Nominally throughout my FPL career, I've tried to play 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 under the premise that midfielders/strikers are the ones that get you goals, and goals = points, but my recent rank climb has been built on playing more defenders than usual (the first time I played 5 at the back was out of necessity rather than a moment of inspiration), and it has made me stop and think.
When reviewing my season last year, I noticed that I had had more success playing 4-4-2 than either of my 3 at the back options (I wasn't brave enough to play 5 at the back last year), but I ignored that and instantly went with 3 at the back in GW1 this year, but I should really have learnt.
Looking back over the ten game weeks I've broken down the average points I'd have scored with each formation (assuming I'd played the top scoring options for each position), and I'd have been better off playing more defenders.
Again 4-4-2 would be my best formation, albeit with a caveat that at the start of the season, my 5th defender didn't play in 7 gameweeks due to the way my squad was set up, and if I'd have set myself up for 5 at the back then those formations would have worked well.
In a crude piece of analysis, I've taken how I'd have performed if I'd have played each formation (captains have remained the same as I selected) and picked the best performing players in each position from my squad each week.
As you can see from the table above, If I had nailed the 4-4-2 each week, I'd be 11 points better off, and 153k places better off in the world.
The two main 5 at the back options would've also seen me have a rank increase of over 100k, and is an option I'm currently considering a lot more. Since my squad has been set up with 5 decent options at the back, my back 5 have averaged 27 points per gameweek, setting myself up for a decent start to a gameweek.
Not that playing 5 at the back is all plain-sailing. We all know how pain-staking those final few minutes can be when waiting on clean sheets. Now imagine having to go through that with 6 players (if your keeper is on one too). Defender returns can be limited fairly early in a game too, if they concede early on, then you're left hoping for attacking returns, which obviously midfielders/attackers are likely to have more of.
And that's where key defenders come in. The like of Trent, Reece James (both of whom I own), Ben Chilwell etc are essentially playing as midfielders, despite being classed as defenders, offering brilliant attacking potential.
Another key to enabling these formations, is a budget defender, and there have been a few available this season. Most notably Shane Duffy, and Tino Livramento. Both available at £4.0m at the start of the season. I was late on the Livramento bandwagon, but after bringing him in in GameWeek8, he has brought home 21 points. (I'm not expecting this to continue at such blistering form, but he has given me options).
Another joy of setting myself up for 5 at the back means it gives me options. There are going to be certain fixtures where I don't want to start all of my defenders, and that's ok, as it still allows me to go with 4 at the back, and whilst my squad still needs some improving (moves I'm thinking of will improve Pukki, and potentially switch Christensen to Chilwell) to improve my bench options, I'm happy with where I've got to currently.
Obviously you're not going to stick to a formation for each gameweek, but the last few weeks have opened my eyes to an option I'd simply dismissed previously just because it wasn't cool.
Onto gameweek 11, and its no surprise that I'm looking at playing 5 at the back and rolling my transfer (assuming there's no injury updates in the next 24 hours or so) to enable two free transfers after the international break. Salah Perma-captain.