Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 27 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 27 player picks
Follow Rob Reid on twitter. You can also see his team for GW27 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 27 player picks
Banker – Raul Jimenez – WOL – 7.8m – NOR/tot/BHA/whu
A big thank you to fellow contributors Sergio, Costas and Kris who have helped pick this week’s selections and we lead off with Jimenez who was suggested by Costas. Wolves assets are primed to be popular over the next few weeks with a nice run of fixtures and a guaranteed game in the blank GW31. Key amongst those will be the Mexican striker, the leading Wolves player in FPL this season with 11 goals and 6 assists. He may have drawn a blank in the last 2 games away at Old Trafford and at home to Leicester, but he’s certainly getting chances and he’s highly likely to get plenty more of those when the Premier League’s bottom side visit Molineux this weekend. The only worry I guess is whether he might be rotated what with Wolves’ Europa League involvement, but Nuno seems to have resisted the temptation too much this season and his charges look fairly resilient. Will this be the week Jimmy hits the goal trail again?
Ace – Mo Salah – LIV – 12.8m – WHU
Thanks to Sergio for this shout and to be fair I think it’ll be a brave manager that doesn’t first own and second captain Mo Salah this weekend. The away blank against Norwich was a bit unexpected, but to be fair it was blowing a hurricane at Carrow Road last weekend making any sort of football a challenge. It’s a quick chance for redemption this weekend with struggling West Ham visiting Anfield – a team against which Mo bagged 14 points in the rearranged fixture in GW24. The Hammers are now without a win in the last 6 and have looked decidedly dicey at the back of late. You certainly wouldn’t bank against the Egyptian star getting another double digit haul this Monday.
Joker – Allan Saint-Maximim – NEW – 5.4m – cry
Thanks (I think) to Costas for this pick with Sergio and Kris also pretty unanimous of their backing for the enigmatic Magpies winner. It’s true to say that this is a very left-field pick. The Frenchman has 0.4% ownership and only has 1 goal and 2 assists this season. But man he is fun to watch – you never know what he’s going to do next (good or bad) and if you’ve got a spare 5.4m slot in your midfield, Newcastle’s fixtures are very kind until GW34 so he could be a fun player to own. Described by Sergio on our chat as ‘the best worst player ever’ – come on! What could possibly go wrong?!
Key Fixture Pick – Chelsea vs Spurs (Saturday 1230pm)
Bookies Odds
Win: Chelsea 3/4; Spurs 4/1; Draw 31/10
Clean Sheet: Chelsea 6/4; Spurs 9/2
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Tammy Abraham Evens; Olivier Giroud 13/10; Mason Mount 3/1; Lucas Moura 5/2; Steven Bergwijn 7/2
An intriguing Saturday lunchtime London derby is this weeks key fixture pick with 2 inconsistent Champions League place contenders facing off at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea won the reverse fixture 2-0 back in GW18 and also won this corresponding fixture last season by the same scoreline. Prior to this, Spurs had won the previous 2 Premier League encounters by a 3-1 scoreline though it’s fair to say there have been many changes to both clubs since then.
We’ll start with the visitors and I guess this game will probably be noted for Jose Mourinho returning to the Premier League club where he has enjoyed most success. Beyond this though, there’s a bit of an injury crisis going on at Spurs with in-form Son Heung-Min the latest addition to the casualty list leaving Jose with very limited options in the striking department. It could serve as a good opportunity for Lucas Moura to be deployed further forward – he’s had plenty of minutes under the new manager but hasn’t really backed them up with any notable returns. He’s not scored since GW17 and has returned only 2 assists since then. He’ll face competition for the striker berth from new signing Steven Bergwijn and young Troy Parrott, though perhaps it could also prove an opportunity Dele Alli to step up and show the attacking threat that has been all too absent over the last couple of campaigns.
Chelsea also have injury problems of their own, with 13 goal Tammy Abraham a doubt for this week after missing the GW26 game against Man United with an ankle injury. His team blanked in his absence, though were unlucky to be denied by VAR with forgotten man Olivier Giroud looking hungry off the bench. There’s also doubts over Pulisic, Kante and Hudson-Odoi though we’re eagerly all watching to see if one of their other attacking assets can come into form as Chelsea’s fixtures from GW28 to the end of the season are very kind. Can early season favourite Mason Mount for example recover his attacking vibe from the first few weeks?
At the back, neither side fills you with great confidence though there are some cheaper options available who I guess could be options in the later double gameweeks if the fixtures in those weeks suited. Reece James and Serge Aurier are both priced at 5.0m for example and like to get forward from full-back, with the latter having 6 assists so far this season. As for a prediction for this one? I was way off last week for Wolves vs Leicester so must do better this week. I’m going for a 2-1 win for the home side.
Best of luck for this week folks – may your arrows be green!
Follow Rob Reid on twitter. You can also see his team for GW27 here
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