Here’s another excellent monthly fantasy premier league reflections article from Rob Reid (the FPL Vet). Rob is an FPL manager well worth taking the time to listen to. Rob finished with a rank of 4,701 last season 2015/16 and 7,810 the season before.
Reflections on FPL 2016-17 Month 2
Here’s the second in my series on monthly articles reflecting on the previous months fantasy football action. Anyone who’s read a few of my previous articles know that I’m quite into reflecting back on what’s gone to try and look at where I can improve my team going forwards and I’ve found these monthly reviews quite useful. There’s a small degree of statistical analysis in it, but it’s more a series of light-hearted observations based on watching games and looking at how players are performing that then guide my ongoing strategy. I also make some fun informal awards to the Player of the Month, One to Watch for next month and a Donkey Award! I hope you find it useful and any comments are of course greatly welcomed.
Month 2 has come and gone and it’s certainly been the roller-coaster ride we expect from Fantasy EPL. Perhaps the biggest week of highs and lows was Gameweek 8, the one just gone. For many of us managers, international windows have kind of lost their appeal. For me personally, it’s just a fortnight of mulling over just how much my international team is going to disappoint me this time. They did pretty well in that respect this month, watching us capitulate in Slovakia is a piece of my life I’ll never get back! So we entered Gameweek 8 with great optimism with many playing their wildcards. For some, we’ve seen some fine differentials gain. For others, well – it was the gameweek from hell!
Cashing in on Costa
It’s probably fair to say, you’re quids in if you’ve had Diego Costa from week 1. He’s returned in all but one gameweek so far and seems to have figured out how to pick up bonus points. Managers will also of late be pleased to see the Chelsea star buck his usual disciplinary issues…
Proceed with caution
… but we must be careful! Costa is still only one booking from a suspension and will come up against his nemesis Jose Mourhino next. If Monday’s fixture against Liverpool was anything to go by, Man United won’t be afraid to dish it out to the fiery Spaniard. Don’t be surprised if Diego misses the Southampton game. A couple of other appealing prospects are also teetering on the brink. Jose Holebas has picked up a bit of a bandwagon this week for good reason and Marko Aranautovic has some appealing fixtures are on the horizon. Both however are one yellow away from a ban – you have been warned!
The case for the defence is still unclear
We’re still no closer to working this one out but we may have got some more clues last week. Stoke may be a good option and (as mentioned) have appealing fixtures coming up – finally we may have a reliable budget option in defence. Chelsea have also kept 2 consecutive clean sheets and are slowly coming onto the radar, but we were let down by Spurs and Arsenal last weekend after many of us invested in North London defenders. Maybe more time will tell.
We know who not to pick
Hull have gone from a good prospect to the proverbial sieve and Middlesbrough’s pre-season promise has certainly not been fulfilled. Sunderland also offer little appeal. Basically if you’re looking to fill your defence, the north-east and Humberside are probably not the places to look.
There’s still value in midfield
Early season bandwagon Etienne Capoue’s stats look to have finally caught up with him, but some new pretenders have emerged in the cheap midfield role. Junior Stanislas has scored 36 points in the last 3 gameweeks and has handy set-piece responsibilities. He also has superb fixtures in gameweeks 10-12, at £5.5 he looks a good shout. Even cheaper is Joe Allen. No stats to speak of from previous seasons, but he’s on fire in front of goal carrying his Euro 2016 form into this season. Again, fixtures are favourable!
Which Arsenal midfielder?
We are truly spoilt for choice! Theo Walcott is on fire – joint top points scorer with Costa and 6/8 returns so far. Alexis Sanchez is also in great form just one point behind, benefiting from a striker’s role. Mesut Ozil has also come onto the radar after his Champions League exploits in midweek, though do bear in mind he did reap the rewards of a more advanced position after both Walcott and Sanchez had been subbed and Ludogorets are. hardly world-beaters. There is certainly a case for a double-up here though with Walcott and Sanchez the most desirable option.
Player of the month
It’s the battle of the midfielders this month. Any of the aforementioned midfielders are potential winners and striker Diego Costa gets an honourable mention. But I’m giving the award to Nacer Chadli. 42 points in 4 games playing in a fairly defensive set-up is superb return from the Belgian. A frustrating FPL player from previous seasons, his 2014-15 stats show that he knows where the goal is. If he keeps this up, he could be a good differential though I’d probably consider him from Gameweek 12, he’s got 3 tough fixtures before then.
One to watch
Southampton have started to find their rhythm over the last few weeks and although they have 2 tough fixtures coming up andthe Europa League to contend with, they are good enough to compete with anyone. Dusan Tadic has some great stats in terms of chances created and is perhaps unlucky not to have had more returns so far, but you can’t overlook Charlie Austin. He seems to have nailed down the central striker berth, has penalties and a great track record with QPR, which also showed him to be fairly fixture proof. A great cheap striker option with low ownership.
Donkey Award
I can’t believe I’m doing this, but Sergio Aguero’s Gameweek 8 exploits make this award a no-brainer. Coming off the bench and missing a penalty meant for many the ignominy of a negative captain score! Sorry Sergio – hate to do this to such a nice bloke (my wife and her friends met him briefly at a work Congress a couple of years ago and he’s a top guy by all accounts!) We know you’ll be back on song in no time fella :-)
A quick final word on my own team – it’s been a yo-yo month for me! At the end of Gameweek 6 I was sitting pretty at around 13k but utterly horrendous scores in the last 2 weeks has seen me plummet to 205k. Would you believe my team hasn’t scored a goal since Gameweek 6! FPL WARNING: I have bought Lukaku this week! Prepare for him to turn bad so be ready to offload folks. Seriously though I made a bad 50-50 call last week which cost me around 30 points in the end, captaining Sanchez saved me from the embarrassment of a score of sub-20. I’m optimistic this week though as my team looks ok and has favourable fixtures, though I’ve got some shuffling to do to get who I want so I expect my ranking to worsen or stay static before it gets any better. A few weeks of pain await I’m afraid and I’ve definitely paid a certain price for playing my wildcard so early.
Good luck this week folks and I’ll be back mid-November with my next instalment. I’ll be putting my team on Twitter as usual tonight.
Thanks Rob and good luck this week. Here’s Rob’s team pre this weeks transfers
