Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW12 article where the 2nd group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW12. In this part there’s Rick Porter, Scott Taylor, Kev in Canada, Alex Ball, Stephen Troop and Andrew Whitfield
Fantasy premier league team tips GW12 – FFGeek contributor’s teams part 2
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. In the future it also wont cover early transfers. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more.
See the part 1 contributors teams article here as well
Rick Porter
Rick last 3 seasons overall rank were 1k, 30k and 2k.
GW11 points: 71 (FPL average 53) Total points 619 Gameweek rank 1,118k, Overall Rank: 256k, green arrow 93k, Team Value: £103.7m
So, I wrote one of the new Imaginary Wildcard articles for the FFGeek subscription Patreon site this week. As I was the first contributor to do so, I’m in the unique position of knowing exactly how heavy a curse it is. Of course, that’s other than Geek himself who martyrs himself frequently by doing it EVERY WEEK. The albino monk from Da Vinci Code comes to mind.
The process itself is quite cleansing. It feels good. Dropping the dead weight, making the most of your cash again, bringing in the players that you’ve wanted for ages…
…but you don’t get to seal the deal.
The ‘Next Step’ button on the app has to be carefully avoided throughout the process for fear of actually making it happen. My thumb definitely seemed fatter than normal that day.
The team looked great, of course, but was it worth a 20 point hit? Hell no. You’re left gazing through sorrowful eyes at your old, inferior team that’s just not as exciting as the masterpiece you’d built when you were free of the rules.
Clarity
As painful as it is knowing what could be, it has given me a level of clarity about what I should be aiming for. Last week was a good one for me and I certainly have no complaints. Another wasted captain choice was annoying, but almost everyone suffered the same fate, and while Mendy’s benching was frustrating it was actually a gift in disguise as Soyuncu came off my bench with a hefty 14 points. It does raise the question, though, of whether Mendy’s worth having at all? If he’s not starting every match with Zinchenko out then is there ever going to be a week I’m not rolling the dice?
This is where the clarity comes in. In my imaginary wildcard Mendy wasn’t wasn’t there. Didn’t make the cut, you see. I had Rico instead. Far cheaper and rotatable with a number of other budget defenders that are currently oozing quality. That’s cash waiting to freed up as far I’m concerned, especially with City against Liverpool this week and then Chelsea in GW13.
Concerns
I have fairly few real worries. Having Ryan as my only keeper choice isn’t ideal as he has a pretty bleak run coming up. He performed well against both Chelsea and Spurs though, so I’ll not burning a transfer removing him.
Right now I’d prefer to have Mane rather than Salah due to the ongoing knee issue the latter seems to be struggling with and the reversal of ownership percentages between the two. However, I’ve bounced between these guys three times already this season so I’ll not be toying with the idea of another swap just yet.
The Mount injury I’ll discuss in a moment…
Transfers
I’ll be using one of my two free transfers to switch Mendy to Rico. That’s pretty much decided. This leaves me with 1.8m in the bank and a couple of potential options…
Option 1
If I also downgrade King or Pukki to Connolly then I have enough to switch Cantwell to Martial for my first -4 of the season. My midfield would be really strong and I’d even have 0.4m change. Although he should be long out of chances, I’d probably have to give Pukki a shot against one of the weakest defences in the league, so it would likely be King who gets the chop.
Option 2
The Mount injury has confused things a bit. If he’s ruled out then I could use the Mendy money to do a straight upgrade to Martial. No need for a -4. Though Mount is a player that I have a good chunk of cash invested in and he’d cost me an extra 0.4m if wanted him back when fit. That being the case I need to hold my transfers until I hear more on the injury and how long he might be out for.
Option 3
I could just do the Rico swap and leave myself with 1.8m and two transfers to navigate the break with. A very comfortable place to be and, when it comes down to it, having King against Newcastle and Cantwell against Watford is hardly the worst situation to be in for GW12.
I’ll update once I’ve reached my decision.
Captain
Anything could happen in the clash between Liverpool and Man City. A 1-0 scoreline seems as likely as 4-4 to me. With four premium players already involved in that match I don’t want to throw my captain in as well. Abraham is my only other sensible choice so I’ll be going with him. Sterling as Vice.
transfer summary: Likely to be Mendy out for Rico in and 1 other to be confirmed.
The team below reflects the above proposed transfer and the option 1 transfer above King out Connolly in
Scott Taylor
Scott finished with an overall rank of 1k last season and 12k in 17/18
GW11 points: 78 (FPL average 53) Total points 616 Gameweek rank 587k, Overall Rank: 296k, green arrow 258k, Team Value: £102.6m
Another decent game week resulting in my 5th green arrow of the season. 6 returning players, 3 of which were double figures. The only negatives being yet another captain blank and the number of points I left on the bench (29). However, the only questionable decision I made was leaving Maddison on the bench in favour of Connolly but given Norwich’s and Palace’s respective defensive performances so far this season, I still think it was the right decision.
Even with the question mark over Mount’s fitness, I’ll be rolling my FT over this week to have 2 FTs for the international break. I’m happy with my team as it stands so no need for changes/tinkering. I’ll keep an eye on Mount’s fitness over the IB. In addition, even though I only transferred them in last week, I’m not 100% sure about Martial and Connolly; they could turn into Pulisic and Mousset or even Jorginho and Jimenez. Finally, I’m keeping an eye on Pope; he’s not really performing yet, trouble is, there’s not really anyone else that’s catching my eye outside of the teams I already have in defence.
My team pretty much chooses itself this week. The only slight dilemma is Rico or Lundstram but Lundstram’s form is too good to ignore so he gets in. In any event, Rico might come in if Mount is injured.
Captain will be Vardy, VC Martial.
Enjoy the GW!
Transfer summary: carrying over the free transfer
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18
GW11 points: 77 -4 (FPL average 53) Total points 622 Gameweek rank 675k, Overall Rank: 225k, green arrow 105k, Team Value: £101.8m
Well a weekend of VAR controversy, Liverpool and Man City both snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and after “Vardy Friday” the week before, this was definitely “Lundstrum Saturday “ !!
Gameweek 11 review:
Very happy with my Gameweek. 77 points ( net 73 ) against the average of 53. Six returning players, three of them in double figures, so despite a captain blank, a lovely 105k green arrow, up from 330k to 225k, and now sitting just outside the top 3% of teams.
My transfers couldn’t have worked out better. Soyuncu for Otamendi, and Vardy for Wilson.
Bizarre that I had 53 points from my defence and just 6 points from my four man midfield which included three attacking Man City assets including my captain !! That’s just crazy !!!
What went well in GW11:
– Sir John Lundstram. This guy is phenomenal. We never expected to find another Wan Bissaka this season but Lunny is like gold dust, a cheap attacking midfielder listed as a defender for a team who keep clean sheets !! 21 points this week !! If you don’t own him ( 60% don’t ), then why not !! Many people will have had their Gameweek defined by whether they got his points. Was it really bad luck though if you left his points on the bench, or bad team selection at home to Burnley ? Is he now fixture proof and worth playing EVERY week if he knows the way to goal ??
– Attacking returns from both Trent and Robbo. 16 points this week. These guys don’t need clean sheets with their attacking points. Incredible they are still in the top four defenders despite Liverpool recording only 2 clean sheets. Imagine the score uplifts for both when the clean sheets come during a great run of fixtures ahead.
– Abraham and Mount look like scoring every time Chelsea attack. 12 points from Abraham could have been more. Mount was very unlucky not to get on the score sheet too. Very happy to be owning both. The midweek injury to Mount is a concern and I am watching this closely.
– Leicester !! It was certainly a “Super Sunday”. The purchases of Vardy and Soyuncu were very well timed. Tielemans and Maddison are on my radar too. It’s very dangerous going without Leicester now as they don’t look like letting up with fantastic fixtures ahead.
What didn’t go as well:
– I tripled up on Man City attack and Sterling, De Bruyne and D Silva returned just 5 points !! That includes captain points from Sterling too !! The consolidation was that most people were in the same boat. Perhaps we got carried away with expectation after that Southampton debacle the week before.
– Mane. As a non owner, that’s 12 points I could have done without. He is my transfer in this week.
– Pope is becoming disappointing, but the keeper should always be low priority so happy to hold for now. Short term fixtures look good.
How I got spooked:
It was a week where I am happy to get through it with a green arrow, given the predicament I had put myself into last week. FPL is supposed to be fun. As a seller of a misfiring Sterling in GW9, those two home games v Aston Villa and Southampton were a concern but I was happy with the cover provided by De Bruyne ( captain ) and D Silva, for the cash boost it allowed to get the likes of Vardy, Abraham and Mount. De Bruyne and D Silva covered Sterling nicely in GW10 where the captain poll was close too. But GW11 saw a HUGE spike in Sterling captaincy, probably fuelled by that 0-9 for Southampton ahead of a trip to the Etihad and the unpopularity of Aguero after his rotation frustrations.
Anyway, I got completely spooked !! A Sterling haul with his high ownership and landslide captaincy could potentially have destroyed my rank. I felt horribly exposed to it as a non owner. So I wrestled all week with the dilemma of whether to hide behind the sofa and suffer.. or protect my exposure with a switch from Salah to Sterling. I knew that I would want Salah straight back due to the significant fixture swing from City to Liverpool that now follows. So it amounted to a “one week switch” to Sterling and then switch back for a -4 which makes no sense at all any other week. And what if Sterling was rested and Salah ran a hat trick in at Villa in potentially the only game all season I didn’t own him. Damned if I did and damned If i didn’t. I got myself into a pickle which could have gone seriously wrong both ways.
In the end, it proved largely irrelevant as Sterling, Salah and De Bruyne ( my captain without Sterling ) all blanked !! I still think I was right to take the -4 to cover the huge risk as a Sterling haul could have been a horrible season defining moment. But it wasn’t a fun week and I am happy to get through it. I can sleep now !! As it happened, it meant having to do the Otamendi to Soyuncu move a week early, so all’s well that ends well !!
Liverpool and City fixtures:
Looking ahead, there is now a very significant swing in fixture difficulty of the big two. Yes, to a degree they are fixture proof. But I am struggling to see many games in the next EIGHT fixtures, if any, where Sterling could be a captain favourite and if he is, certainly not a runaway one. Liverpool dominate the fixtures now over City virtually every week. City have 5 of the next 8 away, with their three at home being Chelsea, Man Utd and Leicester, with trips in there to Liverpool and Arsenal. Their best fixture looks to be Newcastle away but that’s when Liverpool host Brighton. So Sterling won’t spook me now. The Liverpool blank in GW18 will need navigating of course. So I am now happy to safely jump back off Sterling and breath easier, moving back to Salah (except I went Mane!)
Which three Liverpool players:
Triple Liverpool coverage looks essential now.. but do we double up on Liverpool defence or double up on Salah and Mane. Assuming Trent is essential, there is a huge 5M plus saving on going double Liverpool defence, instead of double attack, and going one of Mane or Salah. That’s a massive amount of cash to spread through your team. That’s the difference between a Greenwood and a Vardy !! And I can only see the full back points rising as the attacking returns are supplemented by clean sheets. A double up on Salah and Mane is tempting but the form and fitness of Salah are both causes for concern. Over the last seven games, Mane has outscored Salah massively by 51-28. In the same period, Robertson has 40 points. So it’s Trent, Robbo and Mane for me. It’s entirely possible my Sterling fears might shift to becoming a non Salah owner now instead !! But Salah and Mane are easily interchangeable now at the same price point. Salah also doesn’t have the high ownership of Sterling. The form of Mane is exciting and I am looking forward to owning him through the upcoming run of games.
What next :
I have 1.1M in the bank and one free transfer.
I was always going to do the switch back from Sterling to Salah this week, given the fixtures ahead, but I have gone Sterling to Mane instead. He looks much sharper than Salah and is returning more points. He is the man in form. So Sterling to Mane done.
I was hoping that would be my only transfer. An easy week !! My one week Hokey Cokey on Sterling means I have burned my one free transfer. But injuries to D Silva and Mount have now put a spanner in the works as this could trigger a 2nd transfer on Friday.
I have my eye on a choice of two future transfers for my 1M+ in the bank. That’s either McGinn to Tielemans for 0.9M or Greenwood to Ayew for 0.8M. I am favouring the latter move as McGinn is performing well for a 5th mid and with Lundstram now scoring as he is, I am struggling to leave him out and four at the back is now more likely most weeks, I am maybe not going to even play five in midfield much. I also really need Greenwood out. Ayew has a cracking run of fixtures from GW15 to GW21. I wont need him until then, but if prices move against me, I might do it sooner rather than later. So Greenwood to Ayew is likely soon, and I will be keeping the 1M back for it, but not quite yet as it’s not needed until those better fixtures as I wouldn’t play him yet. Lundstram has now forced a 442 formation so it’s going to be tricky to play my third striker or 5th mid !!
The “muscle injury “ to D Silva is frustrating, as I still wanted to hold two attacking City assets as cover for not owning Sterling, even through tougher fixtures, especially as Silva has been a revelation and outscoring Sterling. I could easily just bench D Silva for Liverpool v City, which makes sense and then it’s the long international break for him to recover. I am tempted to bring in Maddison for Silva, but it would mean a -4. I have good bench cover from McGinn at first sub. So I will ponder Silva to Maddison over the international break, and if I still like it, I will do the move for free after the international break, rather than now for a points hit.
The unwelcome twist though is now the injury picked up by Mount. I have a potential situation this week where I could be missing Mount, Silva and Guilbert ( all flagged ) which would mean Greenwood starting, which is not ideal when he brings in one pointers. It would also mean no bench. That’s not a situation I want at all. If either just Silva or just Mount are missing, I am happy for McGinn to step up and cover, with a thin bench, but if there is a likelihood that BOTH Silva and Mount will miss out ( Friday press conferences will dictate ), then I will take the -4 and make the Silva to Maddison move on Friday . If Mounts injury turns out to be long term, Tielemans is a natural replacement.
Thoughts on my squad.
I am actually feeling positive about my squad. I can play three of the top four defenders in FPL, five of the top seven FPL mids, and the top two strikers !!! So I have accumulated high scoring players for each position. And whilst they have the most points, they don’t necessarily have the biggest ownership, so some good differentials, such as Vardy 28%, Robertson 21%, Silva 11%, ( or Maddison 17% ) and McGinn 11%..
I can also field 9 starters from the current top four of Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Leicester.. that’s a strong core line up. Plus Lundstram !
GW12 plans.
It’s not ideal with most of us fielding our Liverpool players against our City players. Some are benching the likes of De Bruyne but I think you just have to accept it for what it is and play your best players and see what points come along. If D Silva doesn’t play, I have three Liverpool v De Bruyne so I am not too compromised personally.
Captaincy will be interesting this week. Liverpool v City could be a cautious stalemate or it could be a goal fest. Who knows. City and Liverpool won’t dominate the captaincy this week and it’s one of those weeks where it’s wide open. Mane and Abraham are good options but my armband is definitely going on Vardy v Arsenal !!
Transfer summary – Sterling to Mane done.. with a monitor on the Silva and Mount situation.. which could trigger either Silva to Maddison or Mount to Tielemans for a hit on Friday.
Good luck to everyone in GW12 !!
The team with Sterling to Mane done.
Kev in Canada
Kev finished in 6k last season and 195k in 17/18
GW11 points: 74 (FPL average 53) Total points 620 Gameweek rank 987k, Overall Rank: 248k, green arrow 137k, Team Value: £103.4m
GW11 Recap
☆ Keeper
•Roberto. That was likely the last week I use Roberto. I will roll with Gaz going forward and may use a swap of Roberto to McGovern to fund a Sterling to Salah switch next week.
☆ Defenders
•Alexander Arnold. Not loving the MCI fixture. He could get some attacking returns. It’s not like he has been getting clean sheets anyway..
•Rico. 3 clean sheets in a row. Newcastle up next. He is starting over Lundstrum for me.
•Söyüncü. Scored as many goals as Robertson on the weekend, and got me more points. He will be on my bench this weekend with the Arsenal fixture.
•Lascalles. He will start against Rico and BOU at home. Hmmmm. I might just not watch that one. Cheering for a nil nil draw is not how I want to spend my Saturday morning doing.
•Lundstrum. As well as he played I am going to try to be rationale and not start him in an away fixture to a Spurs side that just had a nice 4-0 Champions League victory.
☆ Midfielders
•De Bruyne. I personally like City to win this match. I am not sure if both teams wont want to lose or if it will be high scoring. Either way, KDB is still a must have imo.
•Sterling. As amazing as Trent has been in FPL, he has NOT been amazing defensively. Sterling and maybe Mendy can cause issues. I think Raz is the best bet to score in this one.
•Mount. I don’t see Lamps playing him before the International Break. While he did bounce back and play when he was first hurt earlier this season, this is the same ankle again. Why would you not just give him two weeks rest to properly heal it? It would seem reckless to do otherwise with how important he is. I also have a 0.1m price buffer which is nice for this scenario so for now he is not being transfered.
•Hudson Odoi. Well well well.. this lucky son of a gun gets to live another day due to Mount ‘s injury. I was debating taking him out to a cheaper option of either Traore, Gundogan or Djenepo in order to fund Salah the following week. I am glad that I had 0.1M of buffer on CHO because it prevented me from panic transferring too early to avoid a price drop. I feel like CHO will likely start this week, as Mount eases some roster rotation tension AND Pulisic started Champions League while CHO came off the bench (the reversal of last week’s cup clash). I am going to start CHO in a differential move.
•Martial. STILL playing CF. Last match was brutal but it was 90% weather related in my opinion. Another differential starter for me.
☆ Forwards
•Lacazette. Check out the next few fixtures..
•Vardy. He’s the talk of the town. He edges Tammy as my captain.
•Tammy. This guy is special. I considered captaining him. Ultimately, I didn’t just due to the fact he blanked vs Newcastle and I think CP play a similar game.
Upcoming GW12
☆ Musical Chairs
Carry over a free.
☆ Captain
Vardy. VC Abraham.
☆ Substitute decisions
Roberto. Lundstrum. Mount. Rico
Good luck.
Transfer summary: Carrying over a free transfer
You can follow Kev on twitter here
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
GW11 points: 62 (FPL average 53) Total points 587 Gameweek rank 2,232k, Overall Rank: 908k, green arrow 34k, Team Value: £103.5m
Sorry, a very brief and non-committal write up this week. Week was a green arrow but not much; up to 908k. Soyuncu on the bench was a kicker but the last minute assist by Digne softened the blow. Tammy and Vardy return was also nice.
On to this week and the only certainty is Vardy as capo. The team is in a bad way with Boly, D Silva, Cantwell and Mount all injured or at game time risk. Anything from rolling a transfer to a -8 is on the cards; with the likes of Son, Jiminez, Maddison, Martial all options. Check my twitter if you want final confirmation. Good luck all!
Geek note: I’ll try and update the article as well when Alex has made the transfers
Transfer summary: to be confirmed
Stephen Troop
Stephen’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 43k, 52k and 64k
GW11 points: 65 (FPL average 53) Total points 620 Gameweek rank 1,788k, Overall Rank: 244k, red arrow 2k, Team Value: £102.5m
What a rollercoaster of a week! The Saturday kickoffs were a mixed bag. Lundstram’s 2 goals, clean sheet and maximum bonus points was incredible but, in the end, the majority of people benefited from these, either directly or due to autosubs.
The City trio were a big let down particularly with Sterling captain. The double Liverpool defence conceded again but made up for this with an attacking return a piece. Mount was unlucky not to haul with the chances he had. Abraham did the business for me, Pukki disappointed yet again and Vardy continues to defy the stats in my favour. All in all, some decent returns but a (very, very small) ranking drop of 2k
I have a lot of points on my bench but realistically I wasn’t going to play these and if I did it would have been ahead of Lundstram. It is just reflective of how well the cheap defenders I have are doing and is going to make bench decisions more and more difficult.
Thinking ahead and with the Liverpool City game having so many players represented in everybody’s teams it will be interesting to see how people navigate this. Personally, I’ll be playing all the assets I have in this game, as anything could happen. It could be 0-0 and could be a goal fest.
I have 2 FTs and I just have to get rid of Pukki. I know he will get back to scoring ways at some point (probably once I remove) but long term I just need to get someone more on form. Jiminez looks ideal for me from a fixtures and form view. My 2nd FT will be to remove Silva. I am not 100% on this because I want to downgrade in order to get Salah/Mane back in for De Bruyne in a following week.
I am on McGinn due to his consistency this season. The near fixtures aren’t great, but I have bench options and can play him once the fixtures clear. Trossard is another option but hasn’t started a game since returning from injury (although his impact from the bench is hard to ignore and reminds me why I started with him GW1). His fixtures also aren’t great either, but I can see me making a move for him in a few weeks.
Captain will be Vardy at home against a very leaky Arsenal defence. Abraham will be vice. I am yet to decide who to start between Lundstram, Rico and Soyuncu. I’m currently on Lundstram due to believing Arsenal will score against Leicester ruling out Soyuncu. Rico has the better fixture and Bournemouth have kept 3 clean sheets in a row but Lundstram is the player that will hurt you.
Good luck all
Transfer summary: To be confirmed but likely to be Pukki out and Jimenez in plus Silva likely to be transferred out
Follow Stephen on twitter here
Geek note: Here’s Stephens lineup pre transfers. Again I’ll ttry and update
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Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek contributors show their GW12 teams part 1
GW12 captain and transfer polls
Defender and GK player rankings GW12
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