Here’s our FPL teams DGW34 article where the FFGeek contributors show us their teams before the transfer deadline. All of the contributors finished in the top 1% of teams last season. Here’s part 1.
FPL TEAMS DGW34 – FFGEEK CONTRIBUTORS SHOW US THEIR TEAMS
Here’s a version of the 10 or so 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 covering early transfers. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more.
You can also see an article where the FFGeek contributors talk about a GW34 free hit team
JOSEPH CRILLEY
Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k last season
GW33 Points 34 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,956 OR 20k TV 104.3m red arrow 1k
Joe has played his wildcard and triple captain chip. BB and FH intact
GW33 Summary
It’s fair to say that GW33 will not go down as a particularly fond one for myself and a number of other managers after an average score of just 32. It was a score of 34 for my team where only two players returned points which included one goal and no clean sheets. The saving grace was that the returning players were my captain, Aubameyang, and my transfer in, Alli.
The Spurs man was part of a decision that could easily define my season as I elected to remove Salah due to his injury and lack of double gameweeks. There were sources on Twitter which confirmed Salah’s absence from the Merseyside derby on the Friday before the game. Therefore, I had the option to transfer in a player who plays 6 times compared to Salah’s 3 games (which contains a trip to Chelsea) up to and including GW37. Therefore, I took the punt to bring in Alli and I’m praying that he can outscore the FPL star over those gameweeks; 6 points in GW33 was an OK start.
I do feel a little unlucky about the result this week as several players came awfully close to points. Examples of this are when Son was sent through by Alli only to see his shot saved and Willian setting up Alonso who was denied by a wonder save from Joe Hart who remembered that he was a goalkeeper on Sunday. In the end though, the red arrow was only a small one and hopefully I can make some gains over the next couple of weeks with the activation of my remaining chips!
GW34 Team
This week sees the time for my bench boost to be played and hopefully it can bring in a big score as I look to maximise the number of players with 2 games. I activated my wildcard in GW32 and the intention was always to use Aubameyang as a two-week punt then transfer him out for Vardy. The Leicester striker has continued with his good form, so I have stuck with this plan and brought him in for his games against Burnley and Southampton.
This move does mean that Harry Kane will be absent from my side with the hope that he struggles slightly on his return from injury which has happened previously and that Lukaku can outscore him with his great fixtures. I also have two Spurs midfielders (Son and Alli) in my side which will hopefully protect me if they do go goal crazy against City and Brighton. I am looking to bring Kane in for GW36 once his blank week is out of the way.
The other player that I will be fearing this gameweek is the previously mentioned Salah despite Liverpool only having one fixture. The main reason being is that this game is a home fixture against a leaky Bournemouth, but I have made my bed now, so I need to lay in it. I will be using my free hit next week and it is very likely that Salah will be a part of that team at least. Following that, I will be hoping that he sees rotation in GW36 due to Champions League commitments and then look to bring him back in for one last hurrah in GW38.
My captain for the double will be Lukaku who is well-known for being a flat track bully so fixtures against West Brom and Bournemouth look rather promsing. Moreover, he is a player that I would expect to get 180 mins during the double and he has shown some decent form in recent weeks.
The final decision for me surprisingly revolves around Mariappa and whether I would like to move him on for a hit. The only realistic option is to double-up on the Burnley defence by bringing in Tarkowski as I need to keep some cash for my future transfers of Kane and Salah. Watford do have a decent fixture against Huddersfield, but ultimately, I’m sure that the lure of having 15 players with 2 fixtures will prove to difficult to resist. Hopefully that will be enough to secure green arrows this week and I can begin my push towards the top 10k!
Best of luck to everyone for the first big double gameweek and may your arrows be green!
ROB REID (THE FPL VET)
See also Rob’s GW34 player picks article
Rob finished with a rank of 22k last season 4,701 in 2015/16 and 7,810 in 2014/15.
GW33 Points 38 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,894 OR 103k TV 103.9m green arrow 7k
Rob has used his 2nd wildcard but has his other chips intact
On paper, the GW33 scores look horrendous. A paltry 38 points 2 weeks after a Wildcard under most circumstances would be considered an unmitigated disaster and would necessitate much soul-searching and rethinking of strategy. But like all things, it must be taken in context. GW33 was the second lowest scoring GW in the last 3 seasons of FPL and 38 points actually represented a fairly decent return.
3/11 returns – Smalling, Captain Aubameyang and the newly transferred in Vardy, with the shine being slightly taken off by Stephens -2. The annoying thing is that as 3rd sub, Stephens should never even have featured but injuries to Salah and Ibe as well as Monreal being rested saw my bench emptied bringing Smalling’s goal and Stephens silly red card into play. I guess 5 points off the bench is ok, but those extra 3 would have been helpful and the fallout from Stephens is costly in the long run as I’ll explain later.
Nonetheless it was another green arrow this week and I’m close to the top 100k with a double gameweek to come. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot apparently….
GW34 Team
Ok, so I’ll remind you of my Plan A again. GW32 Wildcard, GW34 bench Boost, GW35 Free Hit, GW37 Triple Captain. Unfortunately it looks like I’m going to have to throw Plan A out of the window. Why? Blame GW33!
Initially I had planned to sub Lukaku in for Aubameyang and Vardy in for Firmino this week, giving me 13 DGW players for my Bench Boost. I ran into a problem last week by finding out that Firmino was likely to be benched so made the Vardy transfer 1 week early, it paid off last week with a 7 point net gain.
I now however have further problems. Stephens is suspended and will definitely miss this gameweek. Ibe;s minutes are also doubtful having missed GW33, at best I think he’ll start from the bench in the Liverpool fixture. Not good. Then there’s Salah. Will be start, will he be rested? Hopefully Klopp will give some insight on this. So all in all with 1 Free Transfer, I’m left with 2 doubtful players on the bench, another starting doubt in my first 11 and my other bench player (Monreal) having only one fixture, also with the risk of being rested.
So what’s the solution? 2 options as far as I can see it.
Option 1 is to take a minus 4 or minus 8. I would sell Stephens plus any of Salah, Aubameyang and Monreal and replace with double gameweek players as appropriate. I’d gamble on Ibe playing at least 1 game and fill my team with other double gameweek players in order to play my Bench Boost. It would be a bit of a cut and paste job, but would at least allow me to take close to full advantage of my Bench Boost.
Option 2 is to rip up my strategy and ‘flip my chips.’ I’d therefore play my Triple Captain this week, thus needing only 11 double gameweek players and giving me 2 free transfers in future weeks to contribute towards a rebuild for GW37. This would probably involve selling my Burnley players for Swansea or Newcastle players in GW37. I’d also need to transfer in a viable Triple Captain option for GW34 – I’d only really consider 2: Kane or Sanchez. I did think about Lukaku but his returns haven’t been explosive enought to tempt me to use the TC on him. I could get Sanchez on 1 transfer for Hazard or I could get either for 2 by selling Mahrez or Salah and Aubameyang or Monreal to free up the funds.
After much deliberation, I’ve decided that flipping my chips is the way to go. So first up, let’s decide who’s going to be my Triple Captain. For me it has to be Sanchez. He’s got the best fixtures and has come into some good form. Kane would have been my GW37 choice, but he’s just back from injury and has a tough first fixture versus City and a rotation risk versus Brighton in the second. I can’t gamble with that. Lukaku is another option – he’s been steady so far this season and hit some form again in the last few weeks. He can also flat track bully smaller teams. I prefer the explosiveness of Sanchez however, so it’s decided – Alexis Sanchez is getting the honour of the TC this season.
Now I’ve got to think about how I get him. For me, this all revolves around Salah. If it looks like Salah is playing GW34 I’ll keep him and either sell Aubameyang for Austin, getting Sanchez for Mahrez for -4. If Salah is likely to be benched, he’ll go for Sanchez and Monreal will free up the remaining funds, again for -4. The final option is to just sell Hazard, but I’d kind of like to keep the Belgian as I think he’ll get some returns this week and I’d also like to use him to fund purchasing Kane later on.
Ultimately it looks like Salah is going to play, so I’ve gone -4. Mahrez and Aubameyang are out, Sanchez and Austin are in. For my line-up, it’s 10/11 DGW players + Salah. DGW Ibe is first sub with Monreal second and definite non-starter Stephens filling the last spot. So I’ve kind of gone all in on this week I guess! No premium strikers and a massive gamble on Sanchez. This could work out as the ultimate differential…or I could be hurt very badly by high ownership Lukaku and a hungry Harry Kane. It’s a massive gamble, but having played fairly conservatively over the season I feel this is the time to roll the dice.
So here we go for the biggest game week of the season yet. Whatever you’re doing this week, whether you’re playing chips or not – the very best of luck to you all and I hope your arrows are green. (I’ll be watching from behind a very large sofa!)
SCOTT HARGADON ( AKA CESSPOOL)
Last season Scott finished in 21k overall rank.
GW33 Points 38 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,956 OR 20k TV 104.8m green arrow 2k
Scott has played his 2nd wildcard but has the remaining chips intact
As I mentioned last week, I am playing my FH Chip this week. I don’t have a great deal to add to the article which appeared earlier this week on selections if you were playing that Chip, but the main decision was to try to fit Sanchez, Kane and Lukaku together which ruled out Alonso and Vardy from my selections. I am captaining Sanchez who with 4% ownership, could be a real differential this week. My other selections pretty much follow the template, except for Christensen whom I believe will play at least one game and who is a value play and Charlie Austin who can score against anyone on his day. This will be an interesting week with free hit, bench boost and triple captains all being played at the same time.
FPL WORD
FPL word is one of the 10 top FPL managers I follow
Top 9k in 16/17, top 1k in 15/16, top 5k in 14/15
GW33 Points 36 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,931 OR 41k TV 104.2m green arrow 1k
Word has played his 2nd wildcard. BB, TC and FH all intact.
Moved early to avoid any surprises with price changes. Kane and Lingard in for Aubameyang and Son for free, with 0.0 in the bank. Bench boost on, Kane (c)
MIKAEL L. DANIELSEN
Mikael finished 5,846 OR last season
GW33 Points 39 -4 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,859 OR 207k TV 103.4m green arrow 3k
Mikael has played his 2nd wildcard. BB, TC and FH all intact.
Taking a hit this week.
Groß and Son out
Lingard and Sanchéz in
Sanchéz (C), Kane (VC)
BB active!
DAREN CHEW
Daren finished with a 24k overall rank last season
GW33 Points 41 (Avg 32) Total Points 1,836 OR 308k TV 104.7m green arrow 38k
Right now need to change Auba to have 15 DGW players. I haven’t decided on to take Kane or not. If do then need -4. Capt on Lukaku as of now. Might do without him with Austin and Hazard in. Using my bench boost this week. Good luck all!
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