Here’s some early FFGeek team thoughts in this fantasy premier league GW23 article. We look at gameweek 22, some issues facing the team, transfer thoughts and early captain thinking
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW23 – SOME EARLY THOUGHTS ON THE FFGEEK TEAM
DGW22 PERFORMANCE
DGW22 points: 51 (average 45) Gameweek rank 1,855k Overall Rank: 26k (no movement) Team Value: £103.8m
Here’s the team points:
So if you’re wondering why I said no movement when there’s a red arrow I wont normally call it an arrow unless it’s more than a movement of 1,000 places. Just for simplicity.
So rank stayed the same at 26k game despite a gameweek rank of 1.855 million. Double gameweeks are supposed to be rank movers but this was anything but. A disappointing captain performance and minimal returns from the West Ham assets all adds to neutrality
DGWs, in my mind, are really a chance to throw the dice and hope for the best. I don’t throw the dice very often so I feel that it’s justified as the returns are potentially big. Not this time unfortunately.
2 returning defenders out of 6 and 3 returning attackers of 6 (3 of which were given 2 games to do so) and no returning captain. In terms of percentages returning that’s ok but anytime your captain struggles you are probably going to as well.
Like the proverbial morning after the party, now is the time to deal with the clean up.
ISSUES WITH THE TEAM
I have 1 free transfer and £0.5m in the bank
Ogbonna
I should never have got him in the first place as my priority was Adrian and I should have stuck to that.
I’m going to keep Adrian, for save points effectively, with the decent run of fixtures ahead but I certainly don’t need 2 West Ham defenders after their abysmal performances against Newcastle and Bournemouth. Also if you can’t get a clean sheet against WBA…..
Son HM
Don’t get me wrong I’m a massive fan but I haven’t got 2 Man City attacking assets so I’m certainly not going to keep 2 Spurs attacking assets. Harry Kane unless something happens to his top 10k ownership or top 10 manager representation to de-risk him will be staying.
Son is in focus as next is Big Sam’s Everton at Wembley who will probably make West Ham’s ridiculous bus parking exercise look like Barcelona. Seriously though, is it time to limit the amount of people allowed in the penalty area, similar to the NBA rules, because these these types of games are just pathetic. I’m not blaming West Ham, it’s all about the financial imbalance but I can’t ever see a salary cap being introduced to even things up.
Niasse
Now that we’ve got through the most congested period of the season at least for Everton I can probably live with 1 non playing bench member for the short term.
Everton seem certain to sign Turkish striker Cenk Tosun for £27m. Here’s what I tweeted yesterday with the basic details on him
Everton target Turkish CF Cenk Tosun close to agreement. End of DCL and Niasse? In 17/18 for Besiktas 16 games 8 goals 1 assist. G/A every 127 mins. Overall Turkish league record 205 games 80 goals 31 assists. 20 games for Turkey 8 goals
So there’s obviously the transition to navigate for Tosun to the premier league but it’s hardly good news for Niasse and Calvert Lewin for that matter.
TRANSFER OPTIONS
As you’ll probably have realised with even the most cursory reading of these articles I’m not the most instant transfer decision maker so the longer time before the next gameweek will be used to catch up on stats etc to make a decision over transfers.
However at the moment I’m looking at a Man Utd double of Lingard and Jones for Son and Ogbonna.
Jones is the final piece in my rank protection strategy if you read my article from yesterday. Lingard is great value and producing great returns in an advanced position backed up by great underlying stats.
Add Stoke next into the mix and it might even be a sword -4 pts to get them both in as opposed to my normal shield points deductions to prevent a highly owned captain pick from causing me problems. Fixtures are a bit mixed depending on how you view Burnley at the moment
Stoke (H)
Burnley (A)
Spurs (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Newcastle (A)
Chelsea (H)
However the road to the next gameweek deadline is a long and winding one so lets see what happens. I could just do Lingard but it’s tempting to go for he double with a strong clean sheet possibility even though a -4 pts for defender is questionable mathematically to say the least.
CAPTAIN IDEAS
I’ll put the captain poll up on Monday even though Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea play in the EFL Cup on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Unless you’re going for Harry Kane v Everton (H) or Lukaku v Stoke (H) it’s a tricky captain week with Liverpool v Man City making Salah and Aguero risky picks.
Here’s the fixtures just to help your thought process.
A SPECIAL WORD ABOUT MORATA
10 goals plus 4 assists at an FPL point every 14.8 minutes isn’t a disaster for the Chelsea striker. Also returning a goal or assist in 9 of 18 matches is ok as well. His underlying stats are good and what’s more pretty consistent which is unusual.
The fixtures are amazing
Leicester (H)
Brighton (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Watford (A)
West Brom (H)
Man Utd (A)
However what everyone will be focusing on is his near comical 3 gilt edged chances missed against Arsenal. Not to mention Alonso showing him how a striker should get to the near post to a cross which also can’t have helped. That’s even before the 1 goal since gameweek 16 with 2 injury misses and a 17 minute sub appearance thrown in during that time
However I am relaxed about him due to the positive reasons above.
There is a however though and a watchout over him in the shape of Aguero. With Jesus out for 1 to 2 months if Aguero becomes nailed on, his ownership grows and he then leads all the captain polls he will become a dangerous player not to own. I can’t believe Pep won’t sign a striker in the window though. It’s whether it’s a Llorente type back up or an equal which would be pretty extravagant unless Pep committed to 2 up front in the future. With no signing if Aguero gets injured then it’s a false 9 situation with De Bruyne or Sterling playing the striker.
Even after the Lingard and Jones transfer I could lose Morata and Richarlison and get in Aguero with money easily left over for a £5.5m mid of some sort.
This is a situation I’ll be keeping a close eye on. GW24 with Man City at home to Newcastle will be the first test.
TEAM LINEUP BEFORE TRANSFERS
So the -4 would see Son as Lingard and Ogbonna as Jones both home to Stoke. In that case I may switch Adrian and Ryan I’m not sure. Moyes won’t want to lose to Huddersfield so he may go defensive.
FFGEEK ARTICLES
So with the longer gameweek a full suite of articles will be coming again. Hopefully a couple of additions as well.
GAMEWEEK 23 DEADLINE: SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 14:00 UK TIME
Not as crucial given the time frame but always worth setting your team up as is asap in case you forget.
Hope you had a good gameweek. Not to mention Christmas and New Year.
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