Here’s our fantasy premier league teams GW29 article where we give our early thoughts on the FFGeek team for GW29. We look back at gameweek 28, The team planning schedule, transfer thoughts, some blanks and doubles words plus early captain thinking.
fantasy premier league teams GW29 – some early thoughts on the FFGeek team
Gameweek 28
GW28 points: 30 (average 53) Total points 1,648, Gameweek rank 5,869k, Overall Rank: 128k, red arrow 57k, Team Value: £102.8m
Here’s the link to my GW28 team selection article if you’re interested.
The GW28 points:
Well that was easily the worst gameweek of the season for me by some distance. On gameweek rank it was 5.8 million. The next lowest was 4.7m so I absolutely smashed that.
30 points and a 57k drop in rank to 128k. I didn’t think it was even possible to drop 57k from a starting rank below 100k at this stage of the season but there you go.
So just putting out the basic metrics.
2 returning players below my minimum of 4. One of those was one of the captain favourites in Aguero so that might have contributed to a ranking fall in itself. A gameweek rank of 5.8 million against a target way in the distance of 1 million and a 57k red arrow to 128k. I’m 59 points behind 30k which is probably the best I can hope for as a recovery.
To top it off I picked the wrong captain out of the 2 I had a choice of with Salah not returning in a 5 goal win.
The failure again is the same old story which my mismanagement of the template. A consistent story this season when I’ve allowed myself to move away from my core strategy of covering the template and favoured captain picks and advancing through differentials.
The non template scoreboard
To illustrate the point here’s the non template score board:
It can’t be often that 3 defenders of a back 4 average 17 FPL points but that’s not the point here. If I had managed the template properly I wouldn’t have been susceptible to that situation, however rare it is.
The template hammered me again and if that happens you need your differentials to step up which they absolutely didn’t.
Two key differentials I’ve kept, despite their form, for the blank GW31 in Hazard and Richarlison both blanked spectacularly. They produced 1 shot and 1 key pass between them and a combined xG and xA of 0.03 and 0.05. They were also subbed off in 61 and 62 minutes respectively. It really doesn’t get much worse than that. While I can excuse Hazard v Spurs there’s no excuse for Richarlison in a 3 goal win v Cardiff.
Hazard now faces Fulham so there’s no reason to jettison him this game week and my sense is to keep Richarlison for the next 2 games before he plays in the blank GW31 even if I end up benching him for 1 or both.
The other disappointment was Yedlin. I put him in instead of Schar as I thought he had more gametime security as Schar was part of a back 3 which could be changed. That ended up a big mistake as Yedlin was rested in GW28 and Schar gets 15 points with a clean sheet and a 25 yard screamer. I’m thinking that when we get to this stage of the season CBs v FBs maybe safer gametime picks due to the difference in physical exertion they face.
The team planner and transfer thoughts
2 transfers and £0.7m in the bank.
This assumes I make the planned changed of Kolasinac out for Alexander Arnold.
That means the 2 areas of the template uncovered are Pogba and Jimenez but I will have to live with that for the next 2 round s before blank GW31.
Here’s the team planner:
So the odds look very good this week in theory. Although I said that last week. I really need Hazard to perform though as he is now a major differential up against the worst defence in the league.
Assuming I only use 1 transfer I have 3 transfers before the blank GW31. Currently I have 7 players for that so I will end up 1 short I expect. I have no idea of the 2 transfers in addition to the Alexander Arnold transfer at the moment but will leave that for the next week.
I had thought about Arnautovic for Rashford but Arnautovic didn’t start and Rashford was fit enough to start so with Southampton next he’s staying.
So transfer will be Kolasinac out and Alexander Arnold in. Carrying over 1 free transfer. I’m hoping there will not be a double price rise/drop tonight. I use the price change site FPL statistics and it’s still some way off as I write this around 3pm.
Captain thoughts
If Aguero looks like he will play then it will be him. I guess it depends on any clue that Pep gives. I won’t do a poll this week as sometimes polls can mess with the website but they will return next week all going well.
Lineup decisions
With Wan Bissaka injured and Hojbjerg being a definite bench man then there was no choice really. Newcastle getting a clean sheet at West Ham seemed a real stretch.
The team
Pretend Kolasinac is Alexander Arnold
Website issues
So over the season I’ve had some on off issues with the stability of the website which I hoped could be dealt with in the summer. However they reached such a drastic point at the end of last week and the beginning of this that I felt I had no choice but to change hosting companies as a way of hopefully resolving the situation. That has now been finalised but I’m told that some ISPs will react slower to the new host & they may not be able to see posts straight away.
I believe that at some point, hopefully today, that everyone should be able to see them. Most of the contributors and family I speak to can but some not. I see though that Sergio Torija, who couldn’t see it this morning, now can so things are moving on. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and I definitely wouldn’t have done it unless I felt there was no other way.
A short gameweek with decent traffic should be a good test so here’s crossing my fingers.
Hope you had a good gameweek.
See also our 10 top FPL managers article
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