Here’s our fantasy premier league teams GW8 article where we give our early thoughts on the FFGeek team for GW8. We look back at gameweek 7 and give our thoughts on the gameweek ahead including potential transfers and captain choice.
fantasy premier league teams GW8 – some early thoughts on the FFGeek team
Firstly if you’re new to the site my last 3 seasons overall ranks are 36k, 17k and 21k
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
Gameweek 7
GW7 points: 54 (FPL average 51) Total points 406, Gameweek rank 2,649k, Overall Rank: 590k, green arrow 46k, Team Value: £101.0m
Here’s the points:
After 3 consecutive red arrows it was nice to get a green one even if 46k is more symbolic than of any real meaning. Current OR 590k
6 returning players which is good although no double figure returns but again the wrong captain choice held me back. That’s the wrong captain choice in all 7 gameweeks although 1 to be fair was the wrong vice captain choice. I have jokingly talked about handing over captain picks to the dog because on a 50/50 call surely he would have got 3 right so far.
What was ok
Despite the blank, statistically Salah didn’t have a bad game 4 shots and 1 key pass and an xG of 0.74 is a good day at the office. The shots were all reasonable probability and all in the penalty area so it just wasn’t meant to be as it were.
Abraham certainly was unlucky not to return with 5 shots 2 key passes making an xG of 1.21 and an xA of 0.11.
The 4 clean sheets all came with a disappointing 1 bonus point between the 4 of them but 4 clean sheets was a gameweek saving total.
As for Pope, Burnley were unlucky in xG terms with an xG of 0.91 although they did concede 16 shots and Pope didn’t cover himself in glory in the first goal.
Man City and Pukki
The 2 main disappointments were the Man City defence and Pukki. Everton aren’t exactly an attacking powerhouse so to concede an xG of 2.36 isn’t great. What’s more for large parts of the game it was anything but under control and resembled some of the chaotic games you see from other top 4 chasing teams that can’t control games like the 2 who played last night.
Man City are now 5th in xG conceded behind Burnley. That’s after leading pretty much all last season. They still concede the least shots per game but it really isn’t a good look. I really though Man City’s ability to keep possession would see clean sheets continue even without Laporte and Stones but that was a pretty ugly performance.
Pukki was disappointing against Palace with a 1 shot and 3 meaningless key passes game. Still everyone can have a quiet day. Norwich’s away form though in the last 2 games has been poor. They’ve failed to get to 1 goal in xG terms and in both games have got less than the Premier League average of 12 shots per game. Those 2 games have been against Burnley and Palace where you would have expected more
Transfer thoughts
1 free transfer and £0.4m ITB
So although it was a disappointing performance from Pukki a home game against Aston Villa next is not a selling fixture for me.
Zinchenko though looks someone who has to go as ultimately surely Mendy has to take his place. Although I’ve just expressed my nervousness over the City defence it’s likely that I will do the Zinchenko out and Otamendi in transfer. Their next 4 games just scream clean sheets even in their current defensive malaise. Otamendi through lack of fit alternatives should at least be a safe gametime pick. Even if Stones comes back I can’t see Fernandinho keeping one of Stones or Otamendi out. He looked as uncomfortable as anyone defending v Everton. It will be interesting to see how Pep lines up in the UCL in the gimme fixture v Dinamo Zagreb.
GW8 WOL (H)
GW9 CRY (A)
GW10 AVL (H)
GW11 SOU (H)
The additional question is that of De Bruyne who will miss the UCL match tonight and potentially GW8. I’d like to say that Pep’s press conference pre GW8 should give us some clues but lets get real we’ll be lucky if he’s even mentioned. If we are lucky we may get one of his famous “I don’t know” treats. Perhaps he’ll be too busy continuing to dig that hole for himself that he has been over Bernardo.
This is the club statement re the De Bruyne injury:
“De Bruyne suffered a groin injury in the win over Everton and will miss tonight’s game against Dinamo Zagreb.
The extent of his layoff depends on how well he responds to the rehabilitation programme overseen by the Club’s medical staff.”
My temptation at the moment, if I do replace him and depending on the news ahead, would be to replace him with David Silva who will get a nice rest over the International break. I would prefer to do that on the back of David Silva not playing v Zagreb but that seems unlikely given he was on the bench v Everton. That is very much an instand reaction and there’s alot to ponder.
Captain thoughts
I expect it will be Sterling for me this week. I’ll put the captain poll up on Wednesday after Man City’s UCL game which may affect the captain selection.
The team pre any transfers
Pretend Zinchenko is Otamendi for the minute and we park the De Bruyne situation for now.
Thinking further ahead, at the moment I have 9 players who will start every week and 2 of Tomori, Soyuncu and Cantwell will have to play to field 11. That’s not ideal. I’d like to upgrade 1 of Dendoncker or Greenwood to give me another option. At the moment hat would have to be in the £4.5m range. The only upgrade options though are Saka of Arsenal and Alzate of Brighton both of who look like they have very little longevity unfortunately. Saka due to the insane tinkering of the manager and Alzate due to players coming back from injury.
More to think about.
That’s it. Hope you had a good gameweek.
Other posts
Andrew Whitfield on FPL patience
The bandwagons and sinking ships
Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
More content
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
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