Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW25 article where the 2nd group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW25. In this part there’s Rick Porter, Chris Tucker, Kev in Canada, Scott Taylor and wildcarders Andrew Whitfield and Costas Chari
Fantasy premier league team tips GW25 – 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’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 1k, 30k and 2k.
GW24 points: 93 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,412 Gameweek rank 100k, Overall Rank: 51k, green arrow 83k, Team Value: £106.1m
I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” Franklin D. Roosevelt said that. Well, the internet says he did, it could have been someone else. Regardless of who uttered those words originally, it’s the reason I won’t dribble on too much about my Salah TC choice. It worked out well and my rank has improved accordingly. Good times.
As predicted, GW24 shook things up quite a bit and how well or badly you fared will have largely depended on which side of the Salah/Mane coin you bet on. Sure, there was a spattering of Alexander-Arnold TCs out there, but it was largely a 50/50 call. All the comparisons, considerations, and stats in the world couldn’t have predicted a 32 minute injury in the first match. It was cruel blow for those that probably picked the safest and more sensible of the two midfielders and I could easily have been one of them.
Wildcard?
This is one of those weeks where I genuinely don’t have a fixed plan in mind. The various other contributors Wildcarding has made me a bit jealous. I love a Wildcard week. They make some really good arguments as to why now might be the time to pull the trigger. The combination of high-profile injuries, fixture swings and dips in form certainly make it enticing.
I toyed with a Wildcard team earlier in the week and it looked great. Unfortunately, with the way things have gone, that team would feature 6 players who are facing a blank in GW28. That means all my free transfers up until that point would have to be used moving some of them out, leaving me zero flexibility for injuries or other surprises without dropping points. Not impossible, but also not desirable considering I should be setting myself up for the foreseeable with my second Wildcard rather than creating issues. Once I started losing some of those players the whole team lost its sheen and I abandoned the idea.
It’s probably for the best. The full picture isn’t clear yet (and it’s looking like it might be easier to prepare for than in previous years) but it’s always handy having a Wildcard available for the week before you Bench Boost. However you can see the Geeks article on the potential blanks and doubles
Party Over?
A quick word on Vardy and whether I think now is the time to drop him… Well, he won’t have a blank in GW28 as many thought. Instead he’ll probably be a popular captain choice and his run of fixtures after are great. In short, I’ll almost certainly want him in my team come GW28. There’s no way I’m dedicating 50% of my free transfers between now and then to moving him out and back in again. I’d also lose the 0.3m I have invested in him.
It’s easy to get hung up on the latest couple of matches but the bigger picture is – in games he’s started – he’s only blanked 3 times since GW8. These were when he faced the runaway leaders in GW19, GW23 when he missed a pen (9 times out of 10 that’s a goal rather than a blank), and then when he went off injured after 40 minutes last week. He’s the top scorer in the competition and is still owned by over 40% of managers. Sure, he’s coming back from an injury and the fixtures could be better, but considering his season so far I’m not convinced he needs culling. Unless I see another couple of poor games or an obvious injury issue he’s not going anywhere.
What Now?
So Mane will be missing the match this week and I have no value tied up in him. In fact, I’ve lost 0.1m since buying him to protect myself in the DGW. That being the case I have no qualms about dropping him, it’s just a case of who to bring in and what to do with the funds I have left over. I’m keen on having a second Liverpool defender and Aubameyang has a run of fixtures that should reward his owners so, if I assume those are my targets, then I at least have the foundation of a plan. Fleck would be my first choice for Mane – as he has great fixtures and frees up a huge amount of money – but, as I’m aiming for Aubameyang, I’m hesitant to bring in another player that blanks in GW28. I already have Lundstrum, Grealish and De Bruyne in the team, Aubameyang will make four and that’s the most I want to be dealing with. Traore doesn’t have the best immediate fixtures, but he gave Liverpool real trouble and there’s no reason to think Man U or Leicester will fare any better. He’s certainly an option. His low price would also allow me to switch Calvert-Lewin to Aubameyang with change left over to switch Aurier to Van Dijk at a later date.
Transfer
Assuming there’s no other news that forces my hand, I’ll be bringing in Traore for Mane. That’s a done deal. My only real decision is whether I take a hit to bring in Aubameyang a week early. Calvert-Lewin has a decent fixture but I fancy Aubameyang to start dealing damage right away and leaving 6.6m sitting in the bank for a week just seems a waste. I can see me making this additional move Saturday morning after a bitter battle between my heart and head.
Transfer Summary
Mane OUT, Traore IN
and probably…
Calvert-Lewin OUT, Aubameyang IN
Captain
Has to be Salah. Aubameyang Vice (or Alexander-Arnold if I don’t take a hit).
Here’s the team assuming both transfers happen
Chris Tucker
Chris’s last 2 seasons overall rank were 17k and 1k
GW24 points: 90 -4 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,412 Gameweek rank 152k, Overall Rank: 51k, green arrow 55k, Team Value: £104.9m
A successful use of the triple captain chip on Salah led to a healthy green arrow and has given me an overall rank that I am more comfortable with.
However, I’m not overly enamoured with my squad, which I butchered in order to accommodate Salah. In an ideal world, I would keep Mané – there is a good chance he just misses one more gameweek. But I do feel that having propelled myself up the rankings through being aggressive, I need to continue in the same vein. Especially if Vardy doesn’t play, my team looks a little weak.
There isn’t an easy Mané swap: none of the options really appeal. What does appeal is continuing with triple Liverpool through their excellent fixtures. Simply put, I want Robertson. So I am currently giving serious thought to swapping Tomori and Mané to Robertson and Mahrez for a hit. I think that’s the aggressive move I’m after. And with other teams struggling for form, I like the idea of triple Liverpool and double City going forwards.
I’ll make the final decision on Saturday morning.
Captain choice is an easy one – Salah.
Best of luck to you all.
Transfer summary: Possibly Tomori and Mane out for Robertson and Mahrez in -4
Here’s the lineup prior to any transfers
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18
GW24 points: 53-4 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,356 Gameweek rank 3,526k, Overall Rank: 279k, red arrow 84k, Team Value: £104.5m
Andrew has activated his wildcard this gameweek
Gameweek 24 review:
– Well I said that GW24 could be a “season defining” gameweek. It was certainly that !! I owned both Salah and Mane, and my choice of Mane over Salah as triple captain was the difference between an 80k green arrow and an 80k red one – 160k places rested on that decision !! It’s calls like this that define a season. How do you pick yourself up from that ??
– Wind back to about the same time last season, when I played triple captain on Aguero’s hat trick yielding 51 points that contributed to a 107 point gameweek and a significant rank rise from 101k to 44k that changed my season. A year on and the agony of seeing my triple captain Mane clutching his hamstring after barely 30 mins of the first match, for a disastrous 3 points and a red arrow week that’s left me a lot of work to do. You just can’t legislate for things like that happening of course. You either have to laugh or cry and it’s certainly hurting right now as I get ready for my FPL counselling appointment !!
– So just 4 returners and a triple captain nightmare, in a score of 53 -4 = 49, which was below the average of 53 and resulted in a painful 84k red arrow. So after three green arrows had put me up from 243k to 135k, it’s three reds in a row to send me crashing back down to 279k. On a positive note, that wrong captain call shows how close things really are in the rankings when one triple captain call and just 30 points ( 48+ 1 v 16 + 3 ) is a difference of 160k places – 279k or 119k !! I take heart from how close the ranks really are.
– My only returners were McCarthy, Trent Alexander Arnold, Salah and De Bruyne. My two transfers in were McCarthy and Salah ( for a hit ) so at least my transfers worked out. Just three points altogether from Soyuncu and Vardy as Leicester continue to disappoint, Lord Lundstram and Ings were benched, Grealish and Maupay blanked too. When both Vardy and Mane pull up early clutching their buttocks and hamstring, you know it’s not going to be your week.
– My choice of Mane or Salah was done based on likely “effective ownership” which in the upper reaches was about 135% Mane and 96% Salah. This meant that if you used the sword and gambled on Salah, it was high gain but a haul for Mane would have been a huge loss, even as an owner. By playing the shield on Mane, I had a bet where one player was a big gain and the other broke me even. That’s a very sound bet that for most gamblers they would snap your hand off. Salah was the more popular choice amongst the Twitter community and contributors, despite his lower ownership, so those wielding the sword were rewarded for their bravery. So Salah’s points didn’t actually cost me rank. But Manes lack of points definitely did !!!!!
– My red arrow was actually as much to do with what happened outside the Liverpool games as in it. I was 44k down prior to the two Liverpool games. So the damage would actually have been a lot less if the rest of my team had performed better. I like to wrap myself in the highly owned players for protection. I actually had the top eight players for “effective ownership “ amongst the top 10k. But there seemed to be a raft of players in that 10-20% bracket returning, as well as Pope and Henderson getting double figure hauls. Everyone and his dog seemed to have a double digit keeper haul which made a huge difference. But only two non Liverpool returners out of eight certainly didn’t help my week.
So what next ?
I went to see my counsellor and he suggested a wildcard !!
– You may have seen my wildcard article on Sunday. Perhaps there was an element of knee jerk reaction to the Mane disappointment and Vardy pulling up injured too, but it’s certainly been very therapeutic and allowed me to focus on putting things right and turning things back round. It’s given me positive energy tinkering with my wildcard. So I am going on the attack. Watch out world, here I come !!!!
– I went into lots of reasons in my Sunday wildcard article as to why I activated the wildcard, but in summary, I can see some significant fixture swings, I want to strengthen my squad and deal with a few issues. I also see a lot of people getting good uplifts from early wildcards and I want to reap the rewards over a longer period. There will also be less blanks and doubles compared to last year, due to the FA cup 5th round being played midweek, when the free hit and wildcard were borderline essential to navigate your way through. It’s the right time for me. After finishes of 6k and 19k In the last two years, I want to roll the dice and do all I can to give myself a crack at another strong finishing rank.
– My wildcard is built around players with good form and particularly good fixtures for the next few weeks. I am doubling up on both Liverpool and Sheff Utd in defence, I want the Wolves pair of Jiménez and Traore. And I have made the bold move to switch from Vardy to Aubameyang due to tasty fixtures. His very low ownership compared to Vardy is both a huge risk and huge opportunity. I just think now is the time to take on the template a little more. I always said I want to be more like Costas when I grow up !!!!
What about GW28:
– There has been an unwelcome twist with Villa beating Leicester in the league cup semi final, which knocks out Villa v Blades in GW28 on the day of the final, rather than Leicester v Norwich, which leaves me six GW28 blanks instead of just two, from my initial wildcard draft !! So even the league cup semi went wrong this week !! I really needed Vardy v Norwich taking out. That means my Aubameyang punt may be just for the next three fixtures, now that Vardy faces Norwich after all. Anyway, I have made a couple of changes to my original wildcard draft to deal with the semi final not going my way, and I have a clear plan to navigate my way around blank GW28. See the Geeks article on the blanks and doubles for more information
My wildcard changes:
– My wildcard had moved me to two keepers which will cover the Henderson absence. I have had to take out Blade Fleck and could have gone Cantwell but he is flagged and I am taking a bench punt on Mooy who has great fixtures by comparison. I will be happy to bench Lundstram and De Bruyne in GW28. But I have moved Robertson to VVD from my original wildcard, which gives me the funds in GW28 when Grealish and Auba now blank, to go Auba to Vardy and Grealish to Maddison, when Leicester play Norwich !!
Line up and captain:
– So time for my wildcard team to step up to the plate and put my season back on track. After what Traore and Jimenez did to Liverpool, I am happy to start them at Old Trafford. I will also start Danny Ings back at Anfield against his old club as a hedge against my double Liverpool defence.
Captain this week will be Salah at home to Southampton. I can’t see him being rested with Mane injured. He will also be an overwhelming captain favourite. Non Salah owners could be well advised to take a hit to get him, given the huge ranking risks of him being so highly captained.
Good luck everyone in GW25 !!
Here’s the latest version of Andrews Wildcard. See his original Wildcard article here
Scott Taylor
Scott finished with an overall rank of 1k last season and 12k in 17/18
GW24 points: 49 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,394 Gameweek rank 4,137k, Overall Rank: 93k, red arrow 41k, Team Value: £106.2m
Bad week! Owning and TCing Mane rather than owning and TCing Salah meant a 40k red arrow rather than a 30k green arrow – brutal!
No huge issues in my team though. 3 Leicester not ideal so some of them will probably be making way over the next few weeks. Richarlison, Mahrez and Lundstram all have question marks over them too. Ings still needs to come in but not with Pool away next (although he obviously could still return). However I’ve not really had chance to think about transfers this week so it’s the obvious move of Mané to Salah. I wasn’t hugely keen on doing it but given Liverpool’s fixtures I want an attacking presence and whilst Klopp has said Mané should be back for the next game week, I don’t want to take that chance. Plus Salah is a huge captain favourite in the polls.
The only line up decision is Lundstram or Rico. Plumped for Rico at the moment given the question mark over Lundstram’s starting position.
Transfer summary: Mané to Salah.
Costas Chari
Costas’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 84k, 29k and 27k
GW24 points: 67 -4 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,355 Gameweek rank 1,467k, Overall Rank: 287k, green arrow 12k, Team Value: £102.1m
Costas has activated his wildcard this gameweek
After playing my TC chip on Firmino I expected either a huge rank rise or a huge drop. Ill take the 12k green arrow though.
That is my second consecutive green arrow (minor but still a green) since GW9 so helps in building momentum.
TC Firmino. Had great game against wolves but a mediocre game against West Ham. 9 points isn’t great and isn’t bad either though. I really feel for the managers that saw their TC Mane limping off after a few minutes.
I analysed my team performance and how players getting rotated and injured influenced my GW and led to pressing the WC button in the article posted the other day.
I remain on that team. I don’t mind the fact that I have 4 players blanking in GW28. Henderson will be replaced by McCarthy.
Aubameyang has 3 great fixtures coming up so I will keep him and transfer him out for Vardy GW28
Grealish is an outstanding player who I will keep until GW28 and then transfer him out for Perez to have the Leicester double attack for GW28 onwards where Leicester’s fixtures are great.
Before I make the 2 aforementioned changes I will in GW27 move Firmino out to Jimenez.
That looks like a good plan from GW25-28 that will allow me to have in form players will great fixtures for 3 GWs. The defenders rotate pretty well too. I hope there are no injuries or transfers. After GW28 I start planning for the doubles in GW34 and GW37 (probably), and will probably free hit on the blanks in GW13.
Captain this week is salah.
Good luck all!
Here’s the latest version of his wildcard
Kev in Canada
Kev finished in 6k last season and 195k in 17/18
GW24 points: 54 on TC (FPL average 53) Total points 1,332 Gameweek rank 3,189k, Overall Rank: 481k, red arrow 62k, Team Value: £106.8m
First Kobe. The passing of Kobe and Gigi has been devastating. The truth is it shook me up on Sunday and I think I am just getting a grip now. Maybe it is partly the winter weather but it got me pretty down. The NBA is a big sport here in Canada and I grew up a big Kobe fan. I mean I really really like Kobe and also being a father it just kind of got to me. To put him in a UK perspective he has a sort of similar social status in the States as Beckham does in the UK. Especially if hoops is your sport. Anyway, some things in life just put things in perspective some times. Ultimately, it is nice to see the respect he has been getting globally.
Back to fantasy..
GW25 observations before getting into the player analysis:
• A very painful game week 24. The Vardy injury, then the Mané injury with the TC chip wasted, the week seemed to drag on for ages and a 70K rank drop. Fortunately Vardy is back and I have two free transfers.
• Mini wildcard has been deployed. I have no built up value in Mané so he is gone. I have no built up value in Maddison and his form has gone. I want triple pool still. So the debate is do I move the funds forward to Firminho or backwards to Robertson/Alisson. I decided Robertson has the best chance at outperforming his value and their clean sheet form has hit elite status again. So the double up on D is my decision.
• My three value D in Lundstram, Rico and Kelly are all now looking like weak links. I need to sort out a plan. I think I may start with ditching Lord Lundstram for money purposes, but all three may go soon.
Game week player analysis:
☆ Keeper
• McCarthy. I will take a clean sheet from GW24 in a tough week.
• Gazzaniga. Lost his spot. Not really worth using a transfer unless the cash is tight. Will likely move come wildcard.
☆ Defenders
• Alexander Arnold. Happy.
• Rico. The one defender I have at a £4.0m base. Fixtures about to become brutal until season end.
• Söyüncü. I am willing to ride the tough 3 game stretch with Ndidi back in the lineup. The green fixtures are there after.
• Kelly. Form is brutal. Fixtures still good for a bit. Still hasn’t lost his job yet.
• Lundstram to Robertson. Lord Lundstram now has a legitimate competition threat from a player that was anticipated to start the season over him in Bešić. He is being subbed early for him and I have a higher price base than most. It is not a great time to move off of him fixture wise, but if I choose him over Kelly or Rico it means I have enough in the bank to get Ings in finally for Ayew. Alternatively I could keep Lord Lundstram if I change Maupay instead of Ayew in this future planned move.
☆ Midfielders
• De Bruyne. Happy.
• Salah. Happy.
• Maddison to Sterling. I like Maddison but I have no value tied up right now, I don’t want three Leicester with 3 tough fixtures, and Sterling is an unpopular pick right now that is explosive and is a bit of a rank calculated gamble risk at this stage. Especially with West Ham at home in another week (Sterling record against them is insane and could kick start form.. hopefully).
• Mané to Hayden. Clearly for money purposes. I chose Hayden over Fleck because I don’t currently have a dedicated 3rd bench sub. The extra 0.7M to Fleck gives me bench headaches. Yes Fleck has excellent fixtures and has had a few (not really too many though) really good returns in 24 weeks but he feels like a player I will never have in on the right week. Just like my Ayew situation. I would rather have the 0.7M to upgrade elsewhere..
•Grealish aka Jack De Bruyne. He looks great.
☆ Forwards
• Vardy. Money tied up. I still like him. I could easily change in the future.
• Ayew. Last week. Will be on bench.
• Maupay. Twitter seems to have turned on this guy. I like him. He gets a ton of chances. He won’t always miss them.
Upcoming GW25
☆ Musical Chairs
Maddison ➡️ Sterling
Lundstram ➡️ Robertson
Mané ➡️ Hayden
☆ Captain
Salah. Vice Alexander Arnold.
I may change this around. Salah is going to be a heavy favourite and I need to make up some rank. I wont do it just for the sake of it though. It would need to be a good change. Maybe just to Trent. I will tweet if I do.
☆ Substitute decisions
Gazzaniga. Kelly. Ayew. Hayden
Good luck.
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