Here’s my fantasy premier league imaginary wildcard team for GW4. That is the team I would pick if I was using my wildcard today. Its not just for GW4, its for the future gameweeks as well
Firstly there are a few points of explanation.
1. Hazard and Sturridge are both injury doubts and if they weren’t available to play that would change my position
2. The bonus system favouring goals and clean sheets will see the diminishing role of the midfielder and this is reflected in my team. I will probably play 4-3-3 with 3 core defenders plus 1 rotation and 2 core midfielders and 1 rotation plus 3 forwards.
3. I’ve aligned this post with my “ones to watch” posts so you can see how they link up.
4. Remember these are my teams values shown under the player. They may differ from what the buy price in my “ones to watch” article which is also in this post as notes to the player
See notes below the team on some difficult decisions which will help you see the decision making process with the team
Here’s the team first:
- Mignolet
- £5.6
- Mignolet (£5.7m) BUY
- Minutes per point: 9.3 Clean sheets: 3 fixture ease rank: 1
3 clean sheets and by 10 points the highest scoring GK. With Toure injured also the best value Liverpool defender although Sakho is slightly cheaper. Great fixtures as well
- Kelvin Davis
- £4.0
- Probably the most likely non playing £4.0m GK to play. his ownership is quite high which has a price drop risk but i’m assuming that with the WCs being activated over the international break that this was the time it was going to happen
- Koscielny
- £5.4
- Koscielny(£5.4m) BUY
- Minutes per point: 39.3 mins . Team clean sheets: 1 Rotation risk: Low. fixture ease ranking: 3rd Bonus points to date 0
Got off to a horrible start, hence the handy price drop. Was the form Arsenal defender towards the end of last year and is currently the best value especially with bonus points focused on CBs. Good time to buy as Arsenal are away to Sunderland and have good fixtures to come. Arsenal had the best away defence last year. Sunderland are looking pretty ordinary going forward and have a real problem at set pieces which gives Koscielny some attacking potential as well.
- Collins
- £4.5
- Collins (£4.6m) HOLD
- Minutes per point: 19.3 mins . Team clean sheets: 2 Rotation risk: medium. fixture ease ranking: 16 Bonus points to date 1
One of the better £4.6m purchases with a very defensive manager. 2 clean sheets from 3 games. fixtures are getting trickier and GW4 away to saints isnt easy. West ham will still get clean sheets at home and Collins is the best value. Unfortunately Collins and West Ham generally don’t seem to be liked by the bonus point system so far.
- Dawson
- £5.0
- Dawson (£5.0m) HOLD
- Minutes per point: 18 mins . Team clean sheets: 2 Rotation risk: medium. fixture ease ranking: 2nd Bonus points to date 1
3 games 2 clean sheets which is not a bad start. Spurs have shown the defensive improvement in clean sheets this season that their underlying stats from last year hinted. Good fixtures continue. The bonus point system at the moment seems to favour Vertonghen and Walker. They’re considerably more expensive than Dawson though at £7.0m and £6.0m respectively. There is a gametime risk that Chiriches the new Romanian CB starts for the home game to Norwich but given the fixture and looking at the alternatives I decided to go with him
- Chester
- £4.0
- Good fixtures and a Steve Bruce defence that I’m sure will be tight and a team that will be defensive orientated
- Cole
- £6.5
- A Cole (£6.5m) BUY
- Minutes per point: 15 mins . Team clean sheets: 2 Rotation risk: medium fixture ease ranking: 12 Bonus points to date 4
Ivanovic is the favourite fantasy premier league defender and certainly has the best attacking potential of all the Chelsea defence. Cole though is the less rotatable with only Bertrand as cover who seems completely out of favour as compared to Azpilicueta who at least played consistently last year for Ivanovic when fit. In addition the early signs are that Cole with 4 bonus points sees to be better suited to the new bonus system than Ivanovic with 2 which came when he scored. Fixtures aren’t great but good signs defensively based on the United game
- Jedinak
- £4.5
- The safe guaranteed to play midfielder who won’t return but will be there on your bench for 2 points when needed. On the basis that I will most likely be rotating 3 in to 1 I could have gone for Ravel Morrison instead. He has far more attacking potential than Jedinak but has yet to earn a place in the West Ham starting line up
- Hazard
- £9.3
- 3. Hazard (£9.3m) HOLD (injury doubt)
- Goals and assists: 0 goals 1 assist. Time per point scored: 24.5 mins . Rotation risk: high. fixture ease ranking: 12th. Consistency 33%
Really good underlying shooting and creating chances stats and although the game against Everton is a tricky one the next game is home to Fulham which could be a goal fest. The tricky thing with Chelsea though is rotation. Waiting for the Fulham game is all well and good as long as he plays. I wouldn’t sell though if you still have him I would hold on unless we get some more negative information on the injury which seems like it will be ok for Everton. The next couple of games should give us a feel to how Mourinho will line up his team. At the moment I’m thinking Eto’o may end up the best coverage given the form of Ba and Torres but a couple of games should make things clearer
- Walcott
- £9.5
- 1. Walcott (£9.5m) BUY
- Goals and assists: 0 goals 2 assists Time per point scored: 20.8 mins . Rotation risk: low. fixture ease ranking: 3rd. Consistency: 2/3 66%
Just need to monitor that the heavy tackle last night in the WCQ was ok and that he returned to the pitch as the injury wasn’t an issue. Excellent shooting stats and also creating chances. Excellent fixtures the only negative is whether you buy him or Giroud. Walcott is the more consistent player if last year is anything to go buy and Giroud the streaky scorer against poorer opposition. At the moment the addition of Ozil would probably make me favour Giroud who should be the main beneficiary. Walcott is still a great choice and although I avoid doubling up on attacking players this is as close as it comes.
- Barkley
- £4.7
- 3. Barkley (£4.8m) HOLD
- Returned in 1 of 3 games. With Chelsea at home this weekend I would probably watch the bandwagon for a weekend rather than be leaping on it. Has the new transfers to deal with in Barry and McCarthy plus Gibsons return. Lukaku joining in GW5 should provide the finishing touches to chances created. A note of caution here is that although he is playing behind the striker he hasn’t produced any underlying stats of note apart from shooting outside the box alot. Has got the shot to do that but only Bale in recent seasons has made this a reason to buy a fantasy premier league player. I still think he will hold his place over Osman though so definitely not a sell
- Ward-Prowse
- £4.5
- 2. JWP – (£4.5m) BUY
- 1 return in 3 games and seems to have held his place. has had a good share of set pieces as well
- Soldado
- £9.6
- 4. Soldado (£9.7m) BUY
- Goals and assists: 2 goals 0 assists. Time per point scored: 14.1 . Rotation risk: low. fixture ease ranking: 2nd . Consistency 2/3 66%
2 goals from pens but over the 3 games the underlying stats have been solid in creating chances and shooting. has pens which is a big advantage and Eriksen will give that creativity and support in 4-2-3-1 hopefully that Soldado needs. If you’re ever going to buy him though now’s the time with a home game against Norwich next.
- Sturridge
- £9.2
- .Sturridge (£9.2m) BUY (injury doubt)
- Goals and assists: 3 goals 0 assists. Time per point scored: 12.3 mins . Rotation risk: low. fixture ease ranking: 1st. Consistency 3/3 100%
Underlying stats don’t support 3 goals in 3 games and at the moment he’s not creating chances for team mates. however you cant argue with the returns. Also has great fixtures. it’s just a case of whether he will be fit for the Swansea game but a buy for me.
- van Persie
- £14.0
- 1. RVP (£14.0m) BUY
- Goals and assists: 2 goals 0 assists. Time per point scored: 17.7 mins . Rotation risk: low. fixture ease ranking: 5th. Consistency 1/3 33%
2 games with no returns but there were 2 games against 2 of the better defences in the league in Liverpool and Chelsea. I’m comforted by the fact that only Giroud has had more shots in the box than RVP and with home games against Palace and WBA coming up either side of palace he’s a definite buy for me. Only negatives are 1. That Rooney isn’t back until GW5 which is a bit of a creative loss but RVP should still be in the goals against Palace, Rooney or not and 2 that he hasn’t been creating chances like he did last year
Difficult Decisions
There were definitely some very difficult decisions. I really wanted Giroud in the side but to do that I would have had to take Soldado out of the side as Sturridge is the only possibility for Liverpool coverage at the moment with Coutinho looking off form. I could have swapped Soldado for Eriksen for Spurs coverage but decided to keep Walcott rather than go with the player, Eriksen, who has yet to play in the premier league or double up on Arsenal with Walcott and not have any Spurs coverage. Benteke was really close as well. You’ll notice I don’t have any City coverage. I could have gone for Negredo instead of Sturridge but decided that the fixtures favoured Liverpool and with City having such tough fixtures I’ve gone for Sturridge. Not easy though and so many marginal calls. Dont forget though the injury position of Hazard and Sturridge is crucial to the team
I hope that helped you in your decision making for your team
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