Fantasy Football FF247 Team Game-week 33
Our rise up the rankings continued with another decent week which resulted in a total of 66pts vs an average of 47. We now sit in 292,920 place, up from 332,420 – that’s now six green arrows in seven weeks and with our wildcard imminent we are hopeful that our rise can continue over the last weeks of the season. Despite not keeping a clean sheet, seven saves from Loris helped him deliver 4pts, while our 2 defenders did the job. Ivanovic unfortunately played centre back vs Villa but still kept a clean sheet, but the star was Morgan who not only kept a cs, but also scored the only goal vs Southampton and gained 3bps and 15 in total. Happy days! In midfield, Ozil, Antonio, Alli and Mahrez did nothing, but Siggy kept his great run going with a goal at Stoke. Vardy was quiet again, but our other strikers scored – Kane at Liverpool and captain Kun at Bournemouth. So we’re happy, it could have been better, but we’re not greedy and Morgan was a lovely bonus.
As many of you have found trying to sort your wildcards, it isn’t easy. Now try and reach an agreement between five people over the medium of WhatsApp, with no-one around at the same time, some on holiday, others working and others just muting the chat! Frustrating, annoying and impossible are some of the words we could use to describe this last week. Anyway, we have finally reached an “agreement” – or compromise may be a better term! Sadly our team value is very low, so we have had to play around with different options, meaning some of the more expensive players (Bellerin, Payet etc) are out of reach for the moment.
And so we have fallen on the following Wildcard squad:
Our Wildcard squad!
Keepers
David De Gea in goal should need no explanation – DGW34 home games vs Villa and Palace are as good as you can get, hence we are banking on two clean sheets! We felt United cover at the back was a must and with the uncertainty over which defenders would play and with Smalling expensive at 6.5mln we feel DDG is the safest route into the space. Karl Darlow we are not so confident about, but a 3.9mln playing keeper is at least an enabler for investment elsewhere in the squad and you never know, he may pick up some save points, after all he’ll be getting plenty of opportunity!!
Defenders
We have doubled up with Arsenal defenders as their fixtures both during DGW34 and beyond are excellent and they should benefit further from the return of keeper Petr Cech. Nacho Monreal we feel is a safe option while we hope that Gabriel retains his place over Mertsacker, but even if the German is given the odd game, it appears clear that Gabriel is favoured over him. Mamadou Sakho gives us a Liverpool option at the back and has decent fixtures either side of DGW34 as well as another double game-week to come in DGW37. Joel Ward, well he has two DGWs in a row and at 4.3mln it was agreed he is worth the punt for the short term. Finally, we have acquired Danny Simpson of Leicester – despite the lack of double game-week, Leicester remain tight at the back and at 4.2mln he is a “no-brainer” for us and benefits from having a fixture in GW35.
Midfielders
Let us address first who we don’t have – Dimitri Payet. It was a huge wrench to leave him out – nine goals and nine assists already this season, he has scored or assisted in all but one of his last six league matches. For many he will be a “must have”, indeed for us at the start of the week we were planning to build the team around him. And then came Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian returned from injury to score at Bournemouth, City have a better fixture than Payet in GW33 and City host Stoke in GW35 while West Ham blank. On that basis and on a 3-week view we are happy to go with KdB, but we do retain West Ham coverage with Manuel Lanzini who is priced at just 4.9mln and has scored six goals this season and two in his last two games. Philippe Coutinho is welcomed into our team as we wanted some Liverpool presence in midfield and it was a straight choice between him and Firmino. As Firmino has been struggling with injury, Coutinho is our man. We have kept Riyad Mahrez as we feel he still has the ability to return decent returns over the coming few weeks, hopefully starting at Sunderland this weekend! Alexis Sanchez is our Gooner representative and with the Chilean finding his form over the last few weeks, he was an easy choice for us over Mesut Ozil.
Forwards
Sergio Aguero – well we ain’t selling him! West Brom at home this week, followed by DGW34 and Stoke at home in GW35 – add into that the return of KdB –need we say more? The sale of Harry Kane for Romelu Lukaku was voted in, just, but it was close and not agreed by all. But we are nothing but democratic and a 3-2 vote for Lukaku is a win for the Belgian and “bye for now” to the league’s most inform striker. Hmmmm, two DGWs on the spin was the justification and Big Rom best not let us down or it will all kick off at FF247 HQ. The third striker spot has gone to Marcus Rashford, though Connor Wickham, Aleksandar Mitrovic and indeed a team with Kane, Luk and Kun were all discussed. Basically it came down to KdB – if we included him then budget dictated Rashford was what we could afford. It’s not the worst punt of all time – home matches vs Villa and Palace should afford the young striker plenty of chances to repay us, even if Rooney is wheeled out at some point over the DGW.
We will use our Bench Boost chip in DGW34.
No doubt you will disagree with some of our choices!! We have tried to explain our reasoning behind our thoughts. Please remember that our Team Value was much reduced compared to most we have seen quoted on the message boards and we will be the first to admit that we have looked at many teams that have been shared on site and wished we could of afforded them. But we can only use the funds we have and have built a squad that will not only hopefully return a plethora of points in DGW34 but also either side of the big DGW.
We have no cash in the bank, but plan to hold our free transfer in DGW34 giving us opportunity to use two free transfers to field a strong team in GW35.
The team in full
Captain – Lukaku
No pressure on the big man then. He has the two matches to perform better than Aguero who has West Brom at home. So Rom, pull your finger out lad and don’t make us eternal enemies.
Our vice-captain is Sergio Aguero
Normally Kun would be a unanimous choice for the armband when facing West Brom. At home. But not this week, unless Lukaku somehow misses the DGW, which let’s face it would be very amusing for those that don’t own him.
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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football FF247 Team Game-week 33.
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Evening all – the FF247 site team wildcard has been selected and we bring it to for your entertainment. Sorry, I mean perusal!
Interesting Cookie , interesting. No Payet?
Indeed Dreamers, the explanation is above. Nervy times!
Hey Cookie – ya didn’t scroll down… read it now. Its just…. its Payet.
Yeah it’a big call, we just fancied KdB for 33-35. At this stage I think it’s fair to assume that he could well return for GW36.
Where’s payet?
Same place as your reading glasses it seems :hippo:
And a palace defender….
Hi cookie well done mate I can only imagine it was a hard and daunting task between you all to do. My question is cookie if you can answer.. If you had more funds available as some of us do what wc team would have been selected. I know you have stated about certain players and budget but as a whole was there a lets say a perfect but realistic team if you could afford it?
Jumpers, apologies but I went to bed!
An ideal team would have included Payet for sure and certainly for me Kane if possible.
Bellerin would have been preferred to Monreal and prob Migs or Hart instead of Darlow.
That’s a right team you got there, how much have you got left in your bank now lads? What made you go for Monreal over Sakho this week?
Dean, nothing in the bank. Our Liverpool contingent advised that Sakho & crew will be nackered after last night’s match so we listened to them!
Well done for at least agreeing on something, I was looking forward to these DGW’s and to be honest it has driven me mad. Before I ask up or opinion on this (I think) last draft can I thank Cookie who has been on nearly all day today answering everybody’s questions, a trooper!
So this is….
Gw34 Lennon-Lanzini
Gw35 Lukaku – Kane
It hurts to downgrade Bellerin to monreal but KDB forces my hand and I am happy to have a non playing keeper in 35. Good luck everyone x
Oh buggery bugger!! Is Howard back and ready to play now does anybody know please? Thank you
Howard has been back for long time but he’s leaving at the end of season so Robles has been starting for him
Oh ha ha, thank you x
Cheers Joanne, yeah it’s been a day and a half for sure – to escape WC fever Init has been on holiday all week and Kop has locked himself into an Amsterdam coffee shop. Bastards
Nice moves above and I wish you good luck and huge points!
Joanne good team. I think your ok wiv robbles. He is Martinez number 1 from what if read. But who knows a lot of games for Everton with doubles and fa cup. Sorry I don’t know anymore info