The gameweek still only halfway through but I thought that a few thoughts on fantasy premier league GW35 and looking back at DGW34 would be worth it. I’ll focus on the FFGeek team but I imagine I’ll free style over various other things.
fantasy premier league GW35 – a look back and forward for the FFGeek team and the gameweek
So firstly here’s how the FFGeek team is doing:
FFGeek team gameweek so far
So a slight move up in the ranks with a score of 30 vs the average of 17 to 56k from 65k with Alonso playing tonight. If you’re interested the Bookies team is on 28 and an OR of 23k. The SOT team 41 with an OR of 198k.
So I’m a long proponent of the theory that FPL is a game of multiple 50/50 decisions exacerbated by the fact that FPL is also a game of very few events ie goals, assists and clean sheets. No matter how much analysis you do all you are really doing is trying to increase the probability of getting decisions right but there is never a guarantee. If there was I’d be in the South of France living off my betting wins rather than writing this.
The gameweek so far for the FFGeek when viewed like that doesn’t look so bad. I think the best you can ever expect is for half your FPL team to return a goal, assist or clean sheet and with a bit of luck one of those being your captain and at 1 getting a double figure FPL point haul. So far then out of 7 players who could have returned 3 have done so. So far so ok on that front. No double figure hauls though and so far a massive captain fail.
50/50’s and captain calls
I had two 50/50 calls to make. The first was Holebas vs Holgate which I got right. The 2nd was the captain choice of Negredo vs Benteke. I was always to worried about rotation to go for Rashford. When I look back at the captain article everything in my view pointed to Negredo except for some of the underlying stats and to be fair I was never close to choosing Benteke. All is potentially not lost with 1 more game to go but it really couldn’t have gone much worse than it did so far that’s for sure.
The 1 thing that always makes me feel better in situations when I’ve got it wrong is the top 10 FPL managers article. I haven’t done the article this week as yet but I’ve had a quick look at the managers teams and certainly there were far more of the top 10 FPL managers than just me who also went for Negredo.
FPL midfielders playing as strikers
Josh King scoring again a tap in within the 6 yard box shows again the value of FPL midfielders who are playing in thier team as strikers. In addition to King this season Son, Sanchez, Antonio, Firmino and Redmond at the start of the season all showed their value when playing as strikers but classified as FPLmidfielders. The issue is sometimes wrapped around questions over gametime security which makes it hard to jump early but this year it’s showed that it’s worth taking the gamble and transferring in quickly.
Goal scoring midfielders vs assisters
I’ve often said that Sigurdsson is the perfect FPL midfielder with an attacking advanced position, all set pieces and pens. On the negative side though he does have the disadvantage of being in a relegation threatened team trying to fix a defence and he doesn’t accrue good underlying shooting stats. The debate rumbles on as to whether goal scoring midfielders are better than midfielders who have the ability to score and assist through set pieces and maybe pens.
No more is it shown in such a clear ways as the Alli vs Eriksen debate. Alli (16 goals 9 assists) is a goal scoring midfielder always looking to get into the penalty area. Eriksen (7 goals 16 assists) the man who delivers all set pieces with an emphasis of assists in his game. I’ve always thought that underlying shooting stats are more directly related to goals than creating chances so have usually gone for goal scoring midfielders. However, that’s certainly not everyone’s view. Our celebrity manager in the top 10 FPL managers articles tends to go for the players with set pieces and assist potential as well as goal scoring ability. He’s got Eriksen not Alli for example.
Wildcard in fantasy premier league GW35 or GW36?
I’ve noticed a few people flourishing their wildcards this week including our own Rob Reid (also known as the FPL Vet) . Here’s what I think is his first draft. Not sure if the highlighted players are his only changes. I’ll try and get him to do an article
I can see the logic in wildcarding this week in some ways. Southampton have a good fixture home to Hull so getting in the maximum number for that could be productive. You also get 2 transfers to correct any mistakes for DGW37. Arsenal who are the other DGW36 team don’t have a good fixture though and are away to Spurs which isn’t helpful. I also couldn’t get rid of Liverpool away to Watford and Lukaku this week. Lukaku will be on a massive point to prove at home to Chelsea. Also if you’ve got Benteke and/or Zaha in your team you wont want to transfer them out home to Burnley.
However for me it’s just the uncertainty that I don’t like. I’m not even happy about wildcarding in GW36 due to the potential injuries and information deficit that another week could give me. However 4 extra players with the bench scoring in bench boost is just too compelling to lose by wildcarding in DGW37 and sacrifice the bench boost. You can’t play 2 chips in 1 gameweek btw if you weren’t aware of that rule.
There are so many questions still to be resolved. Will Mourinho settle on a striker for the premier league games. Can Gabbiadini hold his place with an Austin threat. Is Jesus going to take over Aguero’s place. Can Danny Rose get fit to displace Davies. Will Arsenal stick with a back 3 to allow Gabriel as an option are just some of the issues floating around. I may not get the answers to some or all these issues but the later I wildcard to have as much information as possible is how I’m thinking.
By the way I’m not saying my way is right, it’s just my thought process at the moment.
The disappearing starters
DGW34 was the week of the “left outs”. Van Aanholt was on the bench for Palace, Son took the wing back position of Davies, 3 GK’s lost their place in Robles, Grant and Randolph. Rashford was on the bench. Valencia was rested and wasn’t even on that. An interesting thought as we go into the last few weeks of the season.
Fantasy premier league GW35 transfer thoughts
So fantasy premier league GW35, with it being my last week before the wildcard, it’s a freebie transfer. I’ve also got £5.9m in the bank so the world is my oyster in terms of who I can pick. A Man Utd player home to Swansea makes alot of sense if it’s possible to work out 1 who’s guaranteed to start. The Thursday derby lineup will help. A Southampton player home to Hull or a Man City player at Middlesborough also are possibilities. Neither of those managers are very predictable which doesn’t help. There’s also the possibility of Benteke ironically, home to Burnley
Whatever I do I’ll be leaving it to the last minute given the amount of games and the games finishing on Thursday
Thats it I hope you find it interesting. Any challenging or supportive comments helpful below
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