Here’s our FPL team tips GW1 article where the 1st group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW1. In this part there’s Yaniv Salomon, Andrew Whitfield, Rob Cosgrove, Kris O and Ben Wooton. All these managers have finished in the top 1% of teams in each of the last 2 seasons.
FPL team tips GW1 – 5 FFGeek contributors show their GW1 teams part 1
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
Weekly podcasts with myself and the contributors
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month
As it’s a Friday gameweek I’m getting the “finalish” contributors teams in, hopefully, mostly today to avoid any timing issues tomorrow.
This is part 1 of the FPL managers who contribute to the FFGeek site with good histories who show their teams each week. This will give people a feel for what other managers are doing. It’s a fairly informal thing with no obligation on anyone and these teams may change at anytime before the deadline without further notice. In the future it also wont cover early transfers. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more.
Yaniv Salomon
Yaniv finished with an overall rank of 4k last season and 8k in 17/18
Here’s my team. I hope I will not touch it again. Still 2 thoughts, firstly, who is the best £4.5m keeper to start with? Pope, Gunn, Ryan or Heaton?
Secondly, if Deulofeu is fit maybe he will become my forward instead of Abraham who can be a big punt but has a tough opening game. That would also save £0.5m for upgrades. Good luck all!
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18
It seems a very long time since the game launched about six weeks ago but here we are at last. The time for holding your nerve, not making last minute panic decisions. Don’t leave it to the last hour when your risk of irrational choices is high. Take note of the great advice from some experienced contributors on here – but play your own game.
My team has changed again since my last update. I was fairly settled on it and didn’t change it for over a week until the pre season form of Wilson made him a “must have” for me over King. The trade off is losing Ederson as my “set and forget “ keeper, which is not ideal, given the lack of a nailed on City defender.
The value remains in defence so I am set on 442 this year.
I am not too concerned about the preseason form of the Liverpool defence . It’s definitely a double up. You could make a case for any two from three from Alexander-Arnold, Robertson or VVD. There is an obvious 0.5M saving on VVD who is a guaranteed starter and a threat from set pieces. Trent carries a rotation risk but he is on set pieces. Robbo and Trent chipped in with 25 assists last season. I want them both bombing down the wing on Friday v Norwich, supplying Salah. That’s as good as it gets to sit back and watch the opening game..
There have been a few moving away from Lucas Digne at Everton, with the loss of Zouma and Gueye, but this is a player who hasn’t left my team at all. Everton have great fixtures. Set pieces and a great supplier of crosses. A £0.5m saving to Coleman is tempting, but I want Digne. Not negotiable.
The Man City defensive situation is tricky. Laporte is carrying an injury, Walker is under threat from a new high profile right back signing, Stones has always carried game time risk, and Zinchenko looks like a transfer waiting to happen once Mendy is fit. Ederson as a nailed on £6.0m route in to an essential defence is very attractive.. but budget pressures elsewhere has me on Zinchenko for now. I fully expect to switch to Ederson as my set and forget keeper on my early first wildcard.
I am going for the only team who can provide a £4.5m and £4.0m keeper combination in Brighton, who have good early fixtures compared to some of the other £4.5m keepers. I have the security of my bench fodder keeper playing if Ryan doesn’t. I am not getting in to rotating keepers roulette. It’s stressful. One less thing to worry about.
There has been much talk about how many “ premiums” you can fit into your team from the six players valued over 10M. I have seen a few with three, but that comes with compromises and I haven’t seen one yet that convinces me to unbalance my team. I initially wanted the flexibility provided by a premium striker and the ease of switching between Kane, Auba and Aguero, but the case for Salah and Sterling is a compelling one. Both looked awesome in the Community Shield. It’s a brave man to take on Salah who has top scored in FPL for the last two seasons and will be a heavy captain favourite most weeks. If you don’t own Salah, you will need a very large settee to hide behind on Friday, and if he bags a hat trick with such high captaincy percentage, your season could be over before it’s begun. Sterling has been on fire pre season . It was an easy choice to prefer him over Aguero who hasn’t been seen on the pitch yet and seems unlikely to start on Saturday.. Salah and Sterling will be my regular captains.
Of course I fear Kane, especially with Villa at home first up, but it’s followed by Man City away. Kane seems to be playing deeper every season and has it all to prove that he is back to his best. Auba looks like playing mostly on the wing which is not where I want my striker.
My midfield has been locked in for a few weeks. I want Fraser for those Bournemouth fixtures. I also want Perez who seems to be partnering Vardy in a very attacking Leicester team, with plenty of ammunition supplied by Maddison and Tielemans.
If you are going without a premium striker, there seems to be a real lack of solid mid price striker options. Jimenez and Jota will be popular but Wolves have terrible fixtures and the small matter of a 6000 mile round trip to Armenia three days before the season starts. I just don’t buy into Duelofeu at all and he is an injury doubt. I really want Wilson over King . He offers so much more despite not being on pens. Wilson and Fraser combine so well too. I am so tempted to double up on King and Wilson too given cherries fixtures, but do I really want Wilson King and Fraser with Man City up in GW3.. so I am currently on Deeney who is on pens and has decent fixtures. But that cherries triple is tempting as I think King is the best £6.5m striker !!
There are some interesting new striking options such as Kean or Haller or Adams but it’s a huge risk backing new unproven players who more often than not take time to settle.
My bench is cheap. I would rather have my value in my starting eleven but I feel all my bench players could step in if required.
I feel like I have good flexibility to switch to Chelsea assets in all positions once we see how they line up. Man Utd are another watch and see. There are so many new players knocking around with the transfer deadline here. I am staying away from new players to FPL. This is a time for nailed on reliable performers and no risks..
Good luck everyone and I hope you can take good ideas on board from the site to improve your ranking performance and win your mini leagues !!
Rob Cosgrove
Rob finished with an overall rank of 45k last season, 20k in 17/18 and 23k in 16/17
I have changed my team countless times over the summer! I haven’t changed my current one for a few days now but somehow it just doesn’t feel finished..
I have the core players of Sterling, Salah, TAA, Robertson & Zinchenko. Fixture based players fill the remainder. I have decided to alternate between goalkeepers due to Lloris having tricky fixtures in GW2 & GW4. The only team who I felt had the best chance of a CS in both these game weeks was Crystal Palace, so I will alternate Lloris with Guaita. I know this is a lot of money to spend on 2 GKs and I am still not set on this..
I also plan to alternate Holebas and Dunk over GW1 & 2; then in GW3 when Bournemouth play Man City I will play both so that I can bench King. I would have liked Duffy but could not fund it.
Pulisic is a player I really like and am looking forward to seeing in the Premier League, but from an FPL perspective, can he deliver? Or am I putting him in my team for my admiration? Another decision I am not set on..
1 player I want in my team is Vardy, but I simply cannot find a way to fund it..
I am leaning toward Sterling as captain for the simple fact that I do not like having my captain playing in the first game of the game week (Very strange habit I know!!!)
I would really appreciate feedback on my team, with specifics on:
Have I spent too much on GKs just to rotate?
Is the 4.5mil rotation worth it?
Any views on Pulisic?
Is it worth stretching funds to include Vardy?
Thanks and good luck!!!
Kris O
Kris finished with an overall rank of 44k last season, 46k in 17/18 and 23k in 16/17
So what has changed since I boldly stated last time “If I have confidence my eleven start GW1 then this is likely to be my team at 7pm next Friday”?
· Change 1 Salah (12.5) for De Bruyne (9.5): The community shield showed Salah is in good shape for Norwich at home, outweighing my gut feel that he’ll start slowly. This meant at least one of Kane or De Bruyne would be leaving my team. With De Bruyne playing deep in the community shield and coming off, albeit precautionary (cramp apparently), he’s not worth the risk.
· Change 2 Femenia (4.5) for Arnold (7.0): The Community Shield created a question mark over Alexander Arnold who I’ve now swapped for a cheap 4.5m defender, currently Femenia of Watford. (Additionally, there was no clarity whether Matip or Gomez, both 5.5, will partner 6.5 Van Dijk; if one secures a starting place they will likely become my second Liverpool defender later in the season – other than last season Van Dijk hasn’t been known for his goal scoring exploits so I feel the 1m premium is better spent elsewhere).
· Change 3 Firmino (9.5) for Kane (11.0): This creates an additional Liverpool spot which has gone to Firmino – a more conventional differential then Henderson in my previous draft. Kane removed as sluggish in his last pre-season game.
· Change 4 Moura (7.5) for Henderson (5.5): I expect Moura (7.5) to start up front in the first few games, providing a hedge for removing Kane.
· Change 5 Perez (6.5) for Zaha (7.0): Zaha seems unlikely to start GW1, so I’ve swapped for Perez who’s had a good pre-season; and like Moura and Martial appears to be playing more as a forward then a midfielder.
· Change 6 Zinchenko (5.5) for Walker (6.0): Final change to make the maths work – I still prefer Walker but you can’t have everything!
· The rest is unchanged, including the 3-5-2 formation and my bench.
Finally, two observations on the team:
1. I’ve maximised my starting XI value (or minimised my bench value).
2. My team structure, particularly my three mid-priced midfielders and Firmino allow for easy changes e.g. 7.5 Moura to 6.0 midfielder e.g. Barkley and 9.5 Firmino to 11m striker e.g. Aubameyang.
Hopefully the transfer window and team news don’t create too many more changes!
Ben Wooton
Ben finished with an overall rank of 61k last season, 26k in 17/18 and 31k in 16/17
Here you go here’s my team. It has changed a bit and may well a bit more yet but spine is there.
GK now Pope as the £4.5m pick now it could be Ryan, Gunn etc but Burnley are solid.
Defence doesn’t need much comment, VVD and Robbo as the solid picks, both should play week in week out. Then it’s Digne for fixtures and set pieces and KWP as the current punt to complete my 4.
Midfield similar in so far as two nailed on Salah and Sterling, then it’s Siggy which is a fixtures and pens based decision and Tielemans as the current £6.5m, could be Perez etc but he will play and I like him alot.
Up top its cheap with the on fire pre season Woods and fixture friendly pen-taking King to start.
Subs wise McGinn as a solid back up to come in, then it’s obvious £4.0m defender of choice Lundstram and a cheap striker in Greenwood.
Ideally I would look to improve up top with Kean, Abraham or Haller but too early to know what is happening. For now it’s pretty risk free with the exception of KWP at Spurs but might tweak a bit.
Captain speaks for himself.
Thanks
Ben
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
Weekly podcasts with myself and the contributors
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month
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