Fantasy Football FF247 Team Gameweek 23
Although we barely scored above the average of 52 we managed to gain 193 spots in the overall and now sit in 1783th place. After 3 straight red arrows, a green one even if only by a bit was well received. That slight uptick in the standings leads us straight into the use of the wildcard. We are so excited! We usually fight discuss one transfer for several days. You can imagine that the fighting discussion over 15 open spots will not be the easiest. And just when we thought we were all set, Emre Can decides to stick his leg right underneath Costa’s boot. Damn you Can! Damn you! Oh well, our decision on our Spanzilian friend will come later in the article and since I know you have not looked at the screenshot before reading this, we will save that big mystery for later. Let’s go over what our beloved (we sold most of them already) fighting 11 did for us in GW22 before we move on…to our all new beloved fighting 11.
In goal we had the very trusty Joe Hart. He has a certain pattern going when it comes to his fpl points, 3-1-0-3-1-__ anyone care to guess what goes next? Anyways thanks for your service over the last five gameweeks, those six points over that span didn’t leave us bitter at all. Now, what’s better than one City keeper? How about a City defender to keep him company. Yeah…not our best call this season. A double up with Zabaleta and Hart was not the best idea we ever had. So after our high priced City defence led the way with a pair of one pointers, it was only safe to assume that Leighton “FF247” Baines would once again concede. Shockingly though, he managed a clean sheet for the first time since forever. Thanks! But this does not in anyway make up for the misery you put us through all these weeks. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Our transfer prior to gameweek 22 was to bring in Tomkins from West Ham. Well we can’t get them all wrong on defence. As Tommy boy picked up the clean sheet in his one off appearance for us.
Moving along to our midfield we find David Silva. He had such a promising start on our side. Then he got infected with whatever Hart and Zaba have. Although to be fair to our silky friend, he became what he has always been more than anything. Someone who gets you about 5 points a game and that is what he has about averaged over the last 4 weeks. So fair enough Silva, moving onto Hazard and Sanchez. A pair of 3 pointers from the dynamic duo. Not what one would hope for from them two, but we know that those kind of low outputs must be ignored for the most part. Both are very explosive and double digits are always easily within the grasp of both. Speaking of double digits, we were very happy to see the 11 point return from former Liverpool legend Stewart Downing. Even though he is unlikely to retain his spot on our side because of the difficulty of his upcoming fixtures, he was certainly a very productive member and great value while we had him. And remember Stewart, YNWA.
Our forwards on the whole did not do bad once you combine (20 points) their tallies. Problem was that the majority came from Double D himself and he was not our captain. Dirty Diego once again scored and with 17 goals in 19 games he certainly is having a spectacular season. Maybe one of these days we will remember to bring him up in our captaincy talks, FFS. Charlie Austin, was unable to deliver more than 2 points and with 3 blanks in the last 4, we think ol’ Charlie might want to catch a ride from Leighton on his way out from our team. Superhero Kane (our capo) ran into the vaunted Sunderland defence. Perhaps we should have remembered that Wes Brown was playing for the Mackems before we made Harry our captain. Well out with the old and in with the new, let us now look at our new signings.
New FF247 team is…
As you can see there are some changes to the provisional wildcard squad we posted last week. The main talking points are up front. Diego Costa’s three match ban means he has a holiday from the squad with Graziano Pelle coming in as a replacement. More interestingly, you will see no Sergio Aguero. Are we crazy? Well, yes, but that’s another conversation. Our plan is to buy Aguero for next week when City’s fixtures turn rosy. Away to Chelsea will not be a goal fest we feel and with Kun still feeling his way back from injury, we thought a one week punt on someone else, with a better fixture, could pay rich dividends. So we have plumped for RvP, home to Leicester. Hopefully it works. For a week!
Buying David Ospina means we could also get some United defensive cover, so welcome Phil Jones. He takes our corners too. This also means we don’t have to double up on Sunderland defence, which is always comforting.
Santi Cazorla comes in as we felt, with Alexis’ injury, we wanted some attacking Arsenal cover – Cazorla is in good form and hopefully he settles in well and feels at home with us – as he blasts in a first half hat-trick!
So that’s our wildcard squad, now for our starting XI.
Ospina is a shoe in at home to Villa, while Clyne, Jones and Terry all pick themselves.
We have decided to start Alexis, just on the off chance of a miracle recovery and on the basis that he’s either fit to play or sit in the stand. We can’t see him being benched. So in theory, it’s a 5-man midfield, though in practice, we don’t expect to see Alexis on the pitch, as per Wenger’s comments. In that case Harry Kane will come off the bench.
Captain
Our captain this week is RvP
Yep, our one week punt has been given the added responsibility of producing a majestic double point haul. With LVG saying he needs his team playing a faster game, we expect United to dominate possession, create chances and hopefully overwhelm Leicester, with RvP being the main beneficiary. Hopefully!
Our vice-captain is Santi Cazorla
The team in text format is –
Ospina
Jones, Clyne, Terry
Johnson, Sanchez, Puncheon, Hazard, Cazorla
van Persie, Pelle
Bench: Foster. Kane, van Aanholt, Baird.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football FF247 Team Gameweek 23.
And don’t forget to vote in our Captains Poll for GW23
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So Costa to Giroud this week?
Just finishing up the WC team and require the wisdom of you articulate gentlemen for my GK choice.
Foster or Ospina????????????
I like Foster long term but would have no issues keeping the Arsenal keeper long term and he has the added advantage of facing Villa this week. Any thoughts much appreciated.
I’m playing my WC next week Lisbon, and 100% going for Foster.
Anything stupid I should change please let me know guys!
Tique, I could make a case for all 3 of those outfield subs to be included in your starting XI, but I’d definitely have Johnson starting. Mind you, I hear Sanchez has been ruled out, so that decision may be made for you.
Aside from that it’s a toss-up between van Aanholt and Puncheon for me. Not much between them. Home games against Burnley don’t come along very often though!
So…. one decision I’ve been mulling over the entire break is who to bench this week between Austin and Silva. I’d never even consider benching Silva, but it doesn’t get any harder than away to Chelsea.
Then again QPR’s away record is abysmal.
I currently have Austin in my XI, as I fancy QPR to end their bad away run. Still agonizing over it though.
Who would you bench this GW…. Austin or Silva?
Hi Bry, I’d bench Silva. This is based purely on the strength of the opposition. Yes QPR have been awful away but Austin himself has still picked up points away. Good luck this week.
+1 Austin is fixture-proof, he even scored at Southampton
Cheers GKW. I concur. Feels risky, but feels right this GW.
Cheers Init. Hearing that from you makes me feel a little better trusting my gut feeling. Will probably leave it as is. I’m so itching to activate my wildcard. Only a few hours to go.
Oh, yes good luck to you too. 😉
Appreciate any thoughts, latest draft of WC.
Van Persie to Aguero next week probably and a Bellerin upgrade after that. Or should I just have a United defender in for him now?
Hi Shadow, depends which one you want longer term and whichever it is you may as well do it now as you’ll probably never actually get round to doing the switch otherwise.
What is everyone going to do with Sanchez bench him or transfer him out ?
Jeet. That depends on the value you’d lose by getting rid of him. Couple that with using a FT on him, when he could be back next GW means there are likely to be a lot more positives in keeping him.
But if, say, you’re playing your WC next week and wouldn’t cost you too much to buy him back, then it could be worth a one-week switch.