Here’s my fantasy premier league team selection GW27 article. As is normal, I review GW26, share my transfer thoughts, captain choice and the lineup dilemmas.
fantasy premier league team selection GW27 – the FFGeek team
More content
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 an accompanying spreadsheet so you can drill down further. Currently 1,489 points 38k overall rank
You also get:
Weekly podcasts with the Geek and the other contributors
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool plus PlannerTeam. Currently 1,467 points 81k overall rank
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
Weekly FFGeek contributor imaginary wildcard articles
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
Introduction
Firstly if you’re new to the site my last 3 seasons overall ranks are 36k, 17k and 21k.
Gameweek 26 review
GW26 points: 66 (FPL average 56) Total points 1,524 Gameweek rank 1,791k, Overall Rank: 70k, green arrow 8k, Team Value: £103.9m
Here’s the points:
So 6 returning players 2 with double figure points on the face of it you’d be hoping for more of an uplift but the gameweek rank of 1.8 million isn’t ever going to give you a huge rise.
Ironically it was the Liverpool attacking contingent which disappointed. You’d really hope for more from Salah and Firmino v Norwich than 2 blanks.
Martial and Calvert Lewin probably helped the cause the most. Grealish certainly didn’t do his case any harm.
Vardy was hugely disappointing with no shots and no key passes but he’s just a hold for the upcoming fixtures. None of my premium players returned apart from De Bruyne and due to his ownership levels my rank would have been the same whether he scored 4 points or 14.
Holgate was benched although there has been speculation that it was a tactical move to give more height against Palace’s set piece threat given his good form this season.
Lundstram was also benched for the 3rd time running but compensated nicely with a goal. Soyuncu produced an unlikely clean sheet but it stayed on my bench. Shame Holgate came on especially as it was only for 4 minutes. You give a decent chance on your defender not coming of the bench.
Blanks GWks GW28 and GW31
Apologies if you’ve seen this summary in recent articles but it’s important context for pretty much every article. You may have seen my recent article on the blanks and doubles
Blank GW28
The EFL cup final clashes with GW28 meaning there are the following postponements.
Sheffield United v Aston Villa
Man City v Arsenal
Where they go is yet to be determined.
I have 3 players Lundstram, De Bruyne and Grealish
Blank GW31
The FA Cup 6th round clashes with GW31 meaning there are postponements;
The only guaranteed games are
Burnley v Watford
Wolves v Bournemouth
Norwich v Everton will remain if Norwich lose to Spurs in the 5th round
Counting Everton I have Holgate, Calvert Lewin and Rico
Ideally I would want to navigate GW31 without using the free hit if I can do so without huge compromises. However there’s along way to go before that can become a more known possibility. That would allow me to deal with the 2 potential doubles of GW34 and GW37 with a wildcard and free hit.
There has also been some speculation about Man City v Arsenal being moved into GW29 to avoid a City or even potentially Arsenal fixture jam without a future solution. For that reason and because the quarter final FA Cup teams will be known between GW28 and GW29 I would like to carry over the free GW28 transfer.
Transfer thoughts
1 free transfer and £0.4m in the bank.
Ideally I’d like to get in either Jimenez or Ings as they have such excellent fixtures this week and ongoing. However I can’t do that without a hit unless I get rid of Vardy or Firmino. Firmino isn’t going anywhere and now that I’ve kept Vardy for this long I’m not getting rid of him. Calvert Lewin has some tricky fixtures coming up and he’s the obvious out target. So has Grealish so I could in theory get rid of both for a -4 but I’m not feeling that especially as Jimenez is £7.8 so it’s a massive downgrade of Grealish required.
Having ruled out the possibility of that then my attention turns to defence where I could get rid of Holgate for fixtures, Lundstram for losing his place or Rico for just being part of a terrible defence.
My aim is to get in Boly of Wolves. They have a good defence, reasonable fixtures and a guaranteed GW31 fixture. The question is who should go. Rico stays as I don’t have the cash to bridge the gap. It then becomes about Lundstram or Holgate. Holgate gives me a fixture in GW31 although certainly not a gimme clean sheet at Norwich.
I did want to hold Lundstram to see if he could get his place back but goal or not 3 benching after a few early substitutions doesn’t give a positive outlook.
So it’s Lundstram who makes way for Wolves Boly.
Lineup issues
Ideally I don’t want Holgate v Arsenal, Soyuncu v Man City, Cantwell v Wolves or Rico at Burnley to be in the starting 11 but 1 defender has to be.
It comes to something when an Eddie Howe defender looks to be the best choice. So Rico gets the nod follwed by Cantwell, then Holgate and Soyuncu last.
Captain Choice
That parts easy the vice not so much.
Salah will be my captain. Ideally I’d go for Firmino as vice. As I write this I know very little about the weather prospects but Man City v West Ham being postponed has spooked me somewhat so I may go De Bruyne or Martial. I’m afraid that maybe an unknown
The team lineup looks like this
Other posts
Following the teams of 10 top FPL managers
FFGeek league codes:
fantasy premier league: fnqq66
Sky Sports fantasy football: fantasyfootball.skysports.com/leagues/join with PIN 8426114
Telegraph fantasy football European Super League: League PIN: 8186902 League Passcode: 2113
Sun Dream Team:
Classic League PIN: SGDKX9Y3
Social Media
for more fantasy premier league team selection GW27 follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news
