Here’s our FPL team tips GW3 article where the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW3. In this part there’s Joseph Crilley, Rob Reid, Prakhar Patel, Yaniv Salomon, Sergio Torija and Robert Cosgrove.
FPL team tips GW3 – FFgeek contributors show their GW3 teams part 1
Here’s part 1 of the FPL managers who contribute to the FFGeek site with good histories who show their teams each week. This will give people a feel for what other managers are doing. It’s a fairly informal thing with no obligation on anyone and these teams may change at anytime before the deadline without further notice. It also wont cover early transfers. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more.
See also top 1k finisher in FPL, TFF and Sky Andrew Ferguson with his GW3 plans and Stephen Troop with his FPL, TFF and Sun Dream Teams
See also the players in the 10 top FPL managers teams I follow (last 3 years not finished out of the top 10k)
Joseph Crilley
Joseph finished with an overall rank of 7k last season and 13k in 16/17
GW2 points: 98 (average 60) Total points 174, Gameweek rank 78k, Overall Rank: 80k, green arrow 287k, Team Value: £101.0m
GW2 Summary
The main decision going into last week revolved around the captaincy and I was fortunate to fall on the right side of the coin as Aguero came good in his home match against Huddersfield. His hat-trick leading to a 20-point haul was the catalyst to a nice gameweek score which propelled me into the top 100k – a solid position to be in during the early stages.
The score was boosted by goals from three of my mid-priced attackers in Arnautovic, Moura and Richarlison with the latter particularly continuing to look fantastic value. I was especially pleased with the goal from Moura as he was the real punt when I was selecting my initial squad. The only slight disappointment was that Bernado Silva was unable to collect any returns despite City bagging six following his transfer into my team for the injured De Bruyne. However, he is still looking a fairly secure option on the Pep wheel of rotation roulette so I’m happy to have him in my team.
Overall, the team is looking in decent shape though there are still a couple of issues that I will be looking to address heading into GW3.
GW3 Team
The main concern is with Josh King who is failing to contribute from an FPL point view to Bournemouth’s strong start and has been overshadowed by strike partner Wilson. He is certainly my biggest regret from my pre-season tinkering and my patience is already wearing thin with him. Therefore, I’ve decided to replace him with Ings who has posted some strong underlying stats following his loan move to Southampton and frees up some cash as well.
Despite his goal and good performance last weekend, I am slightly worried about Lucas following Lamela’s substitute appearance and it will only get more complicated when Son eventually returns from the Asian Games. I have therefore decided to take the opportunity to move the Brazilian on with a trip to Old Trafford on the horizon and the cash in the bank to bring in a premium asset. Mané was the obvious choice with his strong form and increasing ownership a difficult combination to ignore, especially with Brighton visiting this weekend.
I am concerned about the lack of Chelsea and Arsenal cover in my team as both sides have some nice fixtures coming up and look to have goals in their teams. However, I am happy to hold off for now while the two sides adapt under their new managers, so I can assess their options further. I was very tempted to go for Hazard over Mané, but Sarri’s recent words haven’t filled with confidence about his playing time and the Liverpool man is becoming a dangerous player not to own.
Captaincy is a similar dilemma this weekend to the previous gameweek as the choice is between Aguero and Salah once more with Liverpool welcoming Brighton to Anfield while City travel to Wolves. The newly promoted side have looked shaky at the back, but it’s tricky to look past Salah in this type of fixture. The Egyptian comes with the comfort of an assured start where as there is always the slight fear of rotation for Aguero and that seemed to happen more in away games last season. With the gamble paying off last week, I am happy to return the armband safely back to Salah and hope he can bring home the points.
Best of luck to everyone this weekend and may your arrows be green!
Rob Reid
Rob finished with a rank of 94k last season, 22k in 16/17 4k in 15/16 and 7k in 14/15.
GW2 points: 90 (average 60) Total points 170, Gameweek rank 243k, Overall Rank: 106k, green arrow 137k, Team Value: £101.1m
GW2 review
Another pleasing score, after a good start last week. It wasn’t looking good on Saturday mind – I entered Sunday sitting at 1.1 million Overall Rank after just 5 points from 4 players with a frustrating no-show from Peltier, meaning I missed the Cardiff clean sheet. Aubameyang was probably the biggest disappointment as he missed a couple of great chances but I’m not too worried about him as Arsenal now have a great run of fixtures until they face Liverpool in GW11. As poor and more of a worry were King and Jota who both blanked and were subbed early.
Thankfully, Sunday and Monday were as good as Saturday was bad as every other player in my squad returned, including a bumper haul from captain Aguero. There were once again attacking returns for Shaw and Mendy at the back, with Mane and Salah also in the points to add to a bonus goal from cheapie midfielder Will Hughes. Add to that the week’s solitary clean sheet for me from Alisson and it was 7/11 returns and a Gameweek rank of 243,285, spookily close to last week’s 243342! I’m pleased to be sitting at 106k at this early stage in the season, one of my best starts ever. Add to this the bonus of having 2 transfers in the bank and I’m looking forward to GW3. What could possibly go wrong?!
GW3 Team
Ok so I do have a fairly big problem this week and it’s with my defence. Wan-Bissaka is suspended and Shaw is a slight doubt but also facing competition for his place at full back. Then there’s Peltier and his mysterious absence from the squad last weekend and Boly and the leaky Wolves defence who look like they’re struggling with the step up in class. I’ve also got some players I’d like to get rid of – Jota was subbed at half-time after a poor first-half last week and King has blanked twice against easier opposition and by all accounts of is carrying a knock. Therefore, despite my good start I’ve got several problem children (to quote my fellow contributor Joe!)
I’m also conscious of a couple of players who have started well and are attracting a large volume of transfers in – these could be dangerous to Overall Rank. Alonso is this week’s big bandwagon, though I’m going to struggle to afford him. Richarlison was a ‘problem child’ for me last season as I stubbornly held him for a blank gameweek and was rewarded with a paltry 1 or 2 points each week for too many weeks to remember. Then there’s Wilson, another FPL nemesis of mine – he’s never returned for me whenever I’ve selected him.
I decided to make an early call on my transfers and moved on Saturday night when it looked like Jota and King might drop in price – in the end the calls were fairly straightforward with Richarlison coming into midfield and Ings getting the 3rd striker spot over Wilson, freeing up 0.9m in the process. I was pretty scathing of Everton paying £50m for Richarlison in the summer but he’s started well – I still think he’s way overpriced in real money but he’s hit the ground running, hopefully he’ll continue. I’ve always liked Ings and his early stats at Southampton are fantastic, the only issue might be competition for minutes with Austin, Gabbiadini and Long but if he keeps scoring this won’t be an issue.
The Wan-Bissaka red card on Monday was a bit of a blow as he would have been in my 11 this week. As it is, I’m going with Mendy, Shaw and Peltier with Boly a reserve – Boly is unlikely so score more than 0, but I don’t see it as worthwhile burning 4 points for what is essentially a 1 week low ceiling defensive transfer. I’d rather run the risk of playing with 10, then deal with the problem next week when I’ve got another free transfer, Wan-Bissaka back from suspension and a bit more flexibility.
So my team pretty much picks itself and I’m going with Salah as captain this week against a Seagulls side that struggles away and is likely to be missing Lewis Dunk. Best of luck for this week everyone and here’s hoping for some green arrows!
Prakhar Patel
Prakhar finished in 17th overall in fantasy premier league last season. An amazing acheivement
GW2 points: 77 (average 60) Total points 166, Gameweek rank 890k, Overall Rank: 144k, red arrow 61k, Team Value: £100.9m
Goalkeepers
I am far from convinced with DDG but the only option I have right now is to keep hold of him until I use my wildcard so for now he stays.
Defenders
I am more than satisfied with my defence in terms of attacking returns as well as clean sheet points so no changes required as of now.
Midfielders
Jota is the one is I want to get rid of ASAP and the ideal replacement is Mkhitaryan but I need funds which I will get from the King to Ings downgrade which looks sensible looking at Kings stats. Otherwise,midfield looks fairly settled with Salah, Mane and Richarlison all starting well.
Forwards
King is replaced by Ings. I am fairly satisfied with Zaha and Aguero is AGÜERO.
So, both transfers are used and captaincy is a no-brainer to me as Salah is at home to Brighton. May your arrow be green.
Good luck everyone!
Yaniv Salomon
Yaniv finished with an 8k OR last season
GW2 points: 99 (average 60) Total points 188, Gameweek rank 61k, Overall Rank: 18k, green arrow 65k, Team Value: £101.2m
Hi all, so another great week and a green arrow with 99 points (Love the 100 club, Mane should have got the 3 bonus points). For the second week in a row I got 9/11 returns, when only Zaha (it was expected I guess) and Luiz didn’t return.
I got two 50/50 decisions right as firstly, I choose Kun to take the armband. It was an extraordinary performance from him for his hat trick. The 2nd 50/50 was my decision to play Mitrovic and bench Jota. This is the second time in a row that Mitrovic has looked dangerous, and for me if he can score at Wembley v Spurs, he can score in almost every game.
As for GW3 , after rolling over my FT , I had 2 for this GW. After Jota was benched at half time and before price went down (already 6.4 and can go to 6.3) I took a quick transfer to bring in Maddison of Leicester who returned his first goal in GW2 (although he didn’t have such good xA and xG stats). He plays a very important role in Leicester, he is their set piece man and potentially will have penalty duties when Vardy is off for 2 games. So it will be interesting to see how he performs.
Shaw has a yellow injury flag on the FPL site but I meant to bench him anyway. Unless something surprising happens then I will keep my second transfer for the next GW. If my team continues performing like this, I will consider not to take an early WC in GW5 like I planned at the beginning of the season. I am very satisfied with my team value for this time of the season with 101.0 and going up with Kun, Mendy and Ederson’s price to rise again. I am only afraid of not bringing in an Arsenal player this week, but if they go big this GW I will consider bringing in 2 players from them for the next GW. I will be able to do this without taking a hit.
You can see my starting 11 in the pic, no dilemma for me this GW, only small dilemma for the captaincy, but as you already know I try to go with the better odds (especially if they favour a Mid over a FW as a Mid gets more points for goals. So, for now it’s back to Mo (£1.50 anytime goalscorer odds for Mo and £1.55 Kun)!
Good luck to all of us!
Yaniv
Sergio Torija
Sergio finished with an OR of 12k last season and 21k in 16/17
You can also see Sergio Torija’s telegraph fantasy football team here
GW2 points: 93 (average 60) Total points 181, Gameweek rank 172k, Overall Rank: 43k, green arrow 52k, Team Value: £101.2m
Another excellent week for my team with 93 points for and overall rank of 43K, which is by far my best start to the game ever. Consistent performance across the team with just one player per line without returns, including an assist from Ederson! This, plus a captain a hat-trick put me close to the 100 point mark.
Looking ahead, worries start to appear with few players under risk of departing my team in the next couple of weeks, not Wan-Bissaka though who was great against Liverpool and is just suspended for 1 game. At risk are: Peltier, who didn’t make the squad this week but he is a 4.0 so can stay in the bench; Bertrand and Austin, why did I get again into the Southampton good fixtures trap? With not one but two players…
Then there is Mahrez who is my main headache. He didn’t start, but that’s the risk we need to accept with City. I still think he will come good, however he is £9m and the only reasonable cash generator I can see in my team. I need funds for the players I am considering to transfer in. These are Mendy, Bellerin, Mkhitaryan, Alonso, a Chelsea attacker and Zaha. So lots of tinkering here and there, but it was one week where I couldn’t really make my mind no matter how hard I think about it.
So eventually did Mahrez to Mkhitaryan before price changes in the wrong directions to protect team value and free up 2.0£ that will allow 1 if not 2 upgrades for next week.
As for GW3 captain, it is so hard to pick between the attacks of Liverpool and City! Currently on Salah, though I am getting the evil inner voice telling me to go Mane, but I think I will resist the temptation for this time
Good luck for GW3 Geekers
Robert Cosgrove
Robert finished with an OR of 20k last season and 23k in 16/17
GW2 points: 68 (average 60) Total points 150, Gameweek rank 1,582k, Overall Rank: 405k, red arrow 210k, Team Value: £100.7m
GW2 review – 68 points.
Not the best week! Finishing above average points being the only highlight really! Davies and King not returning again, swapping my captain to Mendy from Aguero did NOT pay off, and to top it off Sanchez out of the blue not playing meant I received -2 points off the bench from Wan-Bissaka!
Therefore I needed to act this week to avoid losing any more rank. So I have taken a 4 point hit on the following transfers:
Davies OUT Alonso IN;
Sanchez OUT Mane IN;
Shurlle OUT Fraser IN.
I rolled over my free transfer from last week so I could do the extra transfer this week. I did not intend in taking the points hit but there were too many non-performers in my team. I also do not like having 2 Bournemouth players in my team but I will revisit this next week. I am also sweating on the fitness of Shaw!
My captain this week will be Salah.
Good luck to you all!
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