Fantasy premier league team tips GW34 – FFGeek contributor’s teams part 2

Contributors, Fantasy Premier League

Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW34 article where the 2nd group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW34+. In this part there’s Yaniv Salomon, Rob Reid, Joseph Crilley and Andrew Whitfield 

Fantasy premier league team tips GW34 – 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

Yaniv Salomon

Yaniv finished with an overall rank of 4k last season and 8k in 17/18

GW33+ points: 58 (FPL average 49) Total points 2,091 Overall Rank: 1k, no rank movement, Team Value: £103.8m

Yaniv has used all his chips apart from the Free Hit chip

Follow Yaniv on twitter here

Hi all, so another tough week for my team struggling to stay around the top 1k, Mane as my captain surely saved the GW with his late goal.
My 2 FT gave me 1 pointer from each, Mahrez and Foden, the later just looks great, I am sure he will start vs Newcastle and will have a return.
Manchester United continue to look fantastic , and I am aiming to get 3 attacking players from them, I just don’t want to take a hit (need to take out De Gea), so I will wait another GW to monitor the situation.
De Bruyne after his rest will get the armband (although I am afraid of the mighty Bruno).
I have a problem with my front line as I only can play 7 from 8 (all of them has nice fixtures) I guess Mahrez has the biggest chance of not starting in his team , so for now he will be my first sub (it is either him or Calvert Lewin).

Transfer summary:  Carrying over a free transfer

Here’s the team assuming no transfers are made:




Rob Reid

Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k

GW33+ points: 62 -4 = 58 (FPL average 49) Total points 1,994 Overall Rank: 38k, red arrow 8k, Team Value: £105.3m

Rob has used all his chips apart from the Free Hit chip

Follow Rob on twitter here

A pretty ‘meh’ gameweek that ultimately hinged on 3 wrong decisions but was salvaged a bit by 1 very right one. We’ll start with the bad. First up was leaving Egan on the bench for 10 points. To be fair a Lascelles home match was probably the better pick on paper so I’m not too down on this and I nearly got away with it with KDB starting the City game from the bench. But alas, it was a bad day at the office for The Citizens and Kevin got a 1 point cameo. Frustrating

Second up was picking the wrong captain. Again not too down on this one as I think if I was given the same set of fixtures and circumstances again I’d still go Mo. At least he did chip in an assist. Better than nothing though not quite the 15 pointer that correct option Bruno Fernandes got. Well done Bruno backers – I got it right last week with Aubameyang but you can’t win them all.

Third was my transfer decision going Pulisic over Martial. To be fair, Pulisic played pretty well and on another day could have had another return. But Martial is starting to give a lie to his previous inconsistent FPL history. His goal was an absolute beauty and although he was lucky on the penalty assist, you’ve got to be in that position in the first place to force the handball. Again hats off to Tony owners.

I did get one thing very right though and that was the Jota to Greenwood transfer. Bring aggressive on the minus 4 has initially paid off here and who knows, Pulisic may outscore Martial in GW35+ and 36+ to balance this off. We’ll see. So thank you Mason for a great haul and at 4.3m for a striker I’m sure his sales will rocket (he already hit 4.4 by the deadline.) You may also have wondered why I didn’t mention GW34+ when compating Martial to Pulisic? Well that’s because I’m probably going to play my Free Hit this week. Let the chaos commence!

GW34+ Free Hit Team

Here goes then! I’ve ummed and erred about this a bit and I’m still only 90% sure I’m going to do it, but this does looks a prime GW for it. The other 2 weeks I like are GW36+ (City play Bournemouth and Chelsea play Norwich) and GW38+. There are cons to both though. For GW36+, there’s the FA Cup semis immediately following where City and Chelea meet and then Chelsea play Liverpool in GW37+. This just screams rotation for the easier GW36+ games.

Then there’s GW38+ where to be quite frank, anything can happen and anybody can play. Yeah sure we might get some early pre-deadline team news from one of our inside sources, but that leaves a heck of a scramble for your Free Hit. And again, some teams will be resting for the FA Cup final and others will have little to play for. I’m happy to go into GW38+ with 2 frees and take my chances.

So this leads me back to GW34+. Why do I like this week? First of all some nice fixtures for certain teams that can be targeted. We’ve got City vs Newcastle, Bournemouth vs Spurs, Brighton vs Liverpool, Palace vs Chelsea and Aston Villa against Man United. Everton v Southampton could also be an ok one, though Saints did do very well on Sunday night versus City as I mentioned earlier. The other thing is that this could be a split Captain week, so there’s the chance to punt on a differential Captain without so much damage to your Overall Rank if he blanks. I’ve had my trials and tribulations with them in the past, but there’s 2 Spurs in Son and Kane who face a very crumbly Bournemouth defence and who also have very low ownership. I don’t own either and I’d like them both, but not for the long term.

So here’s what I’ve come up with for Free Hit team. I’ve got a decent budget of 105.6m so I can stretch things a bit by leaving the bench fairly bare. I’ve picked this squad for the moment, but please note it is subject to change and I’ve given a few options in each category of others on my radar.

Goalkeepers

I’m going for a premium and a super cheap bench filler. The 3 premiums I’ve looked at at De Gea, Allison and Ederson. I’ve gone for the latter for the moment as I think he’s the best clean sheet chance. 3.9 Martin is the bench fodder.

Defenders

I’ve gone for players who can get 1 game explosive returns. Trent keeps his place, we know what he’s capable of. I’ve also held onto Doherty – decent chance of a clean sheet away to Sheffield United and also good for attacking returns. Last place goes to Lucas Digne, hoping he’ll add to his 7 assists this season. 2 cheaps fill the gaps but both should play in case any bench players are needed – Taylor and Lamptey. Other players I’m considering are Mendy, Van Dijk and Boly and I could swap to one of these if there’s any injury news to any of my first 5.

Midfielders

In-form players De Bruyne and Fernandes keep their places. Son I’ve already mentioned, he’s in for the fixture alone. I’ve kept Liverpool midfield cover but switched Salah to Mane with it being an away fixture. Final spot is Foden – hopefully he’ll start after being benched on Sunday. Sterling, Salah, Mahrez, Moura, Martial, Willian and Pulisic are all other considerations here.

Strikers 

I’ve kept Greenwood from my original team and paired him with Kane. Connolly makes up the bench. I’ve toyed with hanging onto Jimenez, but think it could be a tight game versus The Blades. Deeney against Norwich would be another punt, but he’s not really inspired me when I’ve seen him play since the restart.

Captain

Kane is a big tempter this week with the Bournemouth fixture, but I suspect De Bruyne may come out high in the polls. I think City will be after blood following their surprise defeat on Sunday and I think De Bruyne could profit so I’ve put the armband on him for the moment. I might be tempted to go Kane though if there looks like a heavy split on the polls.

I’ll post my final team on Twitter tomorrow afternoon if I can (depends on if I get an afternoon break in work!) Good luck folks and I hope you enjoy the games.

Transfer summary:  Playing the Free Hit Chip

Here’s a draft version:

Fantasy premier league team tips GW34

Joseph Crilley

Joseph’s last 3 seasons OR were 28k, 7k and 13k

GW33+ points: 54 (FPL average 49) Total points 1,964 Overall Rank: 80k, red arrow 18k, Team Value: £104.2m

Joe has used all his chips 

Follow Joe on twitter here

I have 2 free transfers but not sure how to use them yet.

Transfer summary:  TBC

Here’s the team prior to any transfers:




Andrew Whitfield

Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18

GW33+ points: 54 (FPL average 49) Total points 1,929 Overall Rank: 164k, red arrow 30k, Team Value: £104.9m

Andrew has used all his chips 

Follow Andrew on twitter here

– Well they say it’s the hope that kills you. Ten home fixtures, captain playing at home to the defence with the most goals conceded, what could possibly go wrong ? Sometimes, gameweeks come along and bite you on the bum – and this was certainly one of them.

– 54 points resulted in a 30k red arrow this week, down from 134k to 164k. I cracked the 100k only last Tuesday so it’s been a brutal seven days. Two green arrows followed by two reds. But up 78k since the Restart. I need to bounce back this week.

Gameweek 33+ talking points:

– We will start with something positive. My transfer of Mount to Pulisic looks a great move, based on his performance against Watford. Unlucky to only record 6 points. He was at the heart of everything and playing very advanced too. A great addition to my team. I am hopeful of decent returns.

– I captained Salah over Fernandes, which cost me 9 points. I really felt we would get the Liverpool backlash after that 5-0 at City but they were pretty awful for most of the game. Grateful for the assist in the end. Villa foiled my captain Jimenez the week before too. So beware Man Utd captains at Villa next with their improved defence. There will be questions about Salah now, especially with so many good attacking midfield options. Trent got me the clean sheet. Trent will be staying all season as he always has a big score in him. Salah stays for now.

– My Man Utd trio are currently Fernandes, Rashford and Maguire. No clean sheet against Bournemouth is disappointing when the defensive record had been strong. It’s the first goals conceded at Old Trafford since January, so context is needed, and surely more will follow based on fixtures. Rashford I thought was a bit unlucky. He scored one from the spot, but had another finger tipped away and a goal ruled out for a marginal offside. On another day he would have scored a hat trick and everyone would be moving him in now !! Fine margins. Fernandes looked great and 15 points could have been even more. But of course he was a rank loser this week, even as an owner, without the armband. Fernandes is a contender for permanent wearer of the armband now as when you don’t, you lose. You can only cheer him now if you captain him !!

– The three I feared most were Fernandes, Martial, and Greenwood..so it couldn’t have gone much worse – Fernandes 15, Martial 14, Greenwood 13, were the highest scorers of the round !! I had considered a points hit before the game to switch Rashford to Martial as he is playing more central, gets an extra point for each goal and gets a clean sheet point too. It didn’t sit right with me. I would have felt pretty sick taking a points hit selling Rashford if he had got that hat trick. I only lost a “net 4 points” by not doing it. The three to be on certainly seem to be Fernandes, Martial and Greenwood, but it would now take -8 to switch united assets around just to get those three. So I am staying loyal to the United defence and to Rashford. It might be Maguire and Rashfords turn this week.

– My Wolves trio scored 5 points between them !! I have owned Jimenez in three spells. You would not believe his average score in spells I have owned him compared to when he has hurt when I haven’t. Mr consistent ?? We need to keep in mind his wife is due to give birth soon. After 7 clean sheets in the previous 8 games, and Boly only warming my bench, I paired up Doherty and Boly this week !!

– The luck ran out with Nick Pope after his 9 and 10 pointers in his previous two games. His clean sheet went late after 80 mins.

– De Bruyne managed a one pointer. But then again so did Sterling, Mahrez, Jesus and Foden in a wasteful day for city. On another day, it really could have been six or seven. Two Man City attackers is starting to look essential, despite the rotation. They don’t need to play 90 mins to do damage. City are electric going forward and have now scored 81 goals already. Scary if you only own De Bruyne ?

– Calvert Lewin blanked on Monday, so at least the two players I sold, Mount and Calvert Lewin, both blanked for the fourth game in a row and didn’t punish me.

– Just to cap my week off, I left 22 points on the bench !! First and second sub were only one pointers so not too agonising but Saka 10 points from last sub, and keeper McCarthy 11 points, although I would never have played him over Pope this week. When it rains it pours eh ?

– So the good thing about gameweeks coming thick and fast is that another arrives quickly to move on and put things right….

So what next in GW34+

– I have one free transfer and a bit of cash to play with, having 1.1M in the bank..

– I could flip Nketiah to Greenwood but that would mean a hit as I would need to take Maguire out. I could switch Rashford to Greenwood and that would give me a lot of cash for another Man City asset. I could make that Rashford to Martial switch for a hit ( again ) that would mean two cheaper strikers and there are not many options right now, but a tasty midfield of Salah, De Bruyne, Fernandes, martial and Pulisic. I could even play 451 then.

– I could ditch Salah and put in Son to target that Bournemouth match. I could also ditch Salah for sterling or Mahrez too. I am reluctant to sell the games top points scorer for the last two years. We will see.

– My likely switch is Saka to Foden. No hit required. It gives me two City players which is looking essential right now. Foden was rested at Southampton so seems sure to start at home to Newcastle. He has scored 16 and 12 in his last two home games.

– That would leave me with 0.3M. I still have a sub keeper to sell which doesn’t seem priority but it does free up another 0.5M if required. I like the Foden move in as I would have lots of options and flexibility to play 352 with Foden, 442 with Boly, or 343 with Nketiah. Lots of formation flexibility.

Captain:

– Salah at Brighton doesn’t look attractive when Liverpool are stuttering. Fernandes is Mr Unstoppable right now so is a definite contender at Villa. But that Villa defence has foiled my last two captains in Jimenez and Salah.. so currently leaning towards a rested De Bruyne against Newcastle . The last three games that De Bruyne has started at the Etihad he has scored 14 points in every one !! He looks certain to play. It has to be De Bruyne this week and hope Bruno has a quiet one.

Transfer summary:  Likely to be Saka to Foden

Captain – De Bruyne

Good luck everyone !!

Here’s the team before any transfers

Fantasy premier league team tips GW34

FFGeek Contributors League

Here’s the league rankings before the Spurs Everton game although the team ranks below are after that.

The highlighted FFGeek contributors combined team is going well in 10th place with  Currently 1,988 points, 44k overall rank. You can follow that team, including live transfers, on our subscription Patreon site.

You can also follow Joe’s transfer planner team in 9th place with  Currently 1,993 points 39k overall rank 

There’s loads of other features on the Patreon site that you can read about at the top of this page

fpl team tips GW34

Other Posts

10 Top FPL managers teams

Fixture ease article

GW34 Captain Poll

FFGeek contributors part 1

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