Here’s our FPL wildcard team GW23 article where I pretend I’m using my wildcard. This is to give you transfer suggestions for GW23 for the upcoming gameweeks rather than just 1 gameweek alone.
FPL wildcard team GW23 – 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 Rick Porter who’s last 3 seasons overall ranks were 1k, 30k and 2k. There’s also loads of other features which you can see at the bottom of this article. You can also see Rick’s GW23 team here
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:
Midfield player rankings (unfortunately not done this week)
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 see my team and my DGW24 plans in my FFGeek team article
There’s also the contributors teams for GW22 part 1 contributors teams and contributors teams part 2 and contributors 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 GW23 player picks
The FFGeek imaginary wildcard team
Here’s the team. It’s TV is £105.0m.
Structure
The formation is likely to be 4-4-2. The team has a major risk in that the bench isn’t particularly secure due to the need to save cash. Williams, Long and Cantwell are all replaceable within their respective teams but currently have the first team shirt.
I’ve firstly tried to concentrate on the stronger defences where there is value.
The attacking players I’ve looked for good fixtures, returns, underlying stats and consistency in picking the players
Goalkeeper
I’ve stuck with the principle of just 1 playing GK and the cheapest possible in reserve. McCarthy is a cheap GK with a good save percentage in an improving defence and gets the nod. For the non playing GK I’ve put Martin of West Ham in the team. Whether he will get both games in the double GW24 is very doubtful given the acquisition of Randolph by West Ham and the fact that Fabianski in theory could be back for the 2nd game. But what the heck, worth an imaginary throw of the dice although if you’re sensitive to price drops I imagine he will be vulnerable.
Defence
Alexander Arnold is the best attacking defender for me and with the double gameweek coming up my Liverpool defensive representation. Robertson would be my Liverpool double up without question if that was a route I was to take. Gomez offers value but has gametime risk with Matip back.
The Leicester defence is going through a big wobble and the loss to Southampton was a major shock. The loss of Ndidi also is a big potential problem as he is one of the best fire fighters around. However Soyuncu still offers value if it’s just a wobble and not a full blown crisis and worth the gamble that their is improvement there.
An attacking midfielder classified as a FPL defender in a strong defensive team is a dream come true and Lundstram is that FPL gift.
Everton have good fixtures and Holgate at £4.4m is good value. It’s a difficult choice between Sidibe and Digne if you’ve got cash. I would probably just stick with Digne as his volumes are better but Sidibe seems to be the more popular move at the moment and he is cheaper
Lastly I’ve gone for £4.1m defender in Brandon Williams of Man Utd as someone to save me cash. He has potential to be the starting LB especially with injury prone Shaw and Young looking like he will be moving to Inter Milan of all places. Whether he can hold his place when and if Shaw is fit is the unknown.
Midfield
I’ve gone for the Liverpool attacking double up in Salah and Mane as both have absolutely excellent stats in preparation for double gameweek 24 and the excellent fixture run afterwards.
I’ve kept De Bruyne as my Man City representation. They are too destructive a team to not have any coverage. Aguero would be my choice given a free hand however the Liverpool double up makes that impossible. De Bruyne you hope gets a share through assists of the attacking juggernaut that City can be.
Martial when he is on the pitch has excellent stats and these have held whether we are talking about over the season, last 10 or last 5. The fixtures aren’t great but that can actually be helpful to United. Rashford would be my ideal choice but budget wise that’s not going to work. If Bruno Fernandes joins that will hopefully improve United’s creativity and chances for Martial.
Cantwell remains my budget bench midfielder. Fleck of Sheffield is a good alternative.
Forwards
Vardy holds his place despite a drop off in his stats over the last 5 games. That in part has been down to the fixtures vs Liverpool and City. However no shots v Southampton is either an anomaly or a sign of things to come. The upcoming games will paint a picture
Ings has been in incredible form and backed up by good underlying stats even though he is outperforming them by an eye watering margin. I had him in my GW1 team and was mocked mercilessly during pre-season for doing so with 1 Saints fan even telling me that Che Adams was the striker to have from Southampton.
Long actually has produced decent underlying stats. Whether he can put the ball in the net is another thing. He did start GW22 at least so here’s hoping that he can be useful from the bench. Double Southampton attack is far from ideal but he will be a FPL bench option and when looking at gametime security vs cheapness is probably the best option.
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 goalkeepers 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 1,298 points 53k overall rank
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NEW Weekly FFGeek contributor imaginary wildcard articles
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Other posts
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek contributors show their GW23 teams part 1
GW23 Defender and GK player Rankings
FFGeek early transfer for GW23
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