Here’s our article where 4 FFGeek Contributors with their FPL team tips GW29. Each show their GW29 teams. There’s Rick Porter, Rob Reid, Scott Taylor and Rob Cosgrove
FPL team tips GW29 – 4 FFGeek Contributors teams part 3
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Introduction
This is part 3 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. The teams are shown as their “final-ish” teams so they could change. Where they have twitter accounts I have shown this and they may update them there or on our Slack Channel which is part of our subscription Patreon site but this is not guaranteed
See Also FFGeek Contributors teams Part 1 and FFGeek Contributors teams Part 2
Rick Porter
Rick’s last 4 seasons overall ranks were 29k, 1k, 30k and 2k.
GW28 points: 48 (FPL average 43) Total points: 1,927, Overall Rank: 1k, no rank movement, Team Value: £105.8m
Rick has used all his chips
I have surprisingly little to say about GW28. There were a fair few twists and turns, but overall it was a bit ‘meh’. Stones was my only real highlight in a generally low-scoring week that feels like it was mainly full of me hoping other popular captain picks blanked – which they did. I held rank, which I’m happy with all things considered.
BGW29
Assuming you’re Free Hit-less, like me, this is one of the more difficult weeks of the season. I’m not sure what I’m doing yet and it’s unlikely I’ll know until the last minute, so my current thoughts and plans are probably more useful than a last-minute update just before deadline.
It’s looking a bit worse than I feared. With the amount of injuries and rotation we’re experiencing, my original plan of keeping a transfer back and running with just 9 players already had plenty of risk attached. Now, with both Bamford and Son flagged, I’ll be lucky to have a playing 9 even if I use all available FTs. That said, Bamford and Son are so highly owned that a lot of managers will be in the same boat – accept those who have kept hold of their Free Hit, of course.
Bamford might stand a chance of featuring, and I have 0.5m tied up in him, so he’ll be staying regardless. Son, on the other hand, is more doubtful and what I do with him depends on the news that comes out this week. One thing is certain, changing him for another GW29 players is an annoying way to have to use a transfer at a time when they are so precious.
Transfer
I have 2 FTs. In the likely scenario that Son is ruled out I’ll switch him to either Lingard or Bale and then swap either Rudiger or Stones to Dallas. No matter which combo I go for I’ll have 9 players (including iffy Bamford) and one less blanking player in GW33.
If I feel Son has a fair chance of playing on Sunday then I won’t move him out. In that case I’d do Stones to Dallas and then use my second FT to bring in… someone. Maybe Aubameyang for a one week punt… Maybe Dawson to try and offset Cresswell’s popularity… I really don’t know yet but, with multiple flags, I do know that keeping a transfer back isn’t a luxury I can afford.
The Reality
I’m expecting a red arrow. Probably a sizable one. This is where the benefits I reaped earlier in the season with my Wildcard and Free Hit come back to bite me. If Bamford doesn’t play then I’m an injury or two away from fielding half a team, yet taking hits to move out desirable premium players with inflated values seems a far worse option than simply letting this week unfold and hoping for some luck.
There are a couple of things that go in my favour, though… Firstly, Kane will almost certainly be a heavy captain favourite, so I can mitigate one of the biggest rank risks just by following suit. Secondly, I’ll not have taken any hits to get to this position, whereas I imagine a fair few will if they want to field anything close to decent team.
Captain
As mentioned, it’ll be Kane. Probably Raphinha vice.
Transfer sumary: The most likely outcome of my transfers is Bale in for Son, Dallas for Stones. Though everything depends on Son news.
Here’s the team assuming those transfers above take place
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW28 Points: 60 (FPL average 43) Total points: 1,864, Overall Rank: 21k, green arrow: 9k Team Value: £107.0m
Rob has used all of his Chips
Follow Rob on twitter here
GW28 review
After a small red last week, it was nice to bounce back with a pretty sizeable green relative to my Overall Rank. It was certainly a funny old week with relatively low scores all round and most of the big players and Captain favourites blanking. It’s certainly not often that you get a 30% rank improvement green arrow with only 4/11 returns and a Captain blank for sure!
Stars of the show this week were undoubtedly my 3 premium defenders who made up over half my points. After weeks of patiently sitting on Cancelo waiting out the 1 and 2 pointers, he finally delivered a double-figure haul, which was only surpassed by John Stones being on the end of Portuguese utility player’s free-kick. 26 points from the 2 – that’s an FPL moment I won’t forget in the hurry. Luke Shaw then added to this with 9 points on Sunday night, he’s the gift that keep on giving at the moment.
Calvert Lewin provided my only other return and really should have had more – it looks like he’s regaining his sharpness and he looked more effective on the eye test as he seemed to be shifted more to the focal point of the Everton attack after they surprisingly went 2-0 down. Other than that, there was a blank from Captain Kane though he was pretty unlucky to be fair as well as blanks from fellow premiums Bruno Fernandes and Salah. I lost 2 players to early injuries in Son and Bamford (more on that later) and I had a double 94th minute clean sheet wipeout for the Villa lads. To be fair, Newcastle fully deserved their goal – Villa certainly missed Grealish and this was perhaps most apparent in the last 10 minutes, where they simply kept gifting the ball back to The Magpies. Had Grealish been playing, I suspect he’d have held up possession more effectively and bought some cheap free-kicks and taken the pressure off. We await news of his return.
A good week then and much needed as with no chips left, I’m at a sizeable disadvantage going into first this upcoming Blank GW29 and then the weeks beyond. Let’s have a look at my plans…
GW29 Team
2FTs and £0.3m in the bank.
Blank GW29 this week then and I’m currently sitting on 7 players, with 2 flagged. Of the flags, Bamford looks likely to be ok according to Bielsa’s comments yesterday so I won’t take any action here. Son looks very likely to miss out however – there’s a suggestion he might be fit, but even if he is I suspect Mourinho may hold off him to make sure he gets a rest over the international window. So in all likelihood I’m sitting on 6 players.
Looking at some stats coming from LiveFPL this morning, it looks like the majority of managers inside the Top 100k are in the same position in that they have in or around 7 players including Son. While this increases my chance of at least getting a grey arrow this week, I’ll still be at a big disadvantage versus Free Hitters who look set to be 8-10 points ahead before any returns are even factored in. As such, as much as I’d like to carry a transfer over the international window, I’ll be using both transfers to at least get me to 8 players for this week.
First up is the Son conundrum and as much as I’d like to hold him with such a great fixture in GW30 (away to Newcastle), I think I really have to sell this week. I can however mitigate this fixture issue somewhat by moving him sideways to Bale so this will be my first move. My second move has blank GW33 in mind and with City facing such a gruelling schedule, there is sure to be some rotation so I think now is a good time to shed a City asset. Remember GW33 is a blank week for City, Spurs, Fulham and Southampton and as I am carrying a combined 5 outfield City and Spurs assets, I’ll need to shed at least 2 to get 11 out in GW33.
It’ll be a nervous 3 weeks dropping to 2 players and I don’t really want to lose an attacking City player before their GW32 fixture versus Leeds so my plan is to sell a defender this week for my second move. The question is which one – Cancelo or Stones. I’ve got a bit more value tied up in Cancelo and I wonder if he is slightly more rotatable than Stones now though he has only missed 2 fixtures over the last few weeks versus 3 for Stones. In terms of who comes in, if it was Stones I’d bring in Dawson and if it was Cancelo I’d go Cresswell. The latter is certainly the more appealing option for me so it might be this that just swings it in the end.
As a further quick aside, looking beyond GW29 I’m hoping then to carry my GW30 transfer (there’s nice fixtures for my Leeds, Spurs and Everton players this week) and then look at teams with nice fixtures from GW31 onwards (Chelsea and Wolves stand out initially here.)
Back to my team this week and I’ve only 2 selection dilemmas. First up Captaincy – I suspect Kane will be a clear winner in Geek’s Poll this week so that will do for me. I don’t fancy playing chicken with a heavy favourite this week even if his output might be stifled a bit by a stuffy Villa defence and a reduced service with there likely being no Son. Second decision is which goalkeeper as despite my outfield struggles, I do have 2 playing keepers this week. Martinez is always capable of a double-figure haul, but Areola has the better clean sheet odds and I already have Konsa which can balance off a Martinez clean sheet so I’m going for a slight gamble versus the Effective Ownerships and am going to start Areola. I guess it’s splitting the risk as well from a defensive point of view, though to be fair when I did this a couple of weeks ago it did bite me firmly on the backside!
That’s me for this week then. I must confess, I’m pretty nervous about this gameweek and I can honestly see a situation where I end up with a score in single figures – I’ll be pretty happy with any returns I get! As usual, I’ll try and Tweet my final team before the deadline but with it being Friday again, this does depend on my work situation. Good luck folks and I hope you enjoy the games.
Transfer summary – Son to Bale and second tbc. Possibly Cancelo to Cresswell
Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made
Scott Taylor
Scott finished with an overall rank of 15k last season, 1k 18/19 and 12k in 17/18
GW28 points: 60 (FPL average 43) Total points: 1818, Overall Rank: 82k, green arrow 26k, Team Value: £107.0m
Scott has used his Free Hit Chip and his Bench Boost
So, the blank game week has arrived and I’m fully expecting my latest visit to the top 100k to be short lived as a result!
As long as Bamford plays, I currently have 7 players with 1 free transfer. I feel as though I have Brighton v Newcastle (Dunk) and Fulham v Leeds (triple Leeds) covered although if I was free hitting I’d probably get a Fulham defender.
That leaves Villa v Spurs and West Ham v Arsenal. I have Martinez and Kane in the first game. I don’t want double Villa defence and am not convinced by any Villa attackers even if Grealish is fit (my concern would be how fit). Son is likely out injured so that just leaves Bale as an option for me. The issue I have with him is his minutes – if I only have 8 players I want them all to start and finish the game. So that leaves West Ham v Arsenal. I don’t want to sell Calvert Lewin just yet (I’d like to know when the Villa fixture is going to be first) so that rules out Antonio. I already have Lingard so that leaves Cresswell as the option. Aubameyang is the option for Arsenal although he has minutes issues too.
So I think I’ll end up going with Digne to Cresswell. Kane as captain, Lingard as vice.
Enjoy the game week!
Transfer summary: Digne to Cresswell
Here’s the team prior to any transfers being made:
Rob Cosgrove
Rob’s last 4 seasons overall rank were 64k, 45k, 40k and 23k
GW28 points: 37 (FPL average 43) Total points: 1,598, Overall Rank: 1,819k, red arrow 120k, Team Value: £104.0m
Rob has used his Free Hit chip
Another gameweek disaster! Dunk scoring offsets selling Cancelo and his 12 pointer but I expected more from Bale, he didn’t even make 60 minutes for the extra point!
This week my plans are all over the place due to the injuries to Son and Bamford. Bamford seems ok but Son may need to go. I will make a late decision on that one and possibly switch him to Lingard. That would mean 10 players with a game this week but 1 of them is Holding who seems to have been dropped. Hoping for some rotation from Arteta.
Captain is a tough one but I’ll stick with Bale again. Going to be a low scoring gameweek so a differential punt seems acceptable in my eyes.
Transfer summary: Possibly Son to Lingard
Here’s my team before transfers:
FFGeek Contributors League
The highlighted FFGeek contributors combined team finished with an overall rank of 52k last season is going ok in 3rd place with total points of 1,868 and an overall rank of 18k. You can follow that team, including live transfers, on our subscription Patreon site.
You can also follow Joe’s transfer planner team which finished with an overall rank of 32k last season currently in 19th place with total points of 1,717 and an overall rank of, 564k.
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Other posts
Analysing the teams of 10 top managers
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
The FFGeek Captain and Transfer Polls
FFGeek Contributors Teams Part 1
FFGeek Contributors Teams Part 2
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