Here’s our FPL team tips GW8 article where the 1st group of the FFGeek contributors show their teams for GW8. In this part there’s Costas Chari, Alex Ball, Joseph Crilley, Ben Wooton and Rob Reid
FPL team tips GW8 – FFGeek contributors show their GW8 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.
Joseph Crilley
Joseph’s last 3 seasons OR were 28k, 7k and 13k
GW7 points: 63 on WC (average 51) Total points 421 Gameweek rank 773k, Overall Rank: 239k, green arrow 216k, Team Value: £102.2m
I activated the wildcard in GW7 due to a number of reasons which I outlined in a wildcard article last week; mainly I was looking to make an aggressive play in an attempt to move up the overall rankings. I certainly cleared the first hurdle as 63 points led to a significant green arrow which included an impressive 7/11 returners with an additional clean sheet on my bench. It was particularly pleasing to see Wilson return again as I avoided being stubborn by bringing him back into my side despite selling him in GW4. The star of the show was Pereira though, who was the real differential in my side, and he repaid my faith with a lovely goal during Leicester’s romp for a 13-point haul.
Following the completion of the gameweek, I began to look ahead to my plans for this weekend and, despite not needing a transfer, I was facing a couple of dilemmas – who to bench and who to captain. When building my wildcard squad, I looked to push Cantwell back to be an 8th attacker who would predominantly stay on bench. However, he has returned in every game at Carrow Road so far where he faces Aston Villa in GW8, so I was hoping to have him into the starting XI for this week. Then for captaincy, I knew that I would like to place the armband on a City player, but I was not looking forward to deciding between Sterling and De Bruyne.
However, both questions have been made redundant by the news that De Bruyne picked up a groin niggle on Saturday and looks very likely to be absent for this weekend. Pep has suggested that he will return after the international break so I am not seeking to remove him from my team as I can afford to have him not playing in GW8 given my mentioned benching dilemma. Therefore, Cantwell is able to come into the starting line-up while Sterling will take the armband where I am hoping for big points given opponents Wolves face a Europa League trip on Thursday night.
All the best to everyone this weekend and may your arrows be green!
transfer summary: carrying over a free transfer
You can follow Joe on twitter here
Rob Reid
Rob’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 148k, 94k, 22k, 4k and 7k
GW7 points: 51 (average 51) Total points 422 Gameweek rank 3,406k, Overall Rank: 229k, red arrow 32k, Team Value: £101.7m
GW7 review
Another frustrating GW makes it 4 red arrows in a row as I once again got my captain choice wrong and saw my strikers blank completely for the second week on the spin. We’ll start with the good news and this was 5/11 returns plus 2 save points and a bonus from Matt Ryan for the equivalent of an assist so we’ll call it 6/11. The trade-off with this was that these were all single figure returns and (as already mentioned) my captain Mo Salah blanked.
Getting good grades this week were the aforementioned Ryan, Van Dijk, Guilbert (really?!), Mount, De Bruyne and Sterling. It was a bit of a week of what could have been as well though. Salah and Sterling both botched gilt-edged one-on-ones and Transfer In Abraham contrived to also miss several big chances. The latter is part of a disappointing theme over the last 2 weeks where my strikers have notched 10 points between them across 6 appearances. This combined with my weekly captain failure (I’m also going to adopt Geek’s latest tactic of getting my dogs to pick my captain from now on) is why I’ve dropped out of the top 200k and am not comfortably inside the 100k ranks where I’d like to be.
The upshot of this is that I’m going to go through with my loose pre-season plan to play my Wildcard in GW9. I was tempted this week, but I’d like Leicester to get their trip to Anfield out of the way and I think it will make things more flexible with dealing with any issues over the International Break. Aside from this, from a personal point of view it would practically be quite difficult to do as I’m at a wedding all day on Friday this week and I don’t really want to be finalising a Wildcard team on Friday night when I’m half cut, or early on Saturday morning while nursing a hangover. Needs must!
GW8 Team
So I’ve effectively got a single Free Hit transfer this week. Injury-wise, early indications are that Kevin De Bruyne probably won’t be risked for the Wolves game. I’m not going to sell him though – I’ve got 0.5m tied up in him so a sale and Wildcard buy back would compromise my team value somewhat. Otherwise, my main issue is a tough fixture for keeper Ryan so he’s the obvious choice for a one week Transfer Out. Not very exciting to be fair but looks the sensible move. The obvious 1 week Transfer In depends on the fitness of Lukasz Fabianski – if he’s still injured then I can pick up their reserve keeper Roberto for 4.4m for 1 week for a nice home fixture against Palace. If this is confirmed in the Pressers then this will be my transfer. If there’s any doubt, then I’ll probably go for Pope from Burnley instead.
For my team, I’ve left De Bruyne in on the off chance he gets to play – even off the bench he can do well, but Cantwell is a decent first sub with a potentially good fixture to come in. No doubts for me on the captain this week – it’s Raheem Sterling. He came off the bench in midweek to score and get an assist so he’s in form and should start this Sunday, especially with City’s firepower likely reduced by De Bruyne’s injury. I’ll check with the dogs before I finalise this though!
Best of luck for GW8 everyone!
Transfer summary: to be confirmed
You can follow Rob on twitter here
Costas Chari
Costas’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 84k, 29k and 27k
GW7 points: 57 -4 (average 51) Total points 436 Gameweek rank 1,923k, Overall Rank: 83k, red arrow 5k, Team Value: £100.8m
A few words about GW7. Nothing special actually 5k drop for a bad week isn’t very bad. Ill take it.
GW8.
It is a very weird season we are going through regarding team and player form and of course price changes.
I am, in general, not in favour of taking hits. This year including this week I have taken 20 points in hits but it has worked out out well for me as I’m currently sitting on 88k and haven’t used my wildcard.
I am also, in general, not in favour of making early transfers. However, this year a player might drop or rise 0.2 from Sunday to Friday.
Therefore, I’m not playing as I usually play FPL this season but since its working out I’ll continue this roller coaster ride. I have again taken a hit and transfer De Bruyne and Pukki out for Callum Hudson Odoi and Aubameyang.
Reasoning- De Bruyne has a history of injuries and although there is a break I believe he will be eased through so the whole of October which might not be great for him. He sits on 40+% of teams so I believe he will get price drops. Even if i knew he was going to play after the break the alternatives on my bench are Kelly or Rico so I am actually throwing a gameweek away and I am in no mood for a second red arrow.
Pukki. He is not the Pukki that we got introduced to during the start of the season and his away form is very bad. After the Villa game he has Man U and then an away game. I would have preferred to keep him but needed the funds.
I really needed Aubameyang and Chelsea cover for the following weeks. Aubameyang is on fire! And gives a good captain option as well. Hudson Odoi has played 3 times as a sub and delivered in all 3 as well as passing the eye test. The kid is incredible so I needed him in my team soon before his price rose as I just had the funds to make it.
Captain- although I was happy Sterling got rested on the bench for the Champions League and he was going to be my captain, I am now leaning towards Aubameyang.
Good luck
Alex Ball
Alex’s last 5 seasons overall rank were 523k, 17k, 10k, 28k and 3k
GW7 points: 54 (average 51) Total points 395 Gameweek rank 2,649k, Overall Rank: 985k, green arrow 83k, Team Value: £102.8m
Another green arrow even small ones are great! For the first time this season I break the million mark, not where I’d have want to be at this point but steps in the right direction.
Clean sheets from all three defenders was nice. The double Liverpool clean sheet was pleasing and Soyuncu offers great value (although I do like the extra for Pereria with his 2 goals in 2).
I think Son was the correct captain call but was sacrificed due to the red card and his attacking returns where limited due to this.
On to this week, The plan was to roll but with De Bruyne out and Cantwell (Cantwell reported but not showing on the FPL site) a doubt I may fastback my proposed move for next week and do for a -4 instead of for free; Wickham and Van Dijk to Wilson and Tomori. There are some great attacking options emerging for the foreseeable future; Aubameyang and Vardy to name a few but Wilson looks great at a cut price option. He really should have had a brace last week, missing one of his two big chances and with Norwich and Watford after the Arsenal game I’m happy to jump on now!
Good luck all.
Transfer summary : to be confirmed
Note the lineup is pre any transfers made
You can follow Alex on twitter here
Ben Wooton
Ben’s last 3 seasons overall rank were 61k, 26k and 31k.
GW7 points: 62 (average 51) Total points 434 Gameweek rank 979k, Overall Rank: 94k, green arrow 86k, Team Value: £101.2m
Geek note: This was written before any news of De Bruynes injury
Early transfers for me so hope no one’s crocked but feel I have a good bench anyway so …
Van Dijk out and Tomori in
King out and Abraham in.
Looking at Abraham’s fixtures I couldn’t ignore them but meant I needed to lose a big hitter plus King whose done well for me.
Van Dijk for me has less upside with his fixtures than Robertson. Replacement wise I had to choose Tomori not Soyuncu as he has Liverpool up next.
Tempted to bring the latter in soon though, to free up funds further, then maybe for Digne to play three at back.
Anyway feels like a few weeks away..
Other posts
Andrew Whitfield on FPL patience
The bandwagons and sinking ships
Analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
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