Here’s our 2nd fantasy premier league early draft teams article where FFGeek Contributors give their current draft teams now that the fixtures have been announced. Andrew Whitfield gives 3 options for you to vote on and Rob Reid also has an early draft
Fantasy Premier League Early Draft Teams – FFGeek Contributors teams part 2
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Introduction
Continuing the series of the FFGeek Contributors with their early draft teams post the fixtures being released. They are just that and they will change over time but hopefully it will give you something to work with.
See article 1 of the Contributors
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 132k last season and 6k in 18/19 and 19k in 17/18
Follow Andrew on twitter here
– Well not long to go now. Hope your tinkering is going well. It’s an exciting time with so many different options. We can all be optimistic and all have aspirations of a successful season. How many times have you changed your team so far ?
The curveball :
– This season is going to be very different for sure. Just when Man City and Man Utd looked like their exit from European competition would see them line up in gameweek one, along came the curveball of them being granted extra recovery time and starting the season a week late. Cue much scratching of heads and scrambling for ways to navigate a tactical route through the FPL mist. Personally, I had eight potential drafts once prices were released, before fixtures – they all had 4/5 City and United players in them !! My five man midfield of Salah, De Bruyne, Fernandes, Greenwood and Foden in tatters…
So what to do ?
– There are three clear approaches, each with their merits.
1 – Bench your United and City players for gameweek 1
Run with a “weaker GW1 team” using your otherwise likely bench players instead, possibly sacrificing GW1 points, but setting your team up so you are well set from GW2, which will compensate for your weaker GW1 and give you a stronger GW2 and beyond. I see a lot of people benching City and United players and having a “zero bench”, with the likelihood of putting less than 11 players on the pitch. I think you can maybe get away with benching one, a Foden or a Greenwood. But I wouldn’t bench more than one, and I wouldn’t bench a KDB or Fernandes personally. That’s a lot of money tied up on the bench that could be earning you valuable points instead if spent on your starting eleven. I would much rather play an Aubamayang or a Son, bank their points, and then switch them out. It brings a higher potential “points ceiling” if you don’t tie big money up on the bench.
2 – You could forget City and United players completely.
Concentrate exclusively on a team for GW1 only, then wildcard in your Manchester players in a GW2 wildcard. It’s the “easy approach” and potentially could give you a flying start with a strong “GW1 only “ team and a strong GW2 team with City and United players all in place. If you don’t mind using your wildcard early, then this could work. Short term gain, longer term pain ? Possibly. Or maybe not. With all the uncertainty of COVID, I think the wise call is probably to hang on to it. There could be more pressing problems than bringing in an extra united player or two. Besides, what if Chelsea become the “new United” instead with all their attacking assets. A wildcard might be better used getting them in instead. Saving it gives you a lot more flexibility to see “who’s hot and who’s not”
If you are considering a GW2 wildcard, I have drafted a “GW1 only” team and GW2 wildcard team later in the article to see how you could make a flying start in both weeks by deploying this option. I haven’t completely ruled this out. It does allow you to jump on Manchester players before they potentially rise in price.
3 – Leave United and City out initially but plan ahead to bring them in gradually over the first few weeks
Preserve your wildcard for what could be a better long term return, when blanks and doubles and other opportunities arise and we have chance to assess the potential “golden assets” of the season. My preferred plan is to integrate Fernandes in for week two and De Bruyne in week three, possibly looking to get another 1/2 in after that, but assess them against other emerging players, particularly Chelsea. By leaving City and United out in GW1 and integrating them gradually, it means you don’t have to use bench fodder in week one, you can instead own an alternative premium asset to bring in more points, and then switch them to a Manchester player once you have banked the points. Why would you bench KDB when you can play Aubamayang or Mane and then flip them. Same with Fernandes or Martial or Rashford if you can play Son or Vardy and then flip them. Yes it costs a transfer and could even cost 4 points, but if your premium replacement scores double figures, it could bring its rewards.
– Of course, you could combine strategies by benching maybe one Manchester player and bringing others in during GW2/3. That’s probably the sensible and more balanced approach.
My current plan:
– I aim to set my GW1 team up to focus on early fixtures, with a clear plan for introducing my City and United players early doors. That’s reliant on not having to fight other fires with injuries or non starters, which could force an early points hit. It’s not ideal, but it preserves the wildcard and I am happy enough with my how my team is set up for the first few weeks:
Option 1: My latest draft:
– Of course this is highly likely to change. It’s an ever changing picture with transfers, injuries and news of pre season line ups. It’s far from set in stone. Far from it. Bear that in mind.
Defence:
– I am looking to adopt a “set and forget” approach to my keeper, with a 4.5M starter and a 4M bench warmer. It takes one decision out of my hands every week. Some managers like to rotate two keepers. There are some interesting rotation pairings on the face of it. McCarthy currently has my gloves. Southampton were much improved as last season progressed. We might even have a couple of 4M starting keepers this season too.
– Trent Alexander Arnold needs no explanation. Ridiculous value and a points machine. Even a captain option. I am currently set up with three 4.5M defenders and one 4M. Vinagre is a cheap route to a solid Wolves defence, but the signing of a replacement left back for Jonny could force a rethink. I want Burnley coverage which is currently Taylor. Only Man City had more clean sheets than Burnley last season. Pre season line ups should cement which Burnley player.
I am also on Justin of Leicester with appealing early fixtures, though his place could also come under threat when Periera returns. I want to nail down a 4M starting defender in pre season, which is currently Ferguson of Palace. I can play 442 or 352 depending on fixtures. If I can’t be confident of a 4M starter, then I will have four 4.5M players. I want starters and I don’t want to be using transfers in my defence. I can support Trent with 2/4 or 3/4, depending on if I play 352 or 442.
Midfield:
– I can’t see Salah leaving my team unless he gets injured or suffers a huge form dip. His 132 shots on goal last season was by far the highest of any player, 33 more than his closest rival. Incredibly, his Liverpool team mate Mane had only 77 !! I would have been on De Bruyne if he was playing GW1, but my plan is to play Aubamayang for two great fixtures v Fulham and Westham and then flip him to KDB when the Arsenal fixtures toughen significantly in GW3-7.
– I want to be on Bruno Fernandes. Everything revolves around him, I can see him going from strength to strength and he is my United player of choice. Yes he gets a ridiculous amount of pens but that’s because the four big United attackers are unstoppable. I have deliberately left 1.5M in the bank. My plan is to start Son for Spurs v Everton and then flip him to Fernandes in GW2, rather than bench him. I would rather chase the upside of that Spurs fixture and book in a transfer than play a cheaper “two point” bench player. The other possibility I haven’t ruled out is using the banked 1.5M to bring in Greenwood instead of Fernandes, and keep Son as Spurs have great fixtures.
– I would like to plan a route into Greenwood and Foden in the short term, but that might have to wait. Besides, other players might emerge as better options instead. I have a bit more money tied up in my premium striker than my “pre fixtures draft”.
– I am going to start with a 352 as my Burnley defender has no GW1 fixture. For my 4th mid, I am currently on Ward Prowse. He is one of only two players who played 90 mins in all 38 games last season. He is also on set pieces. He delivered 183 corners last season, the most in the league !!
My 5th mid is currently Saka who may not be a secure starter but definitely carries a threat and has two great opening fixtures and looks sure to get minutes. He could just as easily be Saint Maximin, who is arguably a better option. I wouldn’t double up Armstrong and Ward Prowse. What I might do is go Soucek over Saka and put the extra 0.5M into upgrading my 5th defender from 4M to 4.5M. If I have a Burnley player and a villa player benched in week one, I want my first sub to play.
– An alternative pairing to Ward Prowse and Saka, could be Traore and Soucek. Traore could then be a place holder for Foden. Greenwood could be harder to get to if I have Fernandes. But a 4.5M mid and funds from Aubamayang to De Bruyne could just about get me there. I could also select Foden over Traore and bench him in week one, running the risk of not getting eleven starters. I am inclined to wait. I would rather have 12 starters so would play Traore in that scenario and wait for Foden for GW2 or beyond.
Forwards:
– I am currently on just two strikers with Davis a tentative best of the bunch bench striker. Brewster going out on loan to another prem club would seriously help. I don’t want to use up a vital Liverpool spot on Brewster.
– I was on the “super reliable” Jimenez, who last season had more goal attempts than any striker. But the release of fixtures has turned my attention to Vardy. The popular striker of choice seems to be Werner and he could turn out to be a sensational steal. I prefer to wait and see how he adapts. He has competition for minutes from other strikers at Chelsea. He might even be introduced gradually.
– Vardy is a guaranteed 90 min man, he starts every game when fit. His fixtures are tasty. He starts with newly promoted West Brom, then three of his next four are at home to Burnley, West Ham and Villa. He is the golden boot holder, backed up with the highest “expected goals” last season too. He looks a great option for GW 1-5. What I like about Vardy and his price point is that he is an easy switch to Aguero or Kane or Werner or Martial. Having that higher priced striker than Jimenez or Ings gives me a massive amount of flexibility to move to other premium striker options. That really appeals. I am a template based player. I have gone on record as saying that this season I would back my judgment if I see a template differential, with a high points potential, as being tied too close to the template restricts rank gains. Vardy at 14% against Werner at 38% is an example of this.
– Mitrovic is my partner to Vardy. He scored 25 in the championship and has premier pedigree. Two years ago, he was right up there with all strikers for attempts on goal and shots in the box.
Option 2: An alternative draft team:
– I definitely have a few “plan B’s”. Or should that be B C and D !!
– If I decided go Jimenez instead of Vardy, it really opens up a wide range of good options. I could upgrade one of my 4.5M defenders to Doherty. Jimenez and Doherty are reliable FPL assets and that’s what you need at the start of the season. That double up attracts me. I could even take more out of midfield and bring Robertson in alongside Trent. Or I could upgrade Soucek or Saka to Foden which is also appealing.
– I could also upgrade Ward Prowse to Greenwood. Now that does interest me a lot. I could line up Fernandes and Greenwood in GW2, alongside Salah and Aubamayang. I could either bench Greenwood with a risk of less than 11 starters, or I could go Maddison in GW1, taking a -4 to bring in both Fernandes and Greenwood in GW2 v Palace. That’s very tempting. It might be worth letting go of Vardy for the better overall balance that would bring. Going Jimenez over Vardy certainly gives me a great alternative and his short term fixtures also look good. Plan B could yet become Plan A.
Here is how that would look:
Option 3: What about a GW2 wildcard:
– For those that are considering a GW2 wildcard, here are my thoughts about how you could put a “GW1 only team” out and then wildcard in GW2. It could potentially give you an edge in week one by attacking the Spurs fixture and doubling up on the two Liverpool full backs v Leeds. Here is the GW1 only team.
– A GW2 wildcard certainly gives you an immediate solution to the “Manchester problem”, and for me, by giving me FOUR attacking City and United players from GW2, particularly with United playing Palace at home. It is however reliant on finding a couple of 4M defenders. The GW2 wildcard does allow you jump on likely Manchester price rises and increase team value, as well as get an idea who the cheap 4M and 4.5M “enablers” are going to be. Here is what I could have with a Manchester quartet in a GW2 wildcard side, with no hits or worries about player prices.
So, much to consider !! I hope you find inspiration and a strategy that works well for you to give you a flying start to the season. I am sure the wind will change direction a few more times before Sept 12 !!
Happy tinkering….
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
Follow Rob on twitter here
FPL 2020-21 First Draft and Initial Thoughts
Hi everyone – I hope you are all well and are enjoying a bit of down time in the EPL off-season. I’m probably later than most coming to the table with a first draft for a 2020-21 team but I’ve got a couple of excuses! First of all, I’m enjoying a hard-earned 2 week holiday in Scotland. This is a much-needed break – I’ve only taken one day’s holiday from work since the Covid restrictions came in back in March. It’s been a tough few months and having the time off to recharge in the countryside has been a welcome boon.
Looking after your mental as well as your physical health is vital and for me, relaxing with my family and getting time up in the mountains is a great way if achieving this. For me, the countryside and especially the mountains are my reset button. I can go out into the middle of nowhere with just my backpack, a map and my dogs and the only things I have to worry about are the route and the views. Well I say that, but I also use it as a chance to think about my FPL team – no distractions, no bias! So that’s excuse number 1 – sorry if that was a bit of a side-track, but I think the underlying message is important so please pardon the intrusion!
My second excuse was that I wanted to wait for the fixtures to launch before starting to formulate some plans. When the game first launched I made a conscious decision not to do anything until I’d seen the fixture list. Therefore my only move initially was to hit auto-select to register my team and then I logged out again until Friday of last week. Only now, have I begun to tinker in earnest! So I guess I’ve got the house-keeping out of the way – here’s a look at what I’m thinking so far.
Fixtures – Beating the Blanks, Best Fixtures and Premiums
First up, the blanks in GW1 are a pain in the backside, but in a way probably of benefit to the more conscientious FPL manager. Some clever planning, can ensure that City, United and indeed Burnley players can be drip-fed in at the appropriate intervals without having to compromise your GW1 score too much. For me, GW2 looks a good entry point for United and GW3 or 4 for City. In terms of who I’m considering – for United, I guess it’s about how you play the game. The 4 main draws are Fernandes, Rashford, Martial and Greenwood probably in that order for me. However, if you play the game based on stats the order of that list may look different. Martial posts some great stats for example, while Bruno is deceptively dull in the stats department yet so far has significantly out-performed expectations in this respect so far. I also quite like the look of Luke Shaw at 5.0m, though the issue as always will be his fitness.
For City, I’m eyeing GW3 or 4 as an entry point. Wolves in GW2 could easily be a fairly tight affair so I’ll probably watch from behind the sofa and consider their assets thereafter. I think Aguero at 10.5m is very generously priced provided he gets the game-time and there’s the usual suspects of KDB and Sterling in midfield. I also think Mahrez at 8.5 could be a good buy though again you’ll have to be prepared for some pain in terms of game-time. Looking further on, a defender could provide a steady stream of points I reckon from around GW10 – it will be interesting to see if someone like Nathan Ake might have a place nailed on by then.
I’ll mention Burnley here as well as I think some of their 4.5 defenders are worth a look and Wood at 6.5 is the pick of the sub-7m strikers for me. Again GW3 looks the obvious spot to bring someone in – you could start with a defender from GW1 I guess but I’d probably be benching then in GW2 to be fair so I guess it makes more sense to wait. You’ll also note I’ve not mentioned the other blank team yet – Aston Villa. That’s mainly because the only Villa player I have on my shopping list at the moment is Nyland at 4.0m and he’ll be my 2nd keeper anyway. I’ll keep an eye on their defence in particular though – they did toughen up after the restart and 4.5m Targett for example could be a handy squad player.
Now I’ve got the blank teams out of the way, I’ll cast my eye on the best of the other teams over the first few weeks. Geek’s defence and attack fixture ease articles are always helpful here and for me, I like Wolves, Leicester and Spurs at both ends of the pitch over the first few weeks. Fulham and Southampton also look to have reasonable starts. As for the big teams, it’s difficult to overlook Liverpool in both attack and defence. Arsenal’s first 2 fixtures also look nice so Aubameyang is very tempting as he could then be swapped out to a City asset in GW3. Chelsea also start with a nice 4 out of 5, so new signings Ziyech and Werner could be tempting as well as Pulisic if he’s fit.
Team Structure and Pre-season Form
I like to try and balance my team structure early on so it often follows a fairly predictable formula. This season there will be a couple of tweaks but it’s going to be fairly similar to previous campaigns. I’ll be looking to spend as little as possible on my keepers so it’ll be 9.0m absolute max here. I’ll have at least one premium defender, probably 2 or 3 players at 4.5m and then fill in the blanks with 4.0m players – hopefully pre-season will give us a couple of clues to the next Wan-Bissaka or Lundstrum here!
I’ll be spending more in midfield this time as I’m going to give myself some contingency to get either Fernandes or Rashford in for GW2 on one move so it’s likely to be 3 premiums and 2 very cheaps here, with my forwards then likely to be 1 at around the 9m price point and 2 at around 6m. Let’s have a look at what I’ve got initially.
Goalkeepers
staying as cheap as possible, my bench keeper is 4.0m Nyland, He might be an option for the first 4 or 5 weeks with Heaton still injured, though obviously no GW1. The pick of the 4.5m options look like McCarthy and Ryan and I’ve got the Saints stopper at the moment.
Defenders
Trent at 7.5m is my premium option, though I’m keeping an eye on his fitness as he apparently has had a minor injury in pre-season. There’s potential to free up money here as Robertson at 7m and Van Dijk at 6.5m are still great options though neither quite has the explosive potential as Trent. I’ve then got 2 players at 4.5m – Justin of Leicester and Walker-Pieters of Southampton though this will likely change based on pre-season games. Vinagre at Wolves could be useful if he looks set for game-time afor example. I’ve then got 2 placeholders in the 4.0m bracket – Douglas and Mitchell. Again these are likely to change based on pre-season information and I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable having 2 players at 5.0m.
Midfielders
This is where I’ve busted the bank a little. 3 players at 12.0m – Aubameyang, Salah and Mane! The idea here is that one of Salah/Mane becomes Bruno in GW2 and Aubameyang becomes KDB or Sterling in GW3. That then leaves me 2m in the bank to bolster the team in GW4 or 5. The other 2 players are Armstrong and Gordon, so again there’s potential for money saving here if I need funds elsewhere.
Forwards
Jimenez, Antonio and Mitrovic make up the front 3. Jimmy I’m happy with and I suspect he may end up set and forget. The other 2 less so – I’d like to find a way to work someone like Ings or Werner in here and it could be doable by downgrading Mane to Son and tweaking elsewhere for example. Sadly there’s a real lack of tangible assets under 6m and even Mitrovic at 6 I think is a gamble. If Brewster at 4.5m gets a decent loan move then he could be an option I suppose.
Looking forward
Pre-season games are key now to look out for injuries but also clues to GW1 line-ups. We’ve got the Community Shield this weekend for example – this might give us some ideas regarding the Arsenal defence (I like Bellerin at 5.0m) for example there’s already been a few pre-season games that have thrown up some interesting bits of game-time for budget players. What I do know though is that my squad will definitely change before GW1! My plan is to post something in the week before GW1 and then I’ll give you a final squad on Friday night with any final Saturday changes via Tweet as they happen. As for now though, happy tinkering folks!
Other posts
See article 1 of the Contributors
The FFGeek Contributors first draft team
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