Kane (GW 3-11, 27-31, 33, 38)

Differentials that he owned:

🦊 Castagne
🔴 Gomez
🟣 Mings
🔴 Zinchenko
🔴 Lindelöf
💎 Foden
🦊 Maddison
🔵 Sterling
💎 Mahrez
🔴 Darwin
🔵 Joao Felix

Template players he barely owned:

🐝 Raya
💎 Ederson
🔴 White/Gabriel
🔵 Estupinan
🔴 Robertson
⚫️ Schär/Botman
🔵 March
🔵 Mac Allister
🔴 Odegaard
⚫️ Almiron
🔵 Mount
🔴 Fernandes
🐝 Toney
🟣 Watkins
⚫️ Isak
🔴 Nketiah
💎 Alvarez

Captaincy:

Haaland x18
Salah x6
Kane x3
Saka x3
Rashford x2
Wilson x1
Sterling x1
Maddison x1
Mitoma x1
Jesus x1

Total points: 758 (20.5 pts/GW). 30/37 returned. (GW 7 excluded)

Best captaincy scores:

GW 22: Rashford (60p), (TC)
GW 36: Wilson (48)
GW 9: Haaland (46)
GW 28: Saka (36)
GW 5/21: Haaland (34)

Number of players owned from each position:

Goalkeepers: 10
Defenders: 19
Midfielders: 23
Forwards: 13

Total: 65 (2021/22 winner: 76)

Double digit scores from players in his team:

Goalkeepers: 6
Defenders: 21
Midfielders: 37
Forwards: 26

Team of the Year:

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Conclusion:

Firstly, I’d just like to address the fact that there’s obviously a huge amount of luck needed to win FPL and Ali no doubt got very lucky this season. There’s no other way you can win FPL. However, I still believe that we can draw conclusions from his season…

…especially with someone like Ali that finished 215th last season. The main factor behind his success, as far as I can see, is that he absolutely nailed captaincy. Captaincy is crucial in FPL, and Ali had great success there this season. Rashford TC, Wilson, Saka…

… are some examples of calls that went right. He went against the standout captaincy pick at times, and it often paid off. It didn't always work though (Jesus GW4, Sterling GW19). You need to take the risk, if you want to win FPL, and hope that those calls pay off enough times.

He didn’t take huge risks with his transfers though, because he stuck to a relatively small pool of players (except GKs). He only owned 13 different forwards this season, for example. He identified the FPL assets he liked, and switched between them based on fixtures.

That might sound incredibly basic, but sometimes it’s worth reminding yourself to just bring in the players you actually think are good assets, rather than going really different for the sake of it. Ali identified the areas where he was happy to take more risks…

… , captaincy was one, and stuck to that plan. He also identified that he wanted to spend big on forwards, and went with a Haaland-Kane-Jesus front three for 9 GWs in a row. One interesting thing about his chip strategy is that he wildcarded out of his Bench Boost team …

…rather than using the WC to set up a BB. This way, he could put all his funds into the starting XI for the final GWs instead of carrying a deep squad with lots of funds on the bench. Combine these things with a lot of luck, and it might be enough to actually win FPL.

That was all for this special thread, I hope you found it interesting and useful. If you did, please share the thread.

Also, don’t forget to drop Ali a follow 👇

@FplGunz

Stay tuned for much more FPL content coming from me this summer 💙