FF247 Fantasy Football Site Team GW1
We’re back! Last season was something of a disappointment as we finished with our lowest rank since we first introduced the site team back in 2014/15. We don’t set ourselves any goals at the beginning of each season but at the very least we want to beat last season’s final rank. Hang on, is that a goal?! Just like the rest of you we’ve spent five minutes hours agonising over who to include in our GW1 squad and we’re finally there. Are we happy? Ask us that around 6pm on Sunday evening!
Below we have outlined some of our thought process when picking our squad. Hopefully it makes sense!
Goalkeepers
When we posted our very provisional squad a couple of weeks ago we had two £4.5m keepers. This then became a premium and a £4.0m option before reverting to two £4.5m keepers. Finally, we landed on Rui Patricio (£4.5m) and Ben Hamer (£4.0m). Why this option? Money. It’s as simple as that, we needed to free up cash for investments further up the pitch. Why Patricio and Hamer? Wolves were a solid outfit in the Championship last season and on the face of it, it would appear as though they’ve strengthened their squad over the summer and they should hopefully be a source of some early season clean sheets. As for Hamer…well he could be any £4.0m option.
Defenders
Initially we had Ederson as our keeper but following his display in the Charity Shield, Benjamin Mendy was drafted in for some City defensive cover. City will undoubtedly pick up their fair share of clean sheets over the opening game-weeks while Mendy should also chip in with some attacking returns.
Andrew Robertson has been in our squad from the beginning. Along with VVD he appears to be the Liverpool defender least susceptible to rotation and with a certain Spaniard as his competition he really should start every game!
Luke Shaw is something of a gamble. With Ashley Young as his competition he really should see more game time but Jose clearly isn’t a fan. We accept he’s probably a transfer waiting to happen but we’re banking on a couple of early season clean sheets before Young returns.
Our defence is completed by the Crystal Palace pair of James Tomkins and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Both Palace and Tomkins finished last season in fine form and the hope is that they carry such form into this season. We’ll probably require Tomkins sooner rather than later thanks to Jose and Shaw! Wan-Bissaka is in due to the fact that he’s £4.0m and is
set to start the season at right back.
Midfielders
Mo Salah is Mo Salah.
Christian Eriksen was a late arrival to our squad. If we’re being honest we probably wanted a City midfielder but with uncertainty around which of them will start we’ve gone with the safety of the Viking and with an opening day fixture against Newcastle he could very well be amongst the points. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that we have £0.5m left in the bank and the likelihood is that this will be used to bring KDB in for Eriksen in the very near future.
Richarlison is in simply because of Everton’s fixtures. This is most certainly a fixtures over form punt. We’re hoping that his reunion with Marco Silva will see him rediscover the form he showed when he first linked up with Silva at the beginning of last season.
By the time we got to our last two midfield spots money was rather tight. Tom Cairney was chosen on the basis that that Fulham try to play an attacking brand of football and he is the attacking cog in their midfield. We don’t expect very much from Dale Stephens, simply that he delivers two points when called upon.
Forwards
Given City’s early season fixtures Sergio Aguero was one of the first names on our teamsheet. We’re well aware that he may be rotated with Jesus but he only needs 20 minutes to rattle in a few goals.
When Roberto Firmino scored and assisted in Liverpool’s final preseason friendly the following question was asked, “Did Firmino scare us into reshaping the team?” The answer was yes. Mo Salah might score the majority of the goals but without Firmino the Liverpool attack doesn’t function. This means that unlike many other forwards he’s a great source of assists as well as goals.
Josh King takes the 3rd forward spot in our team thanks to his preseason form and Bournemouth’s early fixtures.
Our GW1 team is…
Captain – Salah
We could say that this was a unanimous decision but that would suggest we actually took a vote! Someone suggested Salah as captain and nobody disagreed. He’s the obvious candidate.
Thanks for reading FF247 Fantasy Football Site Team GW1
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PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
Usually we run an article and ask people to get involved and cover the friendlies with any info they can gather. And it’s usually fun but in all honesty it’s usually also a bit messy and difficult to refer back to. This season we have one link that you will need need for all such info, courtesy of Mito –
Here you will find all the pre-season info you could ever wish for in one place – line-ups, scorers, assists, match info, sarcastic comments…
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The League Codes for FF247 for the 2018/19 season are as follows –
The main public FF247 League is sponsored by Starting 11, which anyone is welcome to join, can be accessed using the following code 1581-751 (auto-link below).
The prize pool for this is £250.
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League Code: 1581-751
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Which one of the following, and any key problem areas?
Team A
Ederson (Steklenburg)
Mendy, Robertson, Davies, Luiz (Wan-Bissaka)
Salah, Eriksen, Mkhi, Jota (Stephens)
Aguero, Arnautovic (Kamara)
Team B
Ederson (Steklenburg)
Mendy, Robertson, Davies, Tomkins (Peltier)
Salah, Jota, Richarlison, (Stephens, Masuaka)
Aguero, Aubameyang, Arnautovic
Cheers
Team A is mostly the same as mine so that’s my natural choice and hope it does you well
Both are good lineups so just decide which formation you prefer and go with your gut – neither has any real problem areas other than possible game time for subs, which I’m sure you already know about.
Cheers.
Would you go Mkhi and Luiz or Richarlison and Van Dijk?
the second seems better, but seems bad not to have arsenal attack.
Arsenal’s attack can slide in seamlessly from GW3.
Hi all,
New to this site and would like some feedback on my team, before the season kicks off.
Foster Patricio
Otamendi Trent Zanka Daniels Tomkin’s
Salah Sanchez Sane Rich Cairney
Morata Zaha Jimenez
Mids look great.
Morata could be a concern given Chelsea’s troubles – I’d personally stay away and try to upgrade to one of Aguero or Aubameyang.
What formation? 3-4-3? 4-4-2? or rotating between?
Cheers,
Would need to downgrade Sanchez to then upgrade Morata. Formation would definitely rotate depending on form and fixtures.
Sanchez to Mane/Eriksen and then upgrade Morata to Aguero/Aub would look good.
I’d personally go Otamendi(not sure he’ll start gw1) to Mendy and use the 0.5 to do Morata to Firmino/Lacazette! You could also potentially save up to £1.5m from having 1 or 2 £4m defenders and a £4.5mid sat on your bench (Wan-Bissaka/Peltier/Stephens etc all expected to start). Depends how much you like to rotate but this would allow TAA to Robertson/Jimenez to Arnie etc!?
Cheers, definitely need to have a tweak and save some money in places. Surely Mendy is a rotation risk? I thought Ota was a sure start?
Otamendi only got a couple of minutes run out last game while Mendy played whole match and looked good, got forward a lot! Could be wrong but predicted lineups I’ve seen don’t include Ota atm. Prob more options at cb while think Mendys competition is just Zinchenko and maybe Delph who hasn’t even been on the bench preseason … should get loads of time but then again no one is safe with Peps rotations!
Welcome Mr. Go! And I agree with RedKev’s assessment here! Mendy and Robertson are the 2 I would have from those teams.
Welcome Mr Go.
Strong team. Morata is my biggest doubt there as not sure if Chelsea will start the season well, but they certainly have good fixtures so could turn out to be an inspired pick, and easy enough to upgrade him a couple of games in if not.
Alright, I think this is it. Going with my heart. Might bite me in the @$$ but I’m going for it anyway.
@Pancho, report back, I am very interested in how you did by comparison.
Mito, I very likely could have Salah wrangled in there somehow in 2 weeks, but I think it’s more likely I find a way to get KDB in than Salah. Time will tell…
Peltier and Wan bissaka nailed on?
Not sure KP. That’s why I only have Peltier in my team and I grabbed Schlupp instead of WB for Palace. if WB is getting time then I can always downgrade and use that .5 in my scramble to fit Salah in after a couple of hat tricks :lol-cry:
From everything I’ve read it seems like they are both first choice. But I think structurally it doesn’t make sense to have both. If you have one and they fall out of favour or get injured you can easily switch to the other. If you have both and something happens to one of them you then need to find some money to upgrade that spot as there is nowhere else to go. Which turns them not playing or getting injured into a forced double trade.
It could turn out badly but I think it’s a risk worth taking, not long-term (if one doesn’t end up playing) but up to the first wildcard. Just helps squeeze that last bit of value out of the side. For me, anyway.
And if they do play they could be nice little earners, not that W-B is on low ownership.
This is it. Please RMT 0ib. All the best everyone!
Downgrade one 11.0 FWD, Schneiderlin / McArthur / Stephens is too weak in middle.
seems u are too concentrate on your fwd that made your mf look weak.
even schedenerlin ,shaw gametine are question
mc arthur to cairney?
Bernardo Silva + Luiz or Eriksen + Cedric/Tomkins/any other 4.5m defender
I would go Eriksen. Somehow I don’t think Bernardo will be a regular starter. Maybe just GW1 and then here and there.
Hey…would you mind giving your feedback on my team #35? I actually have .05mib which could be used to swap Mane for KDB when he is back.