Here’s regular contributor from last season Rob Reid (aka the FPL vet) talking us through his first draft team in this fantasy premier league tips article. Rob finished with a rank of 22k last season, 4,701 in 2015/16 and 7,810 in 2014/15.
fantasy premier league tips – Rob Reid (aka the FPL vet) talks through his first draft team
Hi everyone and hope you’re all enjoying the off-season. Who am I kidding, it’s hell without FPL! Just joking 😊 Anyway, I’m pleased to announce that Fantasy Football Geek has agreed to have me back again as a contributor for the coming season. I’ll be doing a few drafts of my team in the build-up to the season and will do a final Gameweek 1 article just before the new season starts (remember FPL starts on a Friday this season as well!) I’m also hoping to do a player picks article each Gameweek and I’ll also be joining FFG in his draft league at draftfantasyfootball.co.uk My players picks article will also link with this. Whatever you do or whichever game you play this season, I hope my articles will continue to be of interest to you all.
My First GW1 Draft and some initial thoughts
Here’s my first draft:
Initially, here’s some thoughts looking at this season’s game following the launch:
1) Lots of competition amongst the premium players, who are all heavily priced. It’s going to be very difficult to cover all these without damaging the balance of your team so someone is going to have potential to hurt your ranking each week with a big score.
2) Lots of choice at the lower end of the premium range (£7.0m-9.0m) in midfield.
3) Few obvious attacking and midfield bargains at this stage. If you’re after a forward for less than £6m you’ll probably have to go for someone from one of the promoted teams.
4) Few £4.0 GK or DF options, but some ok options at £4.5m with some good potential rotations.
5) Premium defenders are very pricey but may be worth considering for their attacking returns – for £6-7m some are matching equivalent priced midfielders in this price bracket.
6) RIP All Out Attack. Can’t say it shall be missed.
7) The new chip looks good – plenty of different strategies possible here.
8) These new teams playing in bright stripes are going to take some getting used to on a small screen!
Team structure
For my first draft, I’ve basically just tried to cover the big 6 teams in attack and use the rest of the budget to buy cheaper players that cover the teams with good fixtures in defence and attack through the first 8 Gameweeks. GW8 onwards is where I’ll plan to use my first Wildcard.
Ok so here’s my first attempt.
Covering the Top 6
So the worry here for me is no Alexis Sanchez. If he’s still there come the new season (PSG are the latest team to be sniffing by all accounts) this could be a big problem. This guy can score big, is a popular captain pick and he can hurt your ranking in a major way. My problem at the moment is that it’s just too difficult to fit him and 2 premium strikers in without making a major sacrifice somewhere else. I could swap out KDB and downgrade Couthino to Lallana, then go for a cheaper City option such as Jesus or Sane – that’s something I might consider depending on what happens in pre-season.
I do have a number of worries on Sanchez going into this season though. As already said, is he going to even be at Arsenal? And I assume Lacazette will start, so will Sanchez be shunted out wide again where he is a bit less dangerous price-wise? Arsenal at least have the Community Shield before the League season starts so that might give us some line-up clues. As a result of not having Sanchez, I don’t have any Aresnal attacking coverage in this draft. They have got decent fixtures in the first 8 weeks so I am certainly going to reconsider this. I have managed to cover the rest of the Top 6 though in my 8 attacking players.
Forwards
I worry about my initial strike-force combination, but then there’s doubts about all the premium strikers for me. Costa looks to be on his way out and Morata is untested in the EPL so far, though has a lot of potential. For Kane it’s how Spurs cope playing at Wembley and he can be slow starter early season. Lukaku has good EPL pedigree but must prove himself at his new club, high scoring players have failed at new clubs or in new systems.
For Aguero it’s gametime. Pep loves to rotate and showed last season he wasn’t scared to drop Aguero. However if he plays – his price isn’t a problem and he could even be a bit of a differential. For Liverpool, Firminho has been reclassified as a striker, but I don’t feel is prolific enough to be considered over the other premium options in this category.
Finally there’s Lacazette at Arsenal; again he’s also a newbie to the league and may take time to adjust. I’ve gone for Morata and Lukaku at the moment but this is likely to be rehashed several times before I settle! At the cheaper end, Austin looks the stand out pick to me but will he get gametime? If not then it’s looking at the promoted teams for coverage of which Gayle looks the best prospect. By all accounts though, Austin has been good in pre-season and does have a good FPL record. Rooney at £7.5m is also tempting but Everton’s early fixtures are terrible.
Midfield
I’ve gone for KDB, Coutinho and Alli initially here with Phillips and Loftus-Cheek the cheaper options. For the premium mids, KDB I’ve mentioned above and he looks the most gametime secure at City though I may swap him out if I put Aguero in. Coutinho looks the best Liverpool option for me at this stage. Mane is potentially more explosive, though my Liverpool fan contact has expressed concerns about whether he’ll be fit for the start of the season.
Salah has been superb in Serie A, but is unproven in the EPL – he didn’t exactly set things on fire when he was at Chelsea but he is a different player in a different team now. Alli gives me Spurs coverage and also has very high ownership already, though if I swap to Kane up front I’ll strongly consider changing him.
This leaves me needing 2 cheaper players with £10.5-11m budget to play with. I’ve gone for Phillips initially at £6m. Went on a good run last season and has good early fixtures so certainly tempting. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much for your money below this. Palace and Newcastle have the more tempting options I reckon at the moment but again pre-season form and other transfers may give some more clues. I’ve gone for Loftus-Cheek at £4.5 initially – good fixtures and plenty of potential, even if little previous evidence of any real FPL pedigree and doubts regarding gametime. Puncheon and Miliojovic are other options for Palace, with the latter being on set pieces.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Here it’s about saving money. I like defence as a differential, but teams tend to play more openly in the first 10 weeks of the season, so it’s a differential I tend to look at later on. For keepers I’ve gone for the £9m combo of Foster and Fabianski, these guys rotate nicely across the first few weeks and should pick up some save points. I’ve gone with 2 lower end premium defenders initially with Lindelhof and Monreal but this may change with the other big clubs all having some nice options, again I’ll see if pre-season gives any clues as to gametime security as a non-playing premium defender is a big waste of funds. If I need to save money to fund another attacking option, this is where I’ll probably find it by dropping one of these to a £4.5m player. For the rest of the defence I’ve gone budget – Delaney, Hudson and Simpson. These rotate nicely fixture-wise over the first 6-8 weeks with an emphasis on home games. Again I’ll be looking at pre-season form for fixture and gametime clues.
Some thoughts on the new chip
Bye bye All Out Attack, hello Free Hit. I like the idea of the new chip and can see several possible applications. The most obvious for me was to use during a big blank gameweek, which you often get in February or March on an FA Cup weekend. This way you don’t have to pre-plan for 4-5 weeks to make sure you get 11 men out in the blank week, you can just play the game as normal and use the Free Hit chip to load up on the blank, safe in the knowledge your team will be back to normal again the week after.
Next application would be in a Double Gameweek, though again I’ll probably use Bench Boost and Triple Captain in these so there may not be such a big week to go for the Free Hit in. 3rd option is to use in a favourable fixture week – load up on big name attack players and defenders that look good clean sheet prospects. Last option is as an injury bail-out, looks less tempting especially as injuries often need longer term planning.
First draft done then, I fully expect to make 3 or 4 further drafts over the pre-season and I certainly won’t be settling on my team probably until lunchtime on Friday 11th! In the meantime, I’ll be monitoring the pre-season friendlies and transfer activity carefully!
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