Here’s our FPL team tips GW26 article where the 1st group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW26. In this article there’s current FFGeek contributors league leader Ben Wooton, Kev in Canada and last weeks wildcarders Rob Reid and Alex Ball
FPL team tips GW26 – FFGeek contributors show their GW26 teams part 1
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.
Ben Wooton
Ben’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 61k, 26k and 31k.
GW25 points: 59 (FPL average 47) Total points 1,532 Gameweek rank 1,816k, Overall Rank: 3k, no rank movement, Team Value: £104.7m
Ben has played his triple captain chip
Transfer Robertson in for Kelly.
I may make another transfer for a 4 point deduction but have yet to decide
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW25 points: 72 on WC (FPL average 47) Total points 1,459 Gameweek rank 294k, Overall Rank: 76k, green arrow 41k, Team Value: £104.7m
Rob has played his triple captain chip and 2nd wildcard
GW25 review
A good start to things following the deployment of my second Wildcard in a lowish scoring week where the points hauls were dominated by keepers and defenders. There was an unusually high 9/20 clean sheets, which included 3 goalless matches and only 1 significant high ownership attacking haul, that from Mo Salah – a weird week it’s fair to say! This therefore in hindsight looks like it was a good week to change the make-up of the defence in particular with double Liverpool and Sheffield United cover proving profitable.
So 4/4 clean sheets made-up the bulk of the players in terms of who returned, but once again it was a big haul from Captain Mo that propelled my score even higher. He was the only attacking return for me (as I’m sure he was for many) and it certainly is a strange thing to report that bizarrely he is the only player to have scored a goal for my team since Sadio Mane netted back in GW21! I hope this changes soon, but to be fair it is a good point of the season to use defence as a differential as happened this week.
Teams tend to be a bit cagier at this point of the campaign. Only 8 points separate Arsenal in 10th down to Watford in 19th and teams will be keen not to lose points to their rivals so as such they often play a bit tighter. Defenders are lower cost and lower risk and give you an option to deviate away from the template using double ups or good fixture runs. This week certainly proved fruitful in this regard – a Friday night decision to cash in my gains on Lord Lundstram was worth an extra 4 points and with his lordship now starting to be sold by his loyal followers, this is just one example where getting ahead of the game at the back could provide a welcome dividend.
I’ll play it cool though and say that my Wildcard is only 1 week old and the good progress I’ve made so far could so easily be undone with a bad score this week. So I’ll cautiously enjoy this week’s green arrow as I look forward to what is going to be a slightly surreal protracted GW26. Let’s have a look at my team….
GW26 Team
Not too much to report this week on the transfer front. Having the week drawn out over 2 weekends is not helpful for me, particularly with my the majority of my players playing on the second weekend. The trade-off to this is that immediately post-Wildcard I have a nice deep squad so I should have some cover of the bench to bail me out if the unfortunate does occur.
The down side of that squad depth though is that it does leave selection dilemmas. First of all at the back – I could feasibly select either keeper and then I have a decision between Baldock and Stephens. As it stands I’m sticking with my double Pool and Sheffield United cover, with my 2 Saints on the bench joined by Lascelles who faces a tough trip to The Emirates.
Then I have to leave out one of Grealish and Traore – tricky one! I’ve left the Wolves man on the bench at the moment as he’s yellow-flagged though I suspect he’ll be fit with Wolves playing on the second weekend. David Silva is also a gametime risk, but I think Pep might change it up in midfield after City’s defeat to Spurs so hopefully the veteran Spaniard will get some gametime against a West Ham defence that looked more like a Benny Hill sketch last weekend. Either way, I’m likely to sell David Silva in GW27 to start to move a couple of players out so I can get a full 11 out in the GW28 blank.
For my captain, the armband will stay on Salah this week, but De Bruyne against West Ham would be a good call I reckon as well – it certainly looks a good week in terms of attacking fixtures. So that’s me for this week – all the best this week folks, I hope you enjoy the games.
Transfer summary: carrying over a free transfer
You can follow Rob on twitter here
Kev in Canada
Kev finished in 6k last season and 195k in 17/18
GW25 points: 63 -4 (FPL average 47) Total points 1,391 Gameweek rank 1,288k, Overall Rank: 443k, green arrow 38k, Team Value: £106.5m
Kev has played his triple captain chip
GW25/26 observations before getting into the player analysis:
• Any sized green arrow was needed the week after an epic TC fail. I am actually happy with my score to say I didn’t Wildcard and had a score in the tier just below those that did.
• Taking a hit to get Son and Robertson paid off.
• Will need to address Lundstrum, Kelly and Maupay. I would like to ultimately either upgrade or downgrade Ayew too, but at least he is playing 90. Moving Maupay to Ings looks to be the best move to do with the Ings fixtures looking too good to pass on.
Game week player analysis:
☆ Keeper
• McCarthy. OK. Liverpool is out of the way. The fixtures are green for a while now.
• Gazzaniga. Don’t care if he keeps dropping. Bigger fish to fry.
☆ Defenders
• Alexander Arnold Double pool D in full swing.
• Robertson. Double pool D in full swing.
• Söyüncü. He is getting a lot of criticism as many dump LEI defence. Now that Ndidi has played a few matches he may be in better game shape. I didn’t exactly expect a clean sheet against Chelsea. If I move him out, in two weeks I am just going to want him back anyway for a nice fixture run.
• Kelly. I’m going to lose value on Kelly as I need to get Ings in this week. Potentially next week I move him and I have over 2M to play with so I can target anyone.
• Lundstram. I would love to just move him right now but it is not worth a hit. Also Maupay and Kelly are ahead of him in the pecking order for needing replacements. I think he is also not completely done and could start some of the games potentially.
☆ Midfielders
• De Bruyne. Happy.
• Salah. Happy.
• Son. Happy.
• Hayden. Will likely always be my 3rd bench spot.
• Grealish. Got the hockey assist on their only goal.
☆ Forwards
• Vardy. Everyone is dumping. I thought he played really well. Harsh crowd. Again, in two weeks most will want him back in.
• Ayew. 1st sub.
• Maupay to Ings. Ings’ has destroyed my rank and is about to go on a multi month green fixture run..
Upcoming GW26
☆ Musical Chairs
Maupay ➡️ Ings
☆ Captain
Salah. VC De Bruyne. I may swap this. I think I prefer De Bruyne as to not have to wait a week for any unforeseen injury to Salah. Rare I know but it literally just happened to me on a Mané TC!
☆ Substitute decisions
Gazzaniga. Ayew. Kelly. Hayden
Good luck.
Follow Kev on twitter here
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
GW25 points: 73 on WC (FPL average 47) Total points 1,369 Gameweek rank 243k, Overall Rank: 670k, green arrow 267k, Team Value: £104.4m
Rob has played his triple captain chip and 2nd wildcard
A pleasing couple of weeks and a rise from 1.8 million to 670K. This week was the result of a successful wildcard with 72 points, although the wildcard should be judged over more than this week.
Double Sheffield United and Liverpool defence came up trumps with Hendersons 10 points. Elsewhere, no one scored more than 3 points except captain Mo Salah with 32 points.
On to this week and no transfers. The same back four with SUFC playing Bournemouth at home and the Liverpool pair away to Norwich. The midfield also remains the sameMo getting the armband and the other three mids all playing at home. Up front, Jimmy, Ings and Auba also all play at home against teams I’d fancy returns from.
My big concern is no Kun at home to a woeful West Ham but I choose Auba due to him having a nice fixture this week and next whereas Kun’s is tougher next week.
Good luck everyone.
transfer summary: carrying over a free transfer
follow Alex on twitter here
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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 an accompanying spreadsheet so you can drill down further. Currently 1,480 points 36k overall rank
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