Here’s our fantasy premier league tips article where Rob Reid updates us on his FPL team plans. 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) updates us on his FPL team
Hi everyone, hope you’re all looking forward to the new season and are enjoying your pre-season planning.
Here’s the next draft of my FPL team. Ok so I’ve actually done 3 FPL drafts as I’ve had a number of ideas!
FPL Draft 2.1 Balanced
Goalkeepers
A different choice here. Still only spending £9.m total, but gone for Forster and Elliott this time. I would expect Forster to play most weeks, Elliott seems to have the nod in pre-season so does give you a £4m option if things stay this way.
Defenders
Still got £4m Hudson and a £5.5m Man U option – Blind this time in view of ongoing injuries to Rojo and Shaw and some early doubts regarding Lindelof’s form. I’ve also kept £5.5m Monreal as well, though I. do like the look of new signing Kolasinac at £6m who possibly has more ‘out of position’ potential if Wenger plays 3 at the back again. Trippier at £5.5m is the next option. With Walker gone, he’s looking good for starting the season and offers attacking potential.
It’s a second £4m option with Burnley’s Long filling the final slot – he’s started a couple in early pre-season, but could have dropped down the pecking order now so will keep an eye on this.
Midfielders
Coutinho, Alli and Loftus-Cheek all stay. Fabregas and Ramsey are the changes here for budget reasons. Game time could be an issue for both but at least we’ll have the Community Shield to get some clues here.
Forwards
Lukaku and Austin stay, but I’ve upgraded to Aguero here so I now cover all the big 6 in attack.
Thoughts
This is quite a balanced team although I’m wary of the sacrifices made in defence here. The premiums are pricey, and there’s serious doubts over the £4m defenders starting so no cover if a premium defender gets injured. Still no room for Sanchez or Kane and worried about losing De Bruyne, he looks the most nailed on of the City midfield or attack and looked good against Real Madrid on Saturday. Finally game time questions over Fabregas and Ramsey though as stated that should become clearr before the season starts.
Draft 2.2 Top Heavy
Goalkeepers
Only £8.5m total this time with Foster and Elliott.
Defenders
Hudson, Long and Man U cover again. Simpson and Delaney are the two £4.5m options left over from Draft 1.
Midfielders
Coutinho, Phillips (possible injury worry here) and Loftus-Cheek again from Draft 1 and again Fabregas and Ramsey.
Strikers
Gone for a power 3 of Kane, Lukaku and Aguero!
Thoughts
I’ve seen a few teams with a ‘Power 3’ attack on Twitter and thought I’d put one together as another option. Can see the appeal – defence is weak and there’s less potential in the midfield but you’re covering the striker options who can really hurt you. Again no Sanchez – a ‘Power 4’ looks impossible without sacrificing the rest of the midfield. However plenty of scope to get Sanchez in here – change a premium striker for a sub-£7m option and upgrade one of your £7 midfielders.
Draft 2.3 The Sanchez
Goalkeepers
Again the £8.5m combination of Foster and Elliott
Defenders
Even less wriggle room here. Hudson, Long, Simpson, Delaney. Cedric is the £5.0m option though may have an injury now – could bring a £4.5m Saints defender into play?
Midfielders
Alli, Coutinho, Loftus-Cheek, Phillips and of course Sanchez.
Forwards
Lukaku, Aguero and Abraham as the cheap option here.
Thoughts
A lot of doubts surrounding Sanchez which should become clearer in the next week. If he’s there and starting he’s a key player and I’d be very worried if I didn’t have him. Either way it looks like he’ll at least miss GW1 with his pre-season training starting late due to the Confed Cup and a bout of flu. There’s some other serious sacrifices in this team as well.
No Chelsea cover, defence is very lean and Abraham is a risk up front, though I think he’ll do ok at Swansea. On the basis of this, it looks unlikely I’ll start with Sanchez but if he does stay at Arsenal, at the very least I’d like a contingency to bring him in somewhere for when he does become available.
Overall view of the 3 options
I’m still leaning towards the more balanced option. There’s still nearly 2 weeks to go though so plenty of thinking time yet. And we will get some line-up clues for some teams – Everton have another Europa tie on Thursday, we’ve got Chelsea vs Arsenal in the Community Shield next weekend and we’ve also got Man Utd in the Super Cup on Tuesday 8th. We should garner a lot more knowledge on these 4 teams at least from these fixtures.
% Ownership Watch
I’m paying a bit more attention to this now as the number of entries increase. At the moment there are a few players with over 30% ownership, so it’s well worth considering these for your team. Remember, if you don’t own then and they return then you stand to lose significant overall rank. On the danger lost at the moment are: Alli, Coutinho, Lukaku and Kane with David De Gea close to 30% as well. Both Kane and Alli on here is a worry – it’s practically impossible to cover all the big 6 in attack if you have both. of these.
The others are more straightforward – Lukaku looks a must with an ownership near 50%, Coutinho at the moment looks the most reliable Liverpool cover anyway (providing the Barcelona transfer speculation doesn’t bear fruit) and DDG can be covered easily by having a Man Utd defender in your ranks.
One surprise here is the lack of high ownership Man City players. I find this strange. Yes there are some question marks regarding Pep’s rotation policy, but they’ve got good fixtures and plenty of players with proven FPL pedigree. At the moment on Kevin De Bruyne sits above 20%, Aguero is amazingly only in 9% of teams at the moment. Do you guys all know something I don’t?!
A few words on Draft Fantasy Football
As previously mentioned, this season Fantasy Football Geek has invited the other contributors into a Head 2 Head draft league on draftfantasyfootball.co.uk . The Draft is scheduled to take place next week and I’m starting to consider my strategy. I’m keeping my cards close to my chest at this stage as I don’t want to reveal my ideas to my fellow contributors (and of course rivals in this case.) I fully expect everyone else to have a good strategy as well though, looking at the calibre of the managers in the league!
This is my first try at the draft game as I think it is for the football version for most of us. I did however start out playing old school fantasy football, back when it first became popular in the early 1990s. These were the days when Matt Le Tissier was a fantasy football god, there was no social media so your only pundits were David Baddiell, Frank Skinner and Statto. The old school game used an auction style not too far removed from draft so I’m hoping my experience of this at least gives me a bit of help!
So that’s it from me for the moment. I’ll update again next week with my latest team ideas and some news on how my first draft went.
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