Here’s our fantasy premier league early drafts article where we have a first go at the FFGeek team for the 20/21 season. There’s a team plus a bit of reasoning around structure and selection.
Fantasy premier league early drafts – a first go at the FFGeek team
I outline my FPL strategy along with 10 other FFGeek contributors in our new EBook.
Join the FFGeek FPL Patreon site
* access to the FFGeek Contributor tracker team incl live transfers (52k OR)
* Weekly podcasts
* Joe’s interactive transfer planner & team incl live transfers (32k OR)
* imaginary wildcard articles
* Slack channel access
$2 & $3 tiers.
No commitment beyond 1 calendar month
https://www.patreon.com/fantasyfootballgeek
A few introductory words and caveats
If you’re new to the site my last 4 seasons overall ranks were 17k, 36k, 17k and 21k
So with the season starting on the 12 September there’s still some way to go in our team selections and early drafts are just that. Over the course of pre-season we’ll get more of a feel for lineups and as a result bargains. So at this stage it’s alright in my view to have some players who might be great value but a gametime risk and monitor them over pre-season. So before you go flying off at some of my selections please bear that in mind.
Staggered starts to the season
With Man City going out of the Champions League it appears to be only Man Utd who could have a delayed start to the season if they can win what isn’t an easy game against Sevilla. I’ve ignored that at the minute.
There’s no fixtures yet btw
The fixtures aren’t going to be out for a few more days
The team
Here it is with some chat below about the selections.
Structure
The team will either be set out as 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 depending on who out of Saliba, Soucek and Ayling start any particular week. I would be surprised if all the others don’t play each week.
I’ll talk about them below but here is how I see the different groups of players:
Core players in the 2 Liverpool defenders, Salah, De Bruyne and Fernandes.
A few value players in Vinagre through Jonny’s injury plus Foden and Saliba. The latter 2 have selection risk which needs to be monitored.
2 players who would probably be fixture based in Wood and Antonio although both (and Antonio especially) put up very good stats last season.
Rotating bench players with Saliba is Soucek and Ayling. Davis is the guy who won’t start for me or Villa I suspect but for me it’s rare that 3 players are ever needed off your bench at once.
I hope that gives you a feel for how the team is put together for further monitoring.
Goalkeeper
I will generally go with a £4.5m GK with a £4.0m back up . I prefer a player who has a good save % and faces a decent amount of shots although Pope was incredibly successful without any of these last season. Burnley kept clean sheets against ordinary opposition and Pope hoovered up the bonus points. I’ve toyed with a number of goalkeepers but in the end settled on McCarthy of Southampton.
McCarthy is about as close as it gets to that criteria so he is the choice. The Southampton defence could be improved by new signing Salisu I got close to picking Meslier for Leeds who apparently is going to be the new number 1 according to reports. However the surprise price of the best attacking defender for Leeds of Ayling meant he was my choice.
In the reserve £4.0m position Nyland seems the best choice to me Heaton may not be fit for GW1 so he may even get some gametime. Heaton/Nyland and that old classic Ryan/Button seem to be the only £4.5m/£4.0m starter back up combination.
Defence
If you read my attacking defenders article you’ll see that getting defenders who score over 4.0 PPM is some task and generally will need attacking defenders to do so. So here I’ve gone for the 2 Liverpool defenders Alexander Arnold and Robertson to start the season with. Last season the Alisson injury and a lackluster finish after winning the title meant there were less clean sheets than there should have been.
Next is Vinagre who should step in after Jonny’s serious injury which could see him out for sometime and is a bargain at £4.5m
Luke Ayling is the surprise £4.5m attacking defender in a Leeds side that got 22 clean sheets in the Championship.
Last is Saliba of Arsenal who is a very highly rated young player who’s returned from St Etienne and has to have a decent chance of taking a CB spot. Charlie Taylor of Burnley is ready to step in if Saliba doesn’t work out or if I think he’s a better bet than Ayling as well
I did want the CB partner of Laporte in my team as I thought that could be bargain potential. Man City’s Garcia has potential and is cheap at £5.0m but he would have to start over new signing Nathan Ake who is £5.5m but I will be monitoring him.
Midfield
I possibly prefer Sterling to De Bruyne but the prospect of De Bruyne having penalties is the decider for me.
Salah should need no explanation.
Fernandes is a tricky one. I am not a particular fan and would prefer him not to be in my team but with Man Utd getting the most penalties with 14 and 12 penalties in the last 2 seasons he’s hard to ignore if he is the number 1 taker. He has the ability to add assists to these penalties so there’s huge score potential.
Foden produced some amazing stats over the season and especially the last part of it. Selection is a difficult one. In a front 3 Sterling and Mahrez should flank the CF but Mahrez seems to be rotated. Foden will compete with them and Bernardo Silva. It’s possible Foden could take the David Silva role as a CM which could make him less effective.
Soucek seems the best £5.0m mid. I did think about Mooy but he was a bit in and out of the side at the end of the season
At the £4.5m I thought the best option was Romeu in a pretty poor selection. Hojberg going to Spurs may help things as well.
Forwards
Just the 2 forwards. I’ve gone for 2 cheap players who have produced very good stats last season in Wood and Antonio. Fixtures may dictate these positions.
That’s it. Things will change but hope that gave you some ideas
Other posts
Andrew Whitfield season review
Costas Chari end of season review
A deep dive on the FFGeek Contributors
Final wrap up of the 10 top FPL managers
Rob Reids overview of the Promoted Teams
The Underlying Stats team of the season
For more fantasy premier league early drafts follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news
