Imagine beating over 11 million other Fantasy Premier League managers to top spot in the overall rankings…
That’s what Ali Jahangirov (@FPLGunz) did to become the 2022/23 FPL champion.
Ranked first during the final six rounds and inside the top five since Gameweek 25, Ali’s 2,776 points were enough for him to cling to first place on a dramatic final day.
In Gameweek 38, his 18-point lead was whittled down to five by the final whistle and, had Callum Wilson not come on to block an Ethan Pinnock 15-point auto-sub for the eventual runner-up, Abdullah Amr would’ve instead been declared the winner.
Ali is no one-trick pony, either, having finished in 215th place in 2021/22.
Having recovered from the final-day chaos, Ali was able to join David Munday for a chat on our YouTube channel, discussing his highlights, chip strategy and general thought process.
Here is a selection of his answers, with the full interview viewable in the embedded video at the bottom of this piece.
Q. I would love to start with the final day of the season because it looks as if it was very stressful, very exciting as well I’m sure, but I was wondering if you could perhaps set the scene for us: where were you, who you were with when it was finally confirmed? What was that day like because I think there were lots of chops and changes and it possibly looked like it might have gone a different way.
A. Yeah, absolutely, I was with my friend at the sports bar. I have a couple of friends and I didn’t want to invite too many people. I knew it was going to be a really nervy watch so I was just with my close friends who were cheering me up and who were very supportive in the last couple of hours.
Not only the last 20 minutes of that Gameweek but since the beginning, I remember the players that I didn’t have on and all of my rivals had, they started scoring instantly – like Kane, Ollie Watkins scored Douglas Luiz scored, and these were the players that my chasers had. My 18-point gap just like came into nothing after 10-15 minutes of the game starting. It was a nervy 90 minutes I should say but you know the good things don’t come easy that’s why I had to go through that stress just to make the win in the end sweeter.
Q. In terms of what decisions you made on the day, could you perhaps fill us in on what transfers you made and how you were set up?
So what I did before the last Gameweek, I prepared a spreadsheet of players that were a danger to my rank – let’s say the players that I had and the players that the top 14 had, which was a 35-to-40-point gap. So I did all the squad analysis and just highlighted the players that I didn’t have.
Tyrone Mings a lot of people had him and I knew they were playing him, so I needed a Brighton goal. I think number two had Martin Odegaard, number three and number four had Alvarez, and some of them had Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz. Not many people had Kane but after the Haaland benching news came out, I think I just knew that a lot of people will be just switching from Haaland to Kane.
I was pretty set on a Salah captaincy. I couldn’t really rely on Kane, with Tottenham’s inconsistency I didn’t know what to expect. Plus Sam Allardyce could have done better of course in Leeds’ last game, they were fighting relegation and I thought there was a slight chance that Leeds could put a fight.
The two final options I had was Alvarez and Martin Odegaard versus Kane and Mark Odegaard. It was 50-50 and I decided to go with Kane in the last 10 minutes prior to the deadline. I was just checking the transfers out and transfers in and I realised that Haaland was top of the transfers out list and Kane was top of the transfers in so it just swayed me into getting Kane.
Q: One thing we do have to talk about with your finish this year is how well you also did last year. Of the former winners, Adam Levy (2018/19) is the only one who can boast a better second-best finish than yourself – he came 90th last year. For you to be posting statistics like that must be an incredibly proud achievement.
A: Yeah it is because I thought it [last time] was a fluke season and didn’t know if I could better it anytime soon. I wasn’t expecting it to get this good! But this season was a little bit different because of the World Cup in the middle and the unlimited transfers of Gameweek 17, it helped me to plan ahead.
It all comes down to how well you go through these chaotic periods – when you get through them in good shape, you’re in a good position to finish higher.
Q: Let’s talk about your season in a little bit more detail. It started at around 600k after Gameweek 1 and around one millionth by Gameweek 4 but by the World Cup you were up to 3k, so you made up some fantastic ground, didn’t you?
A: Yes, my first Gameweek wasn’t too bad but in the second and third I really went down in rank. I’ve never been that far away, so didn’t know how to catch up as fast. All I knew was to check my eye test and see where I can go against the grain because, with the Darwin [Nunez] arrival, all of the chances created were flying towards him instead of [Mohamed] Salah, so I thought there was a chance I could go against Salah’s ownership.
When Darwin got a red card in Gameweek 2, I made three transfers – Darwin out for [Harry] Kane, with [Phil] Foden and Luis Diaz instead of Salah and [Pedro] Neto. In the long term, these served me so well. I knew I had to do something different, with a more flexible team because I wasn’t planning on using my Wildcard early on, I was just delaying it to have the last five or six Gameweeks before the break.
I went on some players really early and was ahead of the curve most of the time, I was lucky enough to have the players that hauled before their ownership would skyrocket. It was good timing overall.
Q: There were just two hits in that period, the first one being those three transfers in Gameweek 3. That’s a method I usually like to go for – hold off for the first two weeks, then a mini Wildcard. I find the timing of your first Wildcard really interesting too. A lot of managers will usually go between Gameweeks 4 to 8. What was it like holding off on using that – did you feel pressure from outside?
A: I did, to be honest. But this season was a little bit different because we knew we had unlimited transfers in Gameweek 17, so it was easier for me to hold onto it. Ideally, I’d delay it every season because the later you use your first Wildcard, the later you can use your second one. That helped me a lot.
Using it early gets you good squad value and you can jump on higher-owned players but I remember the time [Gameweek 12] when Manchester City and Arsenal blanked and you were looking at five or six players missing out. A lot of people would just start selling but I kept most of my Arsenal assets, [Erling] Haaland and maybe another one like [Joao] Cancelo. That was my plan, to then have them when nobody does.
Q: The second half of the season really was when you kicked on – within six Gameweeks you were 173rd and by Gameweek 25 you were fourth. What was that period of the season like? Is this when you started thinking “Hmm, is this the year?”
A: I was just trying to get into the top 1k because that’s where you either lose it or push forward into the top 100. I jumped with a Triple Captaincy of [Marcus] Rashford and, after that, I was just halving my rank every Gameweek. It was happening really fast, like I didn’t have time to plan it. Once I got to the top five, I knew I still had 13 weeks to go and anything could happen, expecting some difficulties along the way. But after Gameweek 34, I managed to stay up there.
Q: Bringing it towards next season, it’s quite nice to hear that you kind of had a plan to, at the very least, do well. What advice would you give Fantasy managers based on the lessons you’ve learned in the last couple of years?
A: The best thing you can do is have fun with it and make your own decisions, play your own game because that’s when you get the biggest satisfaction. When you’re just following someone else’s advice that feels good of course but it’s not your own decision.
Unleash your inner manager and go for the win, whether it’s a mini-league or overall rank. Just try to have fun. When it goes wrong, just remember that you have family, work, friends and everything that’s a lot more important in your life than being stressed about a game. Easier said than done!
