Here’s our fantasy premier league teams GW14 article where we give our early thoughts on the FFGeek team for GW14. We look back at gameweek 13, The monitor list, transfer thoughts plus early captain thinking.
fantasy premier league teams GW14 – some early thoughts on the FFGeek team
Gameweek 13
GW13 points: 39 (average 50) Total points 815, Gameweek rank 4,812k, Overall Rank: 43k, red arrow 15k, Team Value: £102.3m
Here’s the points:
So gameweek rank wise my worst of the season comprehensively. The first time with a gameweek rank of 4 million plus. Only 2 returning players in Alexander Arnold and Salah. Salah returning though due to the amount of times he was captained was actually rank damaging so you could say only 1 returning player.
A red arrow that could have been alot worse in a 15k drop to 43k.
The rank damage was done in part due to the wrong captain pick of Aguero. The Sane and Sterling hauls weren’t that rank affecting as they are still relatively lowly owned although that will rise obviously.
The Ings injury was frustrating. Against Fulham is the time you don’t want an attacking player injured. Wan Bissaka clean sheet was also frustrating as I’d backed him ahead of Hojbjerg most weeks and it was only the fact that Southampton were playing Fulham that I put Hojbjerg head.
A few random thoughts
An FPL team will be made up of a number of categories of players:
The template players
These are named so as they form the basis of a large number of serious FPL managers teams. There is no definition of template although I define them as 70% of the top 10k or 7/10 top FPL managers I follow.
My team at the moment is fairly template heavy with:
Alonso, Liverpool defender, Doherty, Wan Bissaka, Hazard, Aguero, Salah, Arnautovic and Richarlison = 9 players in total
The template players will not gain you much ground when they score as everyone has them but when they fail everyone fails so in theory you shouldn’t lose 2 much ground.
Bench warmers
These players add nothing and are there to warm the bench at minimum cost.
Mine are Button and Hojbjerg = 2 players
Differentials
Category 1
These are the non template players left over in your team
Mine the motley crew of Foster, Fraser and Ings. Mendy will also go to Laporte this week and that will be my 4th differential as, surprisingly, the City defence is pretty lowly owned with Mendy injured.
3 of those 4 don’t bode well for future gameweeks.
Category 2
Your template replacement player
So what I mean by this is that you may have Martial instead of Richarlison or Sterling instead of Hazard. Each week your template replacement player will take on your template player in a high risk game of FPL chicken. It’s even higher risk if the battle is against a captain favourite. If you win that individual battle you will get a rank boost if you lose you will see a nasty drop in rank.
Getting into these template battles doesn’t mean you will lose but you may suffer more rank volatility week to week.
A great positive example this season has been the FFGeek contributor league leader Jordan Sadler who made a conscious decision to have Mane as a template replacement for Hazard and over the last 5 games Mane has scored 29 points vs Hazard’s 9. He’s also done well getting Martial as a differential early and now has an overall rank of 1,264.
How do you gain rank in this set up?
Firstly, Through your differentials (category 1 and 2 above)
Secondly, who you pick as captain
and thirdly your weekly transfer. This will be the case if you’re not picking a template player especially.
The template players will help cushion the rank loss.
Remember these are only my thoughts. There are many different ways, reasons and objectives in playing FPL and no right and wrong.
The winds of change are coming
The Aguero failure at West Ham, the Sterling and Sane points, the Hazard 1 assist in the last 5 gameweeks, the Spurs and Arsenal good fixtures from 15 and 16 onwards. We now could be going to be headed into uncharted territory and it’s impossible to see how things are going to change but it’s hard to see how they won’t.
The next 3 gameweek transfers will be important.
It’s going to be very interesting to see the captain and transfer polls this week.
The FFGeek team planner
So here’s the latest version and it assumes I do the Mendy out Laporte in as my transfer
So I’ve flagged Hazard as a future think for the GW16 game against Man City as a potential exit point. Hazard is a an injury doubt at the moment but would need something categorical from Sarri to even think about getting rid of him v Fulham. I haven’t flagged anything yet with Aguero or Salah.
I’ve also flagged Richarlison for GW17 when Everton come up against Man City and Spurs after that.
Arnautovic is also flagged but he has good fixtures until GW22 so if fit he stays until then.
Transfer thoughts
1 free transfer and £0.3m in the bank
Unless something significant happens the transfer will be Mendy out and Laporte in but it won’t be done until Friday
Captain thoughts
Another rank affecting captain choice this week with Hazard home to Fulham and Aguero home to Bournemouth. At the moment I just don’t know.
The Hazard injury is a nuisance as the Friday kick off doesn’t give time for the poll to be put up after the press conferences on Friday. Needs some thought. Hopefully we’ll get word earlier.
Lineup issues
Not difficult this week. The only choice will be between Ings home to Man Utd if he’s fit or Richarlison at Liverpool. At the moment I’m putting Richarlison in the lineup.
The team lineup
Assume Mendy is Laporte. 5 at the back and only 2 of my 4 differentials start. It’s hard to see how this will be a positive week unless I get the captain call right.
Gameweek 14 time and fixtures
Gameweek 14 starts at 19.00 on the Friday 30th November UK time. Set your team up now in case you’re waylaid for some reason.
Here’s the fixtures:
That’s it hope you had a good gameweek!
See our article on players underlying stats for GW13 only
There’s also our fixture ease article and our bandwagons and sinking ships article
See our article on players underlying stats for GW13 only
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