WSL Gameweek 1 Review & Gameweek 2 Team Reveal: The Captaincy Plan Gets Complicated

Well. That went rather better than expected.

Gameweek 1 is officially done, and LJ & the Gang have somehow started the season with 85 points. That was 27 points above the average of 58, good enough for a top 6% overall rank and a much nicer start than I was expecting after spending the entire build-up convincing myself that at least three of my decisions were probably terrible.

As it turns out, some of those decisions were actually quite good. Lauren James delivered with the captain's armband, a couple of my slightly less obvious picks turned up in a big way and, perhaps most importantly, I managed to make a substitution at exactly the right time.

There were still a few disappointments, because apparently Fantasy Football cannot simply allow me to have a peaceful weekend, but for a first matchweek, I'm very happy with how things went.

A very decent start.

Before we get into the individual players, let's just enjoy the numbers for a moment.

Now, I'm fully aware that it is Gameweek 1 and there are approximately a million matchweeks still to come. I'm not ordering a trophy cabinet or printing my rank on a T-shirt just yet.

But I am absolutely going to enjoy it.

After all the tinkering before the season started, seeing the team actually come together like this was a very nice surprise. Especially because there were a couple of decisions that could have gone very differently.

Lauren James. Obviously.

Let's start with the important bit.

Lauren James scored 13 points against Aston Villa, thanks to a goal, bonus points and a strong all-round performance. With the captain's armband, those 13 points became 26 points.

Which means, yes, I am very pleased with myself.

James wasn't actually the highest-scoring player in Gameweek 1, but I'm not about to start pretending the captaincy decision didn't go brilliantly. Endemann and Gaupset both scored 14, but James's armband gave her the biggest return in my team.

And, more importantly, I picked Lauren James because I wanted Lauren James as my captain.

Sometimes the biased decision is also a pretty good Fantasy decision.

Who knew?

The players who did the heavy lifting.

Lauren James might have been the captain, but she wasn't the only player carrying this team.

I'm going to be completely honest here: I would love to say I expected Gaupset and Endemann to deliver 14 points in Gameweek 1.

I did not.

But I'm very glad I picked them.

Sometimes Fantasy Football is complicated. Sometimes four of your players simply decide to turn up.

Solid enough, with a couple of worries.

The rest of the team was a little more mixed.

Ona Batlle picked up 6 points thanks to Arsenal's clean sheet, while Mapi León scored 3 after playing the full 90 minutes for London City.

In goal, Yamashita finished with 2 points. Manchester City won 3-1, but the goal conceded meant there was no clean sheet to enjoy.

Olivia Smith scored 4 points after 63 minutes for Arsenal, while Ashleigh Weerden managed just 1 point after playing seven minutes for Crystal Palace.

Up front, Alessia Russo scored just 2 points. Arsenal won, she played 88 minutes and the goals simply didn't come.

Am I worried?

Not really.

I'm not tearing up the squad because one of the best forwards in the game had a quiet opening weekend.

The substitution that actually mattered.

The most interesting part of my Gameweek 1 was probably what happened with Malard.

She didn't play for Chelsea on Saturday, which left me with a decision. WSL Fantasy allows managers to make changes between matchdays, so I could bring in a player who hadn't played yet.

I decided to take the risk.

Emily Syme played the full 90 minutes and scored 2 points.

Not exactly a spectacular return, but the move worked.

The important thing is that making a manual change switches off automatic substitutions for the rest of the matchweek. Once you take control, you're responsible for whatever happens next.

Thankfully, Syme played.

Because there is nothing quite like making a clever-looking manual substitution and then watching the player you brought in sit on the bench for 90 minutes.

Two points. We'll take them.

How are we doing in the league?

I also set up theFFM WSL Freshers, and after Gameweek 1, LJ & the Gang are sitting in third place.

There are currently eight teams in the league, so I'm quite happy with third after the opening weekend.

Of course, the season has barely started, which means the rankings will probably move around approximately seventeen times before I finish writing this sentence.

Still. Third place is third place.

So, what now?

After a strong opening week, my original plan was simple.

Don't panic. Don't overreact. And definitely don't spend several hours staring at the transfer screen.

I had two free transfers available, but there didn't seem to be any reason to use them. Weerden's minutes were worth monitoring, but one quiet weekend wasn't enough to justify ripping the squad apart.

So the plan was patience.

Then Malard was confirmed as injured for another week.

Well.

So much for that.

The first transfer of the season.

Malard's injury changed things.

She had already missed Gameweek 1, and keeping an injured player in the squad for another week felt like a waste of a perfectly useful place.

So despite all my talk about patience, I had a transfer to make.

Ellie Brazil is my first transfer of the season.

Which is slightly funny, because I had only just featured her in my Gameweek 2 Players to Watch post and said I wasn't planning to make a transfer after one good week.

Anyway.

Brazil had scored 14 points in Gameweek 1, was owned by just 3% of managers and was already firmly on my watchlist. Malard's injury simply gave me a reason to act.

At £7.5m, Brazil also comes in slightly cheaper and, more importantly, gives me a player I can actually select without first checking whether she's injured.

Small victories.

I'm not pretending this is some grand masterplan based entirely on one 14-point performance. I already liked Brazil, and I had a problem that needed fixing.

Sometimes Fantasy Football makes the decision for you.

Here's the Gameweek 2 team.

After the transfer, this is how LJ & the Gang are lining up for Gameweek 2.

Mostly unchanged. One very obvious exception.

Yamashita stays in goal, with Nnadozie providing cover on the bench. One match without a clean sheet isn't enough for me to create a goalkeeper problem that doesn't exist.

Casparij, Mapi León and Batlle all keep their places in defence. After Casparij's 11-point opening week, she was never going anywhere.

Pattinson and Aspin complete a five-player defence for Gameweek 2. Both play on Saturday, which gives me options as the weekend develops.

Lauren James and Olivia Smith also stay in midfield. James is obviously still in the starting XI after her brilliant Gameweek 1, while Smith gets more time after a solid enough four-point return.

Russo keeps her place up front too. She played 88 minutes in Gameweek 1 and Arsenal won, so I'm not remotely interested in moving her on after one quiet Fantasy return.

Brazil is the only new face.

You're here now, Ellie.

Please score goals.

And now the captaincy gets complicated.

This week's starting captain is Emily Syme.

And yes, I know Lauren James and Alessia Russo are sitting right there.

Particularly after James delivered 26 points as captain last week.

But this is where the WSL Fantasy matchday rules become really interesting.

Syme plays on Saturday, so I'll know her score before Sunday's matches begin.

If she delivers a strong return, I can simply leave the armband where it is and let her points stay doubled.

If she has a quiet game, I can consider moving the captaincy to a player who hasn't played yet.

Lauren James is one option. Russo is another.

The catch is that changing the captain counts as a manual change, which means automatic substitutions are switched off for the rest of the matchweek.

The important thing is that I don't have to make that decision now.

I can see what Syme does first.

Whether I can then resist overreacting to one score is an entirely different question.

Yes, I'm benching 28 points.

My bench for Gameweek 2 is made up of Nnadozie, Gaupset, Endemann and Weerden.

Gaupset and Endemann scored a combined 28 points in Gameweek 1.

Naturally, both are now substitutes.

Fantasy Football is a very sensible hobby.

The matchday rules mean they're still useful options if they haven't played yet, although any manual change comes with the risk of losing automatic substitutions.

Apparently, having options is stressful too.

I'm heading into Gameweek 2 feeling much more confident than I expected to after the opening weekend.

The Gameweek 1 score was brilliant, Lauren James rewarded my captaincy decision and several players showed exactly why I picked them in the first place.

Malard's injury forced my hand, but Brazil was already a player I liked. Beyond that, I'm happy to give the rest of the squad more time.

The real question this week is the captaincy.

Syme starts with the armband. Saturday gives me the information. Then I have to decide whether to leave things alone or take manual control.

That's the plan.

The only question now is whether I'll actually stick to it.

Because Fantasy Football has a remarkable ability to turn a perfectly sensible strategy into twelve browser tabs, three spreadsheets and a full-scale investigation into why a player only managed 42 minutes.

Hopefully, this week involves slightly fewer investigations and slightly more points.

Either way, LJ & the Gang are ready for Gameweek 2.