Here’s our fantasy premier league player selection article where Sheffield born but NZ residing Alex Ball talks through his current FPL team. Alex has an excellent FPL history finishing 10,818 last season, 28,466 in 15/16 and 3,026 in 14/15.
fantasy premier league player selection – Alex Ball talks through his current FPL team
It’s been an enjoyable off season watching the Kiwi’s win the Americas Cup and enjoying the Lions tour of New Zealand.
But now back to the important stuff; FPL. First thoughts of the game are that prices seem fair, the new chip could be useful and the www.draftfantasyfootball.co.uk game the Geek is promoting will be an enjoyable addition to playing FPL.
Firstly a disclaimer; this team will change numerous times before the start of the season. Here it is as it stands;
Goalkeepers
I usually go budget here (£8.5/£9.0m). In this case it will likely be WBA’s £4.5m Foster, due to kind fixtures. It will then be either Newcastle’s £4.0m Elliot (if he looks to be the starting GK) or WBA reserve £4.0m Myhill. £4.5m Bournemouth’s Boruc or Begovic and Elliott also rotate nicely for the first six weeks.
Defenders
I usually structure the defence roughly £5.5m/£5.0m/£5.0m/£4.5m/£4.0m. Spurs RB Tripper looks a great option at £5.5m. Spurs will keep clean sheets and Tripper was excellent at the end of the season.
Southampton’s £5.0m RB Cedric is in due to kind fixtures.
£5.0m Bournemouth CB Ake was brilliant for me last season and I feel Bournemouth will keep more clean sheets than last season with Ake likely to do well with bonus points.
Brighton CB Dunk looks an excellent option at £4.5m but he could well change to the likes of Burnley’s £4.5m CB Mee, Leicester’s £4.5m RB Simpson or Swansea’s £4.5m RB Naughton.
Brighton FB Rosenior is a place holder for a likely £4.0m starter.
Midfielders
I spend most of my money in the attacking positions. I generally have a £4.5m mid and then try to cover the big teams with the other front seven players.
First of all it’s worth me stating that I’m unsure on virtually all the midfielders and forwards at the moment except for £11.5m Man Utd forward Lukaku (at 48% ownership it’s a risk too far to go without for me).
Man City’s £10.0m Kevin De Bruyne could become one of the cheaper City mids if they look likely to cement their place (or as close as a Pep player comes to being cemented!). Although I do have a soft spot for big Kev.
Liverpool’s £9.0m Coutinho could easily be his team mate Salah who’s the same price. With the Liverpool mids, I think you have to pick one and stick with them. They will share the points.
Chelsea’s £7.0m Willian is on fire in preseason and his stats compare favourably with Hazard when you consider the difference in minutes played last season.
Arsenal’s £7.0m Ramsey is a cheap route into the Gunners midfield.
Forwards
I’ve mentioned Man Utd’s Lukaku above who at 48% ownership has too much potential to damage my rank to go without him.
Kane is Kane. All the talk of a slow starter and playing at Wembley for their home games could well be valid but at present, even if he is £12.5m, I’m not going to risk going without (this could change!)
WBA’s £6.0m Rodriguez was the best option with the cash I had left. He has good fixtures and with his ownership at 3.4% he’s a handy differential
Hope you’ve enjoyed this run down, good luck with your selections. This season promises to be very interesting due to the large selection of players we have.
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