Shows / FPL Fortress
FPL Fortress
Two FPL fanatics have a chat about the weekend's action and look ahead to future gameweeks, throwing around banter and exchanging insight.
Episodes
- FPL Fortress
GW 10: “Big at the Back” Redefined
For as long as the FPL Fortress has been in existence, the go-to formations in FPL have been 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. Three at the back—simple as, no questions asked…
- FPL Fortress
GW 9: London North
When the second-most-owned player in the game gets injured, things are bound to get shaken up a little. In this episode, we consider the list of potential João…
- FPL Fortress
GW 6: The Wait Is Over
Although we are still fresh off a three-month-long summer break from the Premier League, the international break that began three weeks ago has somehow felt…
- FPL Fortress
GW 5: Class Struggle
The heart of this week’s episode lies in the question of class. With Konsa seemingly a given, which combination of players from the following “classes” of…
- FPL Fortress
GW 4: Too Big to Fail?
The Fortress is thrilled to return for our 7th year, awakening from a World Cup-filled summer slumber feeling energized and ready to tackle whatever the…
- FPL Fortress
2025/26 Season Review: Awards, Breakout/Flop XIs, Lessons Learned, and More
Everyone stop what you’re doing—yes, yes, the rumors are true, the Fortress has released our 2025/26 Season Review! We might be a little embarrassed that it’s…
- FPL Fortress
GW 36: Purging Palmer and Seeking Saka
This past gameweek, big things happened at both the top and bottom of the Premier League table, with Arsenal taking a massive step toward that elusive title…
- FPL Fortress
GW 35: Picking Up the Pieces
If you’re like us, you’ve just used your Wildcard, Bench Boost, and then Free Hit, back-to-back-to-back, thereby exhausting all of your chips for the season…
- FPL Fortress
GW 34: The Name’s Porro. Pedro Porro.
Double Gameweek 33 was truly one for the ages, with both Jacob and Jiayang finishing on a whopping 124 points. The very teams that served us so well last week…
- FPL Fortress
GW 33: The Tightening of the Template
It’s a bit of a quiet week in FPL, but here at the Fortress, we’re committed to producing insightful content—week in, week out, no matter the circumstance. To…
- FPL Fortress
GW 32: Managing (to Survive)
After the longest mid-season break the Premier League has ever experienced (a statement that has not been fact-checked but feels undeniably true), we are…
- FPL Fortress
GW 31: Fill In the Blank
With both Arsenal and Man City blanking next gameweek, Jiayang’s and Jacob’s teams—both of which are tripled up on each of the two clubs—look a little worse…
- FPL Fortress
GW 28: Future-Proofing the Blank
One of the good things about the FPL Fortress is that even if Jacob and Jiayang both have rotten gameweeks individually, the rottenness does not necessarily…
- FPL Fortress
GW 27: Arsenal Bottle It Live On Air
The second half of the Wolves vs. Arsenal game was being played during the recording of this episode. When Gabriel provided an assist for Hincapié, Jacob and…
- FPL Fortress
GW 25: A New Lease on Life
Following a gameweek where the average points was finally over 50, we now turn our attention to Double Gameweek 26, which has just been confirmed with…
- FPL Fortress
GW 24: Eli Junior Kroupi.Jr
After the sixth successive gameweek with an average score of fewer than 50 points, it’s hard not to feel a little discouraged; but still, we must trudge on…
- FPL Fortress
GW 23: Stop and Smell the Rose(nior)s
In an otherwise not-so-exciting gameweek, Manchester United defeated their Mancunian rivals 2-0, marking a fourth blank in five matches for Haaland, a fifth…
- FPL Fortress
GW 20: Reflections and Resolutions
On this fine New Year’s Day, Jacob and Jiayang gather with their friend Nicolas to watch some fine Premier League fixtures—but unfortunately, although the…
- FPL Fortress
GW 18: We Don’t Talk About Bruno (but we do talk about Bruno replacements)
Jacob has concluded his adventures in Oceania and Asia, and both of us are back in New York to hunker down for the Festive Fixtures. (And to closely follow…
- FPL Fortress
GW 12: Questioning Quality
It’s perhaps fitting that the international break would fill our teams with flags. But even though I would consider myself an amateur vexillologist—at one…
- FPL Fortress
GW 11: The Midfielder Drought
Thanks to Ndiaye and Xhaka respectively, Jacob and Jiayang both enjoyed successful Bench Boosts. Our overall solid gameweeks, however, owed little thanks to…
- FPL Fortress
GW 10: Recalibrating Our Fixture-o-meters
I can’t remember the last time a Manchester United player other than Bruno Fernandes was a viable FPL asset, but Cunha and especially Mbeumo finally appear to…
- FPL Fortress
GW 8: The Wildcards of the Wildcard
We have been building up to this moment for a few weeks now: Jacob has decided to activate his Wildcard! We work our way through the options from the bottom…
- FPL Fortress
GW 7: An Element of Whimsy
Gameweek 6 brought with it many juicy fixtures, whether that be Man City’s 5-1 demolition of Burnley (Haaland Triple Captainers rejoice), Crystal Palace’s…
- FPL Fortress
GW 6: Chalking Out the Chips
Amidst all the recent talk surrounding the impact of DEFCON on the game, the other rule changes this season have taken a backseat. As a reminder, managers will…
- FPL Fortress
GW 5: The Villains from Birmingham
Aston Villa are the only team in England's top seven divisions to still be without a goal at this stage in the season. And Jiayang, along with nearly two…
- FPL Fortress
GW 4: Definitely Consider DEFCON Defenders
Wake up, wake up, the first international break of the season is over! First, we refresh our memories of what happened in Gameweek 3, including Liverpool’s…
- FPL Fortress
GW 3: How Soon Is Too Soon?
Let’s face it: it’s not been a particularly bountiful start to the season, and Gameweek 2 was especially unforgiving to Jacob and Jiayang. How can managers in…
- FPL Fortress
2025/26 Season Preview: Formulating the First Draft
In the blink of an eye, summer is practically over and we’re less than two weeks away from the start of Gameweek 1! In this first episode of our sixth season…
- FPL Fortress
2024/25 Season Review: Awards, Breakout/Flop XIs, Lessons Learned, and More
Dear listeners, it’s that time of year again—welcome to the final episode of our 2024/25 season, our illustrious Season Review! We recognize that Gameweek 38…
- FPL Fortress
GW 35: Captaincy Roulette
All in all, I think it’s safe to say most FPL managers enjoyed quite a successful Free Hit, predominantly thanks to Wolves and Newcastle assets, as well as a…
- FPL Fortress
GW 34: 16, 13, … 6?
Excerpted from last gameweek’s episode description: “We certainly hope that Double Gameweek 33, possibly the largest double gameweek of the season, ushers in…
- FPL Fortress
GW 33: SHOUT-OUTS & whisper-ins
KEVIN DE BRUYNE! marco asensio. ANTOINE SEMENYO! chelsea fc. What’s this, you ask? A textual demonstration of our latest innovation, of course: the shout-out…
- FPL Fortress
GW 32: Nordic Hamstring Curls
Last gameweek’s average score, a measly 34 points, was the lowest one we’ve seen all season. Indeed, every single player more expensive than Jean-Philippe…
- FPL Fortress
GW 30: When the Fixtures are Fabulous but the Players are Poverty
In the midst of what has undoubtedly been a prolonged lull in the game, Jacob and Jiayang look ahead to the final stretch of the season. Jacob wildcarded last…
- FPL Fortress
GW 26: The AssMan is Ass, Man
This may not be the first time you heard this, and it probably won’t be the last: the Assistant Manager chip has to go. Adding a manager adds another dimension…
- FPL Fortress
GW 24: Embracing Uncertainty
Bournemouth have become somewhat of a juggernaut of late, and FPL managers have the tricky task of weighing three fantastic budget midfielders in Semenyo…
- FPL Fortress
GW 23: What Is a Game in Hand, Anyway?
As Liverpool and Everton’s double gameweek gets ever closer, we really drill into the question of who our third Liverpool asset should be—and note the use of…
- FPL Fortress
100 for 100
Welcome to the 100th episode of the FPL Fortress! Our first episode was released all the way back in March of 2021, back when we were sophomores in high…
- FPL Fortress
GW 22: Your Very Own Personal Mikel Arteta
In this first episode of 2025, we go back in time ten years—Mikel Arteta is back on the menu! With the brand new Assistant Manager chip, FPL managers can earn…
- FPL Fortress
GW 19: Boxing Day Blanks
In FPL, much like with the study of history, we must analyze the past to better inform our actions in the future. We must never repeat the same mistakes—such…
- FPL Fortress
GW 18: A Parched Landscape
As the midway point of the season approaches, both Jacob and Jiayang find themselves in the rather strange position of still having their first Wildcard and…
- FPL Fortress
GW 13: Pep's Lost His Pep
Title says it all, really. Five losses and a draw after being up 3-0 … there has surely never been a bleaker moment in a Pep team. Maybe Rodri really is just…
- FPL Fortress
GW 12: Three Unanswerable Questions
The Premier League may have taken last weekend off, but here at the Fortress, dilemmas have been brewing—and this is the episode where we bring them to the…
- FPL Fortress
GW 11: Should We Live In the Future?
Today’s episode centers around a single Tweet from FPL 420 (@420fpl) at 5:45 PM on October 27, 2024: “😂Your GW10 points were mostly decided weeks ago mate.”…
- FPL Fortress
GW 10: Hot and Warm vs. Warm and Cold
For the most part, I try to employ a well-balanced mixture of professionalism and wittiness when writing these episode blurbs. But from the bottom of my heart…
- FPL Fortress
GW 9: These Are the Questions
This week, Jiayang had to get a lot off his chest. His transfer in Solanke accumulated a grand total of 0.11 xGI in a four-goal demolition of West Ham…
- FPL Fortress
GW 7: Money is of the Essence
Today, Donald Trump mentioned UTDTrey in a Tweet—which can only spell disaster for Trump’s campaign, since nobody can escape the Trey jinx. It’s no surprise…
- FPL Fortress
GW 6: Assessing Arsenal’s Assets
Mikel Arteta almost pulled off the low block of the century against Man City, condemning City to feed their onslaught through Rúben Dias—hardly the most…
- FPL Fortress
GW 5: Digging Through the Bargain Bin
The talk of the town is the Gameweek 6 Wildcard. Are Arsenal’s and City’s good fixtures enough to warrant pressing the button? Just how in the mud does your…
- FPL Fortress
GW 3: So, Your Team Flopped. Now What?
To borrow a phrase from Noni Madueke: everything about this game is s***. Well, not really—in fact, FPL is a really compelling, well designed game, especially…
- FPL Fortress
2024/25 Season Preview: Rule Changes, Player Pricing, and First Drafts
Welcome to our fifth season here at the FPL Fortress! And believe it or not, despite being in the business for so long, it’s our very first season preview…
- FPL Fortress
2023/24 Season Review: Awards, Breakout/Flop XI, Lessons Learned, and More!
And just like that, the 2023/24 season comes to a close. It’s been a pretty good one—both of us enjoyed our best ever finishes, and there have been a number of…
- FPL Fortress
GW 35: Mo Abdicates and Mateta Ascends
A bald striker who likes to tuck in his shirt and bangs in goals for fun? No, he’s not Ronaldo Nazario in the early 2000s while he was playing for Real Madrid…
- FPL Fortress
GW 34: Divining the Nuts and Bolts
Unsurprisingly, this episode centers around creating the perfect Free Hit team for GW 34. (And if you’re not using your Free Hit, hopefully the points we hit…
- FPL Fortress
GW 33: expected Negative Vibes
On paper, this upcoming gameweek seems like it’ll be the last relatively calm one before the inevitable chaos of the tail end of the season ensues. By…
- FPL Fortress
GW 32: What Rhymes With Mercutio?
As the title of this episode conveys, we are concerned this gameweek with what words rhyme with Romeo’s close friend in Shakespeare’s classic. The answer we…
- FPL Fortress
GW 31: Wildcard Intricacies and Armchair Philosophies
The greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interest. Specificity breeds universality. The ends justify the means. Are you confused because this sounds…
- FPL Fortress
GW 30: Spider-Man, Microphones, and the Wildcard
In this latest episode of the FPL Fortress, many exciting things happen: Jacob gets bamboozled, Jiayang successfully lands two puns in a row on the spot, and…
- FPL Fortress
GW 28: Distrusting Your Intuition
A common piece of advice: trust your intuition. But when your intuition tells you that transferring Haaland out for Carlton Morris is an insane thing to do…