Here’s our fantasy premier league world cup impact article where we look at all the premier league players at the World Cup and make some working assumptions on the likelihood of their return to their teams for GW1. This should help you with your initial draft FPL team
fantasy premier league world cup impact – those players affected and some assumptions on returns
Part of the FFGeek pre-season plan was to look at the players at the World Cup and their potential returns
World Cup timeline
Here’s a basic reminder of when the various stages of the World Cup finished.
Group Stages: June 28
RO16: July 3
Quarters: July 7
Semis 3rd/4th and Final: July 15
GW1 starts on August 10.
There is an international break after GW4 starting 2nd September. For those back very late that could be a natural time to build up fitness to ready to start GW5.
I believe 3 weeks is a standard rest period for players and to me anyone involved in the quarters has to be a doubt to be fit for GW1. Those in the Group stages will surely be fit and I would even say those in the RO16.
I’m also assuming that even those who have only been squad members will also need rest accordingly as they would have been training ready to play at a high level.
So my working assumption for early drafts is to rule anyone out who is involved in the quarters or further on.
Pre-season will clarify further as will the final week before the season starts and hopefully there will be more information in the pre GW1 press conferences.
So what does this mean?
So I will monitor all the players over pre-season involved in the World Cup from the quarters on and keep them off my drafts until there is more information about them.
So all FFGeek team drafts and lineup drafts of each PL team will not include those players until there is more certainty about their position.
Decisions for FPL managers
In my mind there are 2 ways to structure your early draft GW1 team which will change with pre-season information:
Avoid all players who played after the quarters and have a plan for limited substitutions as others return. Thus avoiding the need for an early wildcard.
Plan an early wildcard to positively integrate the likes of Kane, De Bruyne and Hazard into your team when they return and take advantage of the value created by their absence in the mean time.
World Cup players and exit point for each player
I’ve put all the World Cup players for each team and the time of their exit. The abbreviations should be self explanatory. That way you can make your own assessment of you have a different view than me
As I’ve written this before the semi’s I’ve put SEMI on all the current semi finals. There will be a 3rd and 4th place play off anyway for the losing semi finals so unless they are allowed to go home early it will make little difference on timing.
Arsenal
Monreal – RO16
Lichtsteiner – RO16
Özil – GRP
Xhaka – RO16
Iwobi – GRP
Elneny – GRP
Welbeck – SEMI
Bournemouth
No one
Brighton
Ryan – GRP
Balogun – GRP
Izquierdo – RO16
Burnley
Pope – SEMI
Gudmundsson – RO16
Chelsea
Courtois – SEMI
Caballero – RO16
Azpilicueta – RO16
Moses – GRP
Rüdiger – GRP
Christensen – RO16
Cahill – SEMI
Hazard – SEMI
Willian – QTR
Kanté – SEMI
Giroud – SEMI
Crystal Palace
Milivojevic – GRP
Loftus-Cheek – SEMI
Everton
Pickford – SEMI
Sigurdsson – GRP
Gueye – GRP
Fulham
No one
Huddersfield
Mooy – GRP
Zanka – RO16
Leicester
Schmeichel – RO16
Jakupovic – RO16
Maguire – SEMI
Benalouane – GRP
Ndidi – GRP
A Silva – RO16
Vardy – SEMI
Okazaki – RO16
Iheanacho – GRP
Liverpool
Lovren – SEMI
Alexander-Arnold – SEMI
Salah – GRP
Mané – GRP
Henderson – SEMI
Firmino – QTR
Man City
Ederson – QTR
Otamendi – RO16
Walker – SEMI
Danilo – QTR
Stones – SEMI
Kompany – SEMI
Delph – SEMI
Mendy – SEMI
Sterling – SEMI
De Bruyne – SEMI
David Silva – RO16
Fernandinho – QTR
Bernardo Silva – RO16
Gündogan – GRP
Agüero – RO16
Jesus – QTR
Man Utd
De Gea – RO16
Jones – SEMI
Lindelöf – QTR
Rojo – RO16
Pogba – SEMI
Lingard – SEMI
Matic – GRP
Fellaini – SEMI
Fred – QTR
Lukaku – SEMI
Rashford – SEMI
Young – SEMI
Newcastle
No one
Southampton
Cédric – RO16
Yoshida – RO16
Bednarek – GRP
Spurs
Lloris – SEMI
Vertonghen – SEMI
Trippier-SEMI
Sánchez – RO16
Alderweireld – SEMI
Rose – SEMI
Eriksen – RO16
Son – GRP
Alli – SEMI
Dier – SEMI
Dembélé – SEMI
Kane – SEMI
Watford
Amrabat – GRP
West Ham
Fabianski – GRP
Kouyaté – GRP
Chicharito – RO16
Wolves
Saiss – GRP
Here’s the link to the FFGeek league
