FPL double gameweek 39 free hit – 3 FFGeek Contributors preparations

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Here’s our FPL double gameweek 39 free hit article where 3 more FFGeek Contributors share their preparations for the upcoming double gameweek. Here we have Ben Wooton last 3 seasons OR’s were 61k, 26k and 31k. Also Kev from Canada who last season finished with an OR of 6k and Costas who’s last 3 seasons OR’s were 84k, 29k and 27k

FPL double gameweek 39 free hit – 3 more FFGeek Contributors share their preparations

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Background

The Premier League has said that on the 17 June the 19/20 season will restart if the safety requirements are in place. The Fantasy Premier League site’s plan is to resume FPL with additional multiple Gameweeks for the remaining 92 fixtures.

Aston Villa v Sheffield United and Manchester City v Arsenal, were postponed due to the Carabao Cup final and will now take place on Wednesday 17 June, 2 days before a full gameweek commences on Friday 19 June.

That will mean a double gameweek for the 4 clubs above:

The doubles are as follows:

Aston Villa ( Sheffield United H) and (Chelsea H)

Sheffield United (Aston Villa A) and (Newcastle A)

Manchester City (Arsenal H) and (Burnley H)

Arsenal (Man City A) and Arsenal (Brighton A)

The games in that gameweek then assuming it is as GW30 was are then:

Aston Villa v Sheffield United

Man City v Arsenal

Watford v Leicester

Bournemouth v C Palace

Brighton v Arsenal

Man City v Burnley

Newcastle v Sheffield Utd

Norwich v Southampton

Aston Villa v Chelsea

West Ham v Wolves

Spurs v Man Utd

Everton v Liverpool

Ben Wooton

Ben’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 61k, 26k and 31k.

Total points 1,731, Overall Rank: 7k, Team Value: £103.6m

Ben has only used his triple captain chip

Hi Everyone

As things stand I plan to free hit 442

I want to free Hit mainly because it feels like it might be best used when everyone’s fresh. Also not sure I can get much benefit in a DGW from current players in my squad.

I don’t have many from City and that’s a big risk.

With a free hit in play I want a keeper that plays twice. Therefore budget low for no 2. At present I have Leno rather than Henderson but both feel like a safe bet. I often see DGW keepers do well.

I don’t want to waste a City place at back but Villa could be an option. Defensively Sheff Utd look to have solid games so going for two of their defenders. It could be any but Baldock and Egan for me at present. Alongside I keep Alexander Arnold , Doherty is also in for attacking threat with his fixture being ok.

Plan is to play those 4 and so I have gone super cheap for last spot.

In the midfield it’s a City double Sterling VC and De Bruyne alongside Fleck from Sheffield Utd and Grealish.

The back up is Douglas as a cheap option for bench no 1 spot.

Up top big boys say no more. Cheapest backup.

May change yet but it’s where I am at the moment

Stay Safe

Ben

Costas Chari

Costas’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 84k, 29k and 27k

Total points 1,665, Overall Rank: 76k, Team Value: £102.3m

Costas has used his triple captain chip and his 2nd wildcard

Free hit team!

Finally back to FPL…!!!

This has been a pretty weird FPL season to say at least season as FPL managers who saved their chips for the annual DGWs at the end of the season find themselves in a very bad position as they now have to play at least some of their chips in single gameweeks!

As I have said a lot of times I am in favour playing the second wildcard early so that did not affect me. I also played my Triple Captain on Firmino who’s 28 points in that gameweek look pretty good now.

I have 2 remaining chips with the Free Hit and the Bench Boost chips and I will be playing my FH the first gameweek which will likely be the only DGW.

Arsenal

I am picking Aubameyang and Pepe for their explosiveness and Leno as I think he has the one clean sheet in him and plenty of saves against Man City

Man City

All out attack. Aguero, De Bruyne and Sterling needs no explaining

Aston Villa

3 players here. Grealish and Samatta who has shown promise and Targett that also holds attacking threat.

Sheffield

Just 2 from their defence, the most budget options O’Connell and Egan as I did not have the funds to go for Stevens, Baldock and Henderson

My low team value has resulted in a non playing all red flagged bench. If only Arsenal had a viable attacking asset near 8 mil that would have allowed be to even triple up on the Sheffield Defence…

Here’s the draft team:

Kev in Canada

You can follow Kev on twitter here

Kev finished in 6k last season and 195k in 17/18

Total points 1,618, Overall Rank: 252k, Team Value: £105.4m

Kev has used his triple captain chip

FPL is BAAAACK! Why not jump right into it with a double game week that no-one could possibly have planned for?! Here we go…

What have I been doing since the Premier League paused:

-working from home with my wife, 4yo and 2yo children and new puppy running around eating everything of value

-eventually joined fantasy Bundesliga for the first time, as an FPL refugee, during their restart

-in FPL I was making a free transfer each week while I was able to, even though we had no news of what would happen

Chips left:

-wild card

-free hit

-bench boost

Thoughts:

I think my team is in great shape for the restart. I am disappointed about the lack of communication from FPL throughout this entire process but it is what it is. I also think that the folks that typically plan strategy around FPL, such as myself and anyone that takes time to visit this website (you), got a little screwed over this year from the pause. We typically tend to do well with executing chips around blanks and doubles. However, the world is in a dire place and that is the last thing we should complain about. Still, I like to complain about everything, lol, so why stop now.

Here are the transfers I made during the pause:

Gazzaniga 🔄 Pope

Boly 🔄 Lascalles

Ings 🔄 Calvert Lewin

Richarlison 🔄 Mane

Robertson 🔄 Williams

Soyuncu 🔄 Egan

Grealish 🔄 Fernandes

What I learned from playing Fantasy Bundesliga during their restart:

Get ready for aggressive rotation

I will need to make sure that the bench is in top form and will need to have a general overall view to get players that typically always play. Having Ayew on the bench is not a bad start but Williams and Hayden need to be upgraded. Unfortunately, I will need to address this after the free hit week and will lose one of my two free transfers (assuming I would still have two when it restarts) due to the free hit taking priority. Besides those two, I think my team is fairly rotation proof. However, it affects my decision to now avoid typical rotation heavy players (top 6 rotaters, Traores, Jotas, Lundstrams, etc.) and anyone that has come back from injury recently (ie. Rashford, Pogba, Kane, Laporte, Sane, etc.). A good rule of thumb is to target CB’s, players with not competition on the team at their position, players with no FA Cup games, and players going for the golden boot that play for a coach that will let them go for it.

Line up changes and gameweek deadlines will come come fast and furious

Set your lineups and captaincies early in case you forget.

Free Hit Squad and Thoughts:

-I don’t want any Liverpool this week. It may be controversial but they have an away game, which happens to be the Merseyside derby, to a much improved Everton under Ancelotti. I also think they will have a lot of pressure on them to win the league and that is the kind of thing that can get in your head. There has also been a prolonged break, similar to the offseason, and they were pretty uninspiring this pre-season and to start the season. I would rather let them shake the cobwebs off for a week before returning to my real team that has Alexander Arnold, Salah and Mane in it. Now I have the funds to spend big on City and Arsenal.

-My triple city will be De Bruyne, Aguero, and… Sterling. I think Sterling is a staple in Pep’s mind. I know there are counter opinions to this but it’s my gut. I also think Sane being back brings risk to Mahrez. Laporte is off an injury so I don’t trust him to play twice. Even though form will reset due to how long the break was.. I don’t think they are the elite defensive team they were if Laporte isn’t playing 180 minutes. I also think if anyone can pick the Man City Defence apart it will be Arteta’s Arsenal, seeing as he just left the team and took a copy of the tactical playbook with him..

-Ozil makes my team for the third Arsenal attacker. Similarly to City, I don’t love their defense. I do like Leno but I prefer Henderson as the top keeper. Arsenal also play city, so defence isn’t the most attractive anyway. Ozil has been making the squad consistently and I trust Arteta to get the Arsenal attack flowing. I want three top choice players that will get the most minutes. So I am avoiding other popular options in Lacazette on minutes and Saka on the fact I think Ozil has more opportunity than him to score in the two games while playing more minutes.

-I don’t mind Mings. Everyone is jumping all over how terrible AV is but remember, form is reset for the bad teams as well as the good teams. Mings was also a decent player early in the season before the injury and both of their matches are at home against SHU and CHE. They aren’t the best fixtures they could have BUT they are MUCH better at home than away. I prefer Mings to Targett just based on game time security. However, I will be following any injury news, as he just came back. Luckily he is their second best squad player so there should be plenty of coverage. Anyway, he was the last player to pick in my squad. I had 5.3m to put in and couldn’t find anyone better. So I went with Mings and upgraded Basham/Egan to Baldock/O’Connell with the extra cash.

-I don’t have a single non-double player in my starting lineup. The main challenge I found was that all the good teams that are not doubling all seem to play each other. MUN play Tottenham which is not great for TOT and OK for MUN but it is away for them so not really good at all. Leicester are away to a decent Watford (they aren’t really as bad as you think under the new coach and with Deeney back they have been miraculously better). Chelsea are away to Villa, which isn’t too bad but they have so much rotation risk that I don’t really like anyone and would rather use this week to monitor who plays. Wolves are the only interesting matchup against WHU but, again it’s away. At the end of the day, if I am going to go with a single gameweek player I would want a dream matchup or a slam dunk player. I can’t seem to find anyone at them moment but if I do, I would not be adverse to bringing him in. The closest thing to it for me would be Doherty in as the third D and changing out Ozil or Pepe to a McGinn or something like that. I prefer this option for now.

Team for free hit:

Team for GW30 post Free Hit