Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 14 player picks

Contributors, Fantasy Premier League

Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 14 player picks to help you decide on transfers for your team. Rob has finished 3 of the last 5 seasons in the top 0.5% of FPL managers.

Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 14 player picks




You can follow Rob on twitter here.

Hi everyone and welcome to Player Picks!

After the success of the previous 2 seasons, Player Picks is back again for 2019-2020 with a fairly similar format. I’ve decided to pare back the stats from previous weeks picks so that they will just include an average for the season – hopefully this should make the article a little bit simpler. Otherwise I’ll be sticking to the same format of a Banker, Ace and Joker as I’ve followed in previous years.

As a reminder, the Banker is predominantly a fixture-based pick where I follow them for 4 weeks and average the score over that period. The Ace is a 1 week pick who I think will do well and would make an appealing Captain choice. The Joker is a differential pick with less than 10% ownership who I think might do well that week. For reference, the overall 2018-19 picks averaged as follows: Banker 5.22, Ace 6.11, Joker 4.92. Hopefully (with some help as you’ll see below) we can beat that this season. I’ll start to look at the 2019-20 averages a bit later in the season when there is more data.

This season I’m also going to add a ‘Key Fixture’ analysis to Player Picks. This is where I’ll pick one fixture for the gameweek in question which I think FPL managers should consider covering in their squad. I’ll look at previous meetings, bookies odds and form in this – it might be a fixture where we already have a Player Pick, it might not! There will still also be Twitter polls where the FFG Twitter Community have an opportunity to select players, but also new for this season is a contribution from the FFG Slack Channel where Patreon users will have chance to directly contribute to the weekly picks through the Player Picks forum. So without further ado, let’s get on with this weeks Picks!

FPL gameweek 14 player picks




Banker – Sadio Mane (LIV) 12.2m – BHA/EVE/bou/WAT 

Liverpool’s in-form midfielder is now the joint-highest priced player in the game along with his compatriot Mo Salah and with 40% ownership he’s fast approaching essential status. There may be a blank gameweek coming in GW18, but the next 4 fixtures are superb for Klopp’s men, so it would be a brave FPL manager who overlooks the Senegalese international. His from certainly stacks up: returns in his last 4 matches make it 8 goals and 4 assists for the season and he’ll fancy his chances of adding to this over the next few weeks. Visitors Brighton haven’t won away from home since their GW1 win at Vicarage Road and though I suspect Graham Potter will be inclined to adopt a less open approach than they did when visiting the two Manchester teams, I expect this to be a straightforward win for The Reds.

Ace – Jamie Vardy (LEI) 9.7m – EVE

Speaking of in-form players, Foxes striker Vardy can trump Mane’s 4 consecutive returns. He’s now returned in his last 5, 7 goals and 3 assists in that period with his 12 points in GW13 (aided by penalty-gate) his fifth double-digit haul of the season. That’s some run of form and I’m sure there will be plenty of managers backing the Leicester star with the Captain’s armband this weekend. It’s struggling Everton who are next on Vardy’s radar, with the visitors toiling at the wrong end of the table. The Toffees trip to the King Power is the first of a nightmare set of fixtures up to Boxing Day – lei/liv/CHE/man/ARS – ouch! And let’s face it, if there’s another Vardy party this weekend there’s every likelihood that Marco Silva won’t be at the helm for that tricky run with the rumour mill touting a certain David Moyes as a replacement!

Joker – Danny Ings (SOU) 6.0m – WAT

It’s Fantasy Football Geek’s nemesis Danny Ings who earns the Joker pick this week – sorry Geek! The 4.4% owned Saints front-man has scored in his last 2 (including a tidy finish for the opener at the Emirates last weekend) and has 6 goals and an assist so far this campaign. He’s a player who tends to do quite well statistically and he’ll be relishing the next few fixtures with a home game against Norwich following The Hornets GW14 visit to the south coast. I guess there’s two worries for managers picking him. The first is that this season he likes to score against the bigger teams – he’s netted against Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Wolves, Everton and Arsenal. Will he start racking up some returns against fellow relegation strugglers or will he struggle when teams set up to defend? The other worry is of course his fitness – with a midweek round immediately following GW14, will he have his minutes managed? At 6.0m though, he’s a great budget enabler and he could be a nice differential over the next few games.

Key Fixture Pick – Wolves vs Sheffield United (2pm Sunday)

Bookies Odds

Win: Wolves 10/11; Sheffield United 16/5; Draw 12/5
Clean Sheet: Wolves 6/5; Sheffield United 3/1

Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Raul Jimenez 7/5; Diogo Jota 11/5; Adama Traore 7/2; David McGoldrick 10/3; Lys Mousset 7/2

I’ve gone for perhaps a less obvious fixture pick this week, steering away from the big six and looking at two sides who have certainly stoked the interest of FPL managers this season. This will be the first time these teams have met in The Premier League and it will be the first time they’ve clashed in the top flight since 1976. Wolves won 4-1 at Bramall Lane that day, but it wasn’t enough to stop them being relegated to the old Division 2 that season along with The Blades.

The visitors have proved a tough nut to crack on the road so far this campaign. They are unbeaten in 6 matches, though have drawn 5 of these games – they certainly won’t be fearing the trip to Molineux. The home side are unbeaten in the league since GW5, winning 4 and drawing 4 in that period but do come into the match off a challenging trip to Portugal in the Europa League on Thursday.

Sheffield United amazingly boast the 2nd most highly owned player in the game – who would have thought at the start of the season that that would have been the case! ‘Lord’ Lundstram has 44% ownership and his stock has now risen to the dizzy height of 5m – a staggering 1m rise in 14 gameweeks! He’s a mainstay in our FPL squads, a defender playing Out of Position as a box to box midfielder who’s already netted 3 goals and bagged 2 assists this season – he truly is the stuff of FPL dreams!

Apart from his Lordship, I’m also keeping an eye on the United defence – they’ve already got 5 clean sheets this season and they don’t face a big six team again until GW20 making a double up appealing. I like the look of Dean Henderson in goals at 4.7, leaving you ample room in your defence to cover Liverpool, Leicester and such like. Elsewhere, their other standout option is striker Lys Mousset at 5m. He’s got 3 goals and 3 assists in his last 5, though he is flagged as a doubt for this week so keep an eye on the team news.

For the home side, their most owned player is the reliable Raul Jimenez. He’s in great form with goals in his last 3, taking his tally to 6 for the season with 2 assists to boot. He’s a bit pricier than the likes of Mousset coming in at 7.5m but his game-time does seem to be fairly reliable despite Europa League distractions – he’s started every Premier League game so far this season. If you’re after a more differential attacking option however then 5.2m Traore could be your man. He’s a bit more inconsistent but has assisted in his last 2 – his first returns since his winning double strike at the Ethiad in GW8.

Wolves frustrated defensively last season – they weren’t too bad in terms of total goals conceded, but tended to struggle to keep clean sheets. With 4.4m option Saiss suspended this week, the rest of the defence looks overpriced to me, but I am keeping an eye on last week’s Joker pick Matt Doherty. He’s always a good shout for an attacking return and could be a nice one week GW18 option when Liverpool blank and Wolves have a nice fixture away to Norwich. As for a prediction for this one? I’m going for a 1-1 draw.

That’s all from me for this week on Player Picks folks – best of luck!

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