Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW29 article where the 2nd group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW29. In this part there’s Rob Reid, Andrew Whitfield, Sergio Torija and Scott Taylor.
Fantasy premier league team tips GW29 – FFGeek contributor’s teams part 2
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Introduction
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
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW28 points: 39 (FPL average 26) Total points 1,625 Gameweek rank 915k, Overall Rank: 44k, green arrow 8k, Team Value: £106.0m
Rob has used his 2nd wildcard and his triple captain chip
GW28 review
Well that was a bit of a bizarre week – you might as well have turned the league table upside-down if you wanted to predict the results. First up there was Vardy-gate on Friday night as an under-the-weather Leicester were upset by bottom side Norwich. Then there was West Ham throwing the form book out the window and actually winning a game. And then in the 530pm game it finally happened – Liverpool got beaten. And well beaten too – all credit to Watford who played a superb game.
As for my team, I think like most Friday and Saturday were a bit of write-off. I changed Grealish for Perez at 652pm on Friday night once the Vardy news broke but alas both he and Barnes blanked. I then got a grand total of 3 points from my Southampton players and 5 points from my Pool players on Saturday, the only positive being that Gomez missing out meant that Lascelles came off my bench for a clean sheet.
So as fits the theme for my season, my gameweek hinged on the Sunday games. Thankfully Wolves delivered for me and it Matt Doherty who was the star. His 12 points and the 7 from Jiminez made up nearly half my score and took me from staring a 15k red arrow in the face to a rather healthy 8k rise and my first venture into the top 50k since GW3. It seems somewhat incredulous that only 3/11 returns (one of which was nearly lost on my bench) and a captain blank should produce a fairly healthy green arrow, but such is the way of things and I’ll enjoy another positive week
It’s certainly been a good few weeks for Chaos Theory, but the hard work starts here I think. Looking forwards now, the FA Cup results have been pivotal to my strategy moving forward. Here’s what I’m going to do.
GW29 Team
Before this week I had visions of producing a lengthy write-up as to my upcoming chip strategy, but this week’s results (I’m writing prior to the Derby v Man U game) and the news about Man City v Arsenal being quickly shoehorned into GW29 have kind of simplified things somewhat.
The nuts and bolts of things are this. Liverpool have been knocked out so I now therefore have 6 players playing in blank GW31 – 3 from Wolves and 3 from Liverpool. I have 3 transfers to use prior to GW31 so this will put me at 9 players. This is enough for me to hold my Free Hit until GW34 and I’ll then play my Bench Boost in GW37. Simples! I do have to bear in mind that any players that play in GW31 won’t have a double later on, so I’ve also got to be careful to balance having a good line-up for GW31 versus the best possible Bench Boost in GW37, so I’m unlikely to take a hit to get to 10 GW31 players but I haven’t ruled this out.
Looking shorter term by chance and circumstance, I have the players I want for this week’s double already. My decision to hang onto Aubameyang through his blank in GW28 has proved a good one so he’ll be in for GW29 double and he’s joined by De Bruyne. There are doubts regarding the Belgian’s fitness of course, but he’s staying in my squad and I’ve got enough bench cover if he doesn’t play. Therefore I don’t need to spend any transfers this week to get more double coverage – these 2 players are enough for me. My initial plan is therefore to carry my transfer this week.
Now looking further forward again, I’m eyeing up the players I’ll transfer in for GW30 & 31. I’ll probably spend one transfer next week which at the moment will probably be Sarr for Perez or Barnes. For GW31, I’ll probably sell Ings though I’m not sure who for yet with the other move probably being to sell the other one of Perez or Barnes and again I’m not sure yet for whom. My only other concern medium term is that there are some fitness doubts about Traore, but for the moment he’s a hold until GW31 at the least.
Finally then back to this week and my GW29 team. At the moment my bench is Traore, Stephens and Lascelles in that order and of my 2 playing keepers I’ve opted for Henderson over McCarthy. I’m aware leaving those 2 Saints on the bench again may sting me with them playing shot-shy Newcastle so I may change this prior to deadline. Captaincy is a tricky one. Of the 2 double players, De Bruyne has fitness worries and Aubameyang has a tricky second fixture. Then there’s Liverpool playing Bournemouth – a fixture that’s usually a happy hunting ground for a certain Mo Salah. Sure, Pool’s form has slipped of late but you’d have to think they get things back on track at home to the struggling Cherries. So at the moment, the armband is on Mo.
If there’s any changes to my team, I’ll Tweet them on Friday night for Saturday morning. This looks like an interesting gameweek so good luck folks and I hope you enjoy the games.
transfer summary: Probably Sarr in for Perez or Barnes
Follow Rob on twitter here
Here’s the team pre any transfers
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18
GW28 points: 26 (FPL average 26) Total points 1,575 Gameweek rank 3,516k, Overall Rank: 185k, red arrow 29k, Team Value: £104.5m
Andrew has used his 2nd wildcard and his triple captain chip
Well what an eventful and crucial FPL week that was folks !!
First the struggles of GW28, then the drama of an FA Cup 5th round midweek which had massive implications for chip strategy and GW31 blanks, the announcement of an immediate double gameweek for Man City and Arsenal – and a De Bruyne injury concern to throw into the mix !!
Firstly my GW28:
– Bang on the average of 28 points, but my run of three green arrows since my GW25 wildcard which had taken me from 279k to 156k was ended by a 29k red arrow, so back to 185k. Three steps forward and one step back. It could have been a lot worse though with only two returning players.
– It was always going to be a challenging “mini blankweek” and my priority going into the weekend was to put 11 players onto the pitch without a hit. I went with 12 available players, as a bit of extra security, benching De Bruyne and Grealish as my only GW28 blankers. With many managers taking hits and running with bare elevens including Ricos and Dendonckers, I thought I had a definite edge – if my players produced of course. In the end, my “12th player” was indeed needed off the bench – but scored zero !!
– What we didn’t bank on was the leaked team sheet just prior to the Friday deadline with the dreaded words “No Vardy“, especially as I had frustratingly just flipped back to him from my successful three week gamble with Aubamayang . I went back to Vardy for the huge protection and rank risk of a highly owned player getting a big haul against Norwich – well that went well !! With prior knowledge of the Vardy injury, I would have just kept Aubamayang and switched out Grealish instead. This is now all the more frustrating as Arsenal have a late double gameweek announced and I am going to be moving back from Vardy to Aubameyang – and with price movements it now requires a hit !! Thank you Mr Rodgers.
– Roll on Saturday and Ings is on the bench too – apparently he had not trained all week and would only play if he was really needed. Don’t you just love manager transparency. Where was that in the press conference Mr Hasenhuttl !! With that knowledge, I may have switched to Calvert Lewin. So that was two thirds of my strike force compromised by “manager silence”. It also throws into question if Ings purple patch is over and if his injury niggles have returned. Calvert Lewin on standby as he seems to be the new Ings !!
– Fear not. At least we had triple Liverpool to come !! They win every week. But their impregnable defence that had kept ten clean sheets in eleven games looked shambolic at times at Watford. Trent, Robbo and captain Salah all blanked, but then again so did Mane and Firmino too. At least we were all in the same boat with the shock result at Watford and it didn’t really impact rank either way.
– Bizarrely, on Saturday night after six of the eight games, I had one returning player out of eight and my clean sheet from Lascelles had me on a green arrow !! How is that possible !! I think the average was 13 at that stage with just two games to go, so my 17 was a good place to be !! The fact we were all struggling together meant we could laugh as well as cry. No damage done.
– I knew my “three Wolves” had to perform on Sunday, as I had no FPL interest in the Everton v Man Utd game of which many dangers lurked. Cue the Wolves clean sheet going very early, Boly blanking, and his well talked up defensive team mate Doherty bagging 12 points. Mr Traore was restored to the team and looked his usual threat before dislocated his shoulder again !! Don’t you just love FPL. A late goal from Jimenez gratefully doubled my returners to two. But unlike Saturday, my rank was damaged by key points from the likes of Calvert Lewin and Bruno Fernandes… so not a week to remember fondly !!
– Having said that, some managers did bag the points, so if you were on Pope and Doherty, Jota and Fernandes, who all scored double figures, thats a cracking good week and very well played.
So what next ??
I have one free transfer and 1.2M in the bank.
– There are players I would really like. Calvert Lewin looks like scoring every time he gets the ball and just defies his tough fixtures and is on fire. Bruno Fernandes is pulling the strings at United and is on set pieces and shoots on sight. Doherty looks worth every penny and is a points magnet at both ends.. I could actually look to take the frustrating Vardy down to Calvert Lewin, and get Grealish up to Fernandes and Stephens up to Doherty, which looks very attractive as a two week plan.
– However, the double gameweek for GW29 looms and that scuppers the plan and changes things. I really want Aubamayang for the double gameweek. It’s tough selling Vardy ( again !! ) ahead of Villa at home, but Auba has TWO games including West Ham at home. Can we be sure Vardy even starts after last weekend. He didn’t even make the bench in a full strength Leicester team in the cup on Wednesday. He hasn’t scored since before Christmas and his persistent injuries are affecting his game time and his form. Is it time to depart from Vardy ?
GW31 – Free hit or not ??
– The midweek round of FA Cup games has finally cleared up how GW31 will look. We now know that only FOUR games out of ten will go ahead, and so TWELVE teams will blank !!! That’s a huge hole in GW31.
– A lot of people have been trying to preserve the free hit for a later double gameweek by building a GW31 team, especially if holding triple Liverpool and triple Wolves. The unexpected blanks now for Everton and Norwich due to the Spurs loss, and Leicester winning too will have made that job much harder, pushing more people down the GW31 free hit route. I was struggling to get close to 11 for GW31 and the midweek action has now confirmed my plans. I am free hitting in GW31. Definitely.
– GW34 is the most likely free hit alternative and it’s a big unknown. It’s a “blank” for the cup semis but also has a free midweek after it. Latest “guesses” from the blank and doubles “experts” predict we could have only 0-3 doubles in GW34 and 8-10 in GW37, which looks like being the big double week. GW34 could end up being a pretty “normal” week with most teams playing once. How effective will the free hit be in GW34 ?? Is it worth saving it or not ??
– I am attracted to the free hit in GW31. Whilst many can get three Liverpool and three Wolves, I am sensing the opportunity to field a strong team. With the free hit, you don’t need a sub keeper or a deep bench. I can go with cheap as chips bench fodder and put the cash into getting a Mane Salah Trent triple up, a Doherty Jimenez Jota triple up, a Spurs triple up, throw in a Sarr maybe and have a strong edge on those cobbling together 8-10 players, who don’t have the luxury of cherry picking that golden eleven.
– One other advantage of free hitting GW31 is the option to take advantage of the City Arsenal double gameweek, whereas those building to GW31 will further hinder their GW31 plans by pulling in more City and Arsenal players who blank in GW31. The double gameweek is counter productive to building a GW31 team.
Double gameweek 29:
– I only have De Bruyne from City and no Arsenal. I am not sure I trust any City players to start both games. De Bruyne is flagged but it could be a smokescreen and I think he will play both games. It’s incredible that City have a double gameweek and everyone isn’t all over Aguero like a rash. What a great differential he could be !! So it’s De Bruyne and the incoming Auba for the double. I could just run with the pair but I am going to throw a third player into the double gameweek mix and snap up Saka. I have to take a hit to get Aubameyang back as I am just short of funds. So with Traores shoulder impacting on his minutes, I am probably making the Saka switch. I could lose Mooy instead and keep Traore. That could be the better option, but the attraction of the extra funds from trading in Traore could be very handy. We will see. Saka for either Mooy or Traore seems very likely. Part of me wants to hold Traore so it depends how much I value the extra cash by selling him over Mooy.
My GW29 team:
Some tough line up choices. That starts in goal with Henderson v Norwich or McCarthy v Newcastle. If I bring in Aubamayang and Saka as planned, I will start them both. I am currently benching two Southampton defenders against Newcastle so the bench boost crossed my mind. If I could guarantee a Saints clean sheet and 12 points, plus my other two players, I would take that. But it’s a big gamble putting my bench boost totally in the hands of a Southampton clean sheet, especially when McCarthys place could be under threat. I am inclined to save the bench boost for the big double gameweek in GW37 when most of my bench can play twice.
Captain:
The choice this week is as tough as it gets.
– Salah was a runaway leader of the polls until the double gameweek was announced. They don’t come much better than a wounded Liverpool at home to Bournemouth. He was rested in the cup so wow what a fixture. Even with a single match, it makes great appeal. I hate going with the first game of the week but it’s tempting me to keep the armband on Mo.
– The polls have now swung heavily to Aubamayang because of the double gameweek. So if people comprehensively preferred Liverpool v Bournemouth to Arsenal v West Ham, are they now saying they fancy a haul from Aubamayang away to Man City, because that’s what it amounts to ??
– Throw in De Bruyne. Will he play two games. If so, he has to be a massive contender. But do you put an armband on a flagged player when Pep says “he doesn’t know” if De Bruyne will be fit for the Manchester Derby ??
– Salah and De Bruyne have very high ownership so if you own them and don’t captain them, you are going to lose points on their returns as their “effective ownership “ is likely to be over 100%. Do you want to captain Auba and watch Salah and De Bruyne damage your rank, even though you own them both ?? Auba “leads the polls” but is unlikely to be “the most captained” due to his ownership levels. Owning Aubameyang but without the armband can still boost your rank. Which means I could end up on De Bruynr or Salah.
Currently I am still thinking Salah, even on one game, as his effective ownership will sky high.. tough choices and I won’t be committing to that call until closer the deadline. In fact, those leaked team sheets could be worth watching more than ever this week !!!
Good luck everyone in GW29 !!
Transfer summary: Likely Vardy and Mooy out and Aubameyang and Saka in
Here’s the team with transfers showing but not completed
Sergio Torija
Sergio’s last 3 seasons were 596k, 17k and 21k
GW28 points: 43 (FPL average 26) Total points 1,641 Gameweek rank 522k, Overall Rank: 25k, green arrow 10k, Team Value: £103.7m
Sergio has used none of his chips
FPL GW29
Once more, when a scrappy gameweek unfolds and the scores are low, I come up from it with a good result: 43 points and a GW rank of 500K, for a green arrow of 10K places.
Guaita 11 pointer was the highlight, with also returns from Jimenez, Lascelles, and Cathcart. Funny this last one, if Liverpool did well in the game, despite my 3 Liverpool cover I would be worse off than with the loss but Cathcart 6 points. Other than Liverpool, the big letdown of the gameweek was Vardy, who once more missed the game with a mysterious injury.
This week I moved early for my free transfer. Sidibe has been an absolute disaster since I brought him in, he is clearly no first choice anymore, although he has been finding his way into the pitch through injuries. With plenty of cash in the bank, after checking Saturday scores I was almost sold in getting Alonso. However once I sat down after the gameweek, I decided to go for Doherty instead. Last year fantasy revelation has been quietly doing the job through the season, and Wolves seem to be coming to their best now when it matters more. He also has a guaranteed fixture in GW31.
Now, a word about GW29 double, with the extra game being Man City vs Arsenal.
As the Geek very well discussed in his dedicated article, when a double is announced we all want as many players doubling as possible. However this time bringing in players for the double works against preparations for GW31 and beyond. For those decided on free hitting in GW31, bringing an extra body makes sense, although the challenge is to pick the City player who starts both games outside of De Bruyne, or who from Arsenal will give you points at City. So basically, the double has a big chance to became a regular week.
I am undecided on my GW31 strategy, I’ve got 7 players with game already, plus 2 frees I could get to 9, one being Guaita at Liverpool, so say 8. I could go through that without free hit and then use it on a double gameweek, but I also have triple captain still available, so running out of when to play it for a double gameweek.
This week I’ve already gone from regular captain Salah and not bring any more doublers, to I will triple captain De Bruyne because when do I do it otherwise. To an hour later read that De Bruyne is hurt with a shoulder injury…
For now Captain Salah and vice De Bruyne, but I don’t discard doing something else like taking a hit for Aubameyang and triple captaining him. I am not too sold on it, but let’s see what inspiration a couple of Friday beers bring.
Good luck for a long GW29 Geekers!
Transfer summary: Sidibe out and Doherty in.
Here’s the team with that transfer complete
Scott Taylor
Scott finished with an overall rank of 1k last season and 12k in 17/18
GW28 points: 37 -4 (FPL average 26) Total points 1,607 Gameweek rank 1,240k, Overall Rank: 78k, red arrow 2k, Team Value: £104.4m
Scott has played his triple captain chip
I think I got away with that game week! I’ll take a 1.5k red arrow when I only have 3 returning players and a captain blank. My 2 transfers in of Fernandes and Jimenez (last minute for Vardy when his injury was leaked) saved my week.
I’d like to avoid using the FH chip in GW31 as my plan is to WC in GW32 or GW33, BB in GW34 and FH in GW37. That means ignoring DGW29 as I need to save the transfers for GW31 and Man City and Arsenal don’t have a game. I’d probably only look at getting Aubameyang in anyway (possibly Pepe and Saka too) but that would require too much surgery.
In terms of GW31, I have 5 players at the moment (3 Pool and 2 Wolves). I also have Rico if he gets his place back. My loose plan at the moment is to get Pope, Doherty, Sarr, Deeney and maybe McNeil or Bergwijn for McCarthy, Soyuncu, Maddison, Ings and Fleck or Fernandes. That would be a -8. I don’t need to decide yet though so will think about it a bit more and see how the various players perform over the next few games and keep an eye on injuries.
I do think I’ll do the Soyuncu to Doherty transfer this week though as Doherty is performing well and has great fixtures. He would come in for Boly in the team below. I’ll wait to the last minute though in case of injuries/further news on De Bruyne. Captain likely to be Salah although could be De Bruyne depending on injury news – another last minute decision I think!
Transfer summary: Likely Soyuncu out Doherty in
Here’s the team pre any transfers
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Other posts
Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
Monitoring the FA Cup results to determine blank GW31
Defender player rankings for GW29
Fantasy premier league double gameweek 29 announced
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