Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27 – 4 FFGeek Contributors Teams Part 2 – Includes A Free Hit

Contributors, Fantasy Premier League

Here’s part 2 of our fantasy premier league team tips DGW27 articles where 4 FFGeek Contributors show their teams for GW27. There’s Alon Shamir, Kev in Canada, Andrew Whitfield and Rob Reid. Between them they have 7 top 10k finishes.

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27 – 4 FFGeek Contributors Teams Part 2 – Includes a Free Hit

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Introduction

It’s worth noting that the teams shown may not necessarily end up being the final teams or the transfers may have been made in the days prior to the posting . It’s an informal situation to give you an idea of trends. However the FFGeek team and the Contributor tracker team mentioned above on the FFGeek Patreon site all make transfers as articles are posted. So you’re always up to date and live

Note I am changing from FPL average to the post hits 12 top Managers average that I follow

Alon Shamir

Alon’s last 5 seasons overall ranks are 44k, 1k, 123k, 4k and 2k

GW26 Points: 134 -8 on TC (12 Top managers average 131) Total points: 1,756, Overall Rank: 10k, red arrow 2k.  Team Value: £105.0m

Follow Alon on twitter here

Alon has used his Triple Captain Chip

GW26 Review

Strange gameweek, I triple captained Salah who produced the highest score this season, and still got a red arrow. To be honest it’s not really that strange considering that Salah’s effective ownership within the top 10K was 266% (!) So I didn’t really gain that much from his haul. I got nice returns from Son and Raphinha but it was still nothing in comparison to Saka, Fernandes, Robertson, Weghorst, and Dennis, who were owned by quite a few people around my rank.

Just a few minutes after writing this article Lacazette got that 96th minute assist so it sweetens this quite bitter gameweek. Oh well.

Chips strategy

Heading into GW27 I’ve got a very difficult decision to make. At first glance, it seems as if a free hit is a no brainer for me. I only have 9 playing players for this week, two of which are Coufal and King who are doubtful (and King is terrible regardless). So a free hit will 100% gain me points.

However, as mentioned by me many times before, we’re heading into the most important phase of the season and chip strategy is crucial. Some information is still unknown but we at least already know the GWs 28-30 doubles and blanks. I think that this season is by far the most complicated to navigate in regards to chip strategy, so I’m still tinkering and may change my mind, but I currently have a problem with the “Twitter strategy” of GW28 WC that’s supposed to get u through GWs 28-30 without using any free hit (and some even plan to BB29).

The problem is that in order to structure a squad that is suitable for that, u will have to own quite a lot of players whom u would probably be sorry to see in your squad come GW31. For this reason, I am interested in activating at least one of my FHs in this period so that my WC will include players I would be happy to own long term (from Man City and Chelsea for example, two teams who are more or less ignored in this respect from my understanding).

Why does all of this matter for GW27 u might ask? Because I would also like to preserve a FH for GW33 or 36 which are expected to be blank/double GWs. So activating a free hit now means that I have to compromise on my future plans, which I suspect that may hold more potential gain in them. Or I hope, at least.

GW27 preview

As a result of my thoughts mentioned above, I plan to try and go through this GW27 with as little damage as possible. I will probably take another 8 points hit (second one in a row for the first time in my FPL career) and bring the most important players, in my opinion. I already own Cancelo, Son and Foden, so I will bring Kane, Mahrez and Weghorst.

It means that I will own most of the important assets and the danger will mainly come from the Burnley defense (which all FHers will own at least one) and Fernandez. I am willing to take the risk as I believe that some of my other players, whom FHers will 100% not own, such as Bowen, Digne, Raphinha, may show up and produce a few returns. I will be very pleased to finish this GW with a 10 or less points gap from the FHers.

However, as I’m writing these lines, it was published that Coufal is out for this week also. And that potentially means another hit to a total of -12, which starts to feel too much. As mentioned I’m very reluctant to use the free hit this GW, but now it seems very likely that I will activate it after all. It makes the FH in GW28 impossible to execute as the 2 FHs cannot be activated in adjacent gameweeks. Follow my Twitter before the deadline to find out my decision and check out my final team.

Transfer

If not free hitting: Salah, King, Lacazette , Coufal => Mahrez, Kane, Weghorst, Burnley defender.

If free hitting: didn’t give too much thought yet as I just found out about Coufal. But I will for sure have 3 City, Pope, Weghorst, Son, Kane, and probably Fernandes.

Captain

I’m torn between Son and Weghorst. I think this DGW for Weg is pretty good, but Leeds’ defense is so awful that I’m tempted to go with Son and his pace, which should benefit quite a lot from Leeds’ style imo.

transfer summary: If not free hitting: Salah, King, Lacazette , Coufal => Mahrez, Kane, Weghorst, Burnley defender.

Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27

Kev in Canada

Kev’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 52k, 48k and 6k

GW26 points: 142 on TC  (12 Top managers average 131 ) Total points: 1,748, Overall Rank: 13k, green arrow 7k Team Value: £106.3m

Follow Kev on twitter here

listen to Kev and Kris’s Podcast

Kev has used his wildcard and Triple Captain Chip

Well no matter which direction I go, I am very reliant on presser information for Webster and Cornet.

My two chip strategies I have to decide between are:

  1. Free hit 28, Free Hit 30, Bench Boost 36
  2. Fee Hit 30, Free Hit 33, Bench Boost 36

Either way, I am not free hitting this week. It just comes down to who I am transferring out and if I need to use both of my frees if I FH next week or not.

In the likely case that Webster and Cornet both have to go then I think I would bring in the following for both options:

  1. Mee and Kulusevski
  2. Kilman and Raphinha

If only Cornet is fine:

  1. then I would sell Edoard to Richarlison and Mee to Roberts instead of Cornet
    2 Roll one transfer and only change Webster to Kilman. Maybe also Eduard to Broja too.

If only Webster is fine:

  1. Edouard to Richarlison and Cornet to Kulusevski.
  2. Roll one transfer and only change Cornet to Raphinha. Maybe also Edpaurd to Broja too.

If both are fine:

  1. Eduard to DCL and Digne to Mee.
  2. Roll one transfer and only move Edouard to Broja.

Its all very up in the air.

Captain: Weghorst
Vice: Kane

Transfer summary: to be confirmed

Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27

Andrew Whitfield

Andrew’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 34k, 132k, 6k and 19k

GW26: 122 -4 on TC ( 12 Top managers average 131) Total points: 1,651, Overall Rank: 155k, red arrow: 17k  Team Value: £105.0m

Follow Andrew on twitter here

Andrew has used 1 Free Hit Chip, Triple Captain and 2nd wildcard

Gameweek 26 review:

Have you got your breath back yet after a crazy week of FPL !!

That unassailable lead of Man City is suddenly just three points. Liverpool scored nine goals in the gameweek, Leeds conceded ten, Spurs won away at leaders Man City but then just four days later they are a team in crisis after four defeats in five.

Man Utd followed up their 5-1 opening day win over Leeds with a 4-2 double up. Watford won at Villa but then a new found defensive solidarity collapsed at home to Palace. Burnley won twice with two clean sheets, as Everton joined Leeds in what now looks a relegation battle.

And of course a certain Mo Salah banished plenty of triple captain horror stories of recent seasons with an incredible 84 point haul, which in truth could and should have been a lot more !!

My GW score and rank :

I scored 122 – 4 = 118 points. It sounds huge but of course most of those came from that triple captain haul. The reality is it was a disappointing gameweek for me with just 4/11 returners, which saw my rank slide from 138k to 155k.

I triple captained Mo Salah for his 84 points, like most others did. Still enough for a useful gain though as I had 300% of his points against his effective ownership of 244% including captaincy at my rank level. An incredible Mo show. It’s stressful enough watching your captain take a penalty. So for your triple captain to take a penalty twice was off the scale. The difference between tripling the goals and tripling the minus points for a miss is off the scale.

Son produced a 12 pointer helped with his two assists at Man City. It was his strike partner Kane who outscored him but a nice transfer in of Son for Jota, as well as Jimenez for Ronaldo. Jimmy assisted against Leicester and Trent’s assist was completely rank neutral. So not the week I wanted that’s for sure, with some bumper scores flying around this week.

Outside that, it was a bit of a sorry tale. Josh King made it 12 games without a goal and went off injured, Edouard played one minute across two games, Lucas Digne couldn’t even get a clean sheet or attacking return v Watford. The normally prolific Cancelo and Bowen scored one point each. Ramsdale conceded one goal twice. Al Nouri scored a couple of one pointers despite cementing his place in one of the most solid defences in the league.

Dennis the menace and Saka did the most damage. My two biggest rank threats of the week both scoring with full bonus points in their first game. Quite ironic when I had owned Dennis for a while including captaining him for his red card in that double gameweek.

It’s not often that your captain scores 84 points and you have a feeling of disappointment !! What a bizarre week of FPL that was.

So what next:

I have one free transfer and 2.7M in the bank.

The bottom line is that my season is in a bit of a mess. Managers are sitting pretty now with two free hits, and a wildcard, making chip plan strategies for the upcoming double gameweeks.

I had an “enforced” free hit back in GW19 when bad luck with injuries and postponements left me with just six starters. That’s now come back to bite me. Easy to say now but that free hit is priceless now when I most need it.

And my GW24 wildcard has proved to be a hasty move with the likes of Edouard, Digne and others not working out as hoped. With just one free hit left and no wildcard, I now have my back firmly against the wall. With almost a third of the season still to play, I am resigned to a very rocky ride, and a feeling of inevitability that my early chip usage has now effectively messed up my season beyond repair.

The gardening gloves are out and the season can’t end soon enough. I feel like I am on a Grand Prix circuit in a Fiat Panda with two flat tyres.

What about GW27:

It’s a blank gameweek for Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea and a double gameweek for Burnley. I had planned to bench my three outfield players from Liverpool and Arsenal, and let my 11 players take their chance.

However, I have Edouard who hasn’t played the last two games, I have King away at Man Utd who hasn’t scored since November and might be injured, Ait Nouri is a rotation doubt although he has played the last few. I have what looks like a generally tough set of fixtures too, which doesn’t scream out big points. It’s not looking pretty. Throw in a random benching and things could get messy.

I don’t own Weghorst who is a likely captain favourite this week. The only striker with a double gameweek. After the debacle of what happened with King and Dennis in that Watford double gameweek, it has all the potential for being another double gameweek trap. Especially as it’s Burnley we are talking about. Then again, I own Edouard who hasn’t played for two games. There are loads of strikers in the pot at Palace. Weghorst is a talisman. He is also leading the captain polls. It’s an obvious switch. I might also give him the armband if I buy him. Two bites of the cherry is always good. It keeps the hope alive until the final game too.

I might also sell King after his woeful form, and buy Broja. The Southampton budget man has impressed me, and is in good form. King is a doubt but also plays Man Utd away. Broja plays Norwich at home. They both double in GW28 but Broja has the better double. It’s another obvious switch. A -4 to get both looks justified with no covering subs, especially when Weghorst plays twice.

If I can get 11 out for a -4 and cover the captain favourite, then that at least gives me a fighting chance. You never know where a return can come from, often when you least expect it. Hopefully I can get 11 shirts on the pitch.

I had considered a one week switch of salah to Bruno Fernandes or a Man City attacker but I am not wildcarding next week so can’t justify two transfers when I am already probably taking -4.

A free hit attraction:

Twitter is awash with free hits this week. They look amazing and it’s fair to say that I have had my head turned.

It seems crazy for me to consider a free hit when I can just about scrape eleven together. Especially when I only have one free hit left and there is GW30 looming where only three fixtures currently stand due to the cup quarters and I currently have just six players in GW30. It’s the obvious place for my free hit, which is usually best employed in a big blank week or when there is an opportunity to add lots of doubles in. GW27 is neither.

The attraction of a GW27 free hit is massive with some enticing fixtures aligning. The opportunity to pair up BOTH of Son and Kane against a Leeds team who have just conceded ten goals in a week and like to attack and look ripe to be picked off on the counter attack. We saw how Spurs destroyed Man City as a counter attacking game but struggled to break down a stubborn Burnley. I have just Son currently.

Bruno Fernandes is on fire and he plays at home to a Watford team who are not solid at the back after all after conceding four at home on Wednesday.

It’s an opportunity to get triple Burnley for a double gameweek, and then lose them just as quickly, especially a double up on Pope and Mee with Burnley now racking up the clean sheets

Then with lots of cash to spend from Salah not playing, even chance to squeeze in two Man City attackers against Everton. Get the picture ?

I crunched the numbers with “expected points” against my non free hit team with the proposed changes. It’s projecting a possible 16-20 point uplift this week. It could be less of course. No guarantees it even outscores my present team. But I can see huge potential points. At least on paper.

That’s pretty tough to turn down, especially when I am considering taking -4 to scrape an eleven together in tough match ups, and bearing in mind my current need for a rank boost. I know I will look at my free hit team score and rue not playing it.

So why not :

If I had two free hits, I would be all over it with a unique set of fixtures and points opportunities. If I was wildcarding too next week I might too as I would have to come back to the issues when I get my team back after the free hit.

However, most managers playing the free hit will have two free hits left. They are playing it as they have three Liverpool and three Arsenal so it’s almost a must. Or they will be stacked up with three Arsenal, three Wolves , a couple of Villa, and Raphinha. They will have almost a ready set team for GW30. I only have six players for GW30.

Once the gloss of a GW27 free hit wears off, I know I would spend three weeks trying to scrape 8-9 players together for GW30. I think putting 8-9 out in what could be a low scoring week might be enough. But do I want to be stressing over GW30 pretty much from now. A GW30 free hit still might offer equally big points with the likes of Vardy, Maddison and Tielemans v Brentford, Raphinha, Coutinho, Saka, Wolves defenders.

Do I want to spend three weeks preparing for a blank GW30, when my transfers could be better used for trying to get the most out of double gameweeks 28 and 29, for which I don’t have a wildcard or free hits. I want to use my transfers to cover the big template moves, like getting Robertson in for a start. I need to get as close to the GW28 wildcarders as possible. I can’t do that if I am spending three weeks trying to put a patchwork GW30 team together.

Those on wildcards can plan for GW30. Those with two free hits can store one for GW30. In both cases they have a safety net to attack a GW27 free hit that I don’t have.

My current feeling is that any short term gain from GW27 could be short lived and set me up for an unenviable position of having no wildcard or free hits after next week. Surely I can’t go there if I can put 11 players out this week.

It’s possible that GW30 opens up with more games added from surprise cup results, especially if Norwich knock out Liverpool. So that could remove the GW30 problem and then I wish I had played it in GW27. We will know the GW30 line up before the GW28 deadline.

If GW30 is looking normal and I can suddenly get 10-11 players out, then a free hit GW29 might even become very attractive. I am likely to have 6-7 doubles in GW28 and 5-6 in GW29. If Arsenal get a GW28 double added, even better. If the draw opens up and Arsenal get a GW28 double, I might be looking very good in GW28 and GW30 and free hit GW29 might look nice. Two games of Kane in GW29 for example might look better than one game of Kane this week.

So I haven’t ruled out free hit GW27 yet. But my head is telling me to be very careful. I am not in the same position that others who are free hitting this week are. I am in a very different situation to most.

Captain will be either Weghorst or Son

Good luck everyone !!!!!

My GW27 team:

Transfer summary: I will likely bring in Weghorst for Edouard and possibly Broja for King. But don’t rule out that free hit just yet .

Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27

Rob Reid

Rob’s last 6 seasons overall ranks were 12k, 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k

GW26 points: 119 -4 on TC ( 12 Top managers average 131) Total points: 1,668, Overall Rank: 115k, red arrow: 25k  Team Value: £105.4m

Follow Rob on twitter here

Rob has used his wildcard and Triple Captain Chip

Decided to play the Free Hit as would need a -4 to get to 11 this week which would include Edouard so only 10 really.

Have looked at Joe’s excellent Transfer Planner and Points Projection Tool and it projects me at around 25 points better off including the hit so seemed a worthwhile gamble.
I like the team above but I could switch De Bruyne and Sancho to Sterling and Bruno. I’ll see what the predicted City line-up is on Twitter before I call that one. Fairly settled elsewhere.

Not sure on Captain yet – will see what the polls say, but leaning towards either Weghorst or Son; I think the Leeds v Spurs game could be very open which should suit Son.
Rob: Chip strategy now is:

FH27
FH30
BB 33 or 36
(Also bear in mind I have a terrible Free Hit record in previous couple of seasons so hope this one goes better lol)

Transfer summary: Activating the Free Hit Chip

Here’s a Free Hit Draft

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27

The FFGeek Contributors League

The highlighted FFGeek contributors combined team finished with an overall rank of 8k last season and 52k the season before. It’s going ok in 12th place with total points of 1,698 and an overall rank of 59k. You can follow that team, including live transfers as well as the FFGeek team currently also in 20th position at 195k and the team run by Joe’s Transfer Planner in 1st place on 8K, all on our subscription Patreon site

There’s loads of other features on the Patreon site that you can read about at the top of this page

Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27
Fantasy Premier League Team Tips DGW27

Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers

The FFGeek FPL Podcast

Bandwagons and Sinking Ships

Joseph Crilley’s Transfer Planner and Points Projection Tool

The FPL Fixture Difficulty Schedules

FFGeek Contributors Teams Part 1

FPL Chip strategy

Defender and GK Rankings

Midfield Rankings

Forward Rankings

The FFGeek Captain Poll

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