Here’s a fantasy premier league templates article where I show the current twitter template after going through numerous accounts with good histories
fantasy premier league templates – The twitter template
So if you have a twitter account and search for information related to FPL you’ll know there are a huge amount of FPL twitter accounts. I’m amazed at some of the names. There are even accounts related to 1970’s TV shows such as FPL Top Cat and FPL Colonel Klink which I find quite surreal.
Alot of accounts are just used for interaction with other FPL twitter accounts but some include recent drafts of their teams. I went through well over 50 to get 9 that showed recent teams of no more than 4 days old.
So what I’m going to show is a team that is again a menus of players that are the most picked by the 9 accounts. Below that I will give the names of the players that are in more than 1 team. Hopefully it will give you some ideas of player picks
The picture is confused by the World Cup as the aggregate team below is a mixture of those managers who will be wildcarding around GW4 for the world cup returners (see my article on the subject) and those who won’t having picked players with more long term security of starting. Those teams in isolation are different and will confuse the aggregate position somewaht. You can see that in Joseph Crilley and I’s article assuming a GW4 wildcard compared to my current draft team
So here’s the team. Again it is a menu of players and £1.5m over budget.
All the players in teams more than once
Remember this is out of 9 teams
goal keepers
Fabianski 5,
Foster and McCarthy 3
Defenders
Shaw 5
Robertson and Cedric 4,
Coleman and Wan Bissaka 3
Van Aanholt, Mendy, Alexander-Arnold, Daniels, Baines, Azpilicueta and Tomkins 2
Midfield
Salah 7
Martial 6
Mahrez 5
Sane 4
Sanchez 3
Lamela, Willian and Deulofeu 2
Forwards
Aubameyang 5
Tosun, Arnautovic and Austin 3
Quaner 2
A few comments on the template
Goalkeepers
Fabianski has a good save percentage although the West Ham defence was pretty terrible last season. Whether the signings make a difference remains to be seen. The Watford manager was pretty defensive minded when he took over last season and that could be helpful for Watford although I have concerns over the quality of the personnel and Foster himself.
You can see though from my defensive rotation article that it is an excellent pairing for the first 4 games just less so afterwards
Defence
Wan-Bissaka is one of a few £4.0m defs that have a starting shout. He does have competition from Ward but holding his own in pre-season to date. The other potential starting £4.0m defs are Cardiff’s Peltier and Wolve’s Bennett.
Everton have some good starting fixtures as you’ll see from our fixture ease article and Coleman has a good attacking record in seasons gone by although last season it was just the 1 assist in 1,000 minutes. That could have been partly due to the fact that Big Sam doesn’t let full backs cross the half way line.
With Ashley Young late back from the World Cup Mourinho has already said that Shaw will be the likely starting LB. At £5.0m he’s a bargain price for the United defence. Could be a risk as a longer term player though when Young returns.
The Liverpool defence made great strides after the signing of Van Dijk last season and should improve further with the signing of Alisson. Robertson also has excellent attacking attributes.
Cedric is popular in the main due to his wing back position and attacking potential rather than any great clean sheet prospects that Southampton bring to the table.
Midfield
It’s a risky play to not have Salah in your team given his ownership of 47% and likely captain favouritism.
With Lukaku and Rashford late back from the World Cup Martial will almost certainly start CF or LW in GW1. Whether he can hold that position is another thing. Lukaku will return to CF and Sanchez to LW ultimately. Could Martial hold down the unfamiliar and pretty much vacant RW position? There are also the Chelsea and Spurs rumours as well.
Mahrez and Sane are the 2 City midfielders that didn’t get to the World Cup and seem certain to lineup for the first 3-4 games. Any sign that someone can play consistently for what ever period is always something to think about seriously in a Pep team.
I just picked the cheapest player picked more than one once for the £4.5m bench spot. That was Brighton’s Stephens. He does need to be monitored as Brighton have bought a tackling midfielder in Bissouma who may threaten his place.
Forwards
There’s no doubt the impact the former Dortmund player Aubameyang had in his first half season in the premier league. To get 10 goals and 4 assists at the rate of a goal or assist every 75 minutes is something even Kane and Aguero would be going wow over. He also has Ozil and Mkhitaryan to feed him who are 2 of the better chance creators in the league. He does have 2 question marks over him though. Firstly he could play as an LW with Lacazette down the middle and also Lacazette keeping pens. That position was under Wengers watch but still needs monitoring as it’s anything but ideal. The 2nd is that his first 2 games are against Man City and Chelsea.
I’ll admit it I love Charlie Austin. Any FPL striker who’s only interest is staying within the width of the penalty area and scoring without even thinking of passing is alright by me. Unfortunately modern managers want so much more and don’t seem to be interested in goals even when facing the sack or relegation as Puel and Pellegrino discovered. Charlie Austin has consistently scored a goal or assist at around the 120 minutes or so mark. The leading point scoring strikers at £6.0m last season in contrast were Wilson 198 mins, Gayle 216 mins, Barnes 238 mins, Mounie 205 mins. He just needs to be injury free and starting
It was a mixed start to the league for Tosun although he improved markedly at the back end. Good fixtures and the adjustment hopefully behind him plus an attacking minded coach rather than one who chastised his team for attacking could see a boost in numbers.
follow us on twitter and facebook for articles and news
Links to Geek Leagues
Telegraph free to enter £100 prize
PIN 0417
PIN 0050
