Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 17 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 17 player picks
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 17 player picks
Banker – Marcus Rashford – MAN (8.9) – EVE/wat/NEW/but –
It’s all about the strikers this week on Picks and first up in the Banker spot is the in-from Rashford. He’s got 7 goals and 3 assists in the last 8 games, is on penalties and is high on confidence forming a great partnership with Martial and James up front. He’s got a good fixture set over the next 4 gameweeks and his ownership is near 25% and rising, he’s becoming a dangerous player not to have. This week, Everton will be looking to continue their new manager bounce at Old Trafford, but I think Big Dunc might find this one a bit too tricky for The Toffees with Rashford set to profit.
Ace – Jamie Vardy – LEI (10.1m) – NOR –
Another week, another spot for Jamie Vardy in the Ace category. What more do we need to say about The Foxes’ star? 11 goals and 4 assists in the last 8 games with consecutive returns through all these. Then there’s his 6 double digit hauls this season with 22 bonus points and over 50% ownership. If you’re not a member of the Vardy Party by now then why on earth not?! This weeks opponents are the second worst defence in the league with 34 goals conceded so far. And they would be the worst had Leicester not hit 9 against Southampton a few weeks back! He’ll be heavily captained this week with The Foxes hoping for a similar mauling against the flailing Canaries – surely Farke’s men won’t defy us all and shut him out?
Joker (picked by the FFG Slack Community) – Robert Firmino – LIV (9.3m) – WAT
Thank you to Avishek for this week’s suggestion of 9.1% owned Liverpool front man. I guess it’s only fair that The Reds feature in this week’s Picks because of this top versus bottom clash though if you’re bringing Firmino in be aware of his blank gameweek next week. This is a fixture that’s been very kind to Liverpool in the last 3 seasons, they’ve won 5 of the last 6 meetings and have scored 23 goals across these games. Firmino’s record against The Hornets shows that he’s cashed in through these as well – 6 goals and 5 assists in this time, so if you’re looking for a 1 week hit pre-Wildcard, he could end up a nice differential.
Key Fixture Pick – Chelsea vs Bournemouth (Saturday 3pm)
Bookies Odds
Win: Chelsea 2/9; Draw 11/2; Bournemouth 11/1
Clean Sheet: Chelsea Evens; Bournemouth 12/1
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Abraham 1/2; Pulisic 7/5; Mount 6/5; King 7/2; H.Wilson 12/5
A bit of a strange one this! Chelsea have blown a bit hot and cold over the last couple of weeks and on paper should win this one comfortably. The visitors are on a wretched run of form that has seen them lose their last 5 and leaves them just 1 point above the relegation places. Eddie Howe does have an ok record against The Blues though. Chelsea were unceremoniously thumped 4-0 at the Vitality back in January and The Cherries were also victorious when they visited Stamford Bridge in January 2018 in a comfortable 3-0 win.
2 managers have come and gone at The Bridge since that 2018 reverse and current incumbent and Blues legend Frank Lampard will be confident that his team will produce the goods. Messers Abraham, Mount and Pulisic have all been regularly in the points at some stage this season and I’d particularly favour having Abraham in my side, especially with his 36% ownership. Defensively they should do well in this one too if you look at the Bookies odds, especially with the news that the visitors’ leading scorer Callum Wilson will be absent with injury. If you’re buying in, I like the look of Reece James at 5.0m – he looks a real talent and also gives the possibility of attacking returns from full-back.
It’s certainly leaner pickings for The Cherries and we’ll start at the back. They did keep clean sheets in GWs 9, 10 and 11 but have shipped 11 goals in the 5 weeks since. They’ve also lost key centre-half Nathan Ake for 6 weeks to a hamstring injury so I’d certainly be steering clear of buying afresh and be benching the likes of Rico this week. The one player who might be of interest though is midfielder Harry Wilson, he’s got 3 goals in his last 4 starts (he was ineligible against parent club Liverpool last week) and fixtures do look kinder from GW18 onwards. The question I guess is how their leaner squad will cope with a difficult injury list over the festive period.
My prediction for this one is a comfortable 3-0 win for the home side. That’s all from me for this week on Player Picks folks – best of luck!
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