BOTS VS EXPERTS: SELECTING THE BEST TEAM FOR THE GAME WEEK 30

Good evening and welcome to the continuation of our series. Choosing a team for a game week can be hard. Sentiments and personal preferences can cloud ones judgement. There have been many FPL sites that try to predict the team for the week but there is usually a large discrepancy.

My plan in doing this article is to compare human analysis (totw from experts on different sites) to AI analysis (totw from bots on different sites).

Now these sites are expected to churn out different teams every week irrespective of transfer limitations. The difference is that the experts bring their teams based on strict FPL formation and price while the bots simply bring out the best set of players from their algorithm projections.

For this study, I'll be using 8* sites. 4 have bots (fantasy football fix, first, overlord and assist) while 4 are human experts (fantasy football scout, fpl academy, thefpl blog and the official fantasy app scout).

The team of the week is entered into my FPL team to make sure they are affordable and follow all FPL rules. The screenshot is shown below:

Below is an excel representation where i delve into the data gotten and explain the picks.

                            

 

There is room for 3 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 7 midfielders and 5 forwards in the initial selection for the bots and these are given rank 1-7 with 7 being the highest. The players with highest rank points are then fitted into an FPL formation that is affordable. Substitutes aren't used, a captain is also selected using the same method. 

Another modification made was to reduce the number of defensive entrants from a team to 2 as most bots select based on fixtures and can pick all defenders from a team.

*After weeks of doing this, I have reviewed the sites and removed some and added others to ensure smooth running and consistency

The column in yellow are the top picks based on rankings by the 4 different bot sites (first 4 columns) with total rank points beside them in the bots column.. The next four columns give the experts view from four popular sites. The column in orange lists the players that were selected by at least 2 of the sites. There is no ranking for the expert teams. Finally, the column in red collates the data from all 8 sites and tries to give the best possible combination of teams from both the bots and the experts. The last column(blue) is for players who for cost or maximum number of team mates missed the cut but could be viable alternatives.

In goal, SCHMEICEL(4.8) gets the nod after manchester united and spurs were covered in their defense assets. After missing out last week due to price, ALONSO(6.8) returns with a home trip to conservative crystal palace. VALENCIA(5.9) is the most transferred in player this week and its not hard to see why; a plum home fixture against west brom promises cleansheets while DAVIES(4.8) continues to act as our cheapie as he depitises for the injured rose.  

In midfield, SANCHEZ(11.6) takes top billing after getting nominations from 5 sites and captain pick from two bots. ALLI(8.7) AND SIGURDSSON(7.8) join him. Alli is on top form and with penalty duties in the bag, its hard to see burnley stop him while siggy hopes to add to his 3 double digit returns at home when they host boro. TADIC(7.0) completes our midfield pick. Even though he was not selected by any bot, his 3 experts picks see him beat club team mate betrand(5.5) for the final slot. Mane(9.7) loses out due to being too expensive.

In attack, red hot VARDY(9.8) leads the line, consistency has returned to the striker since the change of coach and he waits at home for the potters. He is joined by experts captain favourte LUKAKU(10.5) whose goal scoring run is un matched ahead of the merseyside derby. Costa(10.7) was supposed to complete the last slot but due to prise restrictions and his injury scare, he loses out to DEFOE(7.8) who gets another shot after scoring during the internatonal break.

For the 2^nd time in 3 weeks, the captain choice is a tuss between sanchez with 2 votes and lukaku with 2 also. Costa with 2 didn’t make the team, it all depends if you want to go with the BOTS(SANCHEZ) OR EXPERTS(LUKAKU), any choice though is quite good. The team is currentlty on sanchez as lukakus derby match is a factor.

Feedback is needed on the article so I know if its fun or usefull at all.

Hope you enjoy this piece.