Here’s our fantasy premier league wildcard tips GW30 article where I pretend I’m using my wildcard. It gives player suggestions with more longevity than just for the up coming gameweek. Also this week we have Jordan Sadler who is currently 4k OR as a guest poster.
fantasy premier league wildcard tips GW30 – the FFGeek imaginary wildcard plus guest poster Jordan Sadler
A little bit of background
Here Jordan and I present 2 imaginary wildcard’s. However we come from opposite angles.
I’ve used my imaginary wildcard with the blank GW31 and GW33 in mind and I will free hit in GW32.
Jordan on the other hand has imaginary wildcarded with the double of GW32 in mind and will free hit the blank of GW31.
The wildcard’s are based on if we were wildcarding now and on the assumption of the following doubles and blanks
Blank GW31
Double GW32
Blank GW33
Double GW35
See my blanks and doubles article of yesterday
The FFGeek imaginary wildcard
I’ve set my imaginary wildcard up to deal with the blanks of GW31 and GW33 with the intention of free hitting in GW32.
I’ve assumed that Man City, Man Utd, Brighton and Watford win the FA Cup quarters and the fixtures will look something like this below
Here’s the team.
If you want to see any stats on the players see my form tables article
At the moment 8 teams are confirmed for both GW31 and GW33. These are Bournemouth, Burnley, Leicester, West Ham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea.
So I’ve selected 11 of the 15 players from those teams. The 4 bench players are those that would have doubles in GW35 if you follow those fixture trends. The 4 players are Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Doherty and Foster. There would be an additional 3 transfers to make between 33 and 35 which would make 7 double gameweekers for GW35.
The obvious disadvantage of that route is GW35 where I would only have 7 double gameweekers. That’s the cost of filling the blanks fully and of using the free hit to maximise the double of GW32. It would also mean a sub optimal use of the bench boost in GW35 as it couldn’t be used in GW32 with the free hit chip. Triple captaining in that gameweek is less than ideal as well.
You may have read Paul Williams excellent article on his chip strategy. In this he has a rule of not playing an attacking player from one team against a defensive player of another. I can understand the rule but have gone for a Leicester defender and Barnes in attack. I think the conflict is worth it for Leicesters GW33 fixture against Huddersfield and Barnes is just in great form
Jordan Sadlers imaginary wildcard team
The preamble
Jordan’s plan is to imaginary wildcard with the double of GW32 in mind and will free hit the blank of GW31.
So right now we’re still unaware of who’s going to have double gameweeks in GW32 and who’s going to have them in GW35. This is because they could easily move the postponed GW31 fixtures to GW35 and the postponed GW33 fixtures to GW32. So the easiest way to get round this in my opinion is by looking at the teams that are likely to have both gameweeks as doubles. This is the list:
Definite double in 32 & 35: Man United Wolves Brighton
Very likely double in 32 & 35: Man City Cardiff
Likely double in 32 & 35: Spurs
Possible double in 32 & 35: Watford Palace
The reason I think Brighton are definite is because if they go out to Milwall then I’d expect their postponed fixture against Chelsea to be put in one of the double gameweeks instead. Man City and Cardiff are very likely as they just require Man City beating Swansea. Spurs are likely in my opinion as it requires Brighton beating Milwall who’re 20th in the Championship. Both Watford and Palace are possible as it just depends on who wins between them and I think that’s pretty much a 50/50 right now.
Starting with the definites and very likely’s
So I started by putting 3 Man City and 3 Man United players in the side as they both have good fixtures. Sterling and Aguero are probably the most influential attackers in the Man City line up and probably the two least prone to rotation currently though I’d be surprised if one wasn’t rotated for the second game. Ederson is the most nailed on Man City defensive asset and so I decided to go with him rather than risk Laporte/Stones etc.
Pogba and Rashford pick themselves as they’re 2 of the 3 most potent Man United attackers in the team currently. Lukaku could be a good differential with him seemingly coming into form but he’s also far more expensive than Rashford so for me it wasn’t worth it. Gone with Shaw in the United defence as he seems to be pretty nailed on in the side and is cheap. With Wolves also guaranteed to have two double gameweeks I decided to go with 2 of their assets in Doherty and Jimenez. I contemplated Jota as well but Wolves don’t have the easiest of fixtures with them facing United and Arsenal in GW32 and GW35 respectively.
This left me with 7 remaining positions. I needed a GK for GW33 and so with how cheap Boruc is and with Bournemouth probably having one of the easier fixtures of that gameweek I felt he was a great choice. I would be triple captaining in GW32 due to the incredible City fixtures and so I don’t need a strong bench which means I can fill my bench with GW33 players. I decided to bring in two Liverpool defenders in Robertson and Alexander-Arnold as I think there’s a strong chance of a Liverpool clean sheet in GW33. For the final spot on my “bench” I went with Brooks as he’s cheap and again has a good GW33 fixture.
Filling the remaining spots
For my remaining 3 places it was about trying to maximise my GW32 and GW33 fixtures. Spurs are likely to have a double in both weeks and even though Son has gone off the boil lately I still think he offers good value at his price so I went with him. Then I decided to go with Deulofeu and Pereira for my final two spots. Pereira has an excellent GW33 fixture and good fixtures all around and Deulofeu may have a GW33 fixture and could have a Southampton, Man United double gameweek so seems worth the risk as he can easily be benched if Southampton moves to GW35.
My plan would then be to save my transfer in GW32 and take a -4 hit for GW33 so I have 8 players (could even be 9 or 10 if Watford and/or Brighton go out). It’s not ideal but it’s still good enough to hopefully hold rank for the week as I expect most people won’t have a great GW33 team. These transfers would probably be just a way to get Salah or Mane in alongside a couple of other good GW33 players. Then I’d use my GW34 and GW35 transfers to try and maximise my GW35 team and then use my bench boost.
Hope this helps with your wildcard and double gameweek plans. Good luck with gameweek 30.
A few last thoughts
So if you’ve come this far without a plan I hope the above 2 ways of tackling the doubles and blanks gives you some food for thought.
Yesterday’s blanks and doubles article gives other options as well. My option also gives you some options for players for GW31 if you’re still wondering on who to pick.
My own view is that if I was in this position where I had to use my wildcard as I hadn’t done any preparation I would probably go with Jordan’s.
The key is getting players who will have doubles in both GW32 and GW35. The fact that Man Utd, Brighton and Wolves are guaranteed to have fixtures in both is a good start. You also have to believe that City will beat Swansea in the FA Cup so you have a good base in both 32 and 35 which would be helpful for maximising the bench boost. The tricky part of this is the transition from GW32 to GW33 where I think he would only have 6 players on my fixtures.
My option is good for 31 to 33 but a serious under utilisation of double 35 and the effect it would have on your bench boost.
Hope that was helpful.
See also the underlying stats for GW29 alone and the form tables
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