I had to wait until Matchday 2 to get Season 43 started after a bye week, and it didn't start well. I didn't get going at all in the first game against ItsOnlyJEFF9108 but gave him more of a game in the second without taking any points. It went much better against TR00PER1919 but had to fight every inch of the way to get my 6 points. I didn't expect to get anything from paullowes80 as he's really a Div 1 player, so two defeats wasn't too demoralising. Next up was one of the other promotion favourites, aaronc333 and FIFA luck would play a massive part in our games. The lucky bounces went all his way in the first game as he trounced me 6-2, then there was a complete switch as the FIFA gods took my side in the return game for an unexpected 6-3 win for me! I knew if I could finish higher in the table than Hilly89 I should avoid relegation, and the 3 points each took home would be enough for me to do that. Although I was scoring a deecent amount of goals, my defence had become extremely leaky, which MJG1878 exposed to take all the points on his way to promotion. And that was it, my final two matchdays were walkovers because of players leaving the league, so my season had finished two weeks early with the Eagles in a nice safe position, leaving me to plan for Season 44.
There was no Division 2 Cup to defend this season, so I'll consider myself reigning champion for now, but with the changes to the handicap competition, now called Champions League meant I still got plenty of games. In Stage 1, the 1 goal handicap didn't seem to do me much good against the Div 1 guys, but I did get some great wins against others. A 5-3 beating of x Morriis looks even better when you see him later win the whole league, but my best result was the 6-2 spanking I gave to paullowes80. Of course he was to return the favour in the league, but I can live with that. My 7 wins were enough to get me into Stage 2, and I thought it was a good idea to upgrade my reserve goalkeeper to match the rating of my best keeper, so avoiding any fine for forgetting to swap my players over for the cup games. That didn't go well however, as my new recruit turned out to be piss poor for his 75 rating, my leaky defence got even worse as I was soundly beaten in all 3 games.
As usual, my League Cup campaign was the shortest it could possibly be, going out 5-0 to SuitedRecluse in a game I was lucky to get nil.
This season I had 6 players that played in every single game; my strike paring of Beier and Garcia both being too good to drop, scoring 61 goals between them in 27 games . I went with a 4-1-3-2 formation to accommodate the two forwards, with a 4-2-2-2 set up as my backup when I needed to chase games. My loyal central defensive pairing of Burgess and Machida played the whole season, but as strikers in the league were getting better they were becoming less effective, with Burgey's lack of speed sometimes exposed by the pace whores I was up against. I have to admit that includes me now with my front men, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
Raphael Onyedika kept the CDM role all season but the result of the midfield was interchangeable. Lewis Ferguson was a great BFA buy for 35m (thanks to the 50% cashback) as he is strong in nearly every position, and Jan-Niklas Beste was another player I was delighted to get and soon became one of my favourites to play with. Right back is a problem position for me, with Spence and then Rensch being tried, but I think there's a lack of quality choices throughout the whole league in that role.
I found it difficult to shift players as the transfer market stagnated a couple of times, but I cleared the decks of the dead wood by the end of the season ready for a partial rebuild and a search for a new formation. It was with reluctance I let Burgess go, as he'd captained my side in every single game since the reset, an impressive century of competitive games, but you can't get too sentimental in the AG Fantasy League! See you all in Season 44.