Gameweek 19 turned out to be my best gameweek so far this season with 120 (-8) points and GW rank of 2.08 lacs. Previous best was GW rank of 3.13 lacs in GW8 with 78 points, when 10 out of my 11 players yielded returns.

GW 19 Summary

GW 19 Points	120 (-8)
GW 19 Rank	2.08 lacs
Overall rank after GW 19	18.48 lacs
Net Change	+ 6.82 lacs

GW 19 being a double gameweek provided me a licence to go ultra aggressive and fortunately the changes worked out very well for me.

I took out Calvert Lewin(0), Son (5) and Kilman (0) for a -8 and got in Antonio (18), Maddison (17) and Robertson (8) for DGW19. This resulted in a net swing of 30 points for me and led me to a first 100+ points finish and best GW rank of 2.08 lacs and that too without using any Chip, placing me nicely for double and blank game weeks later in the season.

Positives

Stones – With a current ownership of 16.9% and even lesser prior to DGW19, Stones turned out to be a great differential providing joint highest GW return for ANY player. Although my decision was heavily influenced by Stones’ lower price than Dias, it included a big risk as he was not nailed on when I got him in and in this case bigger risks were indeed rewarded with better returns.

Maddison – Maddison was the ultimate under the radar pick for this GW. Leicester’s games weren’t particularly easy on paper against Southampton and Chelsea, but Southampton have been conceding often off late and Chelsea were cracking prior to this GW. To add to that Maddison plays in the hole for a team seemingly mounting a title challenge, hence it seemed like a good differential pick to me and thankfully it worked out.

Antonio – Antonio was another differential pick, but not so much under the radar. Lot of FPL managers had Antonio in their plans but were vary of his injury record and fact that he might not start both matches in the gameweek. However, I took the plunge, and boy! Did it work out! Goal in each game and maximum bonus resulted in a fantastic return of 18 points.

Negatives

Salah – 4 points return in a double gameweek for a 12.5m asset is abysmal and Salah has been in really poor form with no returns in last 5 GWs. Makes all the sense to let him go and that was the plan, but then KDB got injured and now suddenly there are 12 premium priced mids in my team who need to go. Hence Salah might stay for another week, and with Salah scoring twice in FA Cup, there might be a silver lining in keeping him.

Wilson – I got Wilson in for the blank gameweek and then with Newcastle getting a surprise DGW turned it into a great transfer. But Newcastle team are in a rut and haven’t really kicked on from a decent start and now are staring at a relegation battle. So I am might take him out of my team soon.

FPL Cup Progress

I was up against Khatieb in the FPL Cup who was ranked 1M overall at the start of GW19 and with me taking a -8 hit, I realised that chances of making it through were slim. Fortunately my opponent went for a -8 as well and same captain. So my differential in Maddison and Stones worked out well to take me through to the next round with a net score of 112 – 98.

All in all a great GW, let the chase continue. The next short-term target is to consolidate this rank and not fall below 2M again and begin the push for sub 1M rank by the time we reach potential DGW 26 (which could involve a lot of teams with DGW, a great option of Bench Boost without using Wildcard).