Here’s 6 players who could hurt your ranking if you don’t own them. We look at the players and their prospects and how much of a danger they are to your ranking if you ignore them
It may sound blindingly obvious but the players who can hurt your ranking the most when they score points are those with the highest ownership. You need to seriously consider each player in this category and weigh up the merits of owning or not. It doesn’t mean that you can’t progress your ranking by being a sheep as you some people see it. There are ususally 4-5 players in this category which gives you 10 to make an impression on your ranking with but without the pain of seeing a huge drop whenever someone in this category scores big points. There’s no magic line to define the level of ownership applicable but I personally use 30% as a rule of thumb. Here we look at them in turn from the highest ownership down
Rooney (48%)
At this level and with this player you’re either bonkers or someone who likes dodging traffic on the M25 for a hobby. He maybe on the verge of losing pens to RVP but this is a guy with great fixtures, who performs every year and is one of the biggest flat track bullies in FPL. He can rackup a double digit score before you’ve got your beer from the fridge. In 10 games out of 29 last season he got 10 or more points. Thats 35%of games, the highest of any player in FPL. That was as a number 10 who Moyes, for whatever reason, put into midfield late in games. He’s even more dangerous now as a striker rather than a number 10. An essential buy and someone owned by all the top 10 FPL managers I follow (see article earlier in the week). If you don’t own him then take a 4 point hit to rectify the situation straight away
Sunderland (A)
Burnley (A)
QPR (H)
Leicester (A)
West Ham (H)
Everton (H)
Ramsey (40%)
This is certainly a high ownership to ignore but what damage can a box to box midfielder do in a team that share the goals around I hear you ask?. Well unfortuantely I can’t give you that comfort. Last year Ramsey got 10 points or more in 7 of his 23 games. Thats 30% and a higher % than any midfielder, even YYT. The one thing going for you is that he has very tough fixtures coming up. However even that isn’t total comfort. Only 4 of those double figure hauls came against last seasons bottom 7. He can do it against anyone. However if you’re going to take the risk now is probably as good a time as ever to do it. By the way, 9 of the top 10 FPL managers I follow own him.
Everton (A)
Leicester (A)
Man City (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Spurs (H)
Chelsea (A)
Diego Costa (39.5%)
With a home game against Leicestercoming up and Man City and Liverpool playing each other then this is not the time to be umming and aarhing over Diego Costa. He’s bound to be an overwhelming captain choice, double hurting your ranking if he succeeds. You’re a braver person than me if you don’t own him. 8 of the 10 FPL managers I follow own him. I would suggest that by GW2 that will be all 10.
Leicester (H)
Everton (A)
Swansea (H)
Man City (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Arsenal (H)
Sterling (35.9%)
I own the 3 players just mentioned but I don’t own Sterling. That ownership gap cost me plenty last week. Last season he wasn’t that dangerous only getting a double digit haul in 3 of his 32 games. Thats one of the lower of the better scoring midfielders. He is however a significan’t better player than last season already. He will also play in the front 3 or as the CAM so will be a consistently dangerous threat for Liverpool. Personally I own Sturridge rather than Sterling. That was for Sturridges consistency and captain potential. I have thought about getting Sterling in for Silva while selling Sturridge for Aguero but won’t be doing that until GW3 at the earliest.
What I think gives you a little bit of time is the fixtures. Away to City and Spurs next are 2 tricky fixtures. Granted the City game could be a shoot out but Liverpool didn’t look the fluid attacking team they did with Suarez and a shootout with City would be a risky strategy for Rodgers. The lack of fuidity and the fixtures may see the ownership drift over the next 2 games to relax the pressure as well. I wont be moving until GW3 and will hope the City game doesn’t turn into a shoot out
4 of the top 10 FPL managers I follow own him.
Man City (A)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (H)
West Ham (A)
Everton (H)
West Brom (H)
Lovren (33.6%)
Defenders are definitely less risky to ignore especially if they aren’t dangerous attacking assets. Lovrens 2 goals last season doesn’t make him a Skrtel type threat and Liverpool certainly didn’t look like they had fixed the 10 clean sheet only nightmare of last season in their opening game against Southampton. Given the next 2 fixtures I’ll be taking the risk of not owning him.
2 of the 10 top FPL managers I follow own him
Man City (A)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (H)
West Ham (A)
Everton (H)
West Brom (H)
Sturridge (30.5%)
The third Liverpool player. This is probably a reaction to the first game being against Southampton which on paper should have been an easy one. Sturridge is a bit easier to take a risk on as well. Last season he was phenomenally consistent. Only Suarez returned a goal or assist in a higher % of games. However in only 4 of his 29 games did he score 10 points or more. The landscape has changed in that Suarez has left but his scoring pattern wasn’t particularly different when Suarez wasn’t in the team. Again the next 2 diffixult fixtures give some potential breathing space before a decsion needs to be made
Only 1 of the 10 top FPL managers I follow own him
Man City (A)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (H)
West Ham (A)
Everton (H)
West Brom (H)
Hope you found it useful in your team decision making
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