Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 24 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 24 player picks
See Rob’s DGW24 team here and hear him on the FFGeek Podcast. You can also follow him on twitter
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 24 player picks
Banker – Trent Alexander-Arnold – LIV 7.5m – wol;whm/ SOU/nor/WHM
With a double gameweek upon us, it’s no surprise there’s 2 Liverpool picks this week to add to Mane as last weeks Banker and I’ve put Trent into the Banker slot this week. Another assist from a corner against United takes his tally to an incredible 11 this season – could he do the unthinkable and get 20 assists from defence? He certainly looks a great option for our squads moving forward – massive assist potential, goal-scoring threat, a bonus point hoover and amazing fixtures – can you afford to not have him in your line-up?
Ace – Mo Salah – LIV 12.4m – wol;whm
Mo’s gone a little under the radar this season with a ‘meagre’ 28% ownership at present, but he’s still a fine goal and assist threat and took his goal really well in injury time last weekend (though please don’t take your shirt off to celebrate Mo – it cost us all a point!) He’s quietly accumulated this season – it’s 11 goals and 5 assists now and with Milner still sidelined he should be on penalty duties too. Owning both him and Mane is a stretch budget-wise, particularly if you own KDB and Vardy 2 but it is feasible – could this be the week where Salah cements himself into Triple Captain folklore? We’ll see!
Joker – Dominic Calvert-Lewin – EVE 6.0m – NEW
I’ve gone off-piste this from this week’s theme on Picks and gone for a single fixture player, but there’s good reason. 8.5% owned Calvert-Lewin could be just the enabler you need to free up the funds for those big money boys from the red half of Merseyside and he’s a player who looks to be thriving under new manager Ancelotti. It’s a nice fixture this week too, with an injury-hit Newcastle visiting Goodison and he’ll certainly be looking to add to his 9 goal tally in what has been his most fruitful EPL season yet. I sense there are big things to come from this young star in the future…
Key Fixture Picks – Wolves vs Liverpool / West Ham vs Liverpool
Bookies Odds – Wolves vs Liverpool
Win: Wolves 21/4; Liverpool 4/6; Draw 3/1
Clean Sheet: Wolves 5/1; Liverpool 5/4
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Salah 7/5; Mane 6/5; Firmino 21/10; Jimenez 2/1; Jota 4/1
West Ham vs Liverpool
Win: West Ham 13/2 ; Liverpool 4/11; Draw 4/1
Clean Sheet: West Ham 7/1; Liverpool Evens
Goalscorer Odds unavailable as yet.
I’ve picked out the 2 Liverpool double gameweek fixtures this week for obvious reasons and I’ll be focusing predominantly on them this week. This presents a great opportunity for FPL managers to build a big score using the 2 games, with many managers likely to also opt for using their Triple Captain Chip. Looking at The Reds records against both teams there is certainly cause for much enthusiasm. They’ve won all 3 of their last EPL meetings against Wolves without conceding a goal for starters. And although The Hammers did surprisingly hold Liverpool last February to a 1-1 draw, prior to this the Anfield Men had scored 4 goals in each of their previous 4 league meetings with the Londoners. The odds certainly favour the runaway league leaders in both games.
The most heavily owned Liverpool player is actually a defender with Virgil Van Dijk just pipping Mane in the ownership stakes, so we’ll start at the back. Alexander-Arnold also sits alongside the aforementioned duo in the 40% ownership stakes and he’d be my pick of the defensive assets, but I think there’s also a good case for Robertson, Van Dijk and even Gomez or Alisson. Up front, for me it’s a straight fight between the highly owned Mane, the mid-ownership Salah and the left-field pick of Firmino though it is worth noting the away form of the Brazilian which does trump his ‘midfield’ rivals.
As for what combination of the 3 you go for? You pay your money and you take your chance but I think there are good arguments for whoever you choose. Personally, I’m on Mane, Salah and Trent as I think this gives you the highest points ceiling, but a double defence option with either Mane or Salah is a great call as well with Liverpool having not conceded in the league since GW15; as is a one of each option of a defender, midfielder and Firmino. And if you’re really brave and want the ultimate differential, why not go either triple defence or take the ‘Costas’ option and go triple attack? If it comes off, you’ll rocket up the rankings.
As for the Triple Captain Chip, I’ll be playing mine this week and on paper I certainly feel this looks a good week to go for it. Mane is the probably the safest bet in terms of rank protection, Salah and Firmino give you varying degrees of differentials here and Trent is a form option at the back if you’re feeling brave and want to put it on an unorthodox defensive option (but beware – we all remember Shane Duffy last season though!)
To finish, a quick word on West Ham who also have 2 fixtures – why not roll the dice and throw in one of their players for 2 games as well? Top of my list would be budget midfielders Snodgrass or Noble who could go into that 5th midfield slot with little disruption to your squad. Their other game is against Leicester which makes a defender less appealing and other attacking options look a bit over-priced but you never know, they’ve got 2 games. As for my predictions this week? I’m going Wolves 1-2 Liverpool for game 1 and West Ham 0-3 Liverpool for game 2.
Best of luck folks – whatever you do!
See Rob’s DGW24 team here and hear him on the FFGeek Podcast. You can also follow him on twitter
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