FPL Fortress

Sir Callum Eddie Graham Wilson MBE the Great (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) has officially crowned himself the King of Tyneside. Just how Howe has been such a roaring success at Newcastle? We also talk about the "real Brighton" and the "fake Brighton" that we saw, as well as Liverpool's fine form of late and Arsenal's alleged "bottling" of the league...

There was a coronation in England recently, but it's not the one you're thinking of, as Erling Haaland set the new single season goalscoring record in the Premier League. He may be the king of the Prem, but he isn't the FPL king yet, unless he eclipses Mo Salah's high-water mark of 303 points in a single season. After breaking down Big Sam's return to the Premier League, Haalan...

It seems like everybody and their mom is playing their Free Hit this week; but sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. After a compelling Gameweek 31 recap, we tackle the Free Hit head-on, covering everything from the locks to the differentials (for those who have the cojones). In particular, we spend a lot of time discussing which trio of Arsenal and Liverpool players are optimal. Finally...

It's that time of the season again: the run-in. High time for even more blanks and doubles, European knockout games, domestic cup finals, mounting injuries, the whole shebang. Each of these final eight gameweeks feels like it can be season-defining, as there really isn't that much time to pull ahead of your competitors, or indeed make up for lost ground. We here at the FPL Fortress hope to...

To keep Haaland or not to keep Haaland? That is the question, and we have the answer (spoiler alert: we think there are other fish in the sea). We also mull over how Jacob's Wildcard panned out and how Jiayang's imminent chip strategy might look. Perhaps it's time to take Chelsea's assets along with us for the ride—the blue flag might finally be rising from deep within the mud. @fplfortress (Insta...

One, two, three, four ... no, that's not how we do it around here at the Fortress. We find that there are much more creative ways to count to 7. On board? Ok, great! Now that we're all on the same page, we can move on to acronyms: in today's episode, we introduce SDG and MMM (hint: we're NOT talking about the Sustainable Development Goals). The eternal debate of head vs. heart comes up yet again w...

Funny, isn't it? Last week, no one in the FPL community had even considered wildcarding in GW 26, but now it seems like everyone's considering it. Perhaps a hive mind thing. Or, more charitably, once people start talking about something, it catches on. Jacob is deeply unhappy with his team, so he's pretty set on activating his Wildcard; we walk through his draft, and talk through a few of the hott...

Liverpool are back! Is what we all thought for 21 minutes. And then they weren’t. We’ll talk about how much we should trust their assets this episode, as well as strategies for navigating the upcoming barrage of blank and double gameweeks. It's shocking how we've gone from having little to talk about to having SO much to talk about—and so little information with which to make our decisions. If you...

It’s a bit of a quiet week in FPL, but we here at the Fortress still hope to provide you with some quality insight and banter. We tentatively sing João Félix's praises, postulate the POSSIBILITY of getting excited for Liverpool fans (out of the mud at last?), and consider Haaland's "fit" within this City side, courtesy of a piece of analysis from Thierry Henry. We also discuss the best goalkeeper...

Managers who triple-captained Marcus Rashford won. By this time next week, will we be saying the same thing about those who triple-captained Erling Haaland? We review Rashford's stunning form and our not-so-stunning predictions; beat the dead horse whose name rhymes with Ssdflkjhiverpool; and talk about how unfair it is that Man City only play 37 games every season (you'll find out why we say that...

Brighton have just beaten Liverpool 2-1 thanks to a stunner from Kaoru Mitoma. Is anyone surprised? Not us. That's the latest in a thrilling round of FA Cup ties, so what better time to take inventory of all that action than right now? We also refresh our memories about GW 21 (recall: Mudryk's Hazard-esque debut, Haaland's "easy" hat-trick, and the return of the glorious United-Arsenal rivalry). F...

With City staging a second-half comeback against Spurs, this past mini double gameweek draws to a close. But unless you owned Solly March, Bruno Fernandes, or Riyad Mahrez—the triumvirate of 19-pointers—it was quite a barren scene. In attempt to figure out some spicy differentials to break the template (which is ridiculously strong right now), we also review Liverpool's plateau, Manchester United'...

This feels like deja vu, but we're back (again)! It’s been a month (or two) since our last episode, but with college applications firmly behind us, we are committed to looking firmly ahead for the remainder of the season. In this comeback episode, we review the notable FA Cup and EFL Cup results before Jacob proposes an amendment to the structure of English football. For our Dilemma Deliberations,...

For our inaugural midseason review, we nominate our players of the season so far, pay respects to the breakout stars, and laugh at the players who simply haven't performed up to expectations. Then, we gather a couple of important lessons learned, which includes an excerpt from James Clear's "Atomic Habits" and a discussion about the fundamental purpose of a Wildcard. Finally, we look back on memor...

We’ve had to take a bit of a hiatus, but we’re back now and ready to provide all the insight you need for the last gameweek before the World Cup. It’s a bit of a strange time in FPL, isn’t it? We’re only halfway into the season, but we’re talking about dead-ending our teams and looking at just this one gameweek for all of our transfers. We give you our best one-week picks, position by position; di...

It’s felt like an eternity, but we’re back. As a lot of managers are planning to use their wildcard, we’ll cover exactly which players are right for your team. We break it down into three categories: locks, ones to considers, and differentials. With so many locks, managers only have a few spots left to fill out their team, and we tackle whether a second premium striker or a premium midfielder is t...

Once again, VAR has dominated the headlines—it seems like there's a new controversy every week. I mean, the Argentine Lionel Messi (none other than Alexis Mac Allister) would've gotten a hat-trick were it not for a certain Chris Kavanagh sitting in front of a monitor in west London. Regardless, there were many incredible moments from this week’s action, like Ivan Toney’s hat trick and Man United’s...

This past gameweek was defined by one man: Erling Haaland. He’s truly unlike anything we’ve ever seen before; it’s almost hard to put into words how dominant he has been through the first month of the league. And to think, just a few weeks ago we thought that he couldn’t cut it in the premier league because he missed a chance in preseason. How innocent we were back then, and how different things a...

Well, we didn’t see that coming, did we? All that talk of Liverpool’s glory days being over and they come out and absolutely hammer Bournemouth. It just goes to show how quickly things can change in FPL. In other news, Pep thinks the Premier League is too easy a competition, which is why he’s made it a personal mission of his for City to go down two goals every game. Because why not? We also discu...

It’s only been three gameweeks, and it seems like everything we thought we knew about this game has been flipped on its head. I mean, Man United? Where did that come from. But the question is: did that game reveal more about United or Liverpool? That's what we try to figure out in this episode. Keep listening for more about Newcastle's inspired performance, Arsenal's resurgence, and Leeds' America...

Well, this is it! The end to yet another season. It all feels a bit surreal, but we will give our FPL Fortress awards, detail our Breakout XI and Flop XI, consider lessons learned from this season, and reminisce about some of our favorite moments from this wild ride. We thank each and every one of you for listening to what we have to say and supporting us. Wishing everyone a healthy green summer!

The final pre-gameweek episode of the FPL Fortress is upon us. It’s been a great season, but also a tiring one, and we’re finally about to reach its end. All this time, we’ve been thinking about our strategy for the last few gameweeks, like what chips we’d use, which players to target, and how to dead-end our team. But now we’re actually living in that moment. We talk about the best differential S...

We’ve got just two more weeks to go, and the finality of all is really setting in now. But not everything is set in stone yet; there are still two big gameweeks to take advantage of, and getting these last gameweeks right will be essential. We’ve made it thus far with smart planning, rational thinking, and good strategy. Now is not the time to throw caution to the wind and throw your progress out...

Although the fate of our gameweeks are still up in the air, there have certainly been some dramatic moments this past weekend. At the same time, this weekend has felt like the calm before the storm—we’re all gearing up for what is poised to be a pair of massive double gameweeks, and right now, all we can do is prepare. Prepare to be surprised, that is. We praise the lord Jesus, revel in Newcastle'...

It’s been a while, but we are back, with perhaps our most important episode of the season. We’re getting into crunch time now, and every decision you will make in the next few weeks could have a massive effect on your rank at the end of the season. We’ll break down the important questions for the upcoming gameweek, including the Mount vs. Havertz debate (one, the other, both, or neither?), the mer...