Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 24 Review

Let's keep it short, limit the horror. Brutal gameweek. 36 points. Not what I need if I'm going to start climbing the ranking anytime soon 😬

Gameweek Ponits: 36

Gameweek Rank: 4,151,282

Overall Rank: 253,118

(click to enlarge)

The average was just 42 so I guess it wasn't too bad. Plus Salah blanked, which I should consider something of a blessing. I was really hoping for something from my captain Hazard last night, which would've been perfect with Salah failing to score, so the fact that Chelsea were on the end of a 4-0 thrashing by Bournemouth came as quite a surprise. My judgement was really off on that one. I'm not gonna knee-jerk and remove him anytime soon, but such a bad defeat does have to be factored into the equation going forward.

All in all, a very weird week. City beat, Liverpool drawing. Chelsea thrashed. Spurs squeezing home. No clean sheets at all for top six sides. A sign of things to come? Or just a rogue week we can all ignore?

Liverpool and City both looked very flat. Which brings me to the next point..

My Plans For Gameweek 25

Having a double gameweek so soon after a bad week feels very welcome. However, it also feels like I now have more riding on it.

In the last post I stated I was planning on bringing Man City's Danilo in, but I had a think and switched my plans. Even taking into account David Luiz's terrible performance last night it stills seems a little bit of a backwards move to take him out. Especially given I'd be taking him out for a defender who may not start both games, in a team that ain't keeping too many clean sheets. So I'm doubling down. Or tripling down rather, on City's midfield. Bringing David Silva (or perhaps Bernardo Silva) in for Paul Pogba.

Pogba has a little yellow flag at the moment. Plus they're playing Leicester who normally play well against the bigger sides - as per last night against Liverpool. I plan on bringing Pogba straight back a week later, assuming he's all fit and well, so it'll probably be a very short term switch. Costing two transfers, but hopefully worth it.

I'm still planning on triple captaining Sterling too :)

It feels like an even bigger gamble after the last performance. The rotation alone already made it fairly risky. It'll be fun though (hopefully). Time to be brave I think.

Overall Points: 1,379

Overall Rank: 253,118

FPL: GW24 Preview.

Really excited about these upcoming games. Both the GW24 games and the now double gameweek of GW25. My team for GW24 is pretty straight forward. With no changes since last week.

(Starting line-up for GW24

- click to enlarge)

(...and my bench for GW24)

My original plan was to use my free transfer to switch Guaita out for Button, but with Australia's early exit from the Asian Cup, and therefore Brighton's first choice keeper Ryan returning, it means that's a none-starter. Plus with the upcoming double gameweek, and the blank in GW27 it seems worthwhile holding fire. *

Having Dubravka in goal against Man City doesn't feel like a great idea. So in a way I feel like I'm going into this week with only ten players. Plus a clean sheet for him would mean a blank for both Sterling and Sané. Which wouldn't be great.

I'm captaining Hazard against Bournemouth though. Seeing Higuain arrive and Morata leave is quite an exciting prospect for Hazard I think. Plus Bournemouth play football so it should be a nice open game. On top of this Chelsea should be bouncing following their two cup game wins. So I have high hopes :)

Going forward..

As for my plans going forward they're quite bold at the moment. I'm planning on triple captaining Sterling for City's double against Arsenal and Everton. It feels like a little bit of a gamble with the dangers of rotation, but the injuries Arsenal now have at the back makes it look too tempting to resist. So hopefully that'll go well.

I'm also considering bringing in Danilo to triple up on City players. However, there would also be a huge risk of rotation there too. Plus, now I have the blanks in GW27 to worry about, I'll have to start removing players with those games in mind. With Chelsea and Man City both not playing that week it means as it stands I would have four players absent - Sterling, Sané, Hazard and Luiz.

I'm planning on keeping Hazard and Sterling, and just benching them for the gameweek. So it means losing Sané and Luiz over the next few weeks. Consequently to bring in Danilo it would mean taking out Luiz, but they have a great game at home to Huddersfield. So it's..

Danilo - with two possible starts for City in decent-ish games

vs

Luiz - with one almost certain start in a very nice tie

Then both City and Chelsea face up against each other in GW26 - so I'd rather have neither for that one.

My current plan is:

GW25: Luiz out, Danilo in

GW26: Danilo back out, Kolasinac in + Sané out, Mané in

GW27: Mané back out, Son in

Quite a faff about. However, Liverpool are at home in GW26 to Bournemouth, which is a great tie. Then Spurs play Burnley while Liverpool play Man Utd in GW27. I'd prefer Son for that game as he'd potentially be my only decent captain option. Plus I don't quite fancy Mané up against Ashley Young in the United game.

I'm still without Salah as it stands too, and don't plan on changing that before GW27. However, now I've changed my plan regarding chips I think it would probably be wise to try to get him in before the blanks in GW31 and GW33, where Liverpool are certain to play.

So, now I'm using the triple captain in GW25 it means I'll be using my free hit in the double gameweek of GW32. Then wildcarding in GW34 to bench boost in GW35.

Exciting times.

* NOTE: Both Hennessey and Guaita are now said to be fit again, so one of two is likely to start against Southampton. It'd be a huge bonus for me if Guaita gets the jersey!  - I've changed my starting line-up accordingly :D

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 23 Review

Over the moon with this week. 69 points ..without Salah. I thought I was heading for a huge rank drop on Saturday. Watching everyone else with Salah 30 written slap bang in the middle of their team sheet made me fear for the worst. However, Sterling and Sané came to the rescue on the Sunday, keeping me within touching distance of the rest of the pack.

Gameweek Points: 69 (-4)

Gameweek Rank: 975,723

Overall Rank: 212,165

(click to enlarge)

All three of my transfers paid off this week too. I was a little worried about taking a minus 4, but it turned out well. Pogba and Rashford got 8 points apiece, and Sané came in with 12. So quite lucky really.

Going forward I'm starting to think about blank and double gameweeks. It's a little bit new to me, so I'll probably amend my strategy as I watch what other people are doing. Last year I had no idea about things like double gameweeks. Consequently I wasted my freehit and bench boost in the first half of the season, mainly out of sheer boredom. I then sat back and watched as a few people in my mini league craftily pulled out their chips to maximum effect in second half of the season.

Fortunately I had at least kept my triple captain. So I did at least get to experience the thrill of triple-captaining someone in a double gameweek. This will be the first season though where I have all three chips to use, plus a wildcard. So I'm really not entirely sure what to do.

The blank game weeks are in GW27, GW31 and GW33. With the doubles supposedly GW32 and GW35 ..but don't quote me on any of this. I'm literally just copying what everyone else is saying.

The blank in GW27 is due to the EFL Cup Final.

The blank in GW31 due to the FA Cup quarter-finals.

And the blank in GW33 due to the FA Cup semis.

My loose plan at the moment is to use my freehit in GW31. My triple captain in GW32. Then my wildcard in GW34, to set my team up for a bench boost in GW35. Again though, I'll wait and see what others are doing before I start seriously planning.

I'm even holding my free transfer at the moment - that's how sensible I'm being. I did want to bring in Button for Guaita, so I could bench Dubravka for Newcastle's next few difficult fixtures. However, I'm not sure about that one now, so I think I'll wait and see how the cup games pan out before I make any decisions. As it might be wiser to save a transfer so I can bring another player in for the blanks in GW27. I'm not hopeful that Dubravka will get too many points against Man City and Spurs, but at least he'll be playing.

Also, returning to the start of the article. I'm going to continue to go without Salah. I survived this week ..just about. So maybe it won't be too bad. Either way it's a nice little experiment. Plus I actually quite like my team how it is at the moment, minus a few minor tweaks. So it could be that my entire season now depends on how good Salah does or doesn't do going forward. Scary.

It does mean I don't have to have the shame that comes with having such a blatant diver in my side though ;) ...how can anyone look themselves in the mirror every morning knowing that they're captaining the Egyptian Klinsmann?

Overall Points: 1,343

Overall Rank: 212,165

FPL: GW22 Review / GW23 Preview

Gameweek Points: 45

Gameweek Rank: 3,674,084

Overall Rank: 218,093

(click to enlarge)

In my last post I wrote;

If Utd beat Spurs I could be a bit screwed this week. It'll be especially galling if they keep a clean sheet and I have Shaw sat on my bench, as per last week. I'm feeling fairly confident though.

So, yeah, United beat Spurs 1-0 meaning my three Spurs players picked up just 6 points between them, and Luke Shaw, sat on bench, got a huge (by his standards) 8 points 😅

So quite bad judgement from me on that call.

I went into GW22 hoping that some questions would be answered - particularly in regard the Spurs v Man Utd game, and also in regard Liverpool's tricky tie against Brighton.

United massively answered any questions I had about them with their win. Spurs stock went down a little, and Liverpool kind of impressed against Brighton. Just the one goal, but it did look like they created quite a few decent chances from the highlights. They didn't really demolish Brighton though. So juries still out a tiny bit for me.

Another game that I learnt a lot from this weekend was the West Ham v Arsenal fixture, which finished 1-0 to West Ham. They were quite impressive, however Arsenal looked like they completely lacked ideas going forward. Ramsey on the bench and Özil not even in the squad just seemed bizarre to me. On top of this both Guendouzi and Xhaka started ahead of Torreira, with Torreira just coming on during the second half. Again, this just seemed baffling to me, unless there was some minor injury or fitness worry. All in all I really lost a lot of faith in Arsenal.

Taking those games into consideration I quickly made my two transfers on Sunday night.

Pogba & Rashford IN - Son & Aubameyang OUT

I made them early just to avoid the price changes. The cash I've saved from the Aubameyang to Rashford transfer also gives me enough money to make a Torreira to Sané or Torreira to Mané transfer. However, this would require a minus 4 hit to do it this week 😠

It would also leave me with no free cash to transfer the currently injured Guaita back to Hennessey. I'm really not sure what to do regarding this decision. I could really do with a Palace keeper for Gameweeks 24 & 25 as Newcastle play Man City then Spurs. However, is it really worth making a transfer? Apart from those two games Newcastle's fixture aren't too bad. On top of this if Guaita recovers he could also return and push Hennessey back to the bench.

Ideally I'd like to bring Sané in for this week's game against Huddersfield, which looks like an excellent tie for City. I'm not too keen on owning more City assets for their following game away to Newcastle though. Then they have Arsenal and Chelsea. Though that Arsenal game could be great for their attackers in actual fact. So I'm really quite torn.

Whatever I do I'll wait until Friday to decide. I'll post an updated image of my team for GW23 below if I do make another transfer. I'm going with five at the back and Sterling captain as it stands. Sterling's assist pretty much rescued my GW22, so I'm going to keep the faith.*

(Provisional team for GW23)

Finally, I'm continuing to go without Salah. I don't know whether I doing this in judgement or just out of stubbornness at this point 😀 Not owning him is really destroying me, but surely he's been lucky with the penalty decisions. Or is that just wishful thinking?

*Transfer Update

I've took a minus 4. Sané in for Torreira. Hopefully I'll make the 4 points back this weekend.

What actually swung my decision to make this transfer was the keeper situation. I was considering switching Hennessey back in for Guaita - which would've require £0.3m - but it now seems Hennessey is out injured as well. In a way this is something of a plus as it's forced me to look elsewhere for a solution. Having looked I've found the perfect fit - Brighton's David Button at just £4m, who's now in goal in lieu of Mathew Ryan, who's at the Asian Cup.

It should perfectly cover Newcastle's two difficult games, so it's a nice little solution. Plus I can now bring him in with my free transfer next week.

Now I've got Sané it does mean that I have the headache of who to drop. I'm currently benching Alderweireld, which seems a bit unwise. So I may change that later in the week. There's always the chance that someone won't start anyway though, so it gives me a very nice replacement should I need it :D

(Line-up, now with added Sané)

Overall Points: 1,278

Overall Rank: 218,093

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 22 Preview

I'll get my team for GW22 shot out pretty quickly in this post, as it's more or less identical to the team I fielded last time out. Just this time with Sterling captain.

(Line-up for GW22 - click to enlarge)

Oh, and my bench.

If Utd beat Spurs I could be a bit screwed this week. It'll be especially galling if they keep a clean sheet and I have Shaw sat on my bench, as per last week. I'm feeling fairly confident though.

Judgement Time

I'm actually looking forward to this gameweek as I'm hoping it'll answer some big questions I have. The two games in particular I'm looking at are;

Spurs v Man Utd

&

Brighton v Liverpool

The Spurs/Utd game will help me decide who to replace Son with - Pogba or a Spurs option (or perhaps neither). It'll also help me decide whether I want to keep going with two Spurs defenders. Which is my current plan (their fixtures are superb after this week).

If Utd beat Spurs it'll really cement the idea that Solskjær has turned the team around. If they lose it'll dampen the spirits a little, and it'll make me a little more weary of bringing more Utd players in. So it's a really big test for both teams. I'm hoping and expecting that Spurs will roll them over, but with the new lease of life Utd seem to have I'm really not certain about this. So a fascinating game 😃

The Brighton/Liverpool game isn't quite as exciting, but it's a huge test of character for Liverpool after their defeat to Man City. I have a feeling that they may struggle to break Brighton down. If that happens I'll feel confident just keeping Robertson going forward as my single Liverpool asset.

However, if Liverpool turn on the style that'll definitely change things. Alexander-Arnold will become a tempting option to double-up in defence - especially if my Spurs defenders don't shine against Utd. I'll also have to start seriously considering Salah for the first time this season.

A Spurs win and a Liverpool nil-nil would be perfect for me this week. If not the 2 free transfers I'll have will be put to good use before the start of GW23.

FPL: GW21 Review

I had a really great week in GW21. The only two minuses being that my captain blanked, and that I made what proved to be a minor error in hindsight.

Gameweek Points: 65

Gameweek Rank: 1,142,100

Overall Rank: 161,579

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First up the two minuses. Hazard just got 3 points for his performance, giving me a mighty 6 for my captain. Then the minor error was that I benched Luke Shaw and brought my new signing Lucas Torreira in, costing me 4 points. Had I not even made the transfer I'd be sitting on 69 points now. Also Torreira, in typical new transfer fashion, started his respective game on the bench. However, it wasn't a truly terrible decision as Arsenal clocked up 4 goals against Fulham, so playing Torreira was really quite a decent punt.

Other than that though it was mainly all positive.

• Clean sheets for Alderweireld and Trippier
• Clean sheet for Luiz
• Clean sheet for Guaita - the other player I brought in last week
• Assists for both Robertson and Sterling in that huge Man City/Liverpool clash
• 13 points for Son
• 9 points for Aubameyang

Really cannot complain at all. Though saying that, I've had a string of solid weeks, but I really could do with having a big week soon. Otherwise I'm going to struggle to climb much higher in the rankings.

I was complaining a tiny bit before the New Year's games about the hectic frequency, but I'm already getting bored before the FA Cup games have even finished. That's in spite of the fact that Middlesbrough won their third round tie 5-0 against Peterborough. I probably saw more goals yesterday at the Riverside than I've seen all season.

Speaking of cup ties, I actually won my FPL one yet again. My incredibly consistent, but average performances serving me well :)

I'm really chomping at the bit for GW22 now though. Probably why I'm sat writing this whilst eating pizza at one o'clock in the morning. I really should've waited a bit though. It's a little hard to write a preview when there's still five days of potential team news in the way. Plus, as things stand, I'm sticking with pretty much the exact same team for this week. No transfer plans as of yet ..or injuries fortunately 😃

I am a little bit worried that I'm overexposed this week in the Spurs v Man Utd game though. I have three Spurs players plus Shaw on the bench. A Spurs clean sheet would be beautiful, but on that big Wembley pitch I can imagine a few chances. Hopefully Solskjær will slip up for the first time though 😈

The idea of transferring out one of my Spurs players is tempting, but their games look great after this week so that probably won't be happening. Another option is to bench one this week and bring Guendouzi into my starting line up alongside Torreira and Aubameyang. He's not a great option, but I really fancy a few goals in that West Ham v Arsenal tie.

Whatever the case I'll have a think then post a mini preview later in the week.

Overall Points: 1,233

Overall Rank: 161,579