Here’s regular contributor Joseph Crilley with his GW4 Wildcard team after activating it this week. Joseph finished with a 13k overall rank last season
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE JOSEPH’S GW4 WILDCARD TEAM
It’s not been an ideal start to my FPL season as I currently linger around the 1.7mil mark in the overall rankings. Therefore, I made the decision on Tuesday night to activate my wildcard in order to attempt to kickstart my year. I hadn’t been planning to use it during this international break; I had actually been aiming to use it around GW6/7. However, a few things have changed which turned me to this decision.
GW3 TEAM
It was a second consecutive below-par week as I followed up my awful 31 point score in GW2 with a GW3 score of 48(-4). There are some problems in my team which have forced my hand; namely De Bruyne and Ward-Prowse in midfield who I had high hopes for at the start of the season. Unfortunately, with KDB now playing as a holding midfielder and JWP taking his place on the Southampton bench, those hopes are now a distant memory. In addition, I’m worried that Carroll may soon lose his place in the Swansea team after the signings of Clucas and Sanches. I also have a fear that I have seen the high point of Mooy for now after his goal in GW2 and think there may be better options at his price.
At the back, there are a few potential issues. Van Dijk is back in training and there were already whispers that Stephens may lose his place to new signing Hoedt. Hegazi may be the most transferred player in so far this season but with Evans and McAuley returning to fitness, I’m concerned that his time in the team might be short lived. Moreover, Brighton haven’t started the season particularly well and though Suttner returned a clean sheet last week, they were playing against a ten-man Watford team for most of the game.
The above problems combined with some in-form players that I would like to get in my team have caused me to push the button. The wildcard team is outlined below with my reasoning.
GW4 WILDCARD TEAM
Forwards
I’m going to start from the forward line as there is large Romelu Lukaku shape hole which helps define the rest of the team. Essentially, I made the choice between him and Kane. At their prices, I would be wanting to captain them most weeks therefore I don’t believe that it’s necessary to include both in my squad. Looking at the next few fixtures, Kane is the one that I would looking to place the armband for the majority of gameweeks.
It’s the end of August and Kane has already marked the occasion with a brace during the international break. His underlying stats scream that there will be an explosion of points anytime soon. For me, the Swansea game in GW5 looks like the exact type of match that he could return the massive score that we’re waiting for. The final reason that I went for the Spurs man is that as the more expensive of the two, it is much easier to swap him out if I have made the wrong decision.
Completing my strike force are the current leading forwards Morata and Firmino. The Liverpool man has been one of my few good decisions this season and I see no reason to remove him, especially now we know that he’s on penalties. At 10.1mil, Morata is the cheapest of the strikers from the big teams aside from Liverpool and has cemented himself in the starting XI. Hazard looks like he’ll be returning to the Chelsea team soon which I’m hoping will boost the former Real Madrid player’s returns. I believe that he will continue his good form and I’d like to get him in reasonably early with his ownership currently sitting at a relatively low 13.2%.
Midfield
My midfield choices stem from the Kane vs Lukaku debate. Both players have good options from their teams which can provide cover for the striker that I decide to leave out. Mkhitaryan and Pogba come in significantly cheaper than Dele and Eriksen which makes them easier squeeze in. Of course, it also helps that they sit on top of the overall points this campaign having started the season in electric form.
Lining up alongside the United players in midfield is another in-form player Salah, who forms part of a second double up in attack. Liverpool often start the season on fire and have done so again. They look capable of blowing away anyone on their day so I’m happy to take the Egyptian at what looks a decent of price of 9.0mil considering the goal threat he’s shown thus far. 12 shots with 11 coming inside the box suggests that he can continue his early season form.
I’ve taken the punt on Brady as my budget midfielder. He has displayed some impressive underlying stats and appears to the key man for Burnley. As noted in the underlying stats article, he’s averaging 3.3 key passes per game and has some good home fixtures on the horizon to hopefully return some decent points. For my 4.5mil midfielder, I would ideally like to have Loftus-Cheek who has made a good start at Palace. However, unless there is confirmation that he has returned to full fitness this week, I will stick with Chalobah from Watford. Both have shown some good attacking threat but
Defence
To start with I have selected Davies and Jones who look fantastic value in two of the best defences in the league. I do believe that Rose will take the LB spot at Spurs once he is fit but it’s proving very difficult to say when that will be. Consequently, I’m happy to go with Davies who has posted some impressive attacking stats to go with his goal in GW1. Jones has started well this season and his place is seemingly secure at the heart of the United defence. 5.1mil is too good of a price to turn down for one of their starting defenders.
Southampton fixtures still look strong but it’s getting tricky to predict their defensive line up. Hence, I’ve splashed a little extra cash on Bertrand for his security of starts and attacking potential. Tony Pulis has been doing what he does best by churning out clean sheets at the start of the season and I still wanted some investment in his defence. Dawson is the best option to me and, after 10 in his last three seasons, I’m hoping a goal is round the corner. He also rotates very well with Brady which could come in handy at some point. After Mbemba’s injury on international duty, it seems there are no 4.0mil playing defenders again. Therefore, I’ve decided to stick with Long who is just one injury away from slotting into the centre of the Burnley defence.
Goalkeepers
In goal, Elliot is a no-brainer at 4.0mil after Benitez’s failure to bring in another goalkeeper during the transfer window. Swansea may have been a little lucky to keep two clean sheets in their opening games but their upcoming fixture list is very eye-catching. Fabianski looks a good option then and even if he doesn’t pick up many clean sheets, there should be plenty of opportunity for save points. He also rotates quite nicely with the Newcastle man as an added bonus.
SUMMARY
I first created this team before I had made the decision to wildcard and it just looked right to me so I went for it. I’m very settled on the front 8 once we’ve had confirmation about the fitness of Loftus-Cheek. The only changes I may make are in defence where Fabianski, Dawson, Long and Bertand could easily be changed for another combination. All in all, I’m very happy with this squad and I hope that it can help me climb the rankings.
Feel free to let me know your thoughts on my wildcard team in the comments section or if you would like any advice on your team for this gameweek. You can also find me on Twitter.
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