Here’s a final roundup of Alex and Rob’s (The FPL Vet) fantasy premier league wildcard teams. I’ve separated them out from the usual contributors as we’ve had such a focus on them over the International break
Alex and Rob with their fantasy premier league wildcard teams
ROB REID (THE FPL VET)
Here’s a link to Rob’s earlier wildcard article
Rob finished with a rank of 22k last season 4,701 in 2015/16 and 7,810 in 2014/15.
GW7 Points 67 (av 51) Total Points 401 OR 501k TV £101.9m
385k green arrow and increase in value by £0.3m
Here was his GW7 points
Rob’s GW8 Wildcard team
Hi everyone and welcome to my second Wildcard article containing my finalised squad. After a further week of deliberation and procrastination I’ve settled on this:
Not too far removed from the team in the article earlier in the week as I’d pretty much settled on my core players. First of all Davies and Otamendi are the backbone of my defence. Salah and Sterling are my higher end midfielders, with Richarlison the go-to lower price option. Kane and Lukaku were always in and I’d decided early that I preferred Jesus over Vardy as he’s much easier to trade up for Morata or Aguero. I think if I’d gone for Vardy I’d have spread the funds around rather than focusing on 1 player, so it would make a trade up more difficult.
The news of Aguero being fit or close to match fit was interesting as well as surprising and did make me try a few other combinations tonight, mainly to do with trying to work Silva for more gametime security. In the end though, although Silva has been super consistent in terms of minutes played and assists, I think it’s worth the risk for Sterling – he costs less and has more goal-scoring potential so Sterling stays.
So it came down to filling the other places and this is where I’ve tweaked things a bit. I’ve opted to lose Monreal on the basis of Mustafi’s injury and uncertainty regarding Koscielny’s fitness. I think this hurts Arsenal’s prospects, especially with a tough away fixture to Watford in GW8. I’ve brought in Wimmer for £4.4 – he’s not 100% gametime secure with Shawcross nearing full fitness, but I’m hopeful he’ll hold his place in Hughes’ system. I’ve invested this £1.1m in another Stoke option by upgrading Carroll to Choupo-Moting. I like his stats and The Potters have some nice fixtures once they get City out the way this week. This gives me the option to swap between 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 over the next few weeks. As I mentioned, I like the defensive stats to far this year but there’s a couple of weeks coming up where the big guns face off so I like the flexibility of being able to swap formations. I’d have been tied to 4-3-3 without a regular 4th midfield I could rely on and I could’t say I could trust either Carroll and King with that.
My last change was to swap Clark for Simpson. This was more to avoid a Newcastle double up seeing as I’m committing to playing Elliott every week. Leicester also have some nice fixtures on the horizon so it gives me a more flexible rotation in defence.
Problems
First up the obvious one is my keepers. If Krul displaces Green at Brighton I’ll be happy but this doesn’t look likely so Elliott is going to play every week. The problem will be if he gets injured. If he does, I’d need 2 transfers to change him so I’ll have to trust to fortune on this one.
Next up is Man City and the Pep Factor. Every City player bar Silva and De Bruyne are rotation risks. Defensively, Otamendi could be rested this week and I did think about Stones to save another £0.1 or Danilo to save £0.3. I discarded the latter, although I’m a fan of his attacking prospects with Delph probably fit this week because of the rotation factor. I’ve opted for Otamendi over Stones as I think he’s less likely to be dropped when Kompany is fit and also as he’s a slightly bigger attacking and bonus point threat. Attack-wise any of the attacking 5 could be rested depending on the system, upcoming fixtures and other Pep factors such as the weather or what jumper he’s wearing. Seriously, that’s how random it seems to me. Aguero being back does complicate things further, but I think having at least 2 attacking prospects at least gives you some chance of return if 1 plays and a great chance of a bumper haul of they both play. We’ll see.
I’m also concerned about not having a Man United defence option. They have 3 tough fixtures coming up however and Jones is at an accessible price so I’ve got the ability to work him in with 2 free transfers. Finally there’s the other game-time issue players – Wimmer and King. I’m not really bothered about King – if I’d traded down Stones, I’d upgrade him to Carroll but to be honest, he’s going to sit on the bench nearly every week so I’d rather have £4.4m sitting there than £4.5. Wimmer is a tough one. He was an expensive signing so you’d think he would get a starting spot. There’s lots of competition though with Shawcross nearly fit, Zouma and Martins Indi. There’s not another defensive option at £4.4 however. Mbemba at £4.0 leaves me with the same double Newcastle issue and Martina at £4.3 also has the same game time worries. Wimmer looks the best gamble to me at the moment.
Moving Forward
I’ve planned this team to run for the next 6 gameweeks and indeed injuries and rotation permitting, I’d be happy with this squad to get me through the next 4 gameweeks with no transfers. However, I plan to bring in Morata for GW10 and possibly even trade Lukaku for Ageuro for GW10 & 11. Much will depend on injuries to other players and if I need to patch up anywhere else, but with this squad I reckon I have the flexibility to do it. Fingers crossed!
Team lineup for GW8
Selection if straightforward this week. It’s 4-3-3 with my Stoke players benched for the City fixture and King in the other bench spot. Kane is the standout captain choice this week so the armband goes on him. Best of luck for this week everyone – may your arrows be green!
ALEX BALL
Alex finished in 10k in 16/17 28k in 15/16 and 3k in 14/15
GW7 Points 86 (av 51) Total Points 424 OR 132k TV £101.8m
An incredible 616k k green arrow and a £0.4m TV increase
Here was his GW7 points:
Alex’s GW8 wildcard team
Here’s a link to Alex’s earlier wildcard article
Well after two weeks of tinkering I final have a wildcard team I am happy with. Well, until I check the scores tomorrow morning and realise my old team has scored more!
Thanks to all the people that voted on my first article that looked at four possible teams. The largest amount of votes went to team 2 and my final 15 is closest to that team.
The major difference to my original team is the inclusion of Lukaku instead of Jesus. The unexpectedly quick return of Augero put me off his fellow Man City striker so I opted for the now fit Lukaku. This also enables me to move Lukaku to Kun if he starts firing again. The sacrifice for this was Luiz. With Kante out injured I want to monitor how the Chelsea defence cope before buying in.
I resisted the temptation to go for a 4.0 defender or keeper deciding I wanted to have 15 players who should play through the busy Christmas period. I have looked at rotations for my budget defenders (and Chopo-Moting) and, whist not perfect, is good enough.
I needed to gain 0.1 to upgrade King to Loftus-Check who I feel is the best option for a 4.5 mid. It was looking like I would have to go for Wimmer (who I talked about having an excellent rotation with Ward) but I am not 100% sure on what the first choice Stoke backline will be when all fit so wanted to avoid. But then Englands Number 1 Joe Hart dropped in price last night providing me the 0.1 I needed. Whilst West Hams rotation is not perfect with Newcastle its good enough and only allows one truly terrible week (GW 15 where Newcastle play Chelsea away and West Ham play Man City away!). The big bonus is West Ham have a brilliant run from GW18 onwards.
So there we go. I hope those of you on wildcard are happy with what you have produced. Good luck for GW8.
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