Here’s my fantasy premier league team picks article where I give an update on the FFGeek team. I’ve got 3 options at the moment which are causing me headaches
fantasy premier league team picks – an update on the FFGeek team
In this article I’m going to show you 3 different teams. The first 2 are top heavy teams with 3 premium forwards. They doesn’t have the balance of the other team but they have better captain options in my view.
The other team is a more balanced team with a more traditional structure. It doesn’t have the captain options of the top heavy teams though. Thats the crucial thing to bear in mind which I’ll illustrate at the end.
The first thing to get your head around is that this is a 4-3-3 team although in GW1 it will be a 3-4-3 team as both rotating defenders have terrible GW1 fixtures
The top heavy options
Team 1 – top heavy Lacazette
This team is based around 3 premium forwards who I prefer as captain options. In essence I think they have a higher likelihood of scoring which unless you’re Diego Costa gives you a good chance of additional bonus points.
So that team hasn’t changed to any great significance since my last team update.
The changes are :
Cedric Southampton £5.0 def out Yoshida Southampton £5.0m def in
Essentially Cedric has only just come back into training after the Confederations Cup so for the moment Yoshida seems safer. Cedric is my favoured option if he will definitely play.
Lowton Burnley £4.5m def out Mee Burnley £4.5m def in
Bardsley joined from Stoke and although I still think Lowton will be preferred (Bardsley is injured anyway) Mee seemed safer
Loftus Cheek Palace £4.5m mid out Chalobah Watford £4.5m mid in
I think Chalobah has more prospect of playing. RLC is definitely preferred as Huddersfield are first and that would help me play 3-4-3 in GW1
By the way you maybe thinking after you’ve read the rest of this why don’t I bring in Salah instead of Sane for team 1 and downgrade Bailly to Blind. The reason is that I can’t deal with the thought of not having a Man City player in my team. They are too destructive to not look for some share of what could be a very big weekly pie.
Team 2 – top heavy Jesus
Same changes as above but also
Salah £9.0m Liverpool mid comes in for £8.5m Man City Sane
Liverpool playing 4-1-2-3 the other week showed that the 4 players can fit into 1 team as Coutinho dropped into the 2. I would prefer Mane but he’s £9.5m and does have some injury recovery to do which could limit his minutes.
£10.5m Man City forward Jesus comes in for £10.5m Arsenal forward Lacazette
Jesus seems a Pep favourite although positionally there’s still some risk to monitor
£5.5m Man Utd def Blind comes in for £6.om Man Utd def Bailly to provide funds.
I just can’t imagine that Blind won’t play LB in GW1 but I would prefer Bailly by miles
The balanced option
team 3 balance
Here Sane becomes De Bruyne and £6.5m Southampton forward Austin comes in for Lacazette. Tadic becomes Salah
I’m a huge Austin fan. The guy scores goals full stop. However, does he fit into the overall pressing plan of the new manager? If there’s doubt he would have to become Gayle. Or I could upgrade to Benteke and downgrade Salah for say Tadic with money left over.
Captain plan comparison
So as you can see the captain plan looks far better in team 1 top heavy Lacazette than the other 2. GW4 has long been a problem of mine. Jesus at home to Liverpool or Lukaku at Stoke or De Bruyne at home to Liverpool just aren’t the same.
Now early form can quickly change captain options and favourites but 1 looks far superior to me
You may wonder why the captain plan is so important. The reason is that I hate using my transfer each week just to get the current captain favourite. That too me is such a negative use of a transfer. Id rather try and plan an acceptable captain going forward. There will be a load of positive surprises coming up in the early weeks and I want to use transfers for those. I see some managers planning transfers in advance for these situations and to me that is a waste of a transfer. However I do take less hits than others which is also how some managers deal with the situation. Taking hits means they can have both the captain of choice and the surprises
The issues in short
I like Team 3’s (balanced team) overall look but I don’t trust De Bruyne as a captain. He’s consistent but isn’t a goal scorer and that’s a big negative for me. That leaves me with 2 captain options and a problem for GW4.
I like team 1 top heavy Lacazette for the captain plan. I’m a little unsure over Sane. There are theories that in 3-4-2-1 that he wont play in the 2 behind the CF. That does worry me as Pep has been trialling this formation and has the wing backs now to do it.
Team 2 removes the Sane doubt and brings in Jesus as a captain option. He is a Pep pet which is good and does seem able to finish. However will he be a CF or on the right of a 4-1-4-1 or wide in part of the front 3 in an effective 4-1-2-3. That doesn’t fill me with joy.
I don’t have an answer at the moment. Regular readers will know that this will lead to a load of pontification and prevarication on my part until time forces me to make a decision.
I hope his gives you some food for thought though
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