Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 5 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 5 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!
Gameweek 5 Picks
Banker – Hugo Lloris (TOT) 5.5m – CRY/lei/SOU/bha
This may seem a slightly strange shout with Spurs having not registered a clean sheet yet this season. However if you look a bit closer, they have faced tough trips to The Ethiad and Emirates stadium and in their 2 home games the visiting sides registered an xG rating of only 0.64 and 0.51 respectively. I therefore think it’s only a matter of time before the North Londoners register their first clean sheet of the season (especially considering the upcoming fixtures. ) For me, Lloris is the safest route into a defence that is likely to be subject to rotation fairly soon with the Champions League group stages on the horizon and Palace at home is certainly a fixture where Spurs have a decent chance of a shutout.
Ace – Kevin De Bruyne (MCI) 9.8m – NOR
Another week, and it’s another Man City player in my picks! For GW5, I’ve gone for the Belgian playmaker who generally speaking has probably been the best player in the league over the first month of the season. In fantasy terms, his goal and 5 assists over these first 4 gameweeks has left managers scrambling to find a way to accommodate him in their squads and he kept up his fine form on international duty putting Scotland to the sword on Monday with a hat-trick of assists to add to a fine goal. Visitors Norwich have hardly covered themselves in glory at the back this season and with a clutch of injuries especially at centre-half, I’m sure the Canaries’ central midfielder Kenny McLean will not be relishing playing against KDB for a second time in a week!
Joker (Picked by the FFG Slack Community) – David Silva (MCI) 7.5m – NOR
Perhaps unsurprisingly it’s a City double-up on Picks this week and it’s a big thank you to Paulo Cabarrao, Matty, Ian Synnott, Scott Taylor, Bruno Santos and FFG Contributor Kev from Canada for all enabling a fairly unanimous Joker call in David Silva. The veteran Spaniard has certainly turned the FPL clock back over the last couple of weeks with 2 assists in both GW3 and GW4 and he’ll be well rested for the visit of Norwich this week having retired from international duties last year. With only 7.5% ownership, and at a price that’s more budget friendly than compatriots Sterling, Aguero and KDB he could be a nice differential over the next few weeks for those looking to move funds elsewhere in their squad, just as long as you’re prepared to deal with inevitable Pep Rotation Roulette!
Key Fixture Pick – Liverpool vs Newcastle (Saturday 1230pm)
Odds – Liverpool 1/7; Newcastle 20/1; Draw 7/1
Clean Sheet – Liverpool 4/6; Newcastle 14/1
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds – Salah 13/5; Mane 16/5; Firmino 10/3; Joelinton 16/1
League leaders Liverpool will be red hot favourites for this match, with Klopp’s side having triumphed on The Magpies last 2 visits to Anfield with an aggregate of 6 goals for and 0 against. They will also be heavily backed for a shutout, with them having the best clean sheet odds of any team in the league for this week’s fixtures. A word of caution though, Newcastle did spring a surprise in GW3 away to Spurs, so I am sure Klopp and his charges will not be taking Steve Bruce’s side lightly.
The standout options I guess are all fairly obvious and carry high ownership, but let’s mention them again in a bit of detail. The Reds attacking trio of Firmino, Mane and Salah would all be good picks this week, especially the latter 2. I’ve seen a fair few Wildcard drafts this week where managers have picked Mane over Salah to free up some cash, but beware of this and heed the difference in ownership between the 2 – 18% to 42%. Therefore, if you don’t have Salah and he returns he will seriously hurt your overall ranking, though I guess the slight buffer this week as that his captaincy potential will be split a bit against some of the Man City options.
Owning a Liverpool defender also looks like a must this week and I think it could be a good week for full-backs Robertson and Alexander-Arnold with two thirds of Newcastle’s shots against this season being from inside the penalty box pointing to good assist potential for the home full-backs I’d say. For the visitors, most people will be steering clear of their assets this week. It certainly doesn’t look a good week for defensive investment, their clean sheet odds are the second longest this week after Norwich. There appears little to cheer going forward at the moment as well and with their fixtures looking difficult until GW10, I probably won’t be considering Joelinton and co. for another few weeks yet. As for my prediction for this one? I’m going for 3-0 to Liverpool.
That’s all from me this week folks – good luck!
Other posts
The early FFGeek team thoughts
Analysing 10 top FPL managers teams
The bandwagons and sinking ships
Defender and Goalkeeper player rankings
Prakhar Patel activates his wildcard
The FFGeek captain and transfer poll
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