Here’s the last of our series of fantasy premier league GW1 hints articles where contributors or friends of the FFGeek site with good FPL histories talk through their GW1 teams. These friends have asked to be anonymous due to mini league participation.
fantasy premier league GW1 hints – 3 friends of FFGeek talk through their teams
As I said in my previous article, I’m hoping to put together about 10 or so managers with good histories who show their teams each week. This will give people a feel for what other managers are doing. It’s a fairly informal thing with no obligation on anyone and these teams may change at anytime before the deadline without further notice. Also in the future I wont be covering early transfers. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week.
Anon 1
Last season he finished in 21k overall rank. In the top 0.5%
There’s a couple of Friday decisions with my team. Myhill may become Speroni. Yoshida could become Cedric and Blind could become Ben Davies
I think the third striker spot has questionable value unless you go up to Firmino at £8.5m which wrecks my balance. Hard to find value at striker or midfield at this time. However, if Leicester’s schedule was better I would opt for Iheanacho. As such, I have redistributed the points saved into defence. It seems to me that the strong teams are very strong this year and there are a number of games where clean sheets seem like a real possibility. Not sold on Chelsea defence though. I like Arsenal with the back 3 to continue defensive form.
Anon 2
Last season he finished with an overall rank of 30k. Comfortably within the top 1%
Hi FFG and fellow FPL fans,
I would like to start by thanking FFG for inviting me to contribute to this great website. FFG has certainly helped me in the past, so I hope I can return the favour through my logic below, whether they prove to be insightful or utterly flawed. Either way, I hope that they provide some food for thought.
Historically, I’m a bit of a slow starter and often end up using my wildcard by week 5. My downfalls in previous years have been (in no particular order), being too top-heavy, spending high on goalkeepers and ignoring players from promoted teams. I have tried to address these whilst keeping some of the good points from previous years.
Goalkeepers
For defensive points, the strategy is to cover some of the better performing teams, whilst not spending too much.
I think Foster represents great value at £4.5m being a WBA defensive player. Good fixtures have cemented his starting position.
Elliott is the 2nd choice as one of the only £4.0m goalkeepers who may get gametime. I did toy with the idea of bringing in Myhill and backing WBA completely and may indeed end up with both WBA keepers at some point.
Butland and Forster were the other keepers considered. Butland has tough early fixtures. I have opted for Southampton coverage through Bertrand. With the VVD situation, I’m not confident enough in the Southampton defence to go for both Forster and Bertrand.
Defence
In the past 2 seasons, I have been most infuriated by points sitting on the bench. As a result, I have opted for 3 defenders that (hopefully) do not need to be rotated.
Kolasinac was the first defender selected. I expect Arsenal to carry on their good defensive record and early performances suggest that Kola could reach the heights of Alonso from last season. Unfortunately, Alonso is a bit pricey at 7.0m. I considered Cahill, but have opted against any Chelsea defenders for the time being as I believe losing Matic might make them more fragile at the back.
Bertrand is in on the strength of their early fixtures and due to his attacking prowess.
Lindelof is in as I wanted a Mourinho defender. Matic moving to Man United makes their defence a very attractive proposition and I can see myself doubling the coverage later in the season.
The remaining 2 spaces were filled by 2 4.0m defenders and I used ownership data to choose Rangel and Hunemeier.
I’m conscious of the lack of Tottenham defensive coverage and would look to address this in the coming weeks.
Midfield
For the attacking options, I intend to play 4 in midfield and 3 forwards.
Alli was a top performer for me last season and I see know no reason for his performances to drop. He also has the highest ownership. I may consider bringing in Ozil to provide some Arsenal coverage, but given his injury status and Arsenal’s contract issues, this may have to wait a few weeks.
KDB really came into his own last season and I think that he will add goals this season. If this doesn’t come to fruition, Sane may come in soon as this will also free up some cash; for the time being I have opted for the safer bet.
Pogba is a bit of a punt. He should be more attacking this season with Matic behind him and he should therefore get more assists/goals. However, it remains to be seen. Hopefully his partnership with Lukaku will help the cause.
Knockaert is a differential and brought in due to his goal-scoring potential and also because my avid BHA fan thinks he is a certain bet. Allen, Shaqiri, Chamberlain, Townsend, Iwobi, Ince, Chadli might equally fill this spot in the future.
Carroll takes the last midfield spot as the 4.5m benchwarmer who could fill-in in case of late injury to the core 7.
Bit of a shame that King is now a forward. He played a big part in my points tally at the end of last season.
Forwards
I wanted 3 forwards from top teams.
I have kept my faith in Aguero for as long as I can remember, but not this season. I have opted for Kane, again as the safer approach. With his ability to score big, leaving Kane out this early in the season would be a big call given his ownership level compared to Aguero. If the latter starts to score big, I will be bringing him in and sacrifice one of the more expensive defenders.
Rooney will hopefully kick on after his recent quiet seasons being back at Everton, but definitely one to monitor. Again, feels like a punt.
The same goes for Firmino. There is no doubt that Liverpool will get lots of attacking points, but what will be Firmino’s share remains to be seen.
That’s all the analysis for now. I’m sure some further tinkering will follow over the next 2 days.
Good luck to all and thank you FFG for inviting me to contribute to your fantastic website.
Anon 3
This manager finished the last 3 consecutive seasons in the top 1% and no lower than 36k overall
Thanks guys for sharing your teams. Really interesting to see them
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