Here’s a FPL teams article very early first draft FFGeek team with some commentary. Hopefully it will give you some food for thought if you are looking to do drafts at the moment
FPL Teams – A Very Early Draft FFGeek Team
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Introduction
My last 5 seasons overall ranks if you’re new to the site are: 17k, 17k, 36k, 17k & 21k.
This is a very early draft which is just to give you some ideas if you’re tinkering with your team at the moment. It’s nearly 2 months to the start of the season so it will change drastically as we go through pre-season. At the moment there’s no one from the newly promoted teams as I’m not that familar with them yet.
The First Draft Team
Here it is with commentary below:
Structure
The default formation looks to be 4-3-3. That’s partly due to me preferring defenders over attackers in the £5m to £6m price range and it also allows me to spend reasonably heavily on my starting attacking players
I would have preferred a 3 premium captain option with Kane added to it but that would have meant a radical change of structure with a pretty cheap defence so I’ve stuck with just Salah and Bruno Fernandes at the moment.
I potentially could reduce Calvert Lewin if something comes up to give me more strength on the bench to counter rotation risk for the Chelsea and Man City defenders.
It’s also worth remembering that Euro 2020 could cause problems for players back late who are also given 2 weeks rest before pre-season. This needs monitoring as we go along.
Goalkeepers
I’ve stuck with the £4.5m GK and the £4.0m back up which means I will play the same GK each week.
Sanchez of Brighton is in a team that finished 5th equal on clean sheets last season. They were 7th equal in goals conceded with 46 and 3rd in xG against over the season which is an incredible statistic. They did underperform that XGA stat but you have to remember that 11 games of the 38 were with Ryan in goal who just isn’t premier league standard and had about the worst save % of any GK that season.
Sanchez’s save % was 8th last season in the league. The only negative is that Brighton don’t concede that many shots which does negate save points. Him and Guaita are the only pretty certain £4.5m starters as I write this
McGovern is just a £4.0m as a placeholder for the moment
Defenders
I’ve gone for 4 front line defenders who will play every game. Where I can I’ve tried to get players who have an attacking element to them. Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd were 3 of the top 4 for clean sheets last season. Liverpool were 5th equal but this season should significantly improve after the injuries of last season should see Van Dijk fit for the start of the season as well as Joe Gomez plus the new signing of Konate.
First up is the best attacking defender in the league for me in £7.5m Alexander Arnold. He should be fit after injury cut short his Euro 2020 involvement.
A Chelsea attacking defender is not so easy. £5.5m Reece James is my favourite and I could probably live with the starter rotation but the problem is that he tends to come on as sub for annoying 1 pointers having done so 7 times last season. Chilwell played 27 games and didn’t come on as sub once but he’s £6.0m which is just a bit strong for the team budget at the moment. So I’ve gone for £5.5m Rudiger for who doesn’t have that attacking ability unfortunately
Next up is £6.0m Cancelo who is the premium Man City attacking defender. Played 27 last season and only came on as sub once which is helpful.
Shaw’s attacking stats were exceptional last season and United finished 4th for clean sheets. £5.5m Luke Shaw played 30 games plus an acceptable sub appearances of 2 with Telles failing to impress as his competition.
£4.5m Ayling is my cheap 5th defender. Leeds improved significantly defensively late last season. My preference would be Alisoski if he’s £4.5m but he’s who’s not in the FPL site at the moment. His contract is up for renewal with no resolution at the moment
Midfield
£12.5m Salah and £12.0m Fernandes are my 2 picks for premium captain options. Both take penalties. As I said I would have liked 3 with Harry Kane as the 3rd but that wasn’t viable.
Salah is in negotiations with Liverpool to go to the Olympics with Egypt which would cause major pre-season problems and Man City have offered £100m for Harry Kane. The progression of either of these 2 things could change the captain structure of my team
The 3rd mid is £6.0m Joe Willock who is back at Arsenal from his exceptional loan spell for Newcastle where he scored 8 goals in 11 starts and 3 as sub. These were backed up by pretty reasonable underlying stats too. It’s too early to say if he will go back to Newcastle but he’s in as a placeholder for the moment to keep an eye on him.
£4.5m Bissouma and £4.5 Douglas Luiz are the bench players. Even with 4-3-3 I only want 1 at this price but as of yet there is no Soucek of last season that I’ve spotted so needs monitoring and changing if at all possible.
Forwards
£7.5m Antonio’s 10 goals and 5 assists in 24 starts plus 2 as sub don’t do justice to his underlying stats which aren’t far off prime Aguero country. West Ham also have good fixtures to start with.
£7.5m Iheanacho finished the season off on fire but will need monitoring for starts incredibly as Barnes return to fitness may mean the 3-5-2 which Iheanacho fared so well in will cause problems to get Barnes into and Rodgers may need to make a decision. First 3 fixtures are reasonably good.
£8.0m Calvert Lewin is purely there for the opening fixtures although I’m not wild on his price. His xG last season was good but he offers little in the way creativity for his assists with 4 of the 6 assists last season not being Opta assists from what I can gather.
So work to do but it is very early days and it was fun to do. I hope it helped your thoughts
Other posts
Attacking players fixture difficulty Schedule
Kev and Rob’s first draft teams
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