Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 23 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 23 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 23 player picks
Banker – Sadio Mane – LIV 12.4m – MUN –
A fairly obvious pick for the next few weeks I reckon. He’s the highest owned of Liverpool’s attacking triumvirate at nearly 40% and will no doubt be a hugely popular captain (and indeed Triple Captain Pick) come GW24 when Liverpool have a double gameweek. I guess the question at the moment is kind of not whether you own Sadio Mane, it’s which other 2 Liverpool players you’re going to play alongside him – a quick look around the Contributor’s League certainly reflects this and I’ll visit this topic a bit more later on. So as such, he’s this week’s slightly dullard Banker pick though 11 goals, 8 assists and 6 double digit hauls this season of course makes the newly crowned African Player of the Year anything but a dull player to watch or own!
Ace – Kevin De Bruyne – MCI 10.7m – CRY
The Belgian recently overtook Jamie Vardy as the highest owned player in the game and served further notice as to why this is the case with another 2 assists in The Citizens 6-1 demolition of Aston Villa last Sunday. He’s now got an incredible 16 assists to add to 7 goals this season and matches the above mentioned Mane’s 6 double digit hauls for the season. Palace have been stuffy opposition for Pep Guardiola in previous seasons which is why I think the Spaniard is less likely to rest his big guns this week and the Belgian will surely be near the top of the Captain’s Poll this week as well. Ignore him at your peril!
Joker – Leandro Trossard – BHA 5.8m – AVL
KDB is joined by another Belgian in this week’s picks, with 0.4% owned Trossard getting the nod for the Joker spot. The Seagulls winger might not have set the FPL scoring on fire over the last few weeks with only 1 return in his last 6 games, but he’s posting some good attacking statistics and now has the advantage of a superb run of fixtures until Brighton face Arsenal in GW30. For this week, he also has the bonus of facing the second worst defence in the league and I think he could be a good punt for the next few weeks if you’re looking for a midfielder in the lower end of the mid-range of the budget.
Key Fixture Pick – Liverpool v Man United (430pm Sunday)
Bookies Odds
Win: Liverpool 4/11; United 6/1; Draw 4/1
Clean Sheet: Liverpool 11/10; United 13/2
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Mane 6/5; Salah 6/5; Firmino 7/5; Rashford 2/1; Martial 11/5
It’s a massive clash for the last fixture of the gameweek and also a match that bears significant relevance for FPL managers. Short term, we’ll all be keenly scouting the form of runaway leaders Liverpool in preparation for double GW24. However looking a bit further down the line we should also be keeping an eye on The Red Devils too as they have an incredible run of fixtures from GW31-37, a time when we’ll all be looking for assets and enablers who we can use in the blank and double gameweeks that will be littered along the way through that period.
Recent history has thrown up 5 draws in the last 7 Premier League meetings, with one win each apiece. Indeed, United have been a side that Jurgen Klopp has struggled against during his Liverpool tenure with them being the only team to take any points off the Anfield men this season. The visitors certainly have a good record against big 6 teams this campaign – they thumped Chelsea on the opening day and won at home to Spurs and away to City in successive weeks, so they will certainly hold no fear going into this match.
As mentioned earlier, we’ll be watching the home side closely from an FPL perspective and the vast majority of us will be Sadio Mane owners and will have owned him for much of this season. Most of us will also own a defender, most likely Alexander-Arnold or Robertson so the question from here is do you double up at the back or go for 2 attacking players for next week’s double. If you’re going with the defensive option, having the 2 full-backs would be the obvious shout but you could save a bit by going for either Virgil Van Dijk or even more by going for the in-form Joe Gomez – both of these are also good magnets for bonus points. For the attack, it’s either Salah or Firmino for that other option – both drain the budget, but we all know Mo can go big in any gameweek and Bobby has a good record away from home this season so could be a handy left-field pick.
United are a frustrating team this season – fantastic one week, baffling the next. They tend to generate random results like you’d expect from online bingo games. However, one player who’s been consistently superb from an FPL persepctive is Marcus Rashford with 14 goals and 5 assists this season. He’s a doubt for this week with a niggly back injury, but if there’s no indication of a longer term absence, I’d hold him as he’s got a nice GW24 fixture against struggling Burnley – a game where he could easily rack up a double digit haul. Anthony Martial I guess is a player who mirrors his team somewhat in his inconsistency, but he does have 4 goals in his last 4 games so again will be a good player for that Burnley match. The other player who I’m watching keenly though is young Brandon Williams; another to add to that lovely list of budget defenders we have this season at a measly 4.0m. He was superb against Norwich in GW22 and neatly shackled Adama Traore in the FA Cup in midweek – he could be a great budget option moving forward if he can hold his place.
I nearly called last week’s game correctly with VAR denying me my 1-1 prediction in the Sheffield United v West Ham game. Although the bookies heavily favour the home side in this one, I’m not sure it’s as cut and dried as that but I do think if Rashford is missing then United may struggle to use their counter-attacking game against Liverpool’s ultra high press. I’m therefore going for 2-0 to Liverpool in this one. All the best for this week folks!
You can follow Rob on twitter here
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