Here’s my fantasy premier league team selection GW36 article. As is normal, I review GW35+, share my transfer thoughts, captain choice and the lineup dilemmas.
fantasy premier league team selection GW36 – the FFGeek team for GW36+
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 (44k OR)
* Weekly podcasts
* Joe’s interactive transfer planner & team incl live transfers (25k OR)
* imaginary wildcard articles
* Slack channel access
$2 & $3 tiers.
No commitment beyond 1 month
https://www.patreon.com/fantasyfootballgeek
Introduction
Firstly if you’re new to the site my last 3 seasons overall ranks are 36k, 17k and 21k.
GW35+ review
GW35+ points: 46 (FPL average 42) Total points 2,158 Gameweek rank 2,866k, Overall Rank: 14k, red arrow 4k, Team Value: £103.3m
Here’s the points:
So a fairly underwhelming gameweek although the damage with a 4k overall rank drop to 14k is nothing to start crying over. A gameweek rank of 2.8 million isn’t great but again not a disaster. A gameweek to put behind you and move on.
4 returning players is just about what you would hope for. There was nothing in the Salah vs Fernandes captain battle.
De Bruyne was a big disappointment with 1 assist in 2 games that had 9 goals when he was on the pitch. He had the mammoth total of 2 shots over those 2 games although he was creating chances left right and centre and suffered from his team mates not finishing them. He’s heading for a 2nd successive season of team mates not finishing to par on expected goals.
The Eddie Howe curse against struck me although nothing like the way that I expected. Vardy vs Jimenez went my way by 1 point as I never would have captained Vardy. Somehow Soyuncu got himself sent off in the fixture and although I can’t blame Eddie Howe for that it was lost points his presence alone seems enough to curse me.
Salah may have blanked but it was 6 shots to add to his 8 vs Brighton and only an incredibly surprising Pope masterclass kept him off the score sheet. Those 2 games have definitely given me food for thought about his status in my FPL team.
The 4th consecutive completely underwhelming performance in underlying stats from Calvert Lewin and it’s now a quite incredible 7 games without a return. Other fires to fight, 2 good fixtures and the fact that he seems to be living on my bench recently anyway means he may survive to the end of the season.
I’m kind of regretting the Greenwood transfer now as I don’t have the 2 free transfers that I could do with if I choose not to Free Hit. Greenwood having a no shot no key pass 87 minutes against Southampton didn’t help
High point was definitely Martial with his 13 point 1 goal and 1 assist performance. His first satisfactory underlying stats performance in the last 3.
FPL Team Structure
Regular readers may want to skip past this section but this is how I classify players in my team:
Template – 7 of the 10 top FPL Managers I follow own the player or defence
Template replacement – If I don’t own a template player then a player who is the designated replacement who will fight it out weekly for points
Bench – a player who will primarily sit on the bench
Difference maker – the rest. These will generally give you the rank boost. Not defined by ownership so not called differentials
Of 6 difference makers only 1 returned and that was the Jimenez penalty where he did little apart from score the penalty. That certainly didn’t help any hopes of a green arrow.
Transfer thoughts – to Free Hit or not?
1 free transfer and £1.8m in the bank.
The Free Hit option.
I’ve always been pretty set on Free Hitting this week due to the Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd fixtures. The West Ham 4-0 win certainly brings Norwich into focus. The issue is who to pick. City played a pretty full strength team vs Newcastle and have an FA Cup fixture vs Arsenal on Saturday and then play Bournemouth in GW36 on Wednesday. Who knows what team will play Bournemouth. It could be a fairly rested first team if Pep plays a similar team that he did vs Newcastle. That’s not helpful. However will the position for GW36 be any different in GW38 when I would use my Free Hit as an alternative.
After getting tonked by Sheffield who knows what Lampard could do with his array of attacking options plus an FA Cup semi final himself. There maybe leaked team news which could help as it is the first game up.
The Man Utd choice is straightforward and the same as my team has now.
This is before the risk of free hitting and the FA Cup produces injuries to City, Man Utd and Chelsea itself?
The problem with 38 as an alternative is that Man City v Norwich is the only real standout fixture. I guess Liverpool at Newcastle is also a good fixture but I have the 2 Liverpool players I would want anyway.
The Jimenez out and Jesus in option
So given if I transfer in Jesus for Jimenez as planned I will have 3 Man Utd and 3 Man City players anyway but no Chelsea cover. Given Norwich’s recent form any score could happen so all things being equal it is a risk I would like to mitigate. I could take a -4 for Giroud or for Pulisic/Willian for Salah but that seems crazy talk. Or just not transfer in Jesus and do the Chelsea transfers. Ironically if I free Hit I will have to transfer Jesus in pronto in GW37 before price rises preclude the transfer anyway.
I could do Giroud for Calvert Lewin but that would definitely preclude Jesus until I used the Free Hit.
Unfortunately you have to make a decision and 50/50’s are part of FPL
Generally when faced with a tricky 50/50 I take the easier option but this time I’ve decided to Free Hit.
I’ve generally looked at triple Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City and hoped for the best on gametime with the obvious picks . I’ve gone quite deep on the bench because lets face it anything could happen
Here’s the team:
Just a warning that I could change it last minute and not be able to post it if there is leaked news on the Chelsea team or if I just plain change my mind on something.
Other posts
Analysing 10 top FPL managers teams
The FFGeek Captain and transfer Polls
FFGeek contributors GW36 Teams part 1
FFGeek contributors GW36 part 2
For more Fantasy Premier League team selection GW36 articles follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news
