Here’s our FPL wildcard team GW18 article where I pretend I’m using my wildcard. This is to give you transfer suggestions for GW18 for the upcoming gameweeks to give you more longevity than just 1 gameweek alone.
FPL wildcard team GW18 – the FFGeek imaginary wildcard
If you join our Patreon subscription site one of the FFGeek contributors does an imaginary wildcard article every gameweek. This weeks it’s Yaniv Salomon who finished with an overall rank of 4k last season and 8k in 17/18. There’s also loads of other features which you can see at the bottom of this article.
Introduction
The idea of this article is to bring together the other articles of the gameweek.
The article is brief and with no stats as there’s loads of information on individual players in the rankings articles:
There’s also:
You can also see who the 10 top FPL managers I follow each week have in their team. You can also see which players have the best fixtures in our fixture ease article
There’s also who I’m thinking of in my article early FFGeek team thoughts
There’s also the contributors teams for GW18 part 1 and contributors teams part 2 and contributors team part 3
Then there’s who the FFGeek readers are transferring in and out as well as our captain poll
There’s also Rob Reid’s GW18 player picks
The FFGeek imaginary wildcard team
Here’s the team. It’s TV is £102.2. I’ve left £1.7m in the bank to aid future transfers
Structure
The obvious thing about GW18 is that Liverpool and West Ham don’t have a fixture.
If included only 1 Liverpool player in Alexander Arnold and the intention would be to use 2 transfers in GW20 to get Salah into the team. He has no game in GW18 and Leicester in GW19 so it’s a calculated gamble to use the funds over the next 2 gameweeks.
Goalkeeper
I’ve gone for Palace’s Guaita here. He’s a good shot stopper with a good save % in a team set up to defend as a way of getting results due to not being able to score goals themselves. Palace’s fixtures are also reasonably good going forward
As my back up GK, I’ve gone for Martin who is West Ham’s replacement while Fabianski is injured.
Defenders
Surely Manchester United can’t keep producing excellent underlying stats without getting clean sheets although I know I said this last week. I’ve gambled on Harry Maguire. They still have a good run of fixtures now so if I’m hoping this is the time it will turn
Leicester and Liverpool are the best defensive teams for me at the moment but Leicester face a tricky 2 fixtures next. Therefore, I’ve gone for the cheapest Leicester defender in Soyuncu to allow a couple of benchings without too much funds being tied up. Chilwell is the more attacking option if you’re thinking of potential attacking points rather than benching.
Alexander Arnold is my Liverpool defensive choice and the only Liverpool player in the team. It means the only focus needs to be on getting Salah back for GW20 rather than getting more Liverpool players back in. Like Man Utd you think those underlying defensive stats have to be rewarded for clean sheets eventually. He does have 4 yellow cards so needs to get through GW19 to avoid a 1 match suspension.
On 4 yellow cards so he has to get through the next 2 gameweeks to avoid a 1 match ban but hard to ignore is John Lundstram the Sheffield United midfielder classified as an FPL defender. However as last weeks 11 point haul showed he’s impossible to ignore at the moment.
Lastly I’ve gambled on Otamendi who is fairly cheap price at £5.0m. City despite the odd calamitous performance have shown they can keep clean sheets with 6 so far this season. Only Leicester have more. With Stones and Laporte injured without an imminent return then he should get a decent run in the team
Midfield
Despite 5 consecutive blanks I’ve kept faith with Pulisic. Of those 5 games he produced little vs Man City and as did everyone little in the Everton debacle but was good in the other 3. Still it’s fair to say that the stats in the last 5 have dropped off compared to the rest of the season and his unknown factor makes him a gamble. Despite all that I think there are enough qualities plus the fixtures to keep him in the wildcard team.
De Bruyne was at his best with 2 goals and an assist for 19 points vs Arsenal last week. Also played as a CAM in an unusual 4-2-3-1 formation for Guardiola. City are the best attacking team in the Premier League so I’ve stuck with him as the representation. I think Sterling has the bigger goal threat but I’ve gone for the price of De Bruyne
With good fixtures coming up I’ve gone for Jack Grealish. He has been a consistent performer with good underlying stats and hopefully retains penalty duties even after his miss. He unfortunately is another guy on 4 yellows and needs to get through the next 2 gameweeks to avoid a 1 match suspension.
Spurs also have a decent run of fixtures and I’ve gone for Dele Alli over Son although either would be a good choice. Both have similar stats so I went for Alli’s cheaper price. Alli is also now playing as a CAM support striker virtually.
The £4.5m market for midfielders isn’t great so I’ve spent a bit more of Traore as my bench midfield option
Forwards
Hopefully Vardy needs no justification.
Jimenez makes it as a captain option for GW18 plus a good few fixtures after GW20. He edged out Abraham for the spot.
The last forward was Rashford. His stats have been boosted by an incredible 4 penalties but he’s still done enough to edge out Martial as the player to benefit from Man Utd’s good fixture run. Primarily due to penalty duties and a less injury prone player.
If you join our Patreon subscription site one of the FFGeek contributors does an imaginary wildcard article every gameweek. This weeks it’s Yaniv Salomon who finished with an overall rank of 4k last season and 8k in 17/18. There’s also loads of other features which you can see at the bottom of this article.
Yellow cards
Players with 4 yellow cards need to GW19 without another booking to avoid an annoying 1 match suspension. In the wildcard team above there’s Grealish, Lundstram and Alexander Arnold
Here’s the list of those on 4 yellows from the site statbunker.
Fixture Ease schedules
Fixture ease schedule for attacking players
Here’s the fixture ease schedule for attacking players ranked by the ease of the defences they face over the next 6. The best schedule is at the top
Fixture ease schedule for defenders and goalkeepers
Here’s the fixture ease schedule for defenders and goalkeeprs ranked by the ease of the attacking teams they face over the next 6. The best schedule is at the top
More content
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 1010 points 70k overall rank
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Other posts
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek GW18 captain and transfers poll
FFGeek contributors show their GW18 teams part 1
GW18 defender and GK player rankings
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