Wow thanks so much, that is quite the compliment. You might be interested in my "special videos" playlist, has a few more original videos that you may enjoy. 🙂
These interviews are fantastic and provide something other than the usual hive mind stuff we get in the community. Just a single manager and their thoughts. Very insightful!
Great work. Can you try and please get Jon Ballantyne in an interview. He's been ultra consistent the last 3 seasons and has made another solid start. Thanks
Thanks. Really interesting. Not following random voices on Twitter seems to be a recurring theme. Also concentrating on information above opinion seems like sound advice (it being important to have your own opinion based on your own research). The trouble is Twitter noise is rather addictive. Lessons to be learnt. Thanks again. Michael
Good work mate! Yes, I think certain strategies are good to adopt but to stand out from the crowd then definitely don’t go with the crowd if one wants to excel in FPL!
Transcript for anyone interested: - There are some great websites out there such as LiveFPL, FantasyFootballScout and PremierFantasyTools, which track every Manager to form an All-Time Leaderboard. Regardless of which sites you use, they all agree on one thing, Fabio ranks in 1st place as the Greatest Ever Manager. - His worst ever rank was 17.9k back in 2014/15, since then he's finished in the Top 10K every year, including a top 100 finish. - He's an elusive man and doesn't use social media, a similarity both him and Yavuz Kabuk have in common. If you've not seen the video on Yavuz, a link to that is in the description and on-screen at the end. After hours of digging I was able to track Fabio down to make today's video possible, and to my delight he was happy to be interviewed. - I sent him 5 questions, and then later added a 6th on Ronaldo, which I'm glad I did because his opinion on Ronaldo might surprise you. - I started off by asking about him in general, my first question being **"What can you tell us about yourself?"**, He said: - I am Portuguese, I live in Lisbon and I am 40 years old. I used to be a professional poker player and now I work for the sports betting industry. I always enjoyed football, statistics and strategy games so, obviously, FPL was the perfect fit for me and I was hooked as soon as I started playing in 2014/15. - My background as a poker player was very important for a smooth transition to FPL since both games involve a mixture of skill and luck. At the same time, the goal of both FPL and Poker is to make the best possible decision with the information we have available at the time while remaining calm when things don't work as we planned. - **Which team do you support, if any?** - I used to be a die-hard FC Porto supporter when I was a kid but, currently, I don't follow Portuguese football at all. Regarding English teams, I consider myself a neutral but this season I am rooting for Brentford to avoid relegation since I really admire their heavy analytics-driven approach to football. Bielsa's Leeds United is another team I really enjoy watching and I hope they keep improving this season. - **What tips can you share behind your success?** - Well, I am definitely a stats-oriented manager. I don't ignore the so-called "eye test" completely but most of my decisions are based on long-term data, especially expected goals and expected assists. The reason for this is because I only watch one or two matches every week and, even if I was able to watch every single match, my brain would be susceptible to all sorts of bias while statistics have a better "memory", which makes them more reliable, in my opinion. I do watch Match of the Day every week but it is very rare that one of my transfers is based solely on what I saw in a single match. - I almost always wait for press conferences before making my transfers and I don't think I ever bought or sold someone because his price was going to change. Even though my team value is usually lower than the average by the end of the season due to this strategy. I never felt like I was at a disadvantage by then and I really think the pros of getting all the possible information before making my transfers clearly outweigh having an extra million to use later in the season. After all, it would not be a big deal if I had to go with Lukaku (11.5m) instead of Ronaldo (12.5m) in my second wildcard because I had a lower team value than most managers. - But, most of all, I would say that being patient and valueing transfers is the most important factor behind my results. I rarely sell a player I still consider a good prospect just because someone else scored a hat-trick and it is very rare that I take a hit outside of Double Gameweeks. I always try to buy reliable players that I feel confident having in my team for the next four gameweeks at least, even if they blank in the first three. This approach doesn't always work but in the long run, it reduces the number of hits taken and allows me to use my free transfers to get rid of my weakest links instead of using them to buy someone just because he did well in the previous gameweek. - **How does it feel to be considered The Greatest FPL Manager of All-time?** - Well, I am definitely proud of my results so far, especially because I am a very competitive manager and my main goal when I started playing a bit more seriously was to reach the top of the FFS Hall of Fame. It is awesome to know that I reached this goal after several years of analyzing stats and thinking about the game. In fact, I feel even prouder of being at the top of the Hall of Fame than I would be if I ever managed to win FPL because luck plays a much lesser role over several seasons than it does over a single season. - **What's your best FPL memory?** - I have a lot of good FPL memories but three of them really stand out: - Captaining Charlie Austin in my first season when he scored a hat-trick against West Brom. I was not a very good player back then but I enjoyed that feeling of success so much that I started taking the game a lot more seriously after it. - Going with Mahrez from the start when Leicester won the Premier League. I was really impressed with his stats from the previous season and I had a good feeling about him. I think it is fair to say it went better than I could ever imagine even if he wasn't a differential for long. - Lastly, buying Michail Antonio before his four goals against Norwich last season. I doubt I will be able to make such a successful transfer ever again! - **How much attention do you pay to what's on Twitter/RU-vid/Reddit/other forums?** - I don't have Twitter or Reddit and I try to avoid group thinking as much as I can. Most of the fun for me is to figure things out on my own and I only discuss strategy with a couple of friends. I do follow some sources such as Mikkel Tokvam's Transfer Algorithm, BigManBakkar's weekly analysis, and I really enjoy watching FPL BlackBox with Mark and Az whenever I can. Other than that, I only pay attention to my stats tables and I try to update them as often as possible. - **What are your thoughts on Ronaldo as an FPL asset?** - Honestly, I find it hard to justify having Ronaldo at 12.5m when there are so many good cheaper forwards such as Antonio, Calvert-Lewin, Jimenez, Bamford. I really think all of these players represent better value than Ronaldo. Even Lukaku costs 1 million less and he basically matched Ronaldo for attacking returns last season in Serie A. Of course, we all know he can haul in any given week and it will be hard to ignore him for his first match against Newcastle but I definitely don't think he is a must-have as a 12.5m forward. As things stand, I don't think I will bring him in this week but, of course, a lot can change until the deadline. - It was fascinating to hear about Fabio's background in poker, and how that skillset translated well to FPL. It makes perfect sense that the ability to keep cool when things don't go to plan can translate to FPL, and there's absolutely valuable lessons to be learned there. There will always be points when it doesn't go to plan, but if you made the best possible decision with the information available to you at the time then you're doing everything right. - Ronaldo is such a popular pick that it was very surprising to hear his differing viewpoint, but nonetheless great insight and one we'll look back on in the future. - Lastly I want to thank Fabio for taking the time to answer the questions. His answers were fantastic and made for a great video.
In a nutshell, if you play fantasy specifically from an analytics standpoint, you will do consistently well. If you play with your heart and just want to banter with your buds, you are not going to do well.
Yep. Trust in your brain, trust in your brain and opinion. That's part of the fun. I am never asking twitter or any social media groups for help or feedback again.
This video really just brought something up in me , thank you , plus you sound better in this video than 1 month ago , did you get a new mic or something because I hear an improvement in the audio ?
I rate Rich Clarke higher he have played more sesongs. But I really appreciate Fabio because he thinks different then others and that is probably why he is better then us, he does not use that much reassurance so that is kinda a example on that he likes to think him self.
Really interesting video (just watched it for the second time through) thanks. Clearly a strong advocate of the ultra patient approach and his almost total disregard for TV was very interesting, and something I think I could learn from. Also seems to pay no regard to EO - so I’ve seen many pundits say one of the reasons to get Ronaldo in is EO - because everyone else will have him and the potential drop in rankings if he hauls - yet that does not seem to be something that Fabio worries about at all (and why would you, if you know you’re the best!). Just one question - he referred to not using social media much, and that he just uses “his stats tables” and “tries to update them regularly”. This might be a dumb question, but what’s that all about? With tailorable and comprehensive stats tables available online, on FFH and FFS (for example), why would you maintain your own separate stats tables?? Does he mean he has a big Excel spreadsheet somewhere that he uses to drive decisions? Or that there are some sort of statistical measures that he maintains in a spreadsheet, that wouldn’t be available for the online sites?? Don’t quite get that.
Thanks for watching. He didn’t go into any further detail on his stats tables, but my interpretation was that he maintains his own data in conjunction with what’s readily available out there.
Dont mean to be pedantic, but Antonio's four goal haul was in fact not last seasom but the season before last. Last season was an impossible answer because Norwich of course had been relegated.
I think I’m going to opt for Fernandez > Torres (GW4) then Dennis > Bamford (GW5). But I don’t think Greenwood will play as much during CR7’s reign. Can I do better?
Hey man, I love your videos. Really great production and value with no messing about. I was thinking, how can you improve the channel and start gaining more followers? One thing I would add, if I were you, is highlighted comments. Give a shoutout to one to three of the best comments from the previous video. That way the RU-vid algorithm will recommend your videos to more people because you will be getting more comments. It is not that difficult and I think it would help your channel grow! Best of luck with everything! Cheers! 💪💕
Fabio saying he'll not bring in player just because he's doing well at the moment unless he'd weak link in his team when he just transfer Jota out for Benrahma for GW3 😂😁
I'm on the lookout for other music, have listened to hundreds of copyright free songs. Hard to find out that I can picture being good background music 😅 I believe if you use any copyrighted music then your video gets flagged and can't be monetised etc. Nightmare!
Lol what a ridiculous comment. To win out of 9 million is very luck based. To show you can get top finishes shows skill. Therefore, Fabio is the most skifull manager of all-time, simple.
