The final episode of the 2022/23 season on FPL Fortress is here! It’s been another wild ride—it always is, whenever FPL is involved, at least—and we want to find some sense of closure with it all. We’ve all faced so many stressful last-minute decisions right before the deadline, experienced so many memorable moments, both good and bad, and (hopefully) taken away so many valuable lessons for the future. In this episode, we hand out our superlative awards of the season, go through our Breakout XI and Flop XI, trauma-dump our horror stories, reminisce about our favorite moments, and share our takeaways for next season. It’s been a true pleasure and honor to be with you all this season, and—well, there isn’t any green arrow to wish everyone, so Jacob and I will simply wish you all a lovely summer. Until August!

Time Stamps:

00:00 - Superlatives

32:38 - Breakout XI

47:15 - Flop XI

63:21 - Horror Stories

70:30 - Memorable Moments

78:37 - Lessons Learned

This episode is all about narratives. After all, it's the last gameweek of the season—what better time to indulge ourselves? We deliberated over the best one-week punts, ranging from a Colombian troll to an English cult hero. The captaincy should probably go to Erling, but Jiayang is tempted by more alluring options (he is rather bullish about another 9-0 as a nice send-off for Southampton into the Championship). Finally, we round off the episode with a brief discussion on rank and the value of risk-taking with one week left—the highs can be so high, but the lows can be low beyond the limits of our fathomability.

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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. Then, we take a deep dive into the best options from Man United and Man City for their upcoming double gameweek, with a particular focus on City assets. We round this penultimate episode off with a brief discussion about captaincy—though it may not be much of a decision, as per the usual this season.

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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, Haaland's curious decision to give Ilkay Gundogan his penalty kick, and some EFL-level defending from many of the teams in the relegation battle, we discuss the Isak/Wilson conundrum, ask whether the opportunity to get Trent Alexander-Arnold into our teams has come and gone, and solve many a manager's benching dilemmas. We also discuss the merits of captaining a double gameweek player over some of the best single gameweek options.

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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, Jacob poses a philosophical question that can be applied to not just the Gameweek 32 Free Hit, but also the game of FPL as a whole, and indeed life itself.

*NOTE: WE SPEND 37 SECONDS ON CAPTAINCY.

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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 be a beacon of rational thought (maybe coupled with a little bit of vibes) to help you managers out there make your big decisions. Our Dilemma Deliberations this week focus on the best teams to invest in for the run-in, and we sprinkle in a little bit of discussion about why Liverpool's fullbacks are certainly fun picks, but perhaps not the best choices tactically. Let's shoot for the path with the pot of gold at its end, shall we?

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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.

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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 with the Brighton boys, and there truly is so little to separate them. Captaincy is another interesting discussion, as we pit Toney against the Brighton midfielder of your choice (spoiler alert: we're willing to BET that Toney will come out on top).

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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 hottest debates in each position. Oh, and it may be a good idea to brush up on English litigation with regards to betting infractions in the meantime. Just for your own sake, y'know?

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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're also feeling overwhelmed, fear not! Using Jacob's psychoanalysis of the Free Hit,  we put forward a Fortress-recommended Free Hit strategy. We also discover that Jacob may have a secret vendetta against Harry Kane (well, not so secret anymore). Jiayang does his best to defend the Spurs and England darling, but Jacob remains unrelenting in his onslaught.

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