Here’s our article where 4 FFGeek Contributors with their Fantasy Premier League team tips GW38. Each show their GW38 teams. There’s Rick Porter. Rob Reid, Alex Ball and Kris O
Fantasy Premier League Team Tips GW38 – 4 FFGeek Contributors 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. 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
See also FFGeek Contributors part 1
Rick Porter
Rick’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 29k, 1k, 30k and 2k.
GW37 points: 49 (FPL average 43) Total points: 2,480, Overall Rank: 1k, no rank movement, Team Value: £105.2m
Rick has used all his chips
GW37 review
A tough week for a lot of managers as so few of the usual popular picks delivered. West Ham’s late goal was the only reason I scavenged an average week – things were looking decidedly bleak before Antonio put that away. Having Bamford stuck on the sidelines was obviously frustrating, but his recent 59 minute subs on top of Rodrigo’s form meant he was always going to be first on my bench this week. He’ll be on the pitch for the next match for sure.
GW38
Going into the final gameweek, I feel my team is looking strong. I have triple Leeds and West Ham, which admittedly looks a bit unbalanced, but they are both teams I’m happy to lean on this week.
Like many, I’m wary of Bruno Fernandes minutes. I’ll probably swap him for Son. Son’s hardly in blistering form, but he’s well-owned and a sure starter. A brace from him against Leicester would make for a frustrating end to a great season, so it’s easier to just bring him in so I don’t need to worry. Of course, Bruno is also a threat but, with 2nd place in the bag and a final just a few days later, I can’t imagine him being risked for too long. It’s tempting to spend the left over money on an upgrade elsewhere but it’s far too late in the day to be dropping points unnecessarily.
Transfer
Assuming there’s no news that forces my hand, I’ll bring in Son for Bruno. l’ll make that move on Sunday.
Captain
Salah the obvious choice. Kane vice.
Thanks
Lastly, thanks for reading. Outside of FPL it’s been strange and very difficult year for many. A handful of cancelled matches aside, football has persevered and has offered a much-needed constant in an ever-changing scenario. Considering my moves, watching matches and writing these updates has been a welcome distraction and, barring an absolute disaster of a final week, it looks like I’ll have a good finish. I hope my thoughts and scrawlings have helped you do the same.
Transfer summary: Likely Fernandes out for Son in
Here’s the team prior to any transfer being made
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 6 seasons overall rank were 312k, 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
GW37: 52 (FPL average 43) Total points: 2,453, Overall Rank: 5k, no rank movement Team Value: £106.0m
Alex has used all his chips
Follow Alex on twitter here
Transfer summary: Fernandes out and Mane in
Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW37 points: 55 (FPL average 43) Total points: 2,426, Overall Rank: 11k, green arrow: 2k Team Value: £106.9m
Rob has used all of his Chips
Follow Rob on twitter here
GW37
After the protracted nature of the GWs this season, it was almost a relief to have a GW that was kind of over in a flash. It turned out to be a decent one for my lot, undoing the damage that had been done in GW36. The good bits mostly came on Tuesday – 12 points from Bamford and a surprise goal from Rudiger which had my toe dipped in the top 10k before the Wednesday games. Sadly I couldn’t stay there, but a clean sheet from Alexander-Arnold and a late Lingard assist (couple with some bonus points) has put me back at where I ended GW35.
Here I am then going into the last GW of the season – 11k, 6 points off the top 10k, but with the added bonus of having banked my GW37 transfer. Sunday afternoon is certainly going to be interesting!
GW38 Team
2 free transfers and £1.0m in the bank.
I’m pretty happy with where I am to be honest. It’s been a consistent season and considering that my early season target was to finish in the top 0.5% of managers, I’m going to do this pretty comfortably. It would be nice though to make that final push into the Top 10k. GW30-37 have been a bit of an 11k vortex for me, I seem to be yo-yoing from 11k to 13k to 16k and back again! Having had a taste of the top 10k on Tuesday night, I’d love to finish the season off in style.
Before I go through my plans, I’m seeing a lot of chat on Social Media and in What’s App groups about how to play the final week. I’m certainly no GW38 expert by any means, but I have 10 seasons of FPL and many more of draft leagues and newspaper games behind me so I thought I’d give a few ideas of what I look at in the final week and what I have learned from experience.
First up, work out what your priorities are. If your priority is a specific mini-league win, this is the week to assess your rival and look at how to counteract any big swings. If you are ahead, I would play the percentages – look at bookies odds for clean sheets and goalscorers, keep hold of premium players who are good for double-figure hauls and make a safe call on your Captain. If you are chasing, your tactics will depend on how far you are behind. If it’s less than 10 points, this is a gap than can be made up by just a couple of events (a goal and a clean sheet for example, once bonus points are factored in.) You probably don’t need to make a wild differential choice, but you’ll need a couple of difference makers who your rival won’t pick. If your gap is more than this and certainly if it’s anything over 20, you’re probably going to have to be brave on your Captain call as well to have any chance and the odds won’t be in your favour.
If your priority is Overall Rank, then I’m of the opinion that you should stick the playing style that has served you well this season. If you’re comfortable with picking differential players then go for it, but if you’re a more conservative player then do what you’re good at – cover the template and look for players in form, or with a good fixture.
If you’re fairly new to FPL, what I will say from someone who’s done a fair few final days of the season is that GW38 is unique. You have a mix of teams with something to play for, teams who have already achieved their goal, teams who are down and out, teams who are protecting their squad for a cup final and teams who are ‘on the beach’ as they say. It’s therefore important to make sure that you have quite a deep bench as big players often get left out. Mo Salah for example only came off the bench for 20 odd minutes in GW38 last season. With him tied for the Golden Boot this year though, I don’t see that happening! The gameweek also can throw up some freak results – who remembers West Brom 5 Man United 5 in Alex Ferguson’s final game in charge (and did anyone Captain Romelu Lukaku that day?) Finally, think about the value of points hits this week – they have to pay off this week to work out, rather than you having the luxury of using them to gain an advantage for your team over 3-4 weeks. I’d suggest you try and avoid them if possible, or only use them if you’re struggling to field 11 or missing a significant leader in the Captain Polls.
So having said all that, here’s what I’m looking at this week. I’ve got a few players who’s gametime I’m fairly comfortable with – Rudiger, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Lingard, Kane and Calvert-Lewin all have something to play for still so I’m fairly confident they’ll start if fit. I’m also fairly comfortable with the gametime of my 2 Leeds players. Bielsa seems keen to finish the season strongly and he’s usually fairly forthcoming in his press conference if players are injured or left out, so I’ve 8 players I’m pretty happy on gametime-wise on the basis of all this.
I’ve then got 2 injuries – Veltman and Jota. They are therefore targets for Transfers Out – I’ll come to that later. As for the others, I’ve got 2 playing keepers so hopefully one of them will get a start (I’ll be surprised if Martinez doesn’t at least play) and I expect Konsa to start versus Chelsea too. My big uncertainties are my United players. 2nd place is secured and their target is to win the Europa League Final next Wednesday so I can see Shaw and Fernandes both being rested.
So based on this, as already mentioned, it’s my 2 injured players I’ll probably look to transfer out. As for my strategy, I’ll be sticking to how I’ve played all season. My first move is likely to be Veltman to Dallas. The Leeds man has high ownership (as I would expect for a defender who’s actually an attacking midfielder) and can easily rack up a double digit haul (he’s already got 4 this season.) He’s also playing the team that rank worst for Shots on Target conceded in the last 6 GWs. To fund this move, I need to find 0.1m and if Jota is confirmed injured, he’ll be the player that makes way. I’m not sure who I’ll bring in here yet and need to hear the press conferences, but at the top of my list at the moment is Danny Willock. He’s in fine form and has a good fixture. I’ll need to mull this over though as there are plenty of other options here.
As for Captaincy this week, it’s difficult to see beyond Mo Salah at home to Palace. Liverpool need to win and Salah is after the Golden Boot – I won’t be making a wild differential shout here. But if you did want a differential…I think I’d probably go with Patrick Bamford. He’s got 5 double digit hauls this season, he looked super sharp versus Southampton, he’ll be keen to impress Gareth Southgate one more time in a late hope of making the Euros squad and I think Leeds vs West Brom (with the Leeds fans back in) could throw up a few goals.
That’s me then for my team selection this season. I’ll try and post my final team on Twitter before the deadline as usual and good luck this final Gameweek, I hope you enjoy the matches. I’m hoping to do an end of season review after the dust has settled and I’ll also be playing the Fantasy Euro 2020 game so will have some content in early June regarding this. But for now, thanks for reading my ramblings this season and all the best!
Transfer summary: Likely Veltman to Dallas and Jota to Willock
Here’s the team prior to the transfers being made
Kris O
Kris’s last 4 seasons overall rank were 39k, 44k, 46k and 23k
GW37 Points: 48 (FPL average 43) Total points: 2,403, Overall Rank: 22k, red arrow: 1k Team Value: £106.3m
Kris has used all his Chips
The late Antonio goal saved my gameweek 37, helping me escape with a small red.
I head into the final week with a great chance of finishing my seventh season in a row in the top 50k (solid but unspectacular), but too far back to pull off a top 10k finish.
I have one free transfer and 1.7m itb.
Gw38 is notoriously unpredictable both in terms of lineups and scorelines. Helpfully, I have eight players with teams fighting for Europe/pride (Mendy, Holding, Alexander Arnold, Lingard, Salah, Son, Antonio and Kane) plus I expect Dallas to start with Leeds wanting to put on a show for their home fans. Annoyingly, not only did Saint-Maximin fail to return in 37 he also got injured and is likely to miss the game – unless I have other injuries I’m happy to cover with Vydra despite his game time risk, but at least he plays Sheffield United.
Otherwise, I may need to consider a different transfer to my plan of selling Fernandes, who’s likely to have minutes managed ahead of the Europa league final on Wednesday, and bring in Mane for Liverpool’s must win home game.
Captain Salah and vice Mane.
Good luck all for the final game of the season!!!
Transfer summary: Likely Fernandes out and Mane in
Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made
The 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 2,429 and an overall rank of 10k. You can follow that team, including live transfers and player and transfer breakdowns, on our subscription Patreon site.
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Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
FFGeek Contributors teams part 1
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