Here’s 4 more FFGeek Contributors in this Fantasy Premier League team tips GW1 article. With there final-ish teams are Yaniv who has finished in the top 10k overall rank the last 3 seasons plus Rick Porter, Kris O and Andrew Pratt
fantasy premier league team tips GW1 – 4 FFGeek Contributors final-ish teams part 2
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Introduction
This is part 1 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
See Part 1 of the FFGeek Contributors teams
Yaniv Salomon
Yaniv finished with an overall rank of 3k last season and 4k in 18/19 and 8k in 17/18
Follow Yaniv on twitter here
Here’s my team
Rick Porter
Rick’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 29k, 1k, 30k and 2k.
I won’t go into too much detail on why I picked each player but my team is as follows…
Keepers
I have both McCarthy and Ryan. While this is an easy place to save 0.5m, the two rotate well and there are no 4.0m keepers I’d be confident in relying on should a match get cancelled or my first choice ends up isolating. I feel I have to play a little safer this year so a half decent second keeper is a necessary precaution.
Defenders
I can’t imagine going without Alexander-Arnold and his inclusion means that much of the rest of my defence is of the ‘value’ variety. I may still change my 4.5m choices as I still have Vinagre who is too uncertain for my liking. Taylor is a potential swap, as he’ll offer some protection from the many Pope owners come GW2, but it leaves my bench pretty light for GW1 so I’m still considering other options.
I also have Tierney. His first two fixtures are great and he’s proven himself an attacking threat so I’m hoping he can deliver at both ends of the pitch.
Midfielders
I have Salah, Aubameyang, and Son as my premiums here – none of these need any justification for their inclusion. Equally Saint-Maximin and Soucek are fairly obvious budget choices given they both have goals in them and are cheap enough to be benched whenever the need arises.
Forwards
Frankly I’d be too nervous to go without Werner, so he’s my first choice. His ownership is massive and I don’t fancy trailing behind a few million managers if he bags a brace and full bonus against Brighton.
Mitrovic also makes the team. He’s not the most exciting choice but if Fulham do score it’ll likely be him. I’m tempted to switch to Adams, but I worry about his minutes and I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on my bench. Mitrovic is at least a nailed starter so makes for a good first choice sub when the fixture isn’t favourable.
I had to put a cheap forward in so I opted for Brewster. I’m hoping he’ll move somewhere so I have a playing (and talented) 4.5m attacker. If that happens my Liverpool slot will be freed up and I’ll be sitting on a player that’ll surely soar in value.
Looking Ahead
Come GW2 the Manchester assets will need to be considered. Both De Bruyne and Fernandes already have impressive ownerships. Very impressive considering the lack of a GW1 match. There are certainly a few mistakes in there from people that haven’t clocked the lack of fixture yet, but plenty will be benching them to avoid burning transfers on what are likely to be essential assets.
Like many, I’m planning to quickly switch Son to Fernandes for GW2 so I’ve kept 1.5m in the bank to allow that to happen. Aubameyang to De Bruyne is then the planned transfer for GW3.
Captain
It’ll be Aubameyang or Salah. I’m on Salah at the moment but I’m annoyingly aware that Aubameyang is the safer choice so I might switch.
Kris O
Kris’s last 4 seasons overall rank were 39k, 44k, 46k and 23k
Andrew Pratt
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 313k last 8k in 18/19 and 1k in 17/18
The blanks in gameweek 1 and the desire to steal a march early in the season have many managers booking in hits and considering wildcarding very early in the season. The extended transfer window, potential ongoing virus interruptions and unknowns in terms of new (especially Chelsea) players have me dead against using the wildcard in the first few weeks. Additionally, in building my team I’m interested in flexibility to be able to bring in City, United and up-and-coming ‘bandwagon’ players. Unlike the managers of many of the draft gameweek 1 teams I’ve seen with practically non-playing benches, I’ll try to keep a relatively strong bench given the prospects of players being red flagged at short notice due to covid.
The usual suspects in City, Liverpool, United and Chelsea assets will no doubt feature heavily this season. Spurs, Wolves and Arsenal may well join them. From an FPL perspective I’ll also be interested in Southampton, Sheffield United (defence) and Leeds (for possible cheap enablers). It’s probably too early to call but I can see Fulham being this season’s whipping boys.
My gameweek 1 team should not change much from the team below.
I will look to bring in de Bruyne and Fernandes in the early gameweeks.
Goalkeepers
I’d love to have Sheffield United’s Ramsdale but the additional 0.5mil over McCarthy and Ryan and his tough early fixtures moved me off him. Similarly, rotating 4.5mil keepers Ryan and McCarthy is tempting but ultimately doesn’t seem cost-effective. McCarthy will be pretty much set and forget until there’s a compelling reason to change him out. I’ll finalize my non-playing 4.0mil bench keeper before the deadline.
Defenders
After the fixtures were announced, Egan and Alexander-Arnold were in most of my drafts. Hearing of Alexander-Arnold’s average pre-season form and slight injury has me slightly uneasy at including him so I’ve shifted to Robertson.
Egan has three straightforward games in the first 5. I’ve dropped Walker-Peters for Justin out of for fear for over-exposure to Southampton’s defence. Justin will likely make way after a few gameweeks for the best-performing 4.0mil defender, who I can’t pick right now.
Wan-Bissaka is poised to come in for gameweek 2 where United are home to Palace. My previous drafts had Martial on the bench in gameweek 1 since his position seems less threatened by the real and rumored arrivals of new midfielders.
However, I feel this strategy weakens the gameweek 1 team too much. Similarly with the more expensive Fernandes; it makes the 11 gameweek 1 starters look prone to being hurt by unexpected gameweek 1 rotation / rest and the bench a bit threadbare. Wan-Bissaka isn’t the most exciting United player but he fits best and is relatively low risk in terms of missing out on gameweek 2.
Given Wolves’ transfers in defense, Coady as club captain is a very safe pick and has 5 fantastic fixtures from gameweek 3 to 7. Despite the odd yellow card, Saiss served me well last season and gets forward more so Coady might become Saiss before the deadline. Alternatively, Saiss might be added before too long. I’ll avoid Vinagre and Marcal until it’s clear who is preferred. Of special interest going forward are Alexander-Arnold and Chillwell.
Midfielders:
I’d prefer Pulisic if he wasn’t recovering from an injury but I’ve decided to go with the slightly-more-likely-to-start Havertz, who is on free kicks. Hopefully he can tie up well with Werner.
Saint-Maximin has good early fixtures and will be monitored thereafter, but prospects are looking better after the arrival of Wilson and Fraser. He could be a makeweight for a future transfer after a few gameweeks.
Aubameyang and Salah (or Mane) are practically must-haves in the first gameweek with their friendly fixtures, captain potential and chances of hurting non-owners. Barring bigger fires needing to be extinguished, Salah will probably make way (at least temporarily) for Fernandes in gameweek 2. Aubameyang may become de Bruyne in gameweek 3. Of special interest going forward are Pulisic, Ziyech and Foden.
Forwards:
Werner and Mitrovic have been ever-presents in my drafts. Chelsea could be immense and may hit the ground running with 4 green fixtures in their first 5, so I’m gambling slightly on the Werner-Havertz double-up. They could be moved on relatively easily for the likes of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Foden or Aguero if necessary. Mitrovic is reasonably well known, is very selfish, should be on penalties and has decent first fixtures. I dabbled with Ings but he’s trolled me so badly in the past I just can’t. Antonio was on fire at the end of last season so he comes in and will hopefully continue his form. His fixtures turn red quite quickly so I see him making way before too long. The idea of doubling him with Soucek in midfield didn’t live long. Of special interest going forward are Aguero, Wilson and Martial.
Captain and vice will be between Aubameyang and Salah.
Bear in mind that with the amount of quality FPL content available and increased popularity of the game in general, it will be tougher to attain impressive rankings. With many using their wildcards in the opening gameweeks it may be difficult to stay with the pack, but stay patient and play the long game. I wish you all the very best for the new season.
Other Posts
Defender and GK player rankings
More FFGeek Contributors teams
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