FF247 Fantasy Football Site Team

FF247 Fantasy Football Site Team

Like most of you who are now tinkering around with your team, we have gathered our committee to see if we can work out a beginner team. This is by no means the final team, but this is a squad that we are ok with as of this moment. Basically a starter team, that we will now try and work from until we build something that we are relatively happy with come GW1. This team, like any other team will see guys depart and see new guys come in for them. Ok, so let us get onto our current selections and and first our thinking along that journey, and see if we can justify our reasoning.

And please, tell us what you like and where you think we could do better, we definitely take comments into consideration if for no other reason, so we have someone to blame.

Goalkeepers – Premiums we are considering
De Gea (6.0) – Very secure and adds stability to any team, big concern is the price point and is he really worth more than any other keeper? Most owned!

Ederson (5.5) – Similar to DDG, but .5 cheaper, a set and forget. Problem is he isn’t required to make saves, had half of what De Gea had and less than any other premium keeper. Yet, he was tied among high priced keepers in bonus points. Ties up coveted City spot.

Alisson (5.5) – Shouldn’t have to do a bunch more work than Ederson, so saves will be low. Also, like Ederson and probably more concerning, owning him would mean one less outfield player from LFC in our squads.

Lloris (5.5) – Very consistent and probably should be in more teams, but like some of the others above him, having him means one less outfield player from his team. Last year many carried a Spurs attack minded defender, one or two of their mids and Kane.

Best of the rest we are considering
Leno (5.0) – Very favourable price, but early fixtures and Arsenal’s defensive record from last season has us questioning if this is a shrewd move or fool’s gold. Possible downgrade to Leno from a higher priced keeper if Arsenal look sturdier could be a move in an early transfer for many.

Pickford (5.0) – Everton’s fixtures and his impressive 145 points from last season do make him somewhat attractive. Another thing in his favour is that he has a 4.0 back-up.

Fabianski (4.5) – Great price point, horrific fixtures, but who cares, isn’t getting save points his thing? Is his season repeatable though? Surely, he will make less saves and probably get less bonus points, but 4.5 is likely good value.

Patricio (4.5) – If we think he will have a similar season to Ryan or Lossl from last season, then this also good value here.

Defenders – Premiums we are considering
Azpilicueta (6.5) – Two straight seasons of 170 points or more makes his price understandable. Should be safe in the XI, which makes him a better play than his mate Alonso, for now.

Walker & Otamendi (6.5) – How can any Ota owner from last season forget that run of goals and that increase in value? Well, we can remember the good times, but fierce competition if Pep runs a back 4 and to some degree even a 3 back makes him an iffy play. Walker did good, but he is the same price as Azpi and money is tight.

Spurs defenders (6.0) – Seven of their eight are at this price. If they sell one or two, we will have another look, but they have a lot of quality to go around and we don’t want Mauricio to Poch us by rotating on us.

Robertson (6.0) – LFC should be tighter this season and they weren’t bad last season. Like the chances of him adding to his goal and assists and the best part is that Alberto Moreno is his competition.

Mendy (6.0) – More intriguing than the other City defenders, just not sure if he is done partying yet. If he looks secure in his starts, he should rack up the assists to go along with clean sheets.

Van Aanholt (5.5) – Always tempting, but this is a hard price point for someone who has his nice goal tallies offset by his lack of clean sheets. So, either he starts scoring 10 goals a season or starts getting more than 5-6 clean sheets or he is not good value.

Best of the rest we are considering
The 5.0 to 5.5 bracket – Usually it is guys from top teams that end up being the better assets in this price bracket, problem is that a lot of them are questionable starters at this point. Think of Otamendi and Davies from last season, cheaper than the premium, but turned out great. Bellerin (5.5) is an interesting option here, but word of Unai’s rotation from years past has us worried. Another option is Luke Shaw (5.0), we like to eat also, so his body type does not bother us. What bothers us is how quickly he might be watching from the bench. However, with Valencia’s injury and the possibility of all of Jose’s other fullbacks leaving/vacationing/being injured, our boy Luke might get a longer run out and at his price, he is tempting. Like a big chocolate cake.

Lovren (5.0) is really cheap and considering what renowned football expert Dejan Lovren said about him being one of the best defenders in the world, this could be a huge bargain. However, he is unlikely to feature right away after dragging Modric, Perisic, Rakitic and the rest of Croatia to a World Cup final. Greatness also needs a rest.

Burnley defenders are in the Europa, so until we see how serious they are about it, they are not in our plans.

The 4.5 bracket – In this price range we are looking for anyone who rotates or has decent fixtures in case we need him to auto sub in. Pick one or two and hope for the best. Daniels has a Rico problem, Holebas has a Masina problem, Jagielka is old, Fuchs can’t fuching defend,

Tomkins looks decent value, but we could be biting from the Wan-Bissaka apple and we wouldn’t want two Palace defenders.

Cedric could end up being the choice in the end assuming we don’t go down the Bamba or Doherty rabbit hole.

The search for the 4.0
Wan-Bissaka as mentioned above might be our guy. Every year we go for one of these guys and by week 3 he is no longer starting. Oh well, at least he is only 4.0. We are also keeping our eyes and ears open and monitoring Bennett from Wolves and Pelteir from Cardiff in case either wants to be a hero.

Midfielders – Premiums we are considering
Salah (13.0) – It is unfair to put him in this category, we are not deliberating over him, he is in. The other 14 spots are up for grabs.

City Mids (8.5 – 11.0) – Some of them, depending on what you think the mid-price and premium line is, could fall in different categories, but we thought it best to keep them together. We know we probably need one, maybe two if you look at their point tallies from last season. However, as we all know, their minutes could be tricky. With the exception of De Bruyne (10.0), the rest are harder to gauge. We will probably have one to start with, but it is certainly a situation that we have to monitor and we will need to hire a Pep mind reader so we don’t get stuck on the wrong City assets through the season.

Hazard (10.5) – Off to Madrid and even if he is not, he won’t be ready come GW1 so we will pass on him.

Sanchez (10.5) – Has looked solid so far, but Salah’s price really makes it hard to take a calculated punt on a what is a very expensive player.

Mane (9.5) – Doesn’t feel like a bad idea, but he is battling Firmino and Keita for a spot in our team.

Eriksen (9.5) – It feels wrong to go without him. He could be a sticking point with some committee members and force his way on the team before the deadline.

Best of the rest we are considering
The 7.0-8.5 bracket – Ozil (8.5) looks a touch overpriced to us, Ramsey (7.5) feels like the best option although if Mkhitaryan (7.0) can nail down a spot at Arsenal that be ideal.

Son (8.5) is gone to Asia for a while, so have a safe trip.

Siggy (7.5) could grab our attention and has a chance to make our 15 if he shows any signs of life before the deadline.

Groß (7.0) much like Siggy and perhaps by being 0.5 lesser also could sneak in when our team is reevaluated and if his fixtures are overlooked a bit.

If Pogba (8.0) was available right away, someone could take up his case, but for now, we will just let Jose troll him as we watch from a distance.

The West Ham midfield boys can clear their tough fixtures first, until then we will just observe.

The 4.5-6.5 bracket – Fabregas (6.5) made it, for now, we are intrigued. If he looks like he is going to start, he should pile up assists for fun. Pedro (6.5) would be given more consideration if some Chelsea wingers left the club.

Surely Milivojevic (6.5) won’t get that many penalty goals again.

Walcott and Richarlison (6.5) might be brought up again depending on the budget. In particular the Brazilian as he feels like an interesting early punt.

Mata (6.5) should start in the XI, but there is a worry about him being dropped quickly.

Lamela (6.5) similar to Mata, but he might be able to stay a bit longer in the XI.

Jota, Maddison and Sessegnon (6.5) are also battling for that punt spot on the team. Jota does interest us, with his possibilities of playing up top and his goal involvement. Always hard to trust a promoted team’s player though.

Ralls (5.0) seems to be a favourite of ours and if we had the extra 0.5 he be in over Ward (4.5) on our current team.

Costa, Kenedy and Cairney (5.0) would also be considered but Kenedy has really tough fixtures and the other two are either risky because we don’t know for sure if they will start or because they are on an awful team. Obviously there are more that are debated, but think that is enough covered.

Forwards – Premiums-ish we are considering
Kane (12.5) – Pricey, tired, possibly limited minutes, think we will wait and let him get rolling first.

Aubameyang (11.0) – A bit divided on this one. Think there is a consensus about all liking him, but some concerns about him being used wide and also his first two fixtures being iffy.

Aguero (11.0) – In for now, there are some thoughts that we could downgrade to Firmino and upgrade Keita to Eriksen. We do love Kun’s fixtures, but Jesus has magical powers and it wouldn’t be the first time he put the thought of benching Kun into Pep’s head.

Lacazette (9.5) – Nice price, wrong forward. A bit more interesting if he gets all the minutes up top, but still a wait and see for now.

Firmino (9.5) – Decent chance the tide turns and he ends up making the final team.

Lukaku (11.0) – The Romelu from the World Cup would contend for a spot, but he won’t start right away and he still plays for Jose.

Morata (9.0) – If someone on the committee wants him, they can put him on their personal team.

Vardy (9.0) – Does anyone know if he will be around for GW1? Vardy might be the least talked about good forward in FPL.

Best of the rest we are considering
Zaha (7.0) – Love this guy, love him more if he was still a mid and there were no rumours of him leaving, yet he still gets a spot, and if something does happen, Arnie is sitting right there winking at us.

Arnautovic (7.0) – Could easily be him come GW1, this guy finished strong last season and he looks in great form in pre-season.

Tosun (7.0) – We feel more confident about the other two 7.0 guys.

Austin (6.0) – Use him while he is fit? He probably ends up being dumped in the end, but when he is fit and plays, it is hard to argue that he is not good value. He would easily outscore similarly priced defenders and mids if he managed to play similar minutes.

Tentative GW1 team
So after all that, this is where we are now, this however will not be where we end up, that is guaranteed. We thought we give you some insight into our thinking so far. There are still more debates to be had about certain players, formations, upgrades and downgrades that should polish this side up. Austin is likely to feel the wrath of our committee members again, since he is about as trustworthy as Daniel Sturridge when it comes to injuries. Our fifth mid will be a sticking point. Perhaps some downgrades and adding another premium defender could be something we get behind. Our keeper situation is not resolved, some will come back and try and convince the rest that Premium keeper is the way to go or the Everton duo is better. Perhaps even a 4.5 with a 4.0 and invest the money elsewhere. We will post our official GW1 team much closer to the deadline once we come to a conclusion. But for now, tear this team apart!

If you wish to follow the teams progress more closely you can do so by clicking here.

Thanks for reading FF247 Fantasy Football Site Team

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PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
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FPL Pre-Season Info

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SET-PIECE TAKERS LIST
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FIXTURE TRACKER 2018/19

It’s been a busy summer already with Arsenal, Everton, West Ham and Chelsea appointing new managers, Manchester City adding to their already dominant squad, Man Utd continuing to splash the cash and Liverpool trying to protect Karius by beefing up their midfield. Spurs may even have a new home soon.

And FPL wise, this is the place to discuss strategy, learn about the promoted teams and their players while in the days and weeks to come we’ll have plenty of articles, interviews, player analysis, Bore Offs, Tips, etc, etc.

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