Here’s some early FFGeek team thoughts in this fantasy premier league DGW34 article. We look at the gameweek 33 wildcards, transfer thoughts, blank and double gameweek thoughts and early captain thinking
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE DGW34 – SOME EARLY THOUGHTS ON THE FFGEEK TEAMS
So firstly it’s important to remind you I’m continuing with my 2 team theme as a result of my accidental free hit chip being used in GW23.
Team 1 is the team with the free hit chip lost.
Team 2 has the free hit team intact and was cloned from one of my alternate FFGeek teams to be my original team through a -28 point hit.
Team 2 is to help people who were following my original team as a reference point so they can continue doing so.
Team 1 will help those people who used their free hit chip earlier in the season.
Both teams require totally different strategies to navigate through the potential blank and double gameweeks up coming
Here was my wildcard team selection article going into the gameweek if you’re interested
GW32 PERFORMANCE – FREE HIT LOST TEAM
GW33 points: 30 on WC (average 32) Total points 1,936 Gameweek rank 3,259k Overall Rank: 36k red arrow 5k Team Value: £102.2m
Here’s the team points from the gameweek. 30 points. Ranked worsening to 36k OR with a 5k red arrow
Chips wise I have my triple captain and Bench boost left. Unsure where to use the triple captain but the plan at the moment is to bench boost in GW37
So hard to imagine a wildcard that could have gone worse. I think I may have done better if I let auto select pick the team. It was made worse by the fact that GW32 wildcarders got a decent rank boost out of it over my existing team.
However the relatively small overall rank drop of 5k shows one thing. It shows that being mindful of high ownership players does mean a bad week for you is a bad week for many other active managers and therefore it’s not the rank disaster it could be. Rank disasters tend to happen if you are way off template, if you like, and all the players every active manager owns performs well, you don’t own many of these players and your players don’t offset those points.
Probably the most annoying thing was the dropping of Christensen who seem to be the fall guy for the Spurs game. I guess the plus side was that Cahill, who replaced him, was pretty terrible which may give Christensen a recall chance for this gameweek. The game did remind me of how uncomfortable it is watching Chelsea with a highly owned Alonso permanently parked in the penalty area with no Christensen to at least offset the clean sheet points if Alonso did score and get a 15 pointer.
Kane having his goal taken away and Wood being offside by his ear from a Lowton assist with his goal also wasn’t helpful.
Salah not playing wasn’t unexpected. Assuming Liverpool go through then he will play in the semis between 35 and 36 and between 36 and 37. Only those who picked Eriksen as a replacement got any immediate benefit.
City losing to United as a United fan was pretty pleasing from a football perspective but it does mean the title probably won’t be won this week assuming Man Utd beat WBA. That means a full Man City team for GW35 home to Swansea which should at least make the team more predictable. However, for those like me without the free hit it makes life tricky as assuming I make a transfer this week then I will go into 35 with only 1 free transfer for one City player. Those with a free hit I imagine will go in with 3 City players in that scenario
The other thing for me is that it ends Kane as a triple captain option for this week as City will come with a full strength team, albeit one that has conceded 6 goals in it’s last 2 matches.
Transfer thoughts and captaincy plans.
My transfer has been pre planned to go Aubameyang out and Lukaku in. Possibly with Lukaku being my triple captain.
Whether his United shirt was actually an invisibility cloak needs investigation as he was truly just a passenger in that game. Sanchez with 2 assists may carry a bit of a bandwagon for the captaincy especially if Salah is out of GW34 as with a hit it becomes an easy transfer.
I left the money in the bank for Lukaku and have £0.3m spare so I have enough to wait until the end of the week to see how the captain polls play out and to see whether Salah will be fit.
Triple captaining someone is definitely a possibility.
The team lineup before the transfer
For the moment assume Aubameyang is Lukaku
I have 1 player more than I needed for the gameweek but that does cover a non starter but also I was struggling to work out a replacement when I was planning the team so just left it.
GW33 PERFORMANCE – FREE HIT INTACT TEAM
This team is as if I didn’t make an accidental free hit ie the same as my original team and was cloned from one of my alternate FFGeek teams to be my original team through a -28 point hit. I will keep it to show how I would have navigated through the blanks with all the chips intact. I think that will be helpful for those who were using my original team as a reference point
GW33 points: 32 on WC (average 32) Total points 1,884 Gameweek rank 2,828k Overall Rank: 188k red arrow 7k Team Value: £101.9m
Here’s the points. 7k red arrow to 188k OR.
The chip plan is to Bench Boost GW34, free hit GW35 and triple captain Kane GW37
So again a pretty terrible wildcard with Christensen not playing the real annoyance. Austin didn’t start but I think that was more tactical rather than a sign of things to come.
Again though covering high ownership players plus some luck with no Chelsea clean sheet or Alonso scoring saved the team from a big ranking drop.
Transfer plans
As for the free hit lost team the plan has been to bring in Lukaku for Aubameyang probably with a view to captaining him.
The Salah injury needs monitoring as well as the captain polls to see whether that will be the plan by the end of the week. Lukaku’s poor game v Man City and Sanchez’s 2 assists may swing the captaincy towards him and that, if the Salah injury looked like it would prevent him playing in GW34, could change the focus of transfers. That’s all to be played out though so no point over thinking at the moment. I only have £0.1m spare for the Lukaku transfer though so the price movement needs monitoring
Assuming Lukaku comes in for the transfer then I will have 14 players with 2 games plus Salah. Hopefully that will give a reasonable ranking boost just through sheer numbers.
Team lineup before a transfer and before I hit the bench boost button
Assume Aubameyang is Lukaku
GAMEWEEK 34 DEADLINE: SATURDAY 14 APRIL 11.30 UK TIME
Hope you had a better gameweek than me. Set your team up in advance in case for some reason you miss the deadline
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