Here’s our fantasy premier league tips 2021/22 article where FFGeek Contributors Rick Porter and Alex Ball show their latest FPL team drafts. Rick finished 1k overall last season and Alex 3k overall. There’s a YouTube Video version of the article as well if you’d rather watch than read
Fantasy Premier League Tips 2021/22 – Rick Porter And Alex Ball’s Latest Drafts
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Rick Porter
Rick’s last 5 seasons ORs were 1k, 29k, 1k, 30k and 2k.
Firstly, apologies for my lateness. I’ve really dragged my heels this season when it comes to putting a team together. The amount of advice and analysis seems to grow each year and after an initial glance at the oncoming wave of data and hot takes at launch I decided to sit back and wait for things to settle down before looking seriously at a team.
With a couple of weeks to go there are still unanswered questions that could greatly affect my selections, though I try not to stress too much about my starting team… it’s never around long. The lessons you learn from watching the matches over first few weeks will likely prove far more valuable than any research done in the build-up. Every decent rank I’ve ever landed has followed a GW2-5 Wildcard where I bin numerous early selections for the bargains and form players that few saw coming. That said, maybe I’ll get lucky this year and the ritual burning of my first Wildcard can be avoided.
Here’s how my team looks at the moment..
Keepers
Even with his higher price Martinez is tempting, but Brighton’s defence is proving popular and it makes sense to cover any potential clean sheets – Sanchez is the obvious way to do that. I’ve put 4.0m Foster in to fill the bench spot.
Defence
Despite there being several promising budget options, I’m currently looking at targeting the early fixtures with more expensive players that have a taste for attack. Shaw, Trent Alexander Arnold, Digne and Cresswell feels pretty strong and the first 5 weeks look great for them. Even if Shaw doesn’t play GW1, he’s worth having in place from the start considering his ownership and potential. My fifth defender is currently Ayling, though he could easily be swapped to Fofana, Lamptey if suddenly fit or a playing 4.0m if one emerges.
Midfielders
Salah and Bruno Fernandes were straight into the team and I can’t see them going anywhere. Both have ownerships over 40% and good fixtures to start the season. They’ll also be among the most popular captain picks near every week. While not owning them allows you to break the mould and squeeze in some premium differentials, a few early hauls will quickly see you ranked somewhere in the bottom half of 8 million+ managers and that’s a huge mountain to be faced with.
Sarr and Raphinha currently make up the rest of my serious midfield, while Bissouma is a bench dweller who I can rely on to conjure up a couple of points if he ends up making an appearance from the third spot. I’d say I’m only 75% sold on Raphinha, and Sarr is even less so, but for the asking price both feel like excellent value.
Forwards
This was one of the easier areas to pick. I see any two of Antonio, Watkins or Wilson as solid choices. I just can’t find a way to justify spending the extra 0.5m for Calvert-Lewin or Bamford. I can see goals for all of them over the first few weeks, it’s just a case of picking and sticking until the fixtures turn. I’ve gone for the Antonio and Watkins combo.
The third spot goes to Toney who’s currently the second highest owned forward in the game. Whether he can keep scoring and prove worthy of that accolade is another matter, but at 6.5m there’s little reason not to bring him in and find out.
The only issue here is Kane. He might not play GW1, of course, but if he starts firing early then he’s a game changing asset – no matter which club he’s playing for. However, at 5.0m more than any of the strikers in my team, he’s some hefty downgrades and a minimum of three transfers away should I want him. That feels like something I’d be stupid not to plan for, as I can’t just hope that his appeal peaks at the exact moment I’m ready to Wildcard. I’ll have to think on that.
Price Changes
A quick note on price changes. All managers are keen and engaged at the start of the season and many aren’t scared of trigger-happy transfers and spending a few points to secure an early lead over their mates. This means prices can rise and fall quickly during the first few weeks and many of the tools available to track such things won’t yet have the data to accurately predict movement. While I’m not a person who obsesses too much over team value, this is certainly something worth keeping in mind. The tidy pricing structure at launch means if you want to bring in a player who’s risen 0.1m, you’ll probably need to downgrade someone an extra 0.5m to be able to afford them. Being 0.1m away from the transfer you want can become frustratingly common.
The ways around this are to either risk early transfers, so you don’t get caught out, or keep 0.5m in the bank so you have some shrapnel to hand. I’ll try to do the latter if I can but the cash doesn’t seem to be stretching far this season.
Here’s the draft team
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 7 seasons overall ranks were 3k, 312k, 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
Here’s Alex’s latest draft
Transfers since Alex’s previous draft
Foster out and Steele in
Upgrades £m
£4.5m Lamptey out and £5.5m Digne in
£4.5m Fofana out and £7.0m Robertson in
£4.5m Davis out and £6.5m Toney in
Downgrades to fund £m
£6.5m Buendia out and £4.5m Brownhill in
£7.5m Jota out and £4.5m Gibbs White in
£8.0m Calvert-Lewin out and Antonio in
Unchanged
Sanchez, Alexander Arnold, Shaw, Ayling, Fernandes, Salah, Raphinha and Watkins
YouTube Video
If you’d rather watch than read here’s a short 5 minute ish video summarising the above with a few of my observations
Other posts
Attacking players fixture difficulty Schedule
Defensive players fixture difficulty schedule
Kev and Rob’s first draft teams
The FFGeek Tracker team (8k OR last season)
An overview of Promoted Norwich City
Players who could miss GW1 due to International tournaments
The FFGeek Pre-season watchlist
Andrew Whitfield’s latest draft team
The Youtube and Twitter template
A team with 3 premium captain picks
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