Here’s our fantasy premier league DGW30 strategy where 2 FFGeek Contributors, Rick Porter and Kev in Canada outline their strategy for the upcoming gameweek DGW30+ plus show some draft teams
fantasy premier league DGW30 strategy – 2 FFGeek contributors outline their plans for the double gameweek
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Rick Porter
Rick’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 1k, 30k and 2k.
Total points 1,654, Overall Rank: 104k, Team Value: £104.8m
Rick has used his triple captain and Free Hit Chips
I have to admit that having unlimited transfers for GW30 suits me perfectly. Having thrown away my Free Hit chip in the ill-fated GW29, my GW30 was looking to be all about damage limitation. I had just two DGW players and was grudgingly planning to Bench Boost in an attempt to offset some of the points I was inevitably going to miss when the Free Hitters flooded their teams with 2-match assets.
It’s a different story now. Moving in as many double players you want for DGW30, hitting Bench Boost while the players are still fresh, and then Wildcarding into GW31 to rebalance is now the most obvious plan for those with the chips. This works for me – the only questions are how far I push with the DGW players and how much team value do I sacrifice to bring them in.
It could be argued that team value doesn’t really matter in the final stretch, but I feel people might be underestimating how long this final stretch actually is. There’s almost 25% of the season still to play and the packed schedule means rests and injuries are guaranteed. A half decent bench is going to be essential and the cheapest playing mids and defenders are a fair bit pricier than they once were.
That said, I won’t be wasting this opportunity. I’m just keen to keep budget in mind. Team value-wise there are only three players I have more than 0.2m tied up in. They are Alexander-Arnold (0.4m), De Bruyne (0.6m) and Ings (0.5m). De Bruyne isn’t going anywhere for obvious reasons and Alexander-Arnold has proven too valuable to lose. Ings I’m happy to drop as I probably won’t want him back again. He’s an early sub/rest risk at the best of times so, considering the frequency of matches, he’d be a liability. Excluding Ings, I’ll lose just 0.6m in team value by switching out the others for double players. Seems like a price worth paying.
I have two potential Bench Boost teams at the moment.
Potential Bench Boost Team 1
There’s work to do here. Saiss isn’t my preferred Wolves defender and Lascelles is, frankly, just what I could afford. Fleck and Saka are obviously budget choices to facilitate the attacking force of Aguero, Sterling, De Bruyne and Aubameyang.
Potential Bench Boost Team 2
This second version swaps Sterling to Mahrez to free up 3.2m. This would allow players like Boly and Doherty to be added. It also removes my Villa defender (that I never really felt right about) and lets me upgrade him to another strong Sheffield asset. Switching Fleck to the hopefully perfectly fit McGinn is another bonus. No Sterling, though… Does that matter…?
Kev in Canada
Kev finished in 6k last season and 195k in 17/18
Total points 1,618, Overall Rank: 252k, Team Value: £105.4m
Rick has used his triple captain Chip
You can follow Kev on twitter here
Since the league announced that FPL is back two days ago, along with unlimited transfers, I have been in full tinker mode (while I am not working). While I have been open minded to different strategies and scenarios, I do think that it is clear cut to me at this point:
-if you don’t have a WC I think Free Hit is by far your best choice
-if you do have a WC I think Bench Boost is by far your best choice
Try to let team value get out of your head, as there are only a few weeks left. If you have someone losing more that 0.1, then try to keep them if you for sure want them back. For me that is only Alexander Arnold/Salah/Jimenez/Doherty. I can keep three of them but it is tough to keep both Salah and Alexander Arnold.
There are no more doubles and no other bench boost opportunity than this.
Maximize your points now, as there will be rotation chaos over the next 10 weeks and you can make your best move with the most certainty today.
I have my WC so my plan is to Bench Boost this week. However, I do think that there is a way to perhaps set up the squad for maximum points now and be in a position that you don’t necessarily need to use the wild card right away for GW31+, as long as you consider the fixtures for GW31 when building your bench boost squad.
Here is where I currently have landed with my tinker (with 0.2M to spare!).
Draft Bench Boost team
Here are my team selection thoughts:
Salah question
This is the version where I sell Salah, who has 0.4M in sale value loss to me. I have one with him but there are some clear sacrifices to make it happen that seem to not be worth it overall. To be fair though, it also doesn’t have Jimenez, that has 0.1 in sale loss, so really this version is only 0.3M worse off vs. that one as opposed to 0.4M.
If I don’t want to WC in GW31
If I don’t want to WC right away, the benefit being that I may want to watch a few games to find out form, squad formation, where Pogba plays (lol), etc. Then I will be in a scenario where I do have some players that have a good fixture that week. Also, I would have one free transfer and three players I could stash on the bench. I could also free hit that week (doubtful). The challenges would be 3 blades playing MUN, City playing Chelsea (not too worried with City against anyone), and that’s it really. The rest of the fixtures are great. So I could changed Basham to a Lascelles and wait a week. The biggest challenge with that strategy is that I would only have one Liverpool in my team and a lot of money on the bench. However, Pool do play MCI GW32+, so waiting to WC until after that week may be a decent option too.
Arsenal player 3 problem
The biggest challenge I think is Arsenal’s third player, and if a player like Ozil is even worth it. However, at that price point there isn’t really a comparable player with a single game week that I think would outscore him for sure (Sarr? Barnes?). I have heard some folks mention Fernandes but he is over 1M more than Ozil. That’s like comparing Mendy to Lascelles. Ozil has been a huge disappointment but I think that since Arteta’s arrival he has been more involved and I trust his gametime over the majority of other non-Aubamayang players. However, I have played around with other lineups that don’t have him which all pretty much only have two Arsenal players. In those scenarios I try to get a midfielder like Barnes or Sarr in that have a really good fixture in GW31+ to save my wild card for an extra week.
Man City v Liverpool GW32+
Speaking of the MCI vs. LIV match. After that MCI have a run of amazing fixtures through to the end of the season. So it might be beneficial to WC after that week so I don’t trick myself to removing the likes of Aguero and such. Of course, I would still have the free hit, so I could Wildcard next week, then Free Hit in the Pool/City week to avoid a low scoring week due to that match up. There is a lot of flexibility. Either way, going into this GW, I think when deciding with single GWk players to keep, I should aim for ones with a few good upcoming fixtures right off the bat.
I will send my final version before the deadline with a bit more rationale.
Good Luck.
Other Posts
The most consistent FPL players
FFGeek team thoughts on unlimited transfers
The FFGeek first draft free hit team
FFGeek contributors on the upcoming DGW part 1
FFGeek contributors on the upcoming DGW part 2
Fixture ease schedule for attacking players
Fixture ease schedule for defensive players
Double gameweek confirmed by the FPL site
10 top FPL Managers teams post GW38
Best fixtures until the end of the season attackers
Best fixtures to the end of the season defenders
Each teams top PPM player – Arsenal and Aston Villa
Each Teams top PPM player – Bournemouth and Brighton
Each teams top PPM player – Burnley and Chelsea
Each teams top PPM player – Palace and Everton
Each teams top PPM player – Leicester and Liverpool
Each teams top PPM player – Man Utd and Man City
Each teams top PPM player – Norwich and Newcastle
Each teams top PPM player – Southampton and Sheffield
Each teams top PPM player – Watford and Spurs
Latest news on the premier league restart
A deep dive on the 10 top FPL managers stats
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