Fantasy Football 247 Team – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
FF247 has finalised its selection for its squad in this our second season. Coming off a strong showing last season with a final ranking of 5921, we hope that we can go a bit better this time as we had a strong season and looked good for a top 1k finish for so long but just ran out of gas at the end! After seeing how our discussions went last season over transfers and team selection we were naturally more prepared. It was smooth as heck…well, more like long as heck. We started discussions several days ago and only came to a conclusion after the knives came out. Let’s just say the one with the biggest knife seemed more logical to the rest of the group. So with the season upon us, have a gander at the official FF247 team and our reasoning behind our team selection and captain choice.
Formation…
Goalkeepers
Thibaut Courtois
With Cech gone to Arsenal there is no longer the doubt over the starter that was hanging around at this time last season. With Chelsea being the best defensive team over the last couple of seasons, Thibaut fit in like a glove on a cash strapped side. We know we wanted some sort of CFC defensive cover and thought at 5.5 why not take the cheapest route in.
Wayne Hennessey
Price was the biggest factor in this selection, as we don’t expect to be sitting our number 1 Courtois anytime soon. However with Speroni being injured and a presser that some of us interpreted as Pardew leaning towards Wayne as his starter, we decided that he might actually be a 4.0 playing keeper. With that information in hand he became the stand out back up keeper to hopefully never see a game for us.
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Defenders
Per Mertesacker
Every decent FPL side needs a slow German. And if he plays for an Arsenal side with nice fixtures to start off with, well even better. Looking for a safe cheap-ish way into the Arsenal backline, we decided Per was our man. We would love the Frenchman Koscielny, but the 0.5 matters a heck of a lot when only working with a 100m budget.
Cedric Soares
The Saints are a canny lot – they build a star and then hitch their skirt and the scousers can’t resist. And then just go out and buy a replacement for a fraction of the price who looks better. So whilst young Cedric has a year to house-hunt in the suburbs of Kirby he will in the meantime be causing havoc down the flanks in Southampton much in the same way as his predecessors have. That’s the theory anyway as he looks an exciting prospect with assists in his locker and hopefully the odd goal. That allied to playing in one of last seasons best defences made us go all bleary eyed and well… scouse.
Robert Huth
Having helped Leicester stay up last season after a successful loan spell (they won 7 of their last 9 after his arrival) Huth looks like a mainstay in that defence and to help matters it was new boss Ranieri who originally signed him for Chelsea. Their opening 6 games are relatively kind so we are happy to find a German companion for big Mert.
Sebastian Coates
Bit of an odd one this as in all honesty anytime we’ve seen him in action previously he’s looked like the rear end of a pantomime donkey but apparently he’s found his feet a bit at Sunderland and we wanted a piece of his teams attractive looking opening fixtures.
Reece Oxford
Let’s call young Reece our ‘enabler’. He’s £4.0m. That’s pretty much all you need to know really but to expand slightly – there aren’t many (if any) in that price bracket that look like starting. He’s started a few pre-season and Europa games and actually played out of position in midfield so whilst we won’t hang our hat on a 16yr old getting game time there is an outside chance, especially as West Ham fielded a weakened team in the Europa last night and he wasn’t a part of that farce. If he looks like starting then happy days come GW2 & 3 given the fixtures. If not then he’s back to being an enabler.
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Midfielders
Eden Hazard
Not sure we have to explain this one. It’s fairly route one. Best player on last seasons best team. He will be one of, if not THE top fantasy scorer this season. Ignore at your peril!
Santiago Cazorla
We probably need to explain this one. Not in terms of us grabbing Arsenal cover but simply ‘why him over the others’. Simple answer is we’d have happily gone for Ramsey. Or Ozil. Or Walcott. Cazorla is on penalties and some free-kicks and he’s pretty good at both. We observed the Community Shield too and he interchanged positions with Ramsey with one going forward and the other holding.
Raheem Sterling
We wanted City cover from the off. The fixtures aren’t perfect but this is City and they usually produce regardless. Silva was considered and is a great choice. We just felt that Raheem’s pace would suit their style of play perfectly and with Aguero possibly still out for a week or so, there is a chance he may get pushed forward but either way we are happy to go with him. Plus he’s already showed in pre-season what he can do with the likes of Silva providing the ammunition.
Sadio Mane
Given his previous stats we expected a strong start to his Southampton career and Sadio duly delivered, culminating in ‘that’ hat-trick and we expect him to continue in a similar fashion this season as he looks hungry for goals as 11 of those and 4 assists in his virgin season would suggest. Their fixtures look good and we hope he will prosper accordingly.
James Milner
Oh, James! We hope to be repeating the infamous 007 saying a few times in the opening fixtures. He’s looked great in pre-season – scoring, assisting and being generally all over the place. It was a close call between him and Henderson and we could have gone for either. Hendo may have pens, we don’t know for sure. He certainly doesn’t look natural at them. Milner was the king of all set-pieces when at Villa. Either way we’ve opted for James and if he gets the set-pieces then all the better but his new lease of life and the fact that he has a target man in Benteke to work off suggests he may well once again start to deliver the returns he did at Villa.
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Strikers
Wayne Rooney
Back up top where he belongs. Last time he played a full season as an actual striker he got something like 34 goals. Hopefully that trend continues as we are putting faith in him to deliver something similar. Well ok, at least until Kun returns and United sign another striker and he’s shunted back to midfield to cover for the perrenially injured lot there!
Jermain Defoe
This is the one that may raise a few eyebrows. We get that, but bare with us here. Leicester, Norwich, Swansea, Villa and Bournemouth in the first 6 games hardly looks frightening. Defoe had half decent returns last season and much of that was from wide positions as he was forced to ‘do a job for the team’. With Wickham gone he should be instilled as the main striker and with his eye for goal and the addition of Lens to supply ample support we feel he is worth a small punt to begin with.
Diafra Sakho
This is where the forward planning comes into effect! We don’t want Sakho for an away game at Arsenal, but we are more than happy to have in come in for GW’s 2 & 3 with some decent home games in those and a strong midfield 5 in place for GW1. We will let him ride our bench and then decide who else sits in GW2 as that one looks like a nice headache that is building up already!
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Captain
HAZARD
He won a 4-1 vote amongst a 6 man committee. Don’t ask! Either way he’s our main man this week. Probably on the strength of what Chelsea did to the Swans last season in their two meetings. Out of interest the ‘1’ vote was for Rooney and he was our choice as Vice Captain.
Forward planning
We feel this is key and as such didn’t just pick a team for GW1. We picked a team / squad that we felt was good to compete for at least the first 3 GW’s but also with a plan in place for Aguero at the very least. Our plan for him is to downgrade a midfielder with a saved transfer in GW3 and upgrade a forward.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football FF247 Team Game-week 1.
Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll
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My team so far, 2.5 Mil there to swap out Ramsey for Sanchez later… Thoughts?
@Tosstiny, I worry about Giroud starting. Don’t think it is a sure thing in my opinion. Seems many are predicting Theo will start up top over him. They could be wrong, but seems like a gamble to go with Giroud, up to you in the end though.
I like Cresswell, don’t love him at that price though. And Jedi could be ok, but seems overpriced at 5.0 if you won’t play him much, In particular if you consider his opening fixtures.
@Mito21, Good shout on Giroud, I’ve swapped Ivan out for Azpal and Jedi for Wanyama to make money for Rooney.
I thought Cresswell was a little overpriced too but I’m here hoping he does a Coleman
Good stuff lads, few surprises in there i must say. Good luck for the upcoming season of turmoil. Top 1k, no problem 😉
4 to 1 in a 6 man vote eh? I can only assume someone has been “dealt with”. Serious business round here :shiftyeyes:
Yeah, someone threw their peg leg and knocked out the Defoe voter before they got it in. 😉
Hahaha, oh to be a fly on the wall in FF247 HQ. There’s a Hollywood blockbuster in there!
@NiN, get you Whatsapp mate. It is pandemonium in there sometimes. Some very funny individuals and MLS and Draft league chats are over the top. Not very helpful, but very funny.
Hate that you are such an old man! Heck even that old fart Elle figured it out.
Think he was called an Ellesaurus today.
Wow, my team was pretty much the same…high five to us! I have my money on Ritchie, would rather have Sterling but couldn’t afford him. Pelle/Deeney seem right to me for some reason, could always switch Deeney to Defeo but Deeney’s numbers in the championship can’t be ignored, hope he doesnt let me down. Thoughts?
@MarchinOn, Pelle and Deeney made it to some of the drafts we had. In fact, I can’t remember who snuck in Defoe in the cover of the night. Deeney seemed a mainstay through all the rough drafts and somehow Jermain slithered in on the last one. Pelle was dropped once it was decided we wanted Mane.
Nice side by the way, feel like I have seen it before. 😉
i feel your attack is weak
aguero is so important and i think he need to bought from week 1 especially that the price will increase
also what about kane ? and spurs ?
morgan or huth ?
is azbi or iva better than curtois in bonus or assists ?
what about if mertasacker rotated ? is it better for cech and azbi for example
@Mahelmy, we feel that you are most certainly correct about Aguero. Our problem with Kun is that it is unlikely he starts GW1 and plays CFC in GW2. He has scored one goal in his last 6 outings against CFC. Last year he played 8 minutes when coming off a similar situation with the World Cup in GW1. So unless we here that he is starting in the press conference, we will go with our plan to buy him in week 3.
Kane is a budget issue, there are players that we liked equally or even if we didn’t like them as much, Kane’s price tag swayed us to look elsewhere.
Huth or Morgan are in may ways the same player in terms of production. In the end we went for the sure starter in Week 1.
Yes, Iva and Azpi are both better, but they also cost more. So we decided that the extra money could be used elsewhere.
Mertsacker could be rotated, but so can Bellerin and Monreal.. Koscielny was the preference, but money was the problem. We don’t believe the possible rotation some feel unavoidable was a big enough concern for us to be scared off him. However if we made a mistake, we will gladly admit it. It will happen…a lot.
Thanks for the feedback, we always appreciate hearing the opinions of site members.
Thanks for your reply
Remember that aguero played 10 min in week1 and 2 last year but scored in both
Also it costs u to get him in week 3
My team quite similar with azbi but one more comment
You paid alot for 5 midfielders and most probably one will benched unless you played 3 5 2
So you may get the difference for aguero if you left mane
This was just a comment
Finally i would like to thank your team for efforts
is smith bournemouth better than oxford and same price ?
I wouldn’t think so. Oxford has a chance, a small one mind you, but a chance nevertheless to play decent minutes this season, if he impresses. Can only see Smith playing if Francis is hurt.
Hi alls,
what do you think? balance 1.5 only.. thanks
Your front line is a bit weak considering many are thinking this is going to be an attacking year. Personally, I would downgrade Wally to Cazorla, Jagielka to a 4.5 defender, etc … and free up some cash to invest in another quality striker. Defoe certainly looks up for it this year though, even if his game time is a bit tricky. GL
what do you think?