fantasy premier league tips – Joseph Crilley uses his wildcard

Contributors, Fantasy Premier League, imaginary wildcard

Here’s our fantasy premier league tips article where regular contributor Joseph Crilley activates his wildcard.  Joseph finshed with an overall rank of 7 k last season and 13k in 16/17

fantasy premier league tips – Joseph Crilley uses his wildcard

GW3 Summary

Like many managers, it wasn’t the best return in GW3 for my team where 44 points resulted in a significant red arrow, although my overall rank of 185k is decent at this early stage. The main problem during the gameweek was my transfers where I took Josh King and Lucas Moura out for Ings and Mané which certainly didn’t work out well. It cost me 23 points including the hit, but at least I could take some remorse in the fact that the performance of Lucas helped Spurs to an unexpected victory!

There were 3 players who returned in my team; captain Salah, the reliable Robertson and Arnautovic up front for the second successive week. Unfortunately, the West Ham man’s game was cut short by an injury which is one of the factors behind my decision to activate the wildcard.



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Why Wildcard Now?

Other than the injury to Arnautovic, I also needed to resolve the issue of the Richarlison suspension following his idiotic red card against Bournemouth. There are a few other problems in my team that, although don’t need to be addressed urgently, I feel it would be better to rectify them with the early wildcard. For example, Bernardo Silva is seemingly being used as a utility man by Pep which is affecting his goal threat while Luke Shaw may be playing well, but United can’t be trusted currently. The Everton defence is also suffering, Peltier has lost his place and Liverpool’s fixtures have now taken a turn for the worse.

On the other hand, there are number of players that I would like to bring into my side which mainly involves targeting Arsenal and Chelsea assets with their promising schedule. I have avoided them for now as I wanted to see how they settled under their new managers, but it’s clear that there’s goals in both sides. The main player that I would like is Alonso who has delivered double figures in every gameweek and his soaring ownership is a terrifying prospect as a non-owner with home games against Bournemouth and Cardiff on the horizon.

I could have elected to take a hit to bring the Chelsea defender in for Shaw and used Richarlison to raise cash by also bringing a 5.0 midfielder in. I actually made this move on Sunday night to beat the Alonso price rise and the resulting team probably could have survived another week or so. However, I have made the aggressive decision to play the wildcard in an attempt to get ahead of the curve and surge up the rankings.

Wildcard Draft Team





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The current draft is utilising a 3-5-2 formation with Alonso joined at the back by the irresistible Mendy who are both looking rather essential for now. I have included Alexander-Arnold as my Liverpool representation due to his cheaper price and I hope that he can avoid any more yellow cards to keep up with Robertson on FPL points. Admittedly, I would prefer to have the left back in my side, but right now I am struggling to see anywhere else to find the 1mil saving.

This saving has allowed for a strong midfield which is lead by Salah who has provided no reason to not be trusted after averaging over 8 points in the opening weeks. That hasn’t saved Mané though who I have decided to swap out for Hazard. After watching the game against Newcastle, he seems to be even more key to their attack and it has been confirmed that he is still on penalties.

The premium duo are joined by three mid-priced options; Walcott and Mkhitaryan have shown some good form and have promising fixtures to merit their presence. Meanwhile, I have decided to bring Moura back into the equation after the brace at Old Trafford. The Brazilian seems to be playing in a rather free role which involves a very advanced position and I’m hoping that he can continue his form.

Up front has been a fairly simple decision where the star man Aguero has been paired with Wilson who has been posting fantastic underlying stats for his price. I do have a poor history with the Bournemouth striker, but I am willing to look past this given how he and his team have started this season.

In goal, I am still avoiding rotating keepers so have elected for Ryan who provided fantastic value last season and has good long-term fixtures. The bench is occupied by two playing 4.0mil defenders in Wan-Bissaka and Bennett along with Fulham forward Kamara who I am not expecting too much from. This may seem a little weak, but I am expecting the two defenders to keep their places so should provide adequate cover when required.

Summary

In my opinion, the core selection of players has now revealed themselves and I am happy to activate the wildcard to bring those players in. It does feel slightly early to play the chip, but I played it in the same gameweek last year and it helped to kickstart my season. I am sure that there will be some changes to this draft, but my main thoughts are to include Salah and Aguero along with premium defenders and mid-priced midfielders, as there seems to be several good options in these brackets.

As I said, there’s likely to be changes to the above team, but I will give an updated version in the contributor’s article later in the week!

If you’re looking for other player suggestions see the following articles:

Early thoughts on the FFGeek team

Following 10 top FPL managers teams

The fixture ease schedule for players with good fixtures ahead

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