Here’s our article where 4 FFGeek Contributors with their fantasy premier league team tips GW18. Each show their GW18 teams which have been completed after yesterdays fixture amendment. There’s Yaniv Salomon, Rick Porter, Stephen Troop and Rob Reid. All 4 have activated their Free Hit chip
Fantasy Premier League team tips GW18 – 4 FFGeek Contributors teams part 4
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Introduction
This is part 4 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
There’s also
FFGeek contributors teams part 1, FFGeek Contributors teams Part 2, FFGeek Contributors teams part 3
Rick Porter
Rick’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 29k, 1k, 30k and 2k.
GW17 points: 73 (FPL average 56), Total points: 1,088, Overall Rank: 15k, green arrow: 7k, Team Value: £105.0m
As is becoming the norm, GW17 was another week that was plagued by Covid-related absences. It hit some harder than others, but that’s what the game is this season. All we can do is prepare as best we can and hope that luck does the rest. A concussion here, an isolation period there… in the end a small handful of points off the bench is a real boon when some managers are only fielding 9-10 men.
Free Hit
Any amount of pondering about whether or not to Free Hit this week was ultimately a waste of effort. Sure, at one point I could have potentially put out 8 players, but that seems a long time ago now and with Bissouma picking up his fifth yellow and now my two Villa players also missing out, the Free Hit was inevitable
With Calvert-Lewin confirmed out, Sterling flagged, and Man City, Spurs and Arsenal clearly having the more favourable fixtures, I imagine it looks similar to many others out there. With multiple triple ups, any surprise postponements could hit hard and effectively waste my chip, but that’s a risk worth taking in the current situation. I’d be far more concerned if I didn’t have a Free Hit to lean on.
This season is throwing up a lot of nasty surprises and subs have had to come to my rescue multiple times, so I’ve tried to ensure my bench isn’t too throwaway. I’ve even got myself a second playing keeper which I never thought I’d bother with on a Free Hit, but these are strange and uncertain times.
GW19
Spending weeks planning for a strong Bench Boost in DGW19 now also looks like it may have been a waste of time and transfers. Will Villa play both matches? Will Adams and McCarthy recover in time? Will Southampton even have a double now? With so much potential for disruption, fielding a decent number of double players with a solid Triple Captain seems a far better idea.
If the stars somehow align then Bench Boost isn’t off the table completely, but a classic Wildcard/Bench Boost combo later in the season when things are a little more settled is getting more appealing with each piece of news.
Captain
I’m currently on Bruno Fernandes, but that may change.
transfer summary: Free Hit activated
Here’s the current draft of the free hit team (completed after the fixture change):
Yaniv Salomon
Yaniv finished with an overall rank of 3k last season and 4k in 18/19 and 8k in 17/18
GW17 points: 42 (FPL average 56), Total points: 1,043, Overall Rank: 120k, red arrow: 76k, Team Value: £105.7m
Follow Yaniv on twitter here
Yaniv is also one of the 10 top FPL managers I follow who have finished the last 3 seasons in the top 10k overall rank
transfer summary: Free Hit
Here’s the current draft of the free hit team (completed after the fixture change):
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW17 points: 68 (FPL average 56), Total points: 1,042, Overall Rank: 125k, green arrow: 14k, Team Value: £105.1m
Follow Rob on twitter here
GW17 review
On the face of it, this looks like a decent gameweek – a 10% rank rise and a decent score above the average. But oh it could have been so much more – the stats lie a little here and hide a few issues!
First the good – correct Captain choice with Son (26 points) and returns form 3 of the other 4 midfielders. Now the bad – that was it for returns from my first team – 4/11. And one of these was from Soucek who’s 11 points off the bench were a welcome boon as he came in for the concussed Che Adams. This was all rather bittersweet though as I managed to leave another 18 points on the bench! Ok, 2 Saints clean sheets weren’t really expected (especially from reserve keeper Forster.) And again, it seemed the right move to bench Coufal over 3 premiums but that only takes away some of the frustration – especially after also losing both City clean sheets in the last minute of injury time.
The City clean sheet wipeout also as it happens cost me my place in Round 2 of the FPL Cup – annoying but not the end of the world. Moving forwards, my plan continues to be to play my Free Hit chip in GW18 and my Bench Boost in GW19 though Covid cancellations are certainly shaping the landscape here and GW19 plans are undoubtedly subject to last minute change.
GW18 Free Hit Team
First of all – apologies for the late write-up on this. I had my team write-up prepared over the weekend, but this was in the knowledge that Villa v Spurs was at a high risk of being postponed. So it’s now Monday night and I’m rejigging things after confirmation of the Villa v Spurs postponement but also the curveball that followed of Spurs v Fulham being shoehorned into the GW on 2 days notice.
I was sitting on 7 players while Villa v Spurs was in the week, but this has reduced to 5 after the fixture rearrangement so reaffirms my decision to play my Free Hit. The other knock-on effect is that the GW19 deadline has been moved back into Saturday which I think pretty much suits everyone – more thinking and planning time for what should be a big double gameweek…but I get ahead of myself! Let’s have a look at my Free Hit line-up.
Strategy
Fixtures
First up the fixtures, some bookies odds and a bit of analysis:
Sheffield United v Newcastle – Match Odds – SHU 29/20, Draw 21/10, NEW 2/1; Clean Sheet SHU 37%, NEW 31%
Burnley v Man United – Match Odds – BUR 6/1, Draw 7/2, MAN 4/9; Clean Sheet – BUR 15%, MAN 45%
Wolves v Everton – Match Odds – WOL 29/20, Draw 2/1, EVE 2/1; Clean Sheet – WOL 35%, EVE 30%
Man City v Brighton – Match Odds – MCI 1/7, Draw 7/1, BHA 15/1; Clean Sheet – MCI 53%, BHA 10%
Spurs v Fulham – Match Odds – TOT 4/11, Draw 15/4, FUL 7/1; Clean Sheet – TOT 46%, FUL 13%
Arsenal v Crystal Palace – Match Odds – ARS 1/2, Draw 3/1, CRY 11/2; Clean Sheet – ARS 44%, CRY 17%
On paper City, Spurs, United and Arsenal are heavily favoured with the other 2 games looking pretty close. City and Spurs will fancy their chances – home games versus teams at the wrong end of the table that have just played 120 minutes in the FA Cup. For City, their opposition are also missing their key defensive midfielder (Bissouma) but there are question marks about the availability of key attacking assets Sterling and Aguero. Spurs’ opposition Fulham have improved defensively over the last few weeks but it would be a brave manager who bets against Son and Kane in this.
Arsenal and United also look good options. The Gunners are finding some form and have some good cheaper assets, while United of course have Bruno Fernandes. Defensively although the bookies like their chances, United’s stats away from home aren’t great (even though they do face a weaker attacking threat against Burnley) and can we trust the Arsenal defence against the dangerous Zaha and Eze? For the other 2 fixtures, Wolves may be worth a look especially with Calvert-Lewin definitely ruled out for Everton. And Sheffield United versus Newcastle could be good for budget defenders. The Blades are ranked next after the big 4 for a clean sheet this week, though Callum Wilson may have something to say about that.
So it would seem that a sensible strategy would be to cover the big hitting high ownership players and then fill in the blanks using fixture difficulty as a guide with a punt or 2 thrown in. Here’s what I’ve gone for.
The team
Leno is in goal – hoping for a clean sheet but maybe a few cheeky save points on top. £4m Verrips is the non-playing reserve. In defence, Stones and Cancelo provide double cover with high clean sheet odds and hopefully some attacking threat from Cancelo (he’s due a return!) Ideally I’d have gone Dias over Stones but funds didn’t allow. Then there’s the 2 reserves – Mitchell for cheap cover who might play and Yedlin at £4.3m who should start and at least provide some bench back-up. The 5th spot was a tricky one – between Dier, Shaw and Saiss. At the moment I’m on the Wolves man – yes he’s the worst clean sheet odds of the 3, but I like his attacking potential so he provides a bit of fun in there.
4 of the front 7 speak for themselves – Son, Kane, Fernandes and De Bruyne. This covers the high ownership big hitters. I’ve added Rashford to these in midfield along with the in-form Lacazette up front. The 7th playing attacker is a punt on Smith Rowe – the £4.4m youngster looks a great prospect and is in good form at the moment. Cheapie Brewster makes up the rest of the bench. For Captain, I’m not 100% sure. De Bruyne looks the obvious choice, but there are cases for Son, Kane and Fernandes. The armband is on the Belgian at the moment, but I’m not settled on this as yet.
So that’s it from me on the Free Hit. My experiences with this chip I have to say are rather mixed. I scored over 100 points on a St Patrick’s Day blank gameweek a couple of seasons back, mainly thanks to a Mo Salah masterclass but supplemented by a brace from Cenk Tosun. Contrast this to last season, where I tried to use the Free Hit on a week with favourable fixtures after the restart and managed to underscore my old team by around 20 points – doh!
Whatever strategy you are using, remember to have fun and all the best for the gameweek. I’ll Tweet my final team on my lunch break on Tuesday – good luck!
Transfer summary; Free Hit activated
Here’s the current draft of the free hit team (completed after the fixture change):
Stephen Troop
Stephen’s last 4 seasons overall rank were 86k, 43k, 52k and 64k
GW17 points: 71 (FPL average 56), Total points: 1,069, Overall Rank: 41k, green arrow: 10k, Team Value: £104.7m
Follow Stephen on twitter here
Transfer summary: Free Hit activated
Here’s the current draft of the free hit team (completed after the fixture change):
FFGeek Contributors League
The highlighted FFGeek contributors combined team finished with an overall rank of 52k last season is going ok in 3rd place with total points of 1074 and an overall rank of 32k. You can follow that team, including live transfers, on our subscription Patreon site.
You can also follow Joe’s transfer planner team which finished with an overall rank of 32k last season currently in 21st place with total points of 981 and an overall rank of, 719k.
There’s loads of other features on the Patreon site that you can read about at the top of this page
Other Posts
Ben and Joes draft Free Hit teams
Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek Contributors teams part 2
FFGeek Contributors teams part 3
A season blanks and doubles schedule
Andrew’s strategy for BGW18 and DGW19
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