FPL Fortress

With both Arsenal and Man City blanking next gameweek, Jiayang’s and Jacob’s teams—both of which are tripled up on each of the two clubs—look a little worse for wear. The good news? We’re both stockpiled on free transfers. The question: how many of those free transfers should we use for the upcoming blank, if the plan is to Wildcard the following gameweek? The answer (we think): all of them. Tune in to find out which players we feel would be the best one-week punts to plug the Arsenal- and Man City–shaped holes in most FPL man...

One of the good things about the FPL Fortress is that even if Jacob and Jiayang both have rotten gameweeks individually, the rottenness does not necessarily seep into the quality of our episode—in fact, one might even argue that the worse our teams are doing at any given point, the more compelling and useful our discussion. To that end, Jiayang has realized that he currently only has a dismally low five players who will play in Blank Gameweek 31. In response, Jacob uses a methodical framework to dissect Jiayang’s team, advising him on the best moves to make in t...

The second half of the Wolves vs. Arsenal game was being played during the recording of this episode. When Gabriel provided an assist for Hincapié, Jacob and Jiayang—who had both triple-captained him—exclaimed with joy. Jiayang, in particular, manifested that Gabriel would finish the gameweek with at least 12 points. Five minutes later, Hugo Bueno wiped out Arsenal’s clean sheet, bringing Gabriel down to 8 points. We proceeded to discuss this week’s hefty Dilemma Deliberation, regarding which assets to target from teams with kind fixtures ahead. After reaching some good conclusions about Brentford, Fulham, Villa, and Liverpool, we moved ont...

Following a gameweek where the average points was finally over 50, we now turn our attention to Double Gameweek 26, which has just been confirmed with Arsenal’s victory over Chelsea in the EFL Cup semi-final. What, then, is the best Arsenal triple-up—and is there an “objective” answer, or is it more so team dependent? To what extent should managers modify their teams if they already have a trio of Arsenal players that doesn’t align exactly with their ideal triple-up? A question of marginally secondary importance: just why is Jacob so bullish on Mateus Mané?

We also have a look...

After the sixth successive gameweek with an average score of fewer than 50 points, it’s hard not to feel a little discouraged; but still, we must trudge on with the hope that someday in the near future, we’ll hop back over the fence to the good side of variance. Michael Carrick’s spirited Manchester United narrowly beat Arsenal, who, it must be said, have failed to take full advantage of their trailers’ recent slip-ups. Could the Red Devils’ exciting trio of Bruno, Mbeumo, and Cunha prove to be the solution to this prevailing attacker drought? Might we also look at th...

In an otherwise not-so-exciting gameweek, Manchester United defeated their Mancunian rivals 2-0, marking a fourth blank in five matches for Haaland, a fifth blank in as many matches for O’Reilly, and a sixth successive blank for Foden. Liverpool are experiencing a slump, drawing their fourth match in a row—with Ekitiké bagging only a solitary assist after playing a total of 265 minutes at Anfield against Wolves, Leeds, and Burnley. Amidst this barren landscape, could Rosenior’s Chelsea offer an answer, ahead of what can only be described as the juiciest of fixture runs to grace any team’s calendar...

On this fine New Year’s Day, Jacob and Jiayang gather with their friend Nicolas to watch some fine Premier League fixtures—but unfortunately, although the company was very fine indeed, the fixtures were not so. Despite watching a combined 270 minutes of soccer, we witnessed not a single goal that was not ruled out for offside. The drab results reflect a recent slump in FPL points across the board, which has left both of us feeling slightly stumped as to how we might turn our teams around and rekindle a feeling of excitement when we glance at our overall rank...

Jacob has concluded his adventures in Oceania and Asia, and both of us are back in New York to hunker down for the Festive Fixtures. (And to closely follow AFCON with a keen eye toward any innovations in neck tension relief. Looking at you, Patson!) Hugo Ekitiké is on the forefront of most FPL managers’ minds, and for good reason—fixtures don’t get any juicier than Wolves at home. The perfect way to fund Ekitiké seems to be selling Bruno, who’s injured for the first time in years. But for which other midfielder? Options are plentiful—Cunha and Rice lea...

It’s perhaps fitting that the international break would fill our teams with flags. But even though I would consider myself an amateur vexillologist—at one point, I was able to identify nearly all the national flags in the world—I’m not loving the yellow flags that have appeared next to many of my players. The injury of most consequence seems to be Gabriel’s—with him set to be out for 1–2 months, we must ask ourselves if we want to replace him with another Arsenal defender or look elsewhere. With a rather delectable fixture run ahead, Manchester United midfiel...

Thanks to Ndiaye and Xhaka respectively, Jacob and Jiayang both enjoyed successful Bench Boosts. Our overall solid gameweeks, however, owed little thanks to our starting midfielders, none of whom got a single return. Which leads to the question: are we in the midst of a midfielder drought? Five out of the top ten highest-scoring midfielders are either box-to-box or defensive midfielders, with Rice looking especially enticing due to Arsenal’s ever-potent set-piece threat. Jacob is also forced to confront some first-world problems: firstly, still having a Free Hit chip without an obvious gameweek to play it in, and secondly, ha...

I can’t remember the last time a Manchester United player other than Bruno Fernandes was a viable FPL asset, but Cunha and especially Mbeumo finally appear to be hitting their stride. Could it be time to invest? In the striker department, Haaland is of course unnegotiable currently; Mateta isn’t too far off, having racked up a whopping 7.99 xG in just nine games—only marginally less than Haaland himself. Who should our third forward be? Jacob and Jiayang have both become rather enamored with Igor Thiago, though one could also make good arguments for Woltemade and Kroupi Junior. Finall...

We have been building up to this moment for a few weeks now: Jacob has decided to activate his Wildcard!

We work our way through the options from the bottom up, going through the locks and then discussing the shortlisted players for each position. Given the healthy selection of attractive defenders available at the moment, the question is instead how many defenders at each price point Jacob wants. In midfield, the bulk of our conversation revolves around which budget options can best supplement Saka and Semenyo. We run into the most trouble with the forwards—we love Ha...

Gameweek 6 brought with it many juicy fixtures, whether that be Man City’s 5-1 demolition of Burnley (Haaland Triple Captainers rejoice), Crystal Palace’s dismantling of Liverpool, or Arsenal’s dogged comeback against Newcastle.

But none of these events can rival the miracle that was Aston Villa’s victory against Fulham and Watkins getting on the scoresheet (Jiayang rejoices). Looking ahead to Gameweek 7, we consider the appeal of Arsenal players (or lack thereof) ahead of their good fixture run, before unpacking Jacob’s decision to transfer in João Pedro for Bowen—bad thought process or simply unlucky outco...

Amidst all the recent talk surrounding the impact of DEFCON on the game, the other rule changes this season have taken a backseat. As a reminder, managers will be given five free transfers in Gameweek 16 in light of players departing for the Africa Cup of Nations. This means that managers will have plenty of transfers to use during this period, seemingly rendering moot the previously popular strategy of saving the Wildcard until right before Gameweek 19. Thus, if we want to harness the full power of the Wildcard, the “deadline” by which we need to use it is now much clos...

Aston Villa are the only team in England's top seven divisions to still be without a goal at this stage in the season. And Jiayang, along with nearly two million FPL managers, has owned Ollie Watkins since Gameweek 1. Villa have given us no signs of hope—so should we keep the faith ahead of three juicy fixtures? Or rather, is Villa now the juicy fixture for the three other teams? On the flip side, Bournemouth and Antoine Semenyo have been tearing it up so far. The big question, then: will Semenyo be this season’s Mbeumo? In this episode, we a...

Wake up, wake up, the first international break of the season is over! First, we refresh our memories of what happened in Gameweek 3, including Liverpool’s tight victory over Arsenal, West Ham’s upset over Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United’s last-gasp win against Burnley (which contributed to Jiayang’s somewhat successful spontaneous Free Hit that featured all three of Bruno, Mbeumo, and Cunha). For our Dilemma Deliberations, we contemplate the viability of Liverpool’s attacking options following Isak’s arrival, then extensively explore the effect that Defensive Contributions are having on the defender meta. It seems like this new route to...

Let’s face it: it’s not been a particularly bountiful start to the season, and Gameweek 2 was especially unforgiving to Jacob and Jiayang. How can managers in similar positions turn things around? Could it be time to activate an early Wildcard, or do we not have enough information yet to be confident in our selections? Or should we just all play our Free Hits and triple up on Burnley attackers ahead of their trip to Old Trafford? Listen to hear our thoughts on all this and more in this first inter-gameweek episode of the FPL Fortress!

F...

In the blink of an eye, summer is practically over and we’re less than two weeks away from the start of Gameweek 1! In this first episode of our sixth season, Jacob and Jiayang finally get the gears turning again in order to assemble a first draft together. In the process, we talk through key considerations such as ideal premium structure, mid-priced and budget enablers, and the potential impact of the newly added defensive contributions to the defender landscape. With the addition of a second set of chips, we also toy with the idea of the Gameweek 1 Bench Boost—perh...

Dear listeners, it’s that time of year again—welcome to the final episode of our 2024/25 season, our illustrious Season Review! We recognize that Gameweek 38 in fact happened over three weeks ago and apologize for keeping you waiting until now—but this also means that we’ve had more time to mull over what’s happened this season, allowing us to refine our reflections to deeper profundities. We start off with the superlatives, and this time, for the thrill of it all, we’ve prepared them without telling the other who/what we’ve picked. Then, we nominate eleven players who ha...

All in all, I think it’s safe to say most FPL managers enjoyed quite a successful Free Hit, predominantly thanks to Wolves and Newcastle assets, as well as a certain Ryan Sessegnon. In unprecedented fashion here at the Fortress, we have made the executive decision to cut the Dilemma Deliberations segment—quite frankly, there just isn’t that much to talk about, and the last thing we want is to offer a dull listening experience. To make up for this, we have an extra beefy Captaincy segment, as, going down the long line of six options, we realize that t...

Excerpted from last gameweek’s episode description: “We certainly hope that Double Gameweek 33, possibly the largest double gameweek of the season, ushers in more shout-outs than whisper-ins next week.” Update: that did not happen. Double Gameweek 33 was underwhelming, to say the least: the only attacking return from my entire attacking 7 came in the 83rd minute of the last game of gameweek, and Jakub Kiwior singlehandedly outscored my entire Bench Boost. It seems like every episode, our mantra is to keep looking ahead, and look ahead we shall do! Most FPL managers will be activating their Free Hit, so we take t...

KEVIN DE BRUYNE! marco asensio. ANTOINE SEMENYO! chelsea fc. What’s this, you ask? A textual demonstration of our latest innovation, of course: the shout-out and whisper-in mini-segment, which will now be embedded within the Gameweek Review. We certainly hope that Double Gameweek 33, possibly the largest double gameweek of the season, ushers in more shout-outs than whisper-ins next week. For the bulk of this episode, we try to parse through the best assets from Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Manchester City. Though it seems like the obvious goal would be to triple up on both Arsenal and Man Ci...

Last gameweek’s average score, a measly 34 points, was the lowest one we’ve seen all season. Indeed, every single player more expensive than Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.7m) blanked, and the savior of the gameweek was Jacob Murphy (£5.1m). Thankfully, there are exciting times ahead: Newcastle and Crystal Palace have upcoming double gameweeks, which means we’ll be taking a deep dive into the best assets from those two teams (we also keep an eye out for the even bigger Double Gameweek 33 that’s just around the corner). Given that Salah has one fixture while Isak has two, it seems like the a...

In the midst of what has undoubtedly been a prolonged lull in the game, Jacob and Jiayang look ahead to the final stretch of the season. Jacob wildcarded last gameweek, unfortunately to little success. How can FPL managers who still have their second Wildcard (like Jiayang!) take full advantage of it? Is this gameweek the best time to press the button? After this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals, the teams that double and blank in GW 33 and GW 34 will be finalized. A shockingly high number of teams with relevant FPL assets have favorable fixtures ahead, such as Arsenal, Bournemouth, Ch...

This may not be the first time you heard this, and it probably won’t be the last: the Assistant Manager chip has to go. Adding a manager adds another dimension to the game, overcomplicating it and distancing it from the beautifully simple yet also endlessly stimulating concept of picking the PLAYERS you think will get the most points. What do you mean, DAVID MOYES has scored the same amount of points as MO SALAH in their last four games? But alas, we are stuck with the chip this season at least, and therefore we must try to optimize ou...

Bournemouth have become somewhat of a juggernaut of late, and FPL managers have the tricky task of weighing three fantastic budget midfielders in Semenyo, Kluivert, and Ouattara. Each of them have their own pros and cons, but which one tickles your fancy? After discussing whether transferring Mbeumo in for Gordon is a good idea, we also devise a brand new, state-of-the-art metric (read: questionable numerical manipulation) to decide whether to play Gabriel against Man City or Ben Johnson against Southampton. But the question at the forefront of most managers’ minds is whether or not to triple captain Salah ahead of...

As Liverpool and Everton’s double gameweek gets ever closer, we really drill into the question of who our third Liverpool asset should be—and note the use of the word “asset” instead of “player,” because that asset, other than Díaz, Gakpo, or Konaté, could very well be Arne Slot! As for Everton? Jacob brings up the point that if the “extra” Liverpool game didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be talking about Everton assets at all—and “extra” is in quotes because, well, is there really that much value added when the game is against Liverpool? This leads us to consider the mor...

Welcome to the 100th episode of the FPL Fortress! Our first episode was released all the way back in March of 2021, back when we were sophomores in high school. Now, we’re sophomores in college, and we thought we’d take this moment to reflect on the past four years of FPL by creating a list of the 100 most memorable players that we’ve had the pleasure (or displeasure) of encountering. The list is split into four categories: all-timers, honest workers, trolls, value picks, and those who can only be described as “vibes.”

As we go through these play...

In this first episode of 2025, we go back in time ten years—Mikel Arteta is back on the menu! With the brand new Assistant Manager chip, FPL managers can earn points from having Mikel Arteta in their team again—though this time, it’s in a managerial capacity. (Speaking of Premier League managers who used to be players themselves, did you know that Andoni Iraola once played in a midfield trio with Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard at NYCFC, feeding balls through to Jack Harrison?) We take our first careful look at the chip, breaking down the two preeminent strate...

In FPL, much like with the study of history, we must analyze the past to better inform our actions in the future. We must never repeat the same mistakes—such as buying Diogo Jota. He was part of a combined Liverpool and Arsenal sextuple-up that netted me a grand total of two returns. How glorious. In response, we conduct a thorough dissection of the best players to invest in for FPL managers who still have their first Wildcard. Who can replace our underwhelming Liverpool and Arsenal assets (read: liabilities)? We explore the potential of Crystal Palace players with an ex...

As the midway point of the season approaches, both Jacob and Jiayang find themselves in the rather strange position of still having their first Wildcard and yet lacking any desire to use it. We try to discuss the best options position-by-position, but are quickly faced with the slightly depressing truth that there simply aren’t that many truly desirable players in the game right now. The situation is especially dire among the midfielders and forwards—so dire, in fact, that we even toy with the idea of playing four defenders plus six attackers (instead of the typical seven). The dryn...

Title says it all, really. Five losses and a draw after being up 3-0 … there has surely never been a bleaker moment in a Pep team. Maybe Rodri really is just that important, as Jacob explains through an insightful “field tilt” visualization. Our first Dilemma Deliberation is more theoretical (though very applicable): Is it better to start a goalkeeper from a worse defense against a worse attack, or a goalkeeper from a better defense against a better attack? We posit that it’s quite helpful to imagine yourself owning an attacker from each of the opposing teams and comparing how conf...

The Premier League may have taken last weekend off, but here at the Fortress, dilemmas have been brewing—and this is the episode where we bring them to the fore. To start, we revisit the idea of selling Haaland by exploring other permutations that the extra cash can fund. Regular listeners will know that we’re a very interdisciplinary podcast; accordingly, Jiayang references Hegel’s assertion that changes in quantity may eventually result in changes in quality as a metaphor to question how close managers are to actually committing to the act. Soon afterwards, we arrive at our first unansw...

Today’s episode centers around a single Tweet from FPL 420 (@420fpl) at 5:45 PM on October 27, 2024: “😂Your GW10 points were mostly decided weeks ago mate.” Despite the seemingly light-hearted, jovial tone evoked by the laughing emoji, the statement struck us as being quite profound. There is genuine evidence corroborating this claim—just take the all-too-painful example of Jiayang buying Colwill instead of Aina to replace Hall in GW 6, resulting in a remarkable 20-point swing (an excellent demonstration of the macroeconomic phenomenon of the “multiplier effect”). If our past determines our present and our present determines our future, then which temporal state should we...

For the most part, I try to employ a well-balanced mixture of professionalism and wittiness when writing these episode blurbs. But from the bottom of my heart, that was one of the most enjoyable episodes I’ve ever had the pleasure of recording. Regular listeners will know that the Fortress enters flow state whenever we sink our teeth into a particularly juicy thought experiment—and the one explored in this episode might just be our crown jewel. It all started when Jiayang asked Jacob if he would be happy owning a player whose points were guaranteed to follow the patt...

This week, Jiayang had to get a lot off his chest. His transfer in Solanke accumulated a grand total of 0.11 xGI in a four-goal demolition of West Ham, Calvert-Lewin and Eze continued to contend for the coveted title of Biggest Twat in his team, and his captain Haaland decided to do his best Colorado River impression by extending his dry run for yet another gameweek. Dilemma Deliberations-wise, we begin by focusing on Arsenal’s and Aston Villa’s poor upcoming fixtures (“well-endowed on the y-axis and challenged on the x-axis,” as one might say). Then, we turn our attention towards...

Today, Donald Trump mentioned UTDTrey in a Tweet—which can only spell disaster for Trump’s campaign, since nobody can escape the Trey jinx. It’s no surprise, then, that the team he reps has steadily been on the decline since he joined Twitter. As Jacob says, United are towing the line between being hated and being forgotten—and for a franchise like Manchester United, the latter might be worse. Gameweek 6 also saw City draw to Newcastle, Arsenal avoid dropping points at the death against Leicester, and a certain Cole Palmer become the first and only player in Premier League h...

Mikel Arteta almost pulled off the low block of the century against Man City, condemning City to feed their onslaught through Rúben Dias—hardly the most creative player in their team. Due to the nature of this low block (and perhaps due in part to his ghosting tendencies), Kai Havertz completed a grand total of 0 out of 5 attempted passes over the course of the 90 minutes. Nonetheless, he is a contender for the third best Arsenal asset to own, behind Saka and Gabriel, and this assessment forms the meat and potatoes of this episode of the FPL Fortress. Elsewhere, we...

The talk of the town is the Gameweek 6 Wildcard. Are Arsenal’s and City’s good fixtures enough to warrant pressing the button? Just how in the mud does your team need to be in order for the Wildcard to be worth it? In this episode, we try to work through these questions and analyze the cheap Isak replacements—though there are many options, few are all that exciting. And for once, the obvious captaincy choice doesn’t seem to be Haaland—but what do you do if you don’t have Mo?

To borrow a phrase from Noni Madueke: everything about this game is s***. Well, not really—in fact, FPL is a really compelling, well designed game, especially with this year’s pricing—but it can feel pretty awful when the team you spent the entire summer tinkering with, and one that looks quite decent on paper, just kind of flops after the first couple of weeks. Alas, it is what it is—and though that may sound defeatist, I’m using it in the defiant way here, in the sense that we’re accepting what’s transpired and blazing onwards, unfaz...