GW29 in the mirror

Well, I was feeling very smug on Saturday night. Returns from Bamford and Raphinha. Two clean sheets, plus an assist, from my two Brighton defenders. I wasn't quite so smug last night with Grealish, Bale and Son all not being involved ..but still, a very good gameweek for once.

Gameweek Points: 59 (-4)

Gameweek Rank: 432,928

Overall Rank: 206,419

About a 40k rank jump. I put a lot of effort into this gameweek, so I'm pleased it went well. I'm now just about in with a shout of a top 100k finish.

I need to stop making mistakes though. Of which Bale could well be one. It was always a punt after the two Spurs defeats, but I hoped for at least a few minutes on the pitch. It's now no doubt highly unlikely he'll start the Newcastle game too - which looks like a really attractive fixture. Especially after how bad they were against Brighton. We can live and hope though.

My team's now set up fairly nicely for GW30, Bale aside. I'm considering bringing in Alonso for Dunk with my luxury free transfer. It's hard to tell who'll start at the back for Chelsea, but home to West Brom looks about as close as you can get to a nailed on clean sheet with the way Chelsea have been. So it might be a nice little dice roll.

International break breaking things up before then though. Meaning it's a good time to down tools and take a little breather.

Overall Points: 1823

Overall Rank: 206,419

GW28 Review

My run of average weeks continues..

Gameweek Points: 48

Gameweek Rank: 2,935,162

Overall Rank: 248,929

The Veltman transfer didn't quite help. It just blocked Struijk from coming off my bench with his 6 points lol.

The three bonus points from Trent Alexander-Arnold was very welcome though. His 9 last night really lifted my week from bad to average.

I'm still planning on a (-4) this week. Bale and Coufal being the two players I'll likely bring in. With Spurs being subpar at the weekend however I have felt tempted to just do the one. Maybe just Gündogan to Lookman or something like that.

Currently it's two though. That would give me 12 potential starters - 3 with flags (Son, Bamford and Grealish). I wouldn't actually be surprised to see all three figure this week. So I could end up with an unused bench player. I really want to have Bale for the Newcastle fixture in GW30 though, so currently a (-4) feels worth it.

Plenty of time to mull things over however.

Wildcard Watchlist

Anyway, enough of that. I feel like I've been talking about GW29 for half the season. Today I finally looked at the fixtures from GW31 onwards ..and I've compiled a little wildcard watchlist. (GW29 is already in the rear view mirror.)

Keepers

Mendy

Leno

Defenders

Azpilicueta

Digne

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Robertson

Dias

Wan-Bissaka

Shaw

Coufal

Cresswell

Jonny

Saïss

Midfielders

Salah

Jota

Gündogan

Foden

De Bruyne

Mahrez

Fernandes

Son

Bale

Soucek

Neto

Forwards

Calvert-Lewin

Richarlison

Iheanacho

Vardy

Kane

Antonio

I also made a few other little notes as I was compiling it.

random cheap Burnley defender

random Fulham defender (blank gw33 tho')

Ward-Prowse/Adams (only with an eye to Southampton double gw)

The Wolves fixtures through Gameweeks 31 to 35 look really nice. Liverpool's fixtures also look excellent. I'll be back to the dreaded three Liverpool by the looks of it.

[I've actually just done a first little draft. For some unknown reason I've found myself going five big at the back. So typical of my playing style 😅

Jota instead of a Liverpool defender (or indeed Salah) would change that quite rapidly. In fact, two Liverpool defenders seems insane given the season we've just watched. Still though, those Liverpool fixtures are just so tempting. Surely they'll string at least a couple of clean sheets together.

I've completely omitted Man City and Leeds with this team too. With City I think it's the rotation that puts me off - they are fighting on four fronts after all. With Leeds the fixtures improve towards the end of the season, so Bamford & Co could make a return.

Also I'd probably start with Vardy, then move to Kane, as Spurs blank in GW33. Though Spurs also have a game to rearrange, so that'll influence things as well.]

GW31 is still a good long way off however. Plus I still have my luxury transfer in GW30 to think about :)

Overall Points: 1768

Overall Rank: 248,929

GW27 Review

Very, very late review. Work meant I couldn't post yesterday, so here we are four games into GW28.

I made two transfers yesterday. It was going to be just the one, but the sheer abundance of red and yellow flags panicked me into shoring my bench up.

I did the planned; Robertson to Matt Targett

Then also; Charlie Taylor to Joël Veltman

In a way it's worked out rather fortunate, as with Bamford getting injured this morning it means I could well be down to 10 players for GW29. So I can take a (-4) this week to get Bale plus another.

My original plan was to take out Trent Alexander-Arnold rather than Taylor - to free up the cash for Bale - but the panicky Veltman transfer this week scuppered that. Though with Grealish and Struijk flagged before the deadline a (-4) this week was looking increasingly likely anyway.

Surprisingly Struijk played today, so that's one flag gone. It sounds like Grealish is pencilled in for a return against Spurs too. So it could be that Bamford is the biggest worry.

Anyway, let's look at last week's points tally.

Gameweek Points: 68

Gameweek Rank: 2,787,188

Overall Rank: 245,991

It was another red arrow. Albeit a small one.

I can't really have too many complaints, if anything I probably got a little lucky. I'm definitely starting to look forward to my wildcard in GW31 though. My current plan is to go super cheap at the back to beef up the attack and midfield. Though saying that, after Kane there aren't too many strikers I'm desperate to own.

I think I'll definitely be going heavy on midfield however. I quite like the idea of Gündogan, Son, Bale, Fernandes and De Bruyne. Plus Kane. Which I could just about do.

I'll probably have to have a good look at the fixtures first though before making any hard and fast plans.

So far GW28 isn't going brilliantly, so it may be desperate measures by then.

Overall Points: 1720

Overall Rank: 245,991

GW26 Review / GW27 Preview

A poor double gameweek for me, but strangely it didn't feel too bad. Just 3 below the average, plus a lot of people were using chips. So I can't complain. A fairly hefty red arrow though.

Gameweek Points: 72

Gameweek Rank: 4,604,666

Overall Rank: 234,392

The 11 and 9 from Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold has to go down as a huge bonus all things considered. The captaincy wasn't too bad either in hindsight. I'll happily take the 12 points given how most other captain options did. Other than Son though it was all a bit poor slash average.

Now onto GW27..

I'm still focusing on GW29 so I'll be doing a very boring transfer this week. Johnstone to Areola. Simply to have a keeper ready for that week. I have two transfers so it's a bit of a luxury.

I'm saving the other one. My plan at the moment is to remove a Liverpool defender next week to bring in a Villa defender. Then use two frees going into GW29 to take out the other Liverpool defender, and a midfielder (probably Gündogan) to bring in a Brighton defender and Bale.

That could all change though. I'll also have to keep an eye on Grealish who is still flagged. If he could be back for GW28 that would be great (it looks quite likely he'll miss this week's game against Wolves).

As for this week I think I'm set up fairly nicely. Most my players have decent fixtures with the exception of Fernandes.

Gündogan captain.

Oh, and my graph. I'm always less inclined to update it when I've had a red arrow. It's not as much fun. Still, it's good to see where we are in contrast to previous seasons.

I'm now at a worse point than at this stage in the previous seasons 😭

A green arrow this week would be most welcome.

Overall Points: 1652

Overall Rank: 234,392