Here’s Andrew Ferguson with his team plans for the coming weeks in FPL, TFF, Sky and Sun Dream Team including the players, strategies and transfers he’s focusing on. Andrew finished top 1k in TFF, Sky and FPL plus 15k in Sun in 17/18.
Andrew Ferguson outlines his team plans for the coming weeks in FPL, TFF, Sky and Sun Dreamteam
The next 9-12 fixtures come in close proximity so I am going to treat it as a block and try not to hokey-cokey around too much with my teams. There will be rotation but I have learned over the years to hold players around this period; in my mind this gives a big advantage as people will be making aggressive transfers, taking hits etc but we must remember that nothing is won at Christmas and if we can come out the other side in a decent position, transfers in hand etc, we will be a very strong position for the final third of the season.
There are some key players in most of my teams which for me, barring injury or a sustained poor run of games are pretty much season keepers in. These are:
* GK – Allison, Ederson
* Def – Alonso, Robertson, Doherty
* Mid – Hazard, Salah
Other honourable mentions must go to Fraser, Richarlison and Aguero but I don’t see them as ‘must haves’, although they have been fantastic so far this season.
The top half teams with the best fixtures over the coming stretch are:
* West Ham
* Man United
* Wolves
* Tottenham (after their next two)
* Arsenal (after their next three)
I see Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool as pretty fixture proof so even though their run isn’t brilliant I will be very reluctant to take anyone out, unless there is a specific reason for doing so as part of a wider move.
After frisking the form and fixtures, these are the players I am interested in bringing in over the next few weeks.
Those highlighted in blue are already in my team in that format. Those highlighted in green are ones I would like to get in for points/value purposes within their respective games:
Before we do that I will remind everyone around my general strategy about team structure across formats. The value is in defence, there are no two ways about it so investing heavily in defence is a must for me. I also like to own as many highly owned players as possible as this protects rank. Strikers rarely live up to their price-tag value-wise albeit in spells. So for players like Aguero and Kane I look at them as dispensable and only look to get them in for a great run of games and where they are captaincy options.
Captain-wise, my FPL picks (first and second choice) over the coming weeks are:
This is interesting as it seems Aguero is potentially now dispensable (at least until GW17/18) due to limited captaincy opportunities. He is not great away from home and with three of his next four away, and his home match coinciding with Hazard at home to Fulham and Salah at home to Everton, moving him on may not be the worst move. I am also keen to get Kane in over the Xmas season for his assurance of starts and 90 mins which Aguero doesn’t have over that period.
Fantasy Premier League
So, let’s start with FPL and my current set-up:
I have two free transfers with 0.6m in the bank which is a good start. Mendy is going to be out for a while so I need to replace him at some point. However Jimenez and Martial have a few good games immediately and I would like to get them in quickly if I can. Of the two I think Jimenez offers the better value with Martial currently overperforming and Mourinho being Mourinho, he could fall out with him at any time. I have a few options:
* Mendy to Laporte (frees up 0.3m) which I can’t do much with
* Mendy to Stones who is a bit of a rotation risk although I do have a solid bench (frees up 1m)
* Aguero to Jimenez (frees up 5.5m) however if Aguero tops the captaincy poll this week it will leave me nervous and it also doesn’t leave the structure for me to then get Kane in for GW15. If I did let Aguero go I wouldn’t have any City attack which would leave me very exposed in a big win
* Fraser to Martial (need 1.5m) which could be part of a double switch of Mendy to a defender priced 5.1m or under
* Success to Jiminez (need 1.3m) which could be part of a double switch of Mendy to Stones
I am currently swayed towards doing a double switch of Mendy to Stones and Success to Jimenez due to the good fixtures, longevity, and keeping Aguero as my potential swap to Kane for GW15. To do that I would have to free up around 1m over the next two weeks whilst getting in a City attacker which won’t be easy but with David Silva at only 8.6m is achievable as I have Hazard and Salah who are available to downgrade.
A potential double switch of Hazard to Silva following Hazard at home to Fulham in GW14, and Aguero to Kane makes sense. This is what I build my plan around over the next few weeks although it could obviously change with form, injuries and fixtures so I have to remain open-minded. However, to have a plan of how to get to the team I want is important as if I play reactively I end up doing this for weeks and playing catch up.
Telegraph Fantasy Football
I have 30 transfers left for the season, a good team and 0.2m in the bank. Ideally I want to avoid the hokey-cokey with players and try to set a team for the coming 5-6 weeks which is difficult due to the temptation of jumping on players for 1-2 extra games as TFF rules allow but we will try our best!
My keeper and defence are not going anywhere, Mendy aside due to his injury. Mendy and Maddison are the immediate concerns and I have a quite easy double swap available with Laporte and Anderson (I feel Anderson could be good value and cover for Arnautovic for 1.8m cheaper) which would be great but it does leave me 0.1m short of then doing Aguero to Kane in a few weeks’ time if I wanted to. I only want to play with one striker due to the value, or one plus Jiminez at 3.7m so my options are limited in terms of how to manoeuvre immediately. Aguero is owned by 61% of the game which is a consideration.
TFF does offer a lot of transfer flexibility unlike the other games so I may opt for the above double move then work out how /if to get Kane in when the time comes. I could do a double or triple switch including Jiminez and/or Silva or even jump off Salah or Hazard when their fixtures turn, injury comes, form declines or whatever else. Until GW15 I think I have a good team and also have flexibility to move around within two moves which is important.
Sky Sports Fantasy Football
I have 27 transfers left in Sky and have tried hard over the past few weeks to not use any more and maintain a good rank. Captaincy-wise over the coming period I have captains for all major games, missing out on just one which is Burnley-Newcastle which I am not bothered about. My immediate thought is I need to move away from five at the back, purely from a team-structure view as I currently cannot get more than three mids or two strikers.
However I don’t want to get rid of any for the next couple of game with my double Wolves defence playing Huddersfield and Cardiff and my other three defenders scoring so well for their price tags. If leaves me with a dilemma on what to do with Maddison as I don’t have a good replacement at that price point in midfield and also cannot do the Maddison to Jiminez switch due to the formation restriction.
I have the option of switching Boly to Paterson to free up funds to upgrade Maddison to Anderson but I still have the five at the back which is restrictive. I can also swap Maddison to Brooks (6.3m) which allows an upgrade from Boly to Jimenez and a switch to 4-3-3 but I feel Brooks minutes may be managed over the Xmas break and it only leaves me 0.1m in the bank which doesn’t allow a Aguero to Kane upgrade.
More questions than answers on this one but as my team is set up quite well for the next two weeks there is no rush to change and it gives me time to see if Maddison returns, the Wolves boys to hopefully clean up on clean sheets before deciding on my next moves.
Sun Dreamteam Team 1
I don’t have any transfers left on this team until the first week of December so there is no rush to think about this team yet with three more gameweeks of action before I can make changes. Getting Kane back in over the Xmas period will be priority due to his fixtures and minutes with Jiminez the likely enabler at just 2.4m.
Sun Dreamteam Team 2
This team has all three November transfers in hand and I have the funds to switch Mane and Maddison to Sterling and Jiminez, and can even then switch Walker to Silva with the exact funds available.
I will certainly do the first two moves before this weekend and will decide the third over the coming days. My rank has been built on a solid defence so I don’t want to get overexcited and take one out for the promise of more returns from Silva, I will probably wait and use the third one for either getting Kane in or releasing funds to get Kane in with my December transfers.
I hope this has helped in terms of players and ideas for the next few weeks. My main piece of advice is not to jump from player to player, pick a few who you are think are good options over a number of weeks and stick with them, using your transfers for enabling moves and getting in the key players when you want them in for a period of time. Ensure you have a popular captain for each week in advance and a playing, cheap bench in FPL.
I will confirm all my transfers on Twitter (My Twitter handle is Fergi222, give me a follow!) by the respective deadlines so keep an eye out.
Good luck everyone
See also Andrews review of GW12 and Stephen Troops review of his FPL, Sun and TFF teams
You can see the Geek’s teams in non FPL formats here
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