Here’s Rob Reid (the FPL Vet) with his fantasy premier league GW21 player picks. Rob picks a Banker, an Ace and a Joker for this gameweek. Rob finished with a rank of 22k last season 4,701 in 2015/16 and 7,810 in 2014/15
fantasy premier league GW21 player picks by Rob Reid (the FPL Vet)
Hi and welcome to Gameweek 21 Player Picks. For each gameweek, I’ll be picking out 3 players in distinct player selection categories.
Player categories
One Banker – this will take form and the fixture ease schedule into account and is a player who I think is a must for the next few gameweeks and should provide a steady stream of points.
One Ace – a player who I think has a good chance of scoring big this week. I’ll take form, this weeks fixtures and the bookies odds into account here.
One Joker – a player who is a bit of punt but I think may surprise a few people. Might be a low ownership player, someone coming back from injury or just a bit of a gut feeling on my part – there will be no evidence base on this one!
I’ll keep a tally each week of how things are going – I’ll analyse the Banker over 4 GWs, the other 2 will just be on a weekly basis. Wish me luck and here goes!
Gameweek 20 Player Pick Review
GW17 Banker – David De Gea
GW17 – 11 points (clean sheet, 2 save points, 3 bonus points)
GW18 – 3 points (1 save point)
GW19 – 1 point (2 goals conceded)
GW20 – 1 point (2 goals conceded) – Another disappointing and worrying defensive display from United. They do have a few injuries but they continue to lose sloppy goals, especially on crosses. Still good fixtures though so you’d hope there would be some clean sheets on the horizon.
GW18 Banker – Nicolas Otamendi
GW18 – 1 point (1 goal conceded, yellow card)
GW19 – 7 points (clean sheet, 1 bonus point)
GW20 – 8 points (clean sheet, 2 bonus points) – Another solid display from ‘The General.’ A brilliant goal-line clearance in the first half and a massive pass completion rate earned him a good share of the bonus as well. Kompany’s injury is perhaps a little worrying though as to ongoing clean sheet prospects.
GW19 Banker – Laurent Depoitre
GW19 – 9 points (1 goal, 3 bonus points)
GW20 – 1 point – A sub cameo only this week as Wagner rotated his strikers. Fixtures still ok until GW25.
GW20 Banker – Mo Salah
9 points (2 assists, midfield clean sheet) – Chief creator this week with fellow front-men Coutinho and Firmino amongst the goals. Approaching 60% ownership now and good captain prospect for this week.
GW20 Ace – Alvaro Morata
6 points (1 goal) Back from suspension and back in the goals though still struggles to get bonus points. It’s leaky Stoke at home in GW21 – Morata bagged a hat-trick in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. I wouldn’t bank against the same thing happening again.
GW21 Joker – Jessie Lingard
13 points (2 goals, 2 bonus points). A fantastic impact sub at half-time, also missed another great chance for a hat-trick. Great value at £6.1m, looks the best value way into the United midfield/attack at the moment with Lukaku still struggling for form and Pogba not quite firing again yet.
Gameweek 21 Player Picks
Banker – Marcos Alonso (CHE £7.1m) – STO
5 goals, 1 assist, 9 clean sheets and 11 bonus points so far this season for the highest scoring defender in the game. Stoke at home next looks primed for both defensive and attacking returns. £7.1 is a lot for a defender but at present, his returns make him better value than more expensive attacking assets.
Ace – Roberto Firmino (LIV £8.9m) – LEI
3 double figure returns in the last 3 and an ownership of 32% certainly makes you sit up and take notice. He’s also, unsurprisingly, the biggest bandwagon of the gameweek. The question has always been consistency for the Brazilian, but when he returns it’s often big. Leicester at home looks a good fixture, The Foxes defence has hardly been watertight in the last few weeks and could struggle against the pacy and recently prolific Liverpool attack.
Joker – Christian Atsu (NEW £4.8) – BRI
The tricky Ghanaian gets a second Joker shot after being my pick in GW1. He was only used as a sub versus City this week, but I suspect this was more down to Benitez’s negative tactics so I think he’ll be restored for the Brighton game where (you would hope) The Magpies will attack more. He’s a great price and has very low ownership so could be a nice differential in a 5 man midfield.
That’s it from me on Player Picks – best of luck this week everyone and a very Merry Christmas to you all!
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