How the FPL champion got so many points from his captains

The 2024/25 Fantasy Premier League champion Lovro Budisin is explaining the decisions that led him to glory, so others can learn from the best. Here, he discusses his outstanding record with the captaincy.

Budisin collected 2,810 points on his way to the world title, 11 more than the winner of 2023/24 Fantasy, Jonas Sand Labakk.

An assessment of the pair’s captaincy points highlights Budisin's exceptional record with the armband.

He earned 819 points from the captaincy alone, a huge 219 points MORE then Labakk’s tally from the previous campaign.

Essentially, this means a hefty 29.1 per cent of Budisin's points were as a result of his captaincy picks, compared with the 21.4 per cent of Labakk in 2023/24.

No Haaland, no problem

One of the main takeaways from Budisin’s title-winning season was his decision to almost entirely overlook Erling Haaland. 

Indeed, he owned the Manchester City star for just ONE round of matches in 2024/25. That was in Blank Gameweek 29, where he handed Haaland the armband before immediately selling him on his Wildcard. 

By foregoing Haaland – who was priced at a record-breaking £15.0m at the beginning of the season – Budisin was able to have multiple captain options instead. 

“I don’t have Haaland, so I need to cover his points,” he explains. 

“I need to find someone who is the best pick for that Gameweek. Maybe it's [Mohamed] Salah, OK. But in other Gameweeks he wasn't my best choice.”

Alternating captains is key

Salah was far and away Budisin's most-popular captain, picked on 23 occasions. Salah delivered 530 points in those outings, an average of 23 points per match (ppm). 

Cole Palmer was another key contributor. Although he was only named as Budisin's captain in five Gameweeks, Palmer amassed an impressive 104 points across those contests - an average of 20.8ppm with the armband. 

Bryan Mbeumo and Alexander Isak were the only other players who were entrusted with the armband on more than one occasion. 

Budisin's canny decision-making is also backed up by the contributions of Son Heung-min and Bukayo Saka in the table below. He captained the Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal stars just once each in 2024/25, yet they each returned 32 points on his behalf. 

“I talk with my friends, who they were going to captain and why," Budisin explains.

“When it comes to the deadline, I just sit and think, ‘OK, maybe this is the Gameweek that I can trust myself.' Like Son in Gameweek 2. I think, 'This is a good opportunity for him, he can score at least one or two goals.' "

Budisin's captain picks and returns

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