With Spurs and QPR having a DGW28 coming up we take a look at some of the options to give you some ideas and help you plan your transfers.
Looking forward to fantasy premier league DGW28
The basics
I’ve said the basics enough so I wont go into too much detail.
Essentially Chelsea, Leicester, QPR and Spurs have blanks in GW27 and then Spurs and QPR have a DGW28
Spurs DGW28 and subsequent fixtures are :
GW28 Swansea (H)
GW28 QPR (A)
Man Utd (A)
Leicester (H)
Burnley (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Apart from maybe Man Utd they couldn’t be much better.
With Spurs in the Capital One Final and the Europa League lets just take a look at all their fixtures surrounding DGW28
Europa League – Fiorentina (A) – Thursday 26 February
Capital Cup final – Sunday 1st March
DGW28 – Swansea (H) – Wednesday 4 March
DGW28 – QPR (A) – Saturday 7 March
Europa League – TBC – Thursday 12 March
GW29 – Man Utd (A) – Sunday 15 March
The point I’m trying to make is that there are alot of fixtures, 6 in 18 days. A big squad and loads of important fixtures at the business end of the season is a FPL managers nightmare and a recipe for the hated word of rotation. Eriksen playing 90 minutes against Fiorentina and then on the bench against West Ham in GW26 just shows the rotation risk that’s out there.
QPR’s DGW28 and subsequent fixtures are as follows:
DGW28 Arsenal (H)
DGW28 Spurs (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Everton (H)
West Brom (A)
Chelsea (H)
So quite tricky
A blank GW27 and a DGW28
The obvious perfect transition between the 2 is to have 3 players with blanks on your bench for GW27 only and the rest of your team playing in GW27. Ideally all the players on the bench would have a DGW28 but thats just not realistic. If you’re incredibly lucky you can carry over 2 transfers to DGW28 and have as much as 5 DGW28 players although it’s questionable if 5 worthy players exist.
The reality is that if you’re like me you’ve got 2 Chelsea players and Harry Kane. So thats my GW27 bench. Unfortunately I’ve got Gardos and Chadli who aren’t in their respective first teams at the moment so I need to fix that with my 2 carry over transfers if I’m going to have a full playing quota for GW27. If I do that I only have 1 transfer for DGW28. So I have a choice, a full squad for GW27 and only 2 DGW players or the reverse or take hits.
So here’s some thoughts on the playing options to help make those choices if you’re also in that boat.
The essential players
Stating the obvious, Kane is essential. He’s bound to be the overwhelming captain choice. Therefore there’s too much to lose by not having him
My 2nd essential is Eriksen. He’s just too dangerous not to have. He may be incredibly inconsistent but he is capable of pulling out FPL 10+ point scores at anytime. So far this season he’s got 6. That’s the same as Hazard and Sanchez. No player has got more than 6. Thats how dangerous he can be. The reverse side of that is that he’s only returned a goal or assist in aropund 35% of games and has gone 3 games without a return. However his set piece and direct free kick ability plus his ability to get into the box and conversly shoot from outside it mean he can always score.
The rest
The Spurs midfield
It’s difficult to recommend anyone else from the Spurs midfield. Chadli can’t get into the team. Dembele has the CAM position but struggles to get 90 minutes and with 1 goal and 2 assists in his last 7 starts hasn’t been setting the world alight. Lamela is one assist in his last 5. Neither Dembele and Lamela shoot enough for me.
The Spurs defence
After what Pochettinho did for Southampton the Spurs defence has been a major letdown. 6 clean sheets is poor. Only Stoke, Leicester, Burnley and QPR have less clean sheets. They’ve also conceded 36 goals and only 6 teams have conceded less. It’s also only 1 clean sheet in the last 7.
I did a seperate article on the Spurs defence but the essence is that while you can pick up Vertonghen and Walker at the rather hefty price of £5.9m and £5.8m and be fairly certain of 2 starts, Im not sure you can say that for the better value players of Rose at £4.8m and Dier of £4.7m. However both , especially Rose, have good attacking potential and are cheap. The fixtures afterwards are good too if you’re willing to gamble.
Going for GK LLoris gives you the chance to have a 4th player on the bench for GW27 if you have the transfers.
Charlie Austin
Most people reading this I imagine will have a front line like mine. Aguero and Kane definitely and then probably Giroud. However you may have Defoe or Costa you may be considering Charlie Austin. His minutes per FPL points of 15.9 is excellent for the price. His form has been questionable with 1 assist only in his 4 games before scoring against Hull in GW26. Over the season though his consistency return rate of a goal or assist in 56% of games is excellent. His DGW28 fixtures aren’t that straightforward at all and after that not that easy either. If you’ve got Defoe and thinking of swapping that may be an easier than if you’ve got Giroud who has good fixtures including obviously QPR in DGW28.
Matt Philips
If you’ve got transfers to burn you may want to gamble on the £4.6m winger who’s got 3 assists in his last 2 games. He could become a new cheap 5th midfielder. He has gametime risk as he’s only just come back into the side but has some form.
The remaining QPR midfield and defence
No defence has conceded mopre goals than QPR and only Leicester has less clean sheets than QPR’s 5. There’s also only 1 clean sheet in 5. If you wanted to put a positive spin on it you would say the new manager has looked like things could improve. The 2 DGW fixtures are terrible though
Apart from the cheapie 5th midfielder in Philips there really isn’t anyone in the QPR midfield to consider.
Latest thinking for FFGeek Team
At the moment my thoughts are to use 2 transfers for Chadli out to Moses in and Gardos out to a cheapie defender such as Dawson of WBA/Naughton of Swansea/Haidara of Newcastle or Wollscheid of Stoke. Then Eriksen in for Chadli for DGW28. The alternative would be to replace Gardos with a Spurs cheapie and have 1 player at least not playing in GW27 that being Gardos.
Hope that gives you some food for thought
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