Here’s another early article where 4 FFGeek Contributors show their Fantasy Premier League GW3 teams. There’s Costas Chari, Kris O, Alex Ball and Andrew Whitfield.
Fantasy Premier League GW3 teams – 4 FFGeek Contributors teams part 2
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Introduction
This is part 2 of the FPL managers who contribute to the FFGeek site with good histories who show their teams each week. This will give people a feel for what other managers are doing. It’s a fairly informal thing with no obligation on anyone and these teams may change at anytime before the deadline without further notice. It won’t cover transfers in real time either. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more. The teams are shown as their “final-ish” teams so they could change. Where they have twitter accounts I have shown this and they may update them there or on our Slack Channel which is part of our subscription Patreon site but this is not guaranteed
Costas Chari
Costas’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 17k, 84k, 29k and 27k
GW2 points: 53 (FPL average 59) Total points 126, Overall Rank: 1,325k, red arrow 687k Team Value: £100.2m
Couldn’t have gone worse this week I think. 700k red arrow speaks for itself.
I started of with a hat trick from Calvert Lewin and then did not have a return until Robertson’s clean sheet.
Just 4 returning players from the record highest scoring GWk is a joke. Alli seems to be out of the team and Saint Maximin had an injury so these are burning issues with my team although Saint Maximin seems not be very serious. At £5.5m in midfield there aren’t any other good options so I am keeping for now.
I made an early transfer on Saturday and got rid of Alli for Son for some Spurs cover and made the Aubameyang to De Bruyne switch on Monday night
I toyed with a WC but have held off for now as it is way too early and the transfer window hasn’t even closed yet.
Captain will be De Bruyne with VC on Son. If he is not the captain favorite which I doubt I will go for Werner or Son.
transfer summary: Alli and Aubameyang out. Son and De Bruyne in
Here’s the team with the transfers complete:
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 132k last season and 6k in 18/19 and 19k in 17/18
GW2 points: 48 (FPL average 59) Total points 122, Overall Rank: 1,620k, red arrow 1,043k Team Value: £100.1m
– Well what a gameweek that was !! A record 44 goals, 24 points from Son, 21 from Kane, 17 from Calvert Lewin, 16 from Mane.. if last week was all about whether you had or captained Salah, this week hinged on whether you landed all the goals or didn’t, creating some huge scoring swings. So a complete spectrum of emotions, some dancing in the street in a flood of goals and others crying into their beer, watching all those players they don’t own go nuts !!
– It was simply about whether you had the big scorers or didn’t. Some extremely reputable top FPL managers were amongst the many left shell shocked and reeling with stories emerging of their five year old daughters and their grandmas significantly outscoring them !! There were horror stories of people taking OUT Son and Ings for hits. The popular transfers were Ings to Martial and Son to Bruno Fernandes. Logical moves with Man Utd playing Palace at home.
– But whilst there were big winners and big losers, if you had the big scorers in your team, then that’s not luck. It’s great play and great decision making !! You deserve it so celebrate it and very well played !!
My GW2 review:
– I had five “returners” and a captain return, exactly the same as GW1, the difference being that I scored only 48 points compared to 74 last week. And of course more significantly, I wasn’t amongst the 78 points from Son, Kane, Calvert Lewin and Mane. Ouch. That’s always going to hurt, a lot !!
– It wasn’t so much who I had, it was who I didn’t have !! The results at Southampton and Everton could not have gone any worse as Son, Kane and Calvert Lewin cut loose as I cowered behind the sofa !!
– So an unpleasant drop in rank from 577k to 1.6M. Ranks are very volatile of course right now and can move drastically both ways so quickly, but it certainly feels like one step forward and three steps back. Every now and again, a gameweek bites you in the bum and this early season one had teeth !!
– It reminded me very much of”Vardy Friday” from last season when Vardy hit four and Leicester went goal crazy, scoring nine, when I didn’t own a Leicester player. It was “only” five this time, but once again it was Southampton on the receiving end. Son and Kane filled their boots with 45 points as the Saints collapsed. Like “Leicester Friday “ last season, I didn’t have any Spurs players, and yes, I sold Son too !!
My GW2 talking points:
Selling Son to Bruno Fernandes
This was a pre planned move at the start of the season, so it didn’t really feel like I “sold “ Son at all, who was always simply just a one week GW1 “place holder” for Fernandes who wasn’t playing in GW1. Pity Son didn’t haul in GW1 instead of GW2 !! It was a complete flop from Man United after all the hype and planning of everyone benching United assets in GW1 in readiness and almost a million Utd transfers in on Fernandes and Martial alone. GW1 planning had been all about how to get United in for GW2 !! So 24 points for Son, and 2 points for Bruno !! But after how bad Spurs were in week one, and devastating in week two, surely United can bounce back too. As tempting as it is to flip Bruno back to Son, chasing lost points is a mugs game. Bruno could actually be an interesting differential this week !!
Mitrovic’s 12 points
Came from two goals and full bonus is a great return. My top scorer of the week !! I would expect him to be involved in whatever goals Fulham can muster so he’s a good price for a proven striker. Pity his strike partner in my team, Che Adams, peppered the goal with no reward. On another day, he could have scored 2/3 goals. He is right up there for “expected goals” and “goal attempts “. He just needs a goal, like all strikers. I won’t be selling until at least he faces West Brom at home in GW4. As for Werner, difficult to be too harsh with Chelsea reduced to ten men. He would have had an assist if Jorginho hadn’t missed the pen. It would be madness personified to consider selling him before he plays whipping boys West Brom this weekend !!
Aubameyang
It was always the plan to go with Aubameyang for games against Fulham and West Ham, then flip him to De Bruyne when Arsenal fixtures turn bad in GW3. Aubameynag returns of 7 points and 5 points, both when captained, were underwhelming and disappointing. It was made worse when Auba had just an assist v West Ham, while De Bruyne ran in 13 points at Wolves, from what appeared a tougher fixture, the reason for deferring De Bruyne to GW3 and banking the Aubameyang GW2 haul first. Anyway, Aubameyang is now De Bruyne and judging on De Bruyne’s showing at Wolves, I don’t think he will be leaving my team in a hurry.
My defence
I am pleased with it. I don’t want to be making too many transfers on my defence. Trent is a season “glue guy”, although I don’t like him now sharing corners with Robbo. Justin has attacking returns in both his fixtures and he had more shots in the box than Vardy v Burnley !!! Saiss is part of a Wolves defence that is very solid and of course he scored 15 points in week one. It remains to be seen if Burnley are as good defensively this season. An early battering without Tarkowski is not a great start. I have a 4M defender that has kept two clean sheets for Palace. So attacking returns for Taylor and Justin this week, and Saiss last week, bodes well for my back line, built from teams with good defences.
– It looks like McCarthy has changed from a “set and forget “ keeper, to “set” and “forget the clean sheets”. Just a little worried Fraser Forster might grab the gloves.
So what next :
– Firstly, don’t panic !!!! It’s easy to make rash transfers, rush into a “rage wildcard”. I was very happy with my team going into the season, they returned 74 points in GW1. I was very happy with them going into GW2. They don’t become bad picks after a bad week. Five weeks of logical and often detailed research went into choosing teams. It’s not logical to then rip up teams after a bad week. Besides, GW2 was more about what players I don’t own did, rather than my players doing badly.
– Spurs gave no indication in their GW1 struggle that Son would go nuts in GW2 so the Bruno move at home to Palace looked logical. You should judge the decision, not the outcome. I don’t think I made any bad calls based on the evidence. It was just results elsewhere that conspired against me. So we move on.
– I did consider a GW3 wildcard. But are people confident that they have seen enough of players in just two games ( one for some teams ) to crack their wildcard open. The transfer window is still open, some teams were bad in week one and great in week two . Were Spurs and Everton’s goals down to sustainable brilliance or abject defending and poor opponents and West Brom being reduced to ten men. Spurs and Everton won’t do that every week.
– The average “wildcard score” in GW2 was just ONE point above the gameweek average. Son, Kane, Ings, Mitrovic and Mané all blanked in GW1 – they scored 84 points in GW2 after they were amongst the five most sold players !! Who’s to say that Bruno, Martial and Werner won’t be this weeks top scorers if people wildcard them out to jump on Everton and Spurs. P is for PATIENCE…..
– With the growing threat of wave two of Covid, with players and potentially games ruled out, keeping hold of that wildcard could bring significant advantages at a later date.
My transfer plans:
– So I have made the planned move from Auba to De Bruyne to catch it before the De Bruyne price rise. That’s 0.5M banked. KDB and Sterling were auditioning for my team at Wolves. Those who were fancying a low ownership explosive differential in Sterling were probably spooked by De Bruyne, who also appears to also be in a new more attacking “number ten role”. He is on pens too !! I was left In no doubt, I have to have him.
-Saint Maximin is an injury doubt as I write this, following two poor performances too. The popular switch seems to be from Saint Maximin to Podence. Some made the switch early to beat the prices. But I didn’t want to commit to a -4 hit as early as Monday to beat a price rise. That’s far too early when so much can happen with midweek cup games and injury news. I don’t want to end taking a -8 or forced into an unplanned wildcard. So I will wait to Friday before I commit to a -4, and of course I have 0.5M tucked away from Aubameyang to De Bruyne to still do this deal on Friday if I still fancy it. Wolves have great fixtures so it makes a lot of sense. Podence seems to be the latest new shiny toy.
– The other option is / was Saint Maximin to a 5M mid instead, to take my kitty up to 1M. Jorginho is on pens for Chelsea at West Brom, Soucek has bad fixtures but still seems a threat every game. The Saint Maximin price drop I am expecting as I write this on Wednesday will leave me 0.1M short of having the 1M from this deal. And I don’t want to commit to that -4 until Friday. If Soucek was to drop as well as Saint Maximin, that could still happen.
– Why would I like 1M spare ? Because if Bruno plays too deep again, he could become Raheem Sterling in GW4 and I could hit Leeds with both barrels and a double whammy of De Bruyne and Sterling !! See the attraction ?…
– If Werner was to flop v West Brom, he could be an easy switch to Jimenez too. If Fernandes disappoints again, I could take him down to James Rodríguez and spread the cash in getting Adams up to Jimenez, so lots to ponder !!
Transfer summary:
Aubameyang to De Bruyne done.
Possible further transfer out on Friday of Saint Maximin. I won’t take a -4 until then. Saint Maximin could become Podence probably, or Soucek or Jorginho.
Captain:
I have good options this week with De Bruyne, Salah, Werner as three leading candidates. I am not sure I want to trust Werner when he is still seeking his first goal and there are extra points for midfielder goals. It has to be De for me this week. Just owning all three will be nice !!
Line up:
I have De Bruyne at home to Leicester, Salah at home to Arsenal, Werner playing West Brom, Bruno at Brighton, Mitrovic at home to Villa, a pretty settled defence. Should be some points to be had there.. just please have a word with Spurs and Everton will you.. I can’t handle more sofa devastation from them this week..
Good luck everyone !!!!
Here’s the team with the Aubameyang to De Bruyne transfer confirmed
Kris O
Kris’s last 4 seasons overall rank were 39k, 44k, 46k and 23k
GW2 points: 53 -4 (FPL average 59) Total points 109, Overall Rank: 2,769k, red arrow 1,125k Team Value: £100.1m
So a strange week where my transfers of Digne and Rashford didn’t give immediate benefits, though Dier and Salah didn’t punish me either. So I didn’t have any regret over selling a big scorer like Son, though irrelevant in the sense that I still didn’t benefit! Overall a low score and a red arrow, but this week highlights we could have a volatile season so key for me is some patience.
I’m in a strange position of overall liking my team and happy to be hold both Werner and Adams who many are selling. I’ve seen enough from performances and good fixtures to keep faith.
I’ve moved early this week, which is dangerous given some league cup games that are taking place, but I want to get financial compensation for taking a hit. So I’ve moved Saint-Maximin to Rodríguez and Aubameyang to De Bruyne, leaving me with £0.5m itb. Not having any Wolves players makes me a bit nervous, though will try to stick to my plan (famous last words) to let the transfer roll next week.
Captain either Werner or De Bruyne
Transfer summary: Aubameyang and Saint Maximin out. De Bruyne and Rodriguez in
Here’s the team with the transfers completed
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 6 seasons overall rank were 312k, 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
You can follow Alex on twitter
GW2 points: 47 (FPL average 59) Total points 119, Overall Rank: 1,861k, red arrow 1,158k Team Value: £100.1m
A week to forget. It started so well with Calvert Lewin hatrick and slowly went backwards from there.
Still onwards and upwards, an early -8 point deduction for extra transfers (gulp! As Andrew called it- ballsy!) a number of fires needed putting out so the transfer was- Aubameyang, Saint Maximin and Walker Peters out for De Bruyne, Podence and Siass which has set my team up and hopefully means I can hold transfers and wildcard. If everything goes wrong this week I’ll wildcard.
Captain. Tough. On Werner but may change to De Bruyne, Rashford or salah.
Good luck all!
transfer summary: Aubameyang, Saint Maximin and Walker Peters out for De Bruyne, Podence and Siass -8 points
Here’s the team with transfers completed;
Other Posts
FFGeek Contributors teams part 1
Analysing 10 top FPL managers teams
FPL Fixture difficulty schedule
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
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