Here’s another excellent article from regular contributor Rob Reid the FPL vet about his Wildcard team for GW4. Rob finished with a rank of 4,701 last season 2015/16 and 7,810 the season before.
fantasy premier league wildcard – Rob Reid the FPL vet outlines his wildcard team
Gameweek 3 proved to be my first bad week of the season. A below average score of 38 points was a meagre haul, salvaged only by 3 clean sheets and a pleasing attacking return from the freshly transferred in Mesut Ozil. I guess it could have been worse. My rank suffered significantly as I dropped 110k places and I slipped to 3rd in my main mini-league. Not good! To add to that, I was left with several selection issues going into the international break and only 1 available transfer.
I therefore had plenty to think about on the Sunday night at the end of Gameweek 3. So I did my usual, chucked Finlay and the four-legged gang in the back of the car and went out for a long quiet evening walk to think things through. The decision was whether to take a points hit (-4 or -8 was considered) or activate my Wildcard that night to take early advantage of any price rises.
My team issues at the end of GW3 were:
1) Yellow flags to Stones and Friend with perhaps more to come after the internationals.
2) Possible impending suspensions to Aguero and Gray.
3) Potential price drops to Townsend and Mahrez, coupled with disappointing form from these players – Mahrez being off penalties was a particular concern.
4) Not owning Hazard, with an incoming price rise of 0.1-0.3m set to occur through the gameweek.
5) Alexis Sanchez coming into form just in time for a good run of fixtures, again with a likely accompanying price rise.
6) 1 non-playing player (Brad Smith of Bournemouth.)
A -4 to swap Aguero and Mahrez out and bring in Hazard + another high value striker was considered and I briefly toyed with a -8 but discounted it. In the end I decided that having both Hazard and Sanchez, along with being able to plan for a way to bring Aguero back in was essential and that Wildcard presented the best option for this, while also giving me the luxury of tidying up my defence and being able to react quickly to any international injuries or price rises.
I’m slightly disappointed at having to use this early window – 1 month earlier than I had initially intended, but I felt that with the core of my team slightly out it was important that I corrected so that I didn’t lose too much ground on my rivals. The Wildcard therefore was a slightly defensive one in terms of my overall strategy but also with the same initial aim to build in more team value, putting me in a stronger position later in the season.
My Gameweek 4 Wildcard Line-up
Ok so after much deliberation, here’s what I’ve settled on.
Goalkeepers – I’ve stuck with my initial strategy of a premium keeper and a budget keeper. I did consider Foster for his good form, but I have WBA cover in the defence. Steklenberg was also considered, but again I’ve put my Everton cover elsewhere. I settled on Cech in the end – I was keen for Arsenal defence cover and this was the cheapest way to guarantee gametime. Jakupovic retains his place as my cheap reserve.
Defenders – Shaw and McAuley keep their places. Amat replaces Bradley Smith as my cheapie, though he’ll be a bench-warmer initially with The Swans difficult run coming up. I was really torn on whether to hang on to Stones. He has high ownership, but I can see rotation occurring when Kompany comes back which won’t be long. I also couldn’t cover Chelsea or Spurs – for the former there is a bit of uncertainty in selection with Luiz coming back and with Spurs I was simply priced out. So my other 2 selections are fixture based. Ashley Williams is a favourite of mine and has good bonus points potential and James Collins provides a slightly cheaper option with some nice fixtures coming up. Looking forward, my defence looks solid (injuries and selection permitting) for 5 of the next 6 gameweeks. The only tricky one looks like GW8 and I should have some transfers back in the bank by then if I need to make a change.
Midfielders – Only Capoue keeps his place, indeed transferring him in for GW3 has added £0.2m to my team value – bonus! Very sad to lose Mahrez after 41 consecutive gameweeks in my team, going back to GW1 last year. Had to be done though, he’s likely to be off penalties and Leicester have some tough fixtures ahead as well as the Champions League to think about. Watch him score a hat-trick this weekend! Hazard was the first name in and I bought him early to get him at £10.1m. Next up it was a straight fight between Sanchez and Ozil. Sanchez isn’t a guaranteed start this week, but the opportunity to buy him was too good to pass up. It’s also worth noting that when the 2 of them played together last season, Sanchez tended to get better returns with Ozil sitting slightly deeper. We’ll see – hopefully I’ve made the right choice! I bought him at £10.9m, which means I also have the added bonus of £0.1m saved.
The last 2 choices were tough as I wanted to leave some contingency to buy Aguero back in 2 weeks. In the end I went for Antonio and Sterling. Antonio is in good form and should benefit from Payet’s return and some good fixtures. Sterling is also a form pick, he may struggle against Man United this week but I didn’t fancy City vs Bournemouth in GW5 without some City attacking coverage. I do plan to sell him though when Aguero is back. I did consider Nolito, with Mirallas as the other choice, but I prefer Antonio’s prospects over the Belgian’s. Selling Redmond was a shame, I do wonder if he might get pushed further back though when Boufal is fit or if Rodriguez will get more gametime ahead of him. He’ll stay on my radar for sure. No qualms on selling Townsend – he’s had plenty of shots in the first 3 gameweeks but his crossing has been a bit wayward. I expect he’ll come good at some stage, especially with Benteke up front as well.
Forwards – Zlatan stays – no questions asked here. Next up I needed a cheap striker so I could fund having an eventual 4 £10m+ players and Diomande fits the bill nicely. He’s had good gametime so far and shown some form. Hull’s fixtures aren’t brilliant but they’ve looked surprisingly solid in the first 3 weeks. It’s a bit of gamble, but if I want to buy Aguero back later, it’s a necessary evil. The final spot was a straight fight between Costa and Lukaku – form versus fixtures. Any regulars will know that Lukaku is a bit of an albatross for me, so it had to be Costa in the end. Again this spot will likely only be for 2 weeks, as I’ll likely sacrifice him for Aguero once back; I bought him early for £9.6m so may profit from a price rise ultimately as well. I did consider Kane as an outsider, but his higher price and lack of form put me off.
I did consider a few others in the cheap bracket. Negredo and Stuani have both started well for Boro – Negredo’s stats are a bit misleading, but I wouldn’t bet against him continuing though Boro’s fixtures do start to get trickier soon. Stuani does have some gametime question marks but again has done well so far. Defoe and Benteke also look nice options but are just a little too pricey for my needs. Hernandez of Hull was also tempting but there is a gametime question mark this week after the internationals.
Final thoughts
My team value is decent at £101.2m, which includes £0.4m in the bank. The Wildcard has probably been worth between £0.3m and £0.5m to me with rises to Hazard, Sterling and Costa all of whom may rise again overnight. I’m happy with my core now and I also have a strategy for buying back Aguero in 2 weeks without taking a hit. It would involve selling Costa and Sterling and buying a midfielder for £5.2m or less. The Nolito/Mirallas option would give me another £0.4m on the buyback, but I prefer Antonio’s prospects over Mirallas.
This week, I’ll be benching Jakupovic, Shaw, Amat and Capoue. Shaw is an interesting one – I could see the Manchester derby either being a goalfest or a drab 0-0 based on recent years. It could go either way, depends on if someone scores early I reckon. Collins, McAuley and Williams all look more enticing clean sheet prospects for me than Shaw so I’ll stick with them. I’m not 100% set on captain this week, but I’m leaning towards Hazard at the moment.
That’s it folks – hope I’ve managed to convey my thinking to you. It’s certainly been a tricky couple of weeks juggling things around, I did really struggle with 2 midfielders and the other 2 strikers. Best of luck to you all this week!
Thanks for the really enjoyable and insightful article Rob and Good luck too!
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