It’s only me who could activate my fantasy premier league wildcard on a Friday night. Funnily enough Joe reminded me I did this last season as well. Here it is plus a few words on GW5
fantasy premier league – FFGeek team wildcard activated
Gameweek 5
Firstly I should apologise for the brevity of the early FFGeek team article
It should be an informative issue on the team and some of the gameweek issues as opposed to me just not being able to handle a bad gameweek. In fact you could say these are the weeks that it should be the most informative. So apologies again.
Here’s the week points in all their glory
GW5 points: 49 (average 47) Total points 333, Gameweek rank 2,251k, Overall Rank: 109k, red arrow 69k, Team Value: £101.2m
Here’s the team points graphic from the earlier in the week screenshot
The wildcard
I mulled all week over the wildcard but when it came to was it just felt the right time after last week to do it. Not very mathematical I know. There were enough good players with good fixtures that it felt like a decent turning point. I wanted to do it later on for more information but in the end I felt there was enough which needed correcting
Here it is. It is different to my imaginary wildcard article. Partially due to the Mendy injury partially due to incessant tinkering
Structure
The structure is pure 4-3-3 but without a particularly strong bench. Unfortunately my team value is rather pathetic. Post wildcard it’s £100.5m. I just couldn’t make the sacrifices I needed to if I wanted a stronger bench.
Goalkeeper
I think I’ve come round to the concept of a single GK. Takes the incorrect decisions out of it and you also get the 1 or 2 shock clean sheets which include a number of save points. I was always going to get Doherty or Bennett in the team from Wolves so I then went looking for the best £4.5m defence apart from Wolves and that seems to be Watford. Foster just keeps turning up in my teams like a bad penny or maybe it’s fate. NZ resident Alex Ball inform as me that Ryan is going to the Asia games in January and we think Button is the reserve so he’s in.
Defence
As usual Pep was as helpful as ever in his press conference. The guy didn’t even know what the injury was let alone how long he would be out. I’ve seen some speculation that it’s 2-4 weeks which means he could even be back next week in theory but I’ve sold him anyway and will just have to buy him back when he’s back.
I did consider Delph as the option at £5.3m but if Mendy is back quickly then that gives me an immediate problem. I chose Laporte instead who could play LB and CB. He’s played every game in the league and at least I get some potential clean sheet cover if I can’t get Mendy back straight away. I was pretty shocked Laporte played midweek but I still think he appears the best option without going to £6.5m for Walker. Any of them could easily be rotated you just have to live with it. Btw I hate having “to do list” transfers but Mendy is a must for me and I didn’t to have him sitting there for whatever number of gameweeks.
Next is Wan Bissaka who stayed. I honestly believe Palace can get a clean sheet out of any non top 6 side if Tomkins is in the team although the CDM situation could be better so he was going no where.
Alonso needs no introduction.
I went for Alexander Arnold for the cash saving even though I prefer Robertson who I think has better attacking potential. I also think TAA is more likely to be rested this week, having used so much physical and mental energy against Neymar, than Robertson but there was no way I could afford to keep him.
Lastly there’s Doherty who I thought was worth the upgrade over £4.1m Bennett for his attacking potential. Wolves I think are the best cheap defence.
Midfield
I think I said about Fraser is that in an attacking midfield position against non top 6 sides he’s been producing good underlying stats for a decent part of last season. He also has good fixtures.
Salah stays. For me he’s still producing the underlying stats which are even better than last season and he could haul at anytime. He shown this week that he can still be a captain favourite as well.
Hazard showed last week that he can haul big and although I’m not wild about his underlying stats he has shown he can out perform them. He is also going to drift into my essential definitions as I think this week he will be owned by 7/10 top FPL managers I follow
I was then forced into 2 cheapies. Hjobjerg has some box to box potential and Ward has been playing striker and praised by Warnock. Both are hardly safe but if you look at the top 10 £4.5m mids only 3 have started all 5 games and 1 of those was subbed at 45 mins so it’s not easy pickings. In any case I sometimes wonder if you lose as many points as you gain through having £5.0m plus subs that can produce points as I always seem to pick the wrong player for the bench.
Forwards
Aguero came on as sub midweek so seems fit so he stays
Mitrovic has been tearing up the underlying stats so I did everything I could to get him in. Good fixtures as well.
Lacazette is my big and expensive fixture gamble. He hasn’t been great but his fixtures are excellent and he does have potential to score against the lower placed teams he just hasn’t been great this season. He was also rested for the Europa which was helpful.
Lineup issues
Wolves playing Man Utd made the choice easy tonight so the bench picked it self.
Captain choice
If you saw my captain choice article you’ll know that I was going to go Salah and that’s what I’ve done. Vice is Aguero. I was thinking of going Hazard vice as in theory both Salah and Aguero could be rested but I decided the chances seem remote
That’s it good luck to everyone this week.
Below are some links to help you with your transfer choices
If you want to see more detail on any of the players see our player rankings articles forward rankings, midfielder rankings and defender/GK rankings
See also Rob Reids player picks, FFGeek captain article FFGeek imaginary wildcard article, Andrew Ferguson’s teams article, Alex Ball’s wildcard, bandwagons and sinking ships article, 10 top FPL managers article, underlying stats GW5 article, the early thoughts on the FFGeek team article and the fixture ease article
Also our player rankings articles forward rankings, midfielder rankings and defender/GK rankings
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