Here’s our FPL team tips GW22 article where the 1st group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW22. In this article there’s the FFGeek contributor league leader Joseph Crilley, Ben Wooton, Yaniv Salomon, Andrew Whitfield and Costas Chari
FPL team tips GW22 – FFGeek contributors show their GW22 teams part 1
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Introduction
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. It won’t cover transfers in real time either. It’s just to give an idea of the trends for the week no more.
Joseph Crilley
Joseph’s last 3 seasons OR were 28k, 7k and 13k
GW21 points: 68 (FPL average 48) Total points 1,271 Gameweek rank 435k, Overall Rank: 11k, green arrow 7k, Team Value: £106.1m
All in all, it has been a successful Christmas period as I have scored 262 points from GW18-21 in order to rise from 73k to the cusp of top 10k despite a couple of mishaps along the way. The FPL break from the hectic schedule has been welcomed and attention now turns to double gameweek planning.
I currently own Alexander Arnold and Mane from Liverpool alongside Fabianski and I will be looking to add either Robertson or Salah in GW24 for the double and the continued strong fixture run. I am very undecided on who it will be so I would like to keep myself flexible when coming into that week and ideally have two transfers to use. In order to manage this, I had been hoping to save the transfer this week, but the performances of my team, Spurs, and specifically Dele is providing a test of patience. The games against Southampton and Middlesbrough have been frankly awful from our perspective so I have been exploring other options.
Ideally, I would make a simple swap to Maddison, but already owning three Leicester players removes that possibility while other choices in the price bracket are pretty limited – Richarlison, Martial or a real punt on Mahrez is all that comes to mind. The lack of options has me tempted to stick with saving the transfer, but I am considering taking a two-week punt on the City man for their fixtures against an injury-hit Villa and Palace. This would be done with the view to swap him for Maddison in the double gameweek with Pereira being used as the sacrifice for Robbo or Salah. Therefore, I will be monitoring the City semi-final on Tuesday as to whether bring Mahrez in or stick with Dele, while Richarlison also hasn’t been completely ruled out!
Captaincy is at least fairly straightforward with a very well-rested Vardy facing a nice home fixture against Southampton, so I don’t see the need to overthink it. De Bruyne is tempting given the struggles that Villa are facing, but it will be the safe option of Vardy for me!
Transfer Summary: Likely Dele Alli to Mahrez (if not, hold transfer)
Ben Wooton
Ben’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 61k, 26k and 31k.
GW21 points: 55 (FPL average 48) Total points 1,270 Gameweek rank 2,156k, Overall Rank: 11k, red arrow 1k, Team Value: £104.4m
I have 2 free transfers and have just made the one transfer so far, I think I intend to carry the other and make two next week.
I brought Grealish in for Mount, overdue as I wanted a more solid, nailed-on option rather than Mount.
Bench offers some support but I will keep an eye on Martial and Vardy from a fitness perspective. For now the latter is captain and De Bruyne is backup.
Good luck
Ben
Transfer summary: Grealish in for Mount
Yaniv
Yaniv finished with an overall rank of 4k last season and 8k in 17/18
GW21 points: 60 (FPL average 48) Total points 1,251 Gameweek rank 1,183k, Overall Rank: 29k, green arrow 5k, Team Value: £106.5m
Hi all, so a small green arrow just to put me inside the top 30k. Now I hope that I can start moving into the top 10k. I have 2 free transfers and I will probably use one, swapping Maupay to Calvert Lewin.
Good luck all!
Yaniv
Transfer summary: Maupay to Calvert Lewin (to be confirmed)
Here’s the team prior to any transfers:
Andrew Whitfield
Andrew finished with an overall rank of 6k last season and 19k in 17/18
GW21 points: 60 (FPL average 48) Total points 1,212 Gameweek rank 1,277k, Overall Rank: 135k, green arrow 21k, Team Value: £104.0m
Well after those four quickfire gameweeks over the holiday period, it’s good to be able to have time to reflect, take stock and make plans for the second half of the season, including that Liverpool double gameweek that’s just around the corner.
Thoughts on my rank and strategy:
– A healthy 60 points in GW21 was enough for a third successive green arrow, which is always good for building confidence and momentum. Green arrows of 50k, 37k and 21k have taken me from 243k to 135k over the last three weeks. That’s inside the top 2% of teams. I am actually holding a better overall rank than this time last season when I finished 6k, so that’s very encouraging and there is lots to be positive about. It’s very close in overall ranks and I am only 10 points away from 95k, which is another 40k places. That shows exactly just how close.
– I am not a risk taker as you probably know. I stick very close to “the template” of highly owned players. I currently own 8 of the 10 “most owned” players. I will never be the top scorer of the week and make huge weekly gains, but I won’t suffer large ranking drops either. If you take on the highly owned players and they score 2-3 goals, your rank can drop like a stone overnight. The template succeeds more times than it fails, because they are the most highly owned players for a reason – they are the best players. There will be small blips and red arrows when the template has a bad week, but I will tend to have small but consistent gains most weeks. That’s reflected in my season so far, which also mirrors my last two seasons. I finished in the top 0.2% in the last two seasons as a template based player and “controlling risk”. It’s possible to still succeed by following popular players and not taking risks.
– Of course, if you put the shields up against all the top players, to limit any damage, you do also need a field a few swords to attack with too. But they don’t have to be huge differentials. I have Jimenez, Grealish and Soyuncu under 20% owned and two of them returned last gameweek. I actually pay particular attention to the player ownership of the “top 10k” FPL managers and my team is never too far away from that model. The weekly article on the Geek site on this topic is my favourite of the week.
Talking points from GW21:
– Returns from Maddison, Grealish, Soyuncu, Trent Alexander Arnold and Mane. Just five returners and a captain blank is often a red arrow week, but points were difficult to come by on New Years Day with many of the big guns misfiring. This was epitomised by blanks for Kane, Alli, Rashford, Martial, Aubamayang, Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero, Vardy and Jimenez. Anyone owning two or three from Ings, Maddison, Grealish or Cantwell had a “green” New Years Day. I had 24 points from Maddison and Grealish and that’s the reason for my green arrow.
– With my armband falling down on Vardy / De Bruyne, those captain points from Mane and Salah on Thursday, even as a Mane owner, wiped away a much larger green arrow that I was sitting nicely on after Wednesdays points from Grealish and Maddison. I would have gladly watched Liverpool stumble, with all those points being gobbled up by Liverpool players, which even as a Mane and Trent owner, did me a lot more harm than good.
– That “P word” was a key element of my green arrow – Patience – Both Grealish and Maddison had been in the top three sells prior to GW21. Maddison had blanked twice but that was against Man City and Liverpool and then been rested at West Ham so always looked a hasty sale. I just love his attacking threat. He can slide balls through to Vardy, he can shoot, and he has all the set piece corner and free kick duties. Grealish had been a popular switch to Traoré, but playing in a very advanced role, he was totally unplayable and could have easily had two goals and two assists. He won’t be going anywhere now.
– It was very disappointing that captain Vardy surprisingly missed out with injury. I totally fancied him for at least one goal against that Newcastle defence which Leicester duly swept aside. This made the vice captain choice vital. Full credit to those who chose Salah or Mane as vice. De Bruyne had been playing further forward recently and seemed the solid vice captain shout, but played worryingly deep and never threatened. So that handed a big advantage to the captains and vice captains at Liverpool, who duly cost me a lot of points. If Vardy had played, I wouldn’t have lost ground to the Liverpool vice captains.
– Vardy has been incredible this season but that’s a frustrating two gameweeks – paternity leave and “ a strain” – I am not sure if the strain was caused by changing nappies. Hopefully he comes back strong. No doubt people will be jumping off Vardy now, after blanks against Man City and Liverpool and then missing two games. Beware of the most owned, the most captained player in FPL. A Vardy haul will hit your rank hard. Very hard. Be warned.
– Palace keep three clean sheets and I bring in Kelly and Guaita. They have now conceded in the last five !!! I held double Liverpool defence for 17 weeks for just three clean sheets. Now I am off the double they have strung five clean sheets in a row together. Don’t you just love this game !!!
So what next:
I have 0.3M in the bank and one free transfer.
– Plans now revolve around Liverpool and their double gameweek 24 when they play both Wolves and West ham in the same week. There must be doubts about whether key players will all turn out twice in GW24 BUT it’s not just about the double gameweek. The run of Liverpool fixtures from GW24 and well beyond are just insane !! A Liverpool triple up looks absolutely essential. But which three !!!!!
– Pairing up Salah and Mane is a tasty prospect and my “dream three” would be Salah, Mane and Trent, but I don’t want to lose De Bruyne, which makes this option virtually impossible for me personally. I would need a 5M upgrade on Maddison, my next midfielder, who is going nowhere. I am not wrecking my whole team to get both Mane and Salah. It’s very unbalancing team wise. Firmino is an alternative approach and represents an easier switch but he never seems to deliver consistently. Three returns in the last fourteen gameweeks ?? Firmino has never been a reliable FPL asset for me. I would much rather stick with Rashford for that price.
– It’s much easier to reach the double Liverpool defence and not dilute the rest of the team. That’s where the value lies. There are good options with Van Dijk or Gomez, but if I am doubling on defence, I want the considerable attacking threat of Trent and Robertson who are a joy to watch. With these two guys, you don’t just get clean sheets. You get attacking returns too as well as clean sheets !! Even if they concede in the first ten minutes, the two full backs can always pop up with a goal or assist, right up to the 90th minute. It’s like playing a 262 formation with the added bonus of clean sheets. Five successive clean sheets now too for Liverpool. So for me, I am looking to buy Robertson for GW24 and beyond, and go Trent, Robertson, Mane. I also haven’t ruled out switching Mane to Salah yet.
– I can achieve an upgrade of Guilbert to Robertson, from a switch of Rashford to Ings. Southampton have equally appetising fixtures too and Ings is showing no sign of stopping. So that’s where my thoughts are just now. I don’t want to make the switch yet with Rashford having Norwich at home this weekend, so I will hold off the move just now. Funds are tight, but if prices move against me, I can simply reduce Guaita down to say Ryan. I have three free moves for the period up to GW24..
– If all goes to plan, I will play a back four most weeks with Trent, Robertson, Soyuncu and Lundstram. I will have a forward line of Vardy, Jimenez and Ings, plus a midfield of Mane, De Bruyne and Maddison. That leaves Grealish as a first sub floater but he could compete with Lundstram and Soyuncu for a starting role. I can see a 433 most weeks but the full backs turn that into a 253.
Team set up this week:
– It’s an easy choice this week. Guilbert has Man City, Kelly has Arsenal and Dendoncker will always be a bench player. I actually have EIGHT players at home with some very tasty fixtures – Rashford at home to Norwich, Vardy at home to Southampton, Jimenez at home to Newcastle, De Bruyne has Aston Villa. It’s a week that holds a lot of promise….
Captain:
– I am very conscious that both Vardy and De Bruyne have both been highly captained to the degree that their “ effective ownership “ has regularly been over 100%.. which means that if I DONT captain them, even as an owner, their returns actually hurt my rank. FPL is about the joy of watching games and watching your players score goals and enjoying those moments. I don’t want to watch two of my biggest players, hoping that they fail. That’s not enjoyable. So whilst Jimenez and Rashford look great and possibly best armband options, they will still benefit me if they do well, but having the armband on Vardy or De Bruyne means that I can also gain from them too and turn that high ownership into a positive differential in my favour.
– I will keep a close eye on the polls. I tend to watch Barnsley on Saturdays and prefer watching my captain play live in a later televised game, so that not only can I kick every ball with my captain, I also know I still have those captain points in my back pocket to save my week. So that would mean De Bruyne this week, although at the moment, my armband is on Vardy. I will be watching the polls closely.
Transfer summary:
Carrying over the free transfer this weekend, provided I safely navigate the FA Cup games and League cup semis.
Plan ahead of GW24 currently is Guilbert to Robertson, funded by Rashford to Ings.
Good luck everyone !!!!!
Costas Chari
Costas’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 84k, 29k and 27k
GW21 points: 45 (FPL average 48) Total points 1,187 Gameweek rank 4,382k, Overall Rank: 289k, red arrow 73k, Team Value: £102.4m
Hello guys! The festive period wasn’t so festive for my team as I dropped around 100k. This was due to owning just one Liverpool player (Salah) and not owning De Bruyne (got him in last week). Its amazing everytime Liverpool play I drop around 100k in rank even though I own Salah.
This is something I have to address but the next 2 difficult games and mainly the injuries that came up in my team (Burn and Kane) will not allow me to do so this gameweek.
There are some issues in my team but I am really trying to keep hold of my wildcard until after the double GW.
Injuries to Targett, Burn and Kane
Gazzaniga cant keep a CS
Zaha needs to go asap
Abraham will stay for another 2 gameweeks and then I will ditch for the 4 gameweeks where he has a bad schedule
Transfers.
I made two and taken a 4 point hit. Its Vardy in for Kane (got rid of him before Xmas and it paid off as he missed 2 games) and Burn out for Sidibe.
Captain.
All my 3 attacking players have favourable fixtures at home. But due to ownership and I am sure he will be miles ahead as the poll favorite so I am going with Vardy and Rashford as VC.
Transfer summary: Vardy in for Kane out and Sidibe in for Burn out
The FFGeek contributors League
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