Here’s Rob Reid with his FPL gameweek 26 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 26 player picks
Follow Rob on twitter here
You can also see how Rob is planning on navigating the blanks and doubles without his 2nd wildcard
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 26 player picks
Banker – Mo Salah – LIV – 12.7m – nor/WHU/wat/BOU
It probably comes as no surprise to see Salah back in the Banker slot once more, his form and FPL history simply speaks for itself. Another double figure haul in GW25 has him leading the way again at the top of the FPL points scoring, his 16 pointer being his 5th return in the last 6 matches and his 5th double digit return in the last 10. At nearly 44% ownership, he’s become pretty-much essential – especially with the question marks on Mane’s injury status. Can Mo kick on and win both the EPL’s golden boot and be FPLs leading points scorer for a 3rd consecutive season? He’s surely got to be in with a good shout.
Ace – Sergio Aguero – MCI – 12.0m – WHU
Salah will probably lead the way in the Captain polls this week, but I suspect he may be matched and more in terms of this week’s points haul by a certain Sergio Aguero. If the Egyptian midfielder has a rich recent FPL history, City’s Argentine striker could only be described as an FPL legend in this respect and I’re sure he’ll have a hefty number of loyal suitors this week. City pulverised The Hammers at The London Stadium back in GW1 smashing 5 past them as they opened the season in style. And Moyes’ men will not be relishing a trip to The Ethiad after they blew a 3-1 lead against Brighton thanks to a succession of defensive blunders. Could Aguero therefore be a nice Captain differential for those trying to make up ground in their mini-leagues this week?
Joker (picked by the FFG Slack Community) – Richarlison – EVE – 8.1 – CPL
Lots of good selections on the Slack Forum for this week’s Joker, but I’ve gone for Shaun O’ Connor and FFG contributor Prakhar Patel’s choice of Richarlison. The 8.2% owned Brazilian has been a bit of a forgotten man in FPL circles this season, particularly in the first half of the campaign when The Toffees were struggling for form. He’s fared somewhat better under new manager Ancelotti’s care and was on a run of 3 consecutive returns before he picked up an injury just prior to GW23. He’ll fancy his chances against a Palace side who have dipped in form somewhat of late and were undone by a Guiata howler against Sheffield United in GW25. For a one week punt, I think you could do a lot worse than Brazilian midfielder this week, though his fixtures look pretty tough after that.
Key Fixture Picks – Wolves v Leicester (8pm Friday 14th February)
Bookies Odds
Win: Wolves 6/4; Leicester 15/8; Draw 11/5
Clean Sheet: Wolves 2/1; Leiceser 9/4
Selected Anytime Goalscorer Odds: Jimenez 13/8; Jota 33/10; Vardy 8/5; Iheanacho 5/2; Perez 33/10
If you’ve no plans for Friday 14th February (come on it’s all just a big commercial con anyway yeah?) how about a romantic evening watching The Wolves battle The Foxes?! Ok, so this probably isn’t very high on the agenda for most couples as an ideal Valentine’s Day date, but if you have got plans with your better half a week on Friday, I’d still suggest you perhaps at least record the highlights of what could be quite an interesting game for us FPL managers moving forward.
The GW1 reverse fixture ended up 0-0 but I would be surprised if we get the same again. Last season these sides served up entertaining 2-0 and 4-3 scorelines with one win apiece for the team hosting each time. And both sides certainly have plenty of in-form attacking options, all at relatively convenient price points for FPL managers.
I’ll start with the home side who we should all be starting to keep a watch on with half an eye towards GW31 where Wolves are one of the few teams at this stage who are guaranteed a fixture. 24.7% owned Jimenez looks a key pick for that week and will certainly be a heavy captain favourite if all the big teams blank. But looking more short term, he is a great option prior to then too. He’s got 11 goals and 6 assists so far this season and looks a threat whenever he plays. And speaking of threats, Adama Traore has been an absolute menace this season, finally managing to add some output to his raw strength and pace. He’s yellow-flagged this week, but with the game at the later end of the protracted gameweek, it does give him extra time to recover.
For the visitors, the key attacking threat is obviously Jamie Vardy. He may be without a league goal since GW18, but I thought he was unlucky not to return against Chelsea last week and as a non-owner I’ll still be hiding behind the sofa when he plays this gameweek. Their next highest-scoring players are Maddison and Perez, but I personally have really liked the look of 6m midfielder Harvey Barnes over the last few weeks. He’s got 3 goals in his last 3 and is a fun player to watch. With just 1.8% ownership, he’s one who’s on my radar.
In terms of defences, the visitors haven’t covered themselves in glory of late, with just 1 clean sheet since GW15. Similarly the home side, also only have 1 shut-out in that period and that came last week at Old Trafford. Both sides do have some good attacking defenders, but they are at the higher end of the budget – perhaps Doherty for example though could be a nice option in the blank GW31? As for a prediction for this one – I think there will be some goals so I’m going for a 2-1 win for Wolves.
Best of luck for this week folks – may your arrows be green!
Follow Rob on twitter here
You can also see how Rob is planning on navigating the blanks and doubles without his 2nd wildcard
Other Posts
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek contributors GW26 teams part 1
GW26 doubles and blanks update
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