Here’s our fantasy premier league GW1 team selection article where I outline the FFGeek team for GW1. After what must be close to 2 months of tinkering it’s good to finally not be able to do anymore.
fantasy premier league GW1 team selection – the FFGeek team for GW1
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
Weekly podcasts with myself and the contributors
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
The team
Firstly if you’re new to the site my last 3 seasons overall ranks are 36k, 17k and 21k
Here’s the team and I’ll talk about it below:
Goalkeeper
Goalkeeper has been a difficult one. Ideally I would have had Lloris but I couldn’t get him in and be happy about the side overall. I had to pick a £4.5m. I did think alot about Gunn but when it came down to it I had less faith in the Southampton defence than I did the Burnley defence even though you could question that on the end of last seasons form. Also Gunn has a far better PPM than Heaton did even given the massive defensive improvement he made.
But ultimately I decided to stick with Burnley. It’s not really ideal that my 2 only differentials in Ings and Pope play each other first game up but it wasn’t enough to stop me picking them.
The GK on the bench is Button. I know some people are wary of a price drop but it does give an option to switch to Ryan and have a back up for Ryan. Also if Ryan gets injured it gives an alternate option GK if Button can some in.
Defence
Robertson and Alexander Arnold
I always wanted to have the 2 Liverpool FB’s as much for the attacking potential as the 21 clean sheets of last season. I am a tad wary as Liverpool way over performed their defensive expected goals but I’ve rationalised that through Alisson’s shot stopping.
Zinchenko
Man City to me are and will be the best defence bar none this season. Any team who regularly keeps the ball like they do are a good bet for me for clean sheets. I backed away from 2 Man City to get Digne which I’ll talk about below but also they don’t have the attacking hedge that the Liverpool lads do. Or particularly the bonus point potential. I mean Laporte got 16 last season compared to Robertsons 29.
I went for Zinchenko since he does have some attacking potential. I could easily have switched to Stones as he should get the nod next to Laporte and Mendy could usurp Zinchenko in the next couple of weeks but I’ve stuck with him. As soon as Mendy comes in I will be getting him somehow.
If I had £6.5m though I would have Laporte.
Digne
So onto Digne. I have been sceptical about Evertons defensive prospects with Gueye going and Zouma also not returning. I’ve also been worried about the destination of Dignes crosses with Moise Kean not known for his heading ability. But in the end it’s all subjective theory and I don’t really want to get into a game of FPL chicken against a ton of other serious managers who have Digne. Especially when Everton have such strong fixtures and especially the first up v Palace.
Rico
The 3 £4.0m Defs who seem to have some prospect of playing appear to be Rico, Lundstram and Hanley. Hanley at Norwich seems of little benefit even if he does play and Lundstram I worry about the signing of Besic. So I’ve gone with Rico who may not even play as Charlie Daniels is fit. It appears that Daniels was selected over him last season although it’s hard to piece together injury or team selection as the reason.
I didn’t want a £4.0m player. I probably would have gone for £4.5m Soyuncu of Leicester or even £5.0m Walker Peters of Spurs or £5.0m Zouma of Chelsea if I had more cash but I just don’t
Midfield
Sterling and Salah
My 2 designated captains. Pretty self explanatory and the Community Shield enforced the view.
Perez
Has been playing as a support striker. 2 creative players behind him and finished the season strongly. His underlying stats could be better but there could be a Leicester v Newcastle bounce and he’s ridden those stats through a history of clinical finishing.
Sigurdsson
I’ve been so tempted to sell him to raise cash for other areas but I just can’t do it. He takes pens, he’s on set pieces, plays as a CAM and the fixtures are great. Plus his underlying stats were good last season albeit with a big bounce after the attacking straight jacket known as Big Sam obliterated them the season before. It does make his real level a bit of an unknown though but Everton ended the season just behind the top 6 in attack so I’m hopeful.
Dendoncker
Unquestionably an oasis in a £4.5m midfield desert of card magnet or bench sitting FPL dross. It’s incredible that probably the only guy who should be £5.0m at least in Dendoncker is £4.5m. I mean Declan Rice and Ndidi are £5.0m and have zero attacking potential.
Forwards
Wilson
I’ve said any times and been wrong last season about Wilson and Fraser. I mean Wilsons xG last season was 50% higher than the season before and higher than Harry Kanes if you strip out pens. His xA also went from 0.07 to 0.21. It’s even worse for Fraser who went from an xG of 0.12 to o.46 higher than the likes of Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard etc. Are these stats aberrations or the new normal.
But again, I personally have no interest in getting into a game of FPL chicken when many managers own 2 and the first 2 fixtures are Sheffield United and Villa. So I’ve got Wilson where hopefully it will be a hedge and a bit of a Fraser proxy 2 given their goal-assist relationship. I don’t particularly want to own both of them though but not owning either would be asking for trouble.
Ings
I am a one man Danny Ings fan club. If he could stay fit and play 90 mins he would be fantastic. However injuries follow him around as does Shane Long from the subs bench. However with some decent fixtures (mixed in with the tricky tbf) he has potential. Staying on the positive, his underlying stats last season were good, Southampton finished the season strongly and he takes pens. He also shoots at about 3 a game which could be worse although his open play shot map is a bit of a mess. However the gametime problems as well as it only being one season of stats plus a bit of a history of an inability to finish at the level of those stats are the issues. Still he’s £6.0m for a reason.
Greenwood
Him and Wickham are probably the best of the £4.5m strikers. You really have to go to £5.5m to get someone who will start and that’s too much for my FPL bench.
Lineup
The only issue was Ings vs Rico but the last time I left Ings on the bench he scored twice so I’m not doing it again.
Captain
Salah a no brainer for me here. Will be a huge captain favourite and I have no interest in going against that. Sterling is the obvious vice.
Remember its only GW1
The length of time with the fantasy premier league site being open and GW1 probably makes everyone over emphasise the importance of GW1. I know some of my contributors talk about it being very important in our Slack channel but I personally think nothing is won or lost in GW1. So whether you have a great week or a poor week I would keep level headed over it as there’s still 37 weeks to go
Best of luck everyone
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
Weekly podcasts with myself and the contributors
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
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