Here’s out FPL doubles and blanks article where 5 FFGeek contributors talk about their plans to navigate the upcoming blanks and doubles. There’s Costas (who has already used his wildcard), Yaniv Salomon, Sergio Torija, FPL Word and Mikael Danielsen.
FPL doubles and blanks – FFGeek contributors special as they talk about their plans to navigate the BGWs and DGWs
See my most recent article on the blanks and doubles as background. Also you can see last seasons 715 OR finisher Andrew Ferguson’s plans
Here 5 FFGeek contributors talk through their plans to deal with the impending blanks and doubles
Yaniv Salomon
Yaniv finished with an 8k OR last season. His current rank is 34k. Yaniv has all his chips intact
Here’s his team:
Hi, so lets take a brief look on the upcoming GW’s:
GW31
Only 5 games, only 2 top 6 games, both away games, Liverpool vs Fulham and out of form Chelsea vs Everton
GW32
Most probably, but not guaranteed, the 5 games postponed from GW31 will move to this GW. So 15 games, 4 top 6 teams with 2 games: Man City: United (A) Fulham (A), Man U: City (H) Watford (H); Spurs: Crystal Palace (H) Liverpool (A); Arsenal: Wolves (A) Newcastle (H).
GW33
Wolves vs United will be postponed (they play each other in the quarter final) , I will assume that City and Brighton will go through vs lower division teams (Swansea and Millwall). So Brighton vs Spurs and City vs Cardiff will be postponed and one of Watford vs Fulham or Crystal Palace vs Newcastle. Therefore, 6 games with 3 top 6 teams playing. Liverpool vs Southampton (A), Arsenal vs Everton (A) and Chelsea vs West Ham (H).
GW35
Probably, but again not guaranteed, will get the games from GW33. If so there will be 14 games, 3 top 6 team with 2 games: United: Wolves (A) Everton (A); City: Cardiff (H) Spurs (H) and Spurs: Brighton (H) City (A)
Yaniv’s original option
My first option (Yaniv’s one 😊 in the Geeks article) was to get most of the attention to the big DWG, as the best time to use the BB will be only in 32/35, I assumed GW32 will have more games than GW35. Now we can see there could be a small difference 15/14.
However, as we learned from previous seasons as we get later into the season there is a bigger rotation risk as some of the team have less to play for. So the original plan was to WC in 30 to get 14/15 players for DGW 32 (maybe 14+Salah), use FH in 31 , and BB in 32 , and TC in 35. The TC could be Kun as City have 2 home games and one vs Cardiff). The good part of my original plan is that I play normally until GW30 and don’t need to plan ahead and force transfers for players who play in GW31. The first downside though is that the WC is 3 weeks before GW32. The other downside is that I don’t have a prepared team for GW33. I guess I will want to have in my team for GW32, around 6-8 players from City, United and Spurs who have 2 DGW, that means that I will have short squad for this GW33 maybe 7-8 players.
An alternative option
I think the other alternative is to start using the chips in GW32 , Prepare ahead to GW31 (most of FPL teams have at least already 5-7 players from the 10 teams that play in this GW. I have only 4, 3 Liverpool players and Digne. I have 5 transfers before GW31 and so I will have 9 players. Then the best option is (option 2 in the Geeks article) to FH in 32, WC in 34 to BB in 35. The other problem with this though is that the TC will be used in a regular GW, probably Salah in GW36 vs Huddersfield.
I may not use my FT this week to decide which alternative is better as later as possible, or if I will use it I will bring in a player who plays in GW31 until I have a final decision.
The calls with the chips are way harder than previous seasons,
Good luck all,
Yaniv
Costas Chari
Costas finished with an OR of 29k last season and 27k in 16/17. His OR is currently 60k. He has used his wildcard but the remaining chips are intact.
Here’s his team:
I do not have a wildcard available so planning for the rest of the seasons blanks & DGWs is very hard. I have already added players the past 2 gameweeks that do not have a blank so that I don’t end up with 5-6 playing players on a gameweek. This limits my chances of having full 11 playing players on both double gameweeks but you can’t have everything.
GW31- The coming weeks building up to GW31 I will add another 4 players (not taking hits) and this will give me 9 playing players for GW31 which is not bad.
GW32- FREE HIT
GW33- 2 free transfers oriented for the double in GW35
GW34: 1 transfer oriented for the double in GW35
GW35: 8 or even 12 point hit (depends on availability of players) and BB
GW 36/37: If Liverpool is still on the title hunt I will TC Salah for GW36, if not then I will TC Aguero/ Sterling in GW37 as City will finish in style.
Hope this helps FPL managers that have already used their wildcards. I think it is a decent plan with limited hits. To do so though I started planning my transfers from GW25!! This has impacted my team such as not owning SON but owning mane instead.
Cheers and good luck!
Costas
Sergio Torija
Sergio finished with an OR of 17k last season and 21k in 16/17. He currently has an OR of 1.5 million and has all his chips intact
Here’s his team:
All chips available for me, currently with 8 GW31 players. So just with free transfers I will be able to field a decent eleven for GW31 and GW33, so not using the free hit there, since I will have a very similar team to what I would get with free hit. Then, I am so fed up with my poor season that I don’t feel like doing excessive planning, therefore doing a strategy that lets me pick the double week players the closest possible to the games. This will be free hit for the double in GW32, and then wildcard GW34 in preparation for the bench boost in the double in GW35. This leaves pending the triple captain chip, so I am hoping for an additional DGW for a strong team, otherwise it will probably be used with Salah in GW36.
Blank GW31
Double GW32 – FH
Blank GW33
GW34 – WC
Double GW35 – BB
GW36 – TC for a potential additional DGW, otherwise Salah v Huddersfield
FPL Word
FPL Word finished 35K OR in 17/18. 9k in 16/17, 1k OR in 15/16, 5k OR in 14/15. He is currently 23k OR and has all his chips intact.
I’m looking at a few options. Firstly I’ve decided to keep Aguero through the blank. He’s in top, top form and I don’t want to sell him only to be buying him back at a higher price. That means I need to get rid of Siggy even though he has a guaranteed GW31 fixture. Here’s the dilemma: I’m looking at Felipe Anderson, the new Newcastle signing Almiron or someone from Leicester (most likely Maddison). Felipe Anderson is currently top of my chart, but I also want to get into the Leicester fixtures and am considering a -4 to get rid of Lindelof (fixtures turning difficult) and get Pereira instead.
In essence I plan on preparing for GW31 through transfers. An International break follows and then I’ll decide on how I want to deal with the rest of the chips.
Mikael L Danielsen
Mikael finished 100k OR last season and 5k in 16/17. He is currently 40k OR and has all his chips except for the triple captain chip
Here’s his team:
BGW31: Use free transfers to prepare
DGW32: FH
BGW33: Use free transfers to prepare
GW34: WC
DGW35: BB
I’m not trying to field a full team for the BGW. 8 or 9 will do.
Keeping the players that I have value tied up in on the bench, and selling those with little TV tied up
Joseph Crilleys team planner
Here’s the link to Joe’s really excellent team planner which will help you navigate through the blanks and doubles. There’s also an explanation sheet. I’ve found it best to make a copy of the google spreadsheet.
See my most recent article on the blanks and doubles as background. Also you can see last seasons 715 OR finisher Andrew Ferguson’s plans
Also See underlying stats on players from GW26 the early FFGeek team article and the 10 top FPL managers we follow. There’s also our player form article.
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