Here’s our fantasy premier league BGW31 article where I pretend I’m using my free hit chip and separately my wildcard GW31. The idea is to give transfer suggestions for this big blank gameweek.
fantasy premier league BGW31 – an imaginary wildcard and imaginary free hit team
You can see stats on the players with the following articles
A little bit of background
See also Jordan Sadler’s and Rob Reid’s current free hit teams
Some blanks and doubles preamble
Excuse repetition but if you’re on the site for the first time this maybe helpful.
This article is made on the assumption of the following doubles and blanks
Blank GW31
Double GW32
Blank GW33
Double GW35
See my blanks and doubles article of last week
I currently have a full set of chips available and will probably free hit GW32, WC GW34 and BB GW35.
Others like Jordan and Rob have used their wildcards and will free hit GW31 having prepared in advance for GW32. They will transition as best as they can for the remaining gameweeks
The imaginary free hit team
As per the FPL rules, the free hit chip means you can make unlimited free transfers for a single Gameweek. At the next deadline your squad is returned to how it was at the start of the Gameweek. You will lose any transfers made prior to activating the free hit chip and if you carried over 2 free you will lose the ability to make the 2nd free transfer going into the following gameweek.
GW31, due to it’s clash with the FA Cup quarter finals, has suffered 5 postponed games which means that there are only 5 fixtures within it:
Here’s the imaginary free hit team:
The structure
The team fits well within £103m
In essence I’ve gone for 11 starters who I expect to contribute points plus the first reserve who I also expect to contribute points in the case of an unexpected player from the first 11 not playing for whatever reason. The first reserve is likely to be Brooks or Barnes
The formation would be 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 depending on which of Brooks or Barnes you start. The 3 starting defenders would be Rice, Robertson and Ake
Defence/GK
The 3 most likely clean sheets are West Ham, Liverpool and Bournemouth for me. I’ve doubled on the West Ham defence as Huddersfield at home has to be a great chance. Rice, Robertson and Ake are the safest starters. Ake is the best attacking option for Bournemouth. I believe that Alexander Arnold is the best attacking option for Liverpool but more likely to be unexpectedly rotated than Robertson especially given apparent injury concerns, in the end unfounded, for midweek.
Reserves I’ve gone cheap with Bardsley and Stankovic who’s played CDM for Huddersfield recently.
Midfield
Salah and Mane are certainties for me given their form and the fixture. With budget being no issue I’ve gone for the punt of Hazard knowing that any day he can get a double figure return or be totally anonymous.
Probably the main debate fantasy managers will have is Arnautovic vs Anderson although you could have both if you restrict yourself to 1 defender. Anderson has zero form or underlying stats but it’s about a punt for the opposition. Arnautovic isn’t far off being in the same position and also has starting doubts after fitness issues and the China saga. There is a player there though , somewhere, if he starts. I’ve taken the safer route and gone for Anderson
Brooks is a potential for a first sub or Barnes although he himself maybe somewhat of a risk given he’s 1 game after a return from injury. Harvey Barnes could also be an option instead of Brooks.
Forwards
Vardy and Wilson are pretty obvious choices. Barnes less so but could be a first bench option. I’ve talked about Arnautovic in the midfield section
The imaginary wildcard team
If you’re thinking of the wildcard it’s probably because you’ve got to GW31 and have hardly any players with fixtures. You maybe set up for what could happen in GW32.
Here’s a possible fixture schedule assuming that the following FA Cup results take place
Man City beat Swansea
Man Utd beat Wolves
Brighton beat Milwall
Watford beat Palace
Here’s the team.
At the moment 8 teams are confirmed for both GW31 and GW33. These are Bournemouth, Burnley, Leicester, West Ham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea.
I’ve therefore made the team fit so there are 11 players for GW31 within that framework. You would then free hit in GW32 to take account of the doubles and continue as best as you can after that.
Arsenal are the team that seem the most likely to have a fixture in GW33 and a double gameweek 35 so in order to maximise the players with 2 games in GW35 I’ve put 3 Arsenal players in.
That has meant sacrifices such as no Hazard. Having Aubameyang on the bench for GW31 is a bit of a funds sucker.
I’ve gone for Ryan as the back up keeper as if Brighton win v Millwall they will have an extra game to be fitted in somewhere.
Other than that a number of the players are the same as above and there are stats available in the links earlier in the article to assess them.
See also current 4k OR Jordan Sadler’s free hit team and Rob Reids free hit teams article
There’s our FPL form article and our best underlying stats from GW30 only
See also our 10 top FPL managers article and the early FFGeek team articles and last season’s 715 OR finisher Andrew Ferguson’s team
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