Fantasy Football FF247 Team Gameweek 4 WILDCARD!
Ok, so errrm, well, how do we put this, we have a small confession to make! We are on a WILDCARD! It wasn’t planned and it took us a bit by surprise to be honest but when we settled down around the boardroom table and took a look at our squad, or rather what was left of it after the international break had done it’s worst, there was a unanimous verdict and only one answer. And so ensued the usual mayhem. You think it’s difficult wrestling with yourself on these matters, but when it’s a committee decision it can get funny, ugly and surreal all in the space of a short hour. Anyway we are pleased to say that the majority of people came out alive. Some scarred for life, more mentally than physically we hope. We await the police and psychologists reports though. The end result is this. Our wildcard team…
Why a wildcard?
On the face of it we’ve actually had a pretty decent start to the campaign. We have 179 points and we are ranked in the top 1.5% overall. 46,529 in old money to be exact. So while we are fairly satisfied with that – well, we have had a few issues to say the least! We had Jovetic and Sturridge succumb to injury over the break which meant 2/3rd’s of our ace strike force were probably out which wasn’t a great start. We had Ramsey who looks like he or may miss out or is at least a minor doubt. We had Caulker who is away at Man Utd this week but also doesn’t look a great prospect going forward with QPR’s form so far. We had Dummett who lost his place last week. And to round it off we had El Ahmadi who disliked our team that much that he actually upped sticks and left the FPL altogether! That all seemed too much to attend to within the standardly accepted bracket of a -4 or -8 hit and so we hit the wildcard button with reckless abandon! It wasn’t reckless to be fair, it was well thought out and considered and we are not alone this week as many have done the same. Here’s what we landed on after much debate…
Goalkeepers
We wanted a pair of keepers who would rotate nicely with home and away fixtures, who had a fairly solid team in front of them and held a good chance of keeping some clean sheets along the way and who weren’t too expensive! Krul and Mannone fit all of the above and come in at £9.0m for the pair.
Defenders
Our first port of call when considering the defence was to see which teams had the best or more favourable run of fixtures in the short to medium term. Liverpool have a great run and we were uber impressed with Moreno last week and feel he will be good for more goals and likely to be chipping in with assists. Whether Liverpool can actually keep any clean sheets is another matter but surely their comedy defending from last season will be helped with the addition of two new full backs both of whom are fairly experienced. Southampton, Stoke and Swansea likewise have decent fixtures. Ideally we would probably have gone for Clyne and Pieters but our budget was a tad constrained which you can appreciate given our midfield and forward lines! So we are giving Southampton new boy Alderweireld a chance along with Wilson, who seems to have cemented a slot in the Stoke team and is a budget £4.5m as is Taylor of Swansea. Moore makes up the backline as Leicester haven’t got the worst run but obviously we hope he sits on our bench for the most part anyway!
Midfield
We had Ramsey. We like Ramsey. We agonised over Ramsey. We no longer have Ramsey. The reasoning was fairly simple in the end. He’s a doubt for the weekend but may play and we hope he does for those that have him but we decided to take the opportunity to give Angel Di Maria a run out or a trial if you like. He’s got QPR at home, will play for sure, he’s had an outstanding international break with three assists and a goal in that Germany game so he’s in form and he has a new look team around him. The positives outweighed the negatives for us and in reality if he stinks the place out he’s an easy switch back to Aaron. Sigurdsson needs no explanation, he’s going nowhere. Fabregas is a world class player playing for one of the best teams. He will get goals and assists all season and we envisage keeping him for the duration. Sterling is red hot at the moment and cannot be ignored especially with Liverpool’s favourable run of fixtures. We had £4.5m left for our 5th midfielder and in all honesty there’s not a great deal out there but we hope to never see whoever it is in our team anyway! Anyway, we went for King.
Forwards
To Aguero or not to Aguero, that was the question. We expected this to be a hard fought battle but the reality was that there was little resistance. He’s prolific, he’s almost fixture proof and you’d probably have no hesitation in captaining every week if there were no other more outstanding cadidates. Those were the reasons given and so Kun takes pride of place in our team. Costa was an easy one of course. He’s on fire, even when he’s definitely not playing! We will add a caveat to this though – he’s still not been confirmed as fully fit for the game and was having a training session this afternoon to ascertain whether he was or not. We suspect he’s fine but we will be keeping our eyes peeled and eyes to the ground this evening and in the morning for any news. The final piece of the jigsaw is Arsenal new boy Welbeck. This was one that possibly we could have sat and taken a view on, especially as Arsenal’s fixtures aren’t ideal but we felt that we would be transfering him in eventually anyway so in for a penny, in for a pound.
Captain
Now this was a close call. Aguero had many suitors but was narrowly ousted by Sterling. The fact that he’s in form and at home against Villa swayed it plus there’s a small chance he may be deployed even further forward in Sturridge’s absence. Even if he’s not we felt that he had as good a shout as any at getting in on the goals and assists this week and Liverpool looked like they may be hitting some serious form if last weeks demolition of Spurs is anything to go by and he will be central to that.
Sterling in for mata or Ramsey? And should I take a hit for chambers or just wait till next week to sort out the defence? Cheers
Couldn’t call it myself Duthers so won’t offer advice on it. If you do hold fire you could at least sort Chambers out now as I wouldn’t do it for a hit.
Calvin
Think I’m gonna get rid of mata, If sterling does score this week and mata doesn’t, I see sterling keep frogging him in value. I see Ramsey as I player for the long run, unless he gets seriously injured.
I had many of the same players till today, and had no idea when I woke up that I’d be WC’ing. I’d already invested in Costa in place of Rooney and thought that would be enough till I looked at the team news. But what with apparent injuries plus the likes of Chambers and Mata not making their teams I was looking at around 12 hit points just to be sure of fielding 11 players.
I’ve now played the WC and opted for a top-notch midfield (Gerrard-Sterling-Fabregas-Gylfi-Silva) with a solid defence led by Ivan, hoping that Pelle, Welbeck and Ulloa can do enough up front to justify my faith in them. I just don’t see the point of shelling out for a top striker who may be rested or dropped at any time – and I don’t think any of the top strikers will play every GW.
Gkw
A very “different” tactic to many fpl players. I can see where your coming from however, I hope the high risk of your team has high reward. Good luck 😉
Thanks Duthers. I wish you good luck as well – I’d see holding onto Mata is as big a risk as any, but it could bring rich rewards if he thrives in the new set-up.
Duthers
Surely Pieters will be in your starting team ahead of Rio?
GP
Yeah, meant to change that, cheers. What’s your team looking like this week?
Duthers
Here it is?
You see anything to change?
Gets the thumbs up from me. Hope that sterling captaincy works out
The change in my head just now is :
Janmaat and Boyd out for Keane (Burnley) and Zaha?
No way, GP! Boyd and Janmaat are potentially brilliant signings at their price levels.
GP
With Newcastle’s defence I would consider it, but with your front 3, I wouldn’t imagine you’d want to bench any of them, so playing zaha with that midfield isn’t possible, and in my opinions he’s too good to sit on your bench.
Gkw /duthers
Thanks guys. Good to hear. I may just stick.
Good point on the necessary benching of one of my front lot.
Is captaining Balotelli with Sterling and Moreno too dependent on one fixture? Thinking ADM for captain, thoughts?
Both are good options mate, your call. It is dependant on one fixture but you’ll be laughing if they win 4-0.
Haha ‘if’..
Feel like Liverpool will lose their edge if Rodgers benches Sterling but I reckon people are just inferring that from Rodgers saying he doesn’t want to burn him out.. Doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll bench him.
After the midweek game I am leaning towards ADM.
Well aren’t ‘ifs’ all this game boils down to in the end?
I thought people were going on the bib theory re. Sterling. Either way I have held off transferring him in for a hit in case.
Haha good point.. Who are you given the armband to?
Rooney – I’m not feeling confident.
+1 on this
Gallant,
So that would you captain Balotelli?
So would*
AT
I meant in relation to CC comment about both being good options and a 4-0 Liverpool score making you a genius!
Hi Guys,
Been on here a few times but never posted before. Wondering if i should play wildcard!! I am top of my mini league but only just and really wanted to find a differential to the rest of the teams i am up against. Currently prefer a 3-4-3 formation but would appreciate comments on this 3-5-2
Current team
ddg (krul)
Duff, Moreno, Van Aarnholt (Dummet,Caulker)
Siggy, Rambo, Sterling,Fab (king)
Costa,Wellbeck,Rooney
Wild card team (if i play it)
Mannone, (krul) Rotate
Van Aarnholt, janmaat, moreno,duff,clyne
di maria, sterling,fab,siggy,sanchez
Ulloa, welbeck, costa
Great midfield v weak front line!!!
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Personally wouldn’t. You have a team very similar to WC teams without activating it. Also WC on the morning will lead to rushed decisions. All the best.
+1, your current team is fine! And you don’t need differentials when you are out in front; let your rivals worry about that
Also a bit early to start worrying about them really, just try and bank as many points as you can early on.
Thanks Guys.
Good luck this week!!!!!
Am I mad for captaining Lallana? Looks like he’ll start, good differential and people love to score on their debut!
Yes haha but he is as good a candidate as any for a risk.
Hatter
That is a big risk mate. You must have stronger candidates?
Loads of them but they don’t satisfy the gambler in me!
Hatter
Fair enough
Lallana it is.
I think Krul will be a better pick than Mannone this GW. I prefer Balotelli over Aguero.
Only reason I wouldn’t back Krul is the fact that you have Clyne-you are therefore hoping for a 0-0 which I never like to bank on. Rest of the team is sound.
But Spurs is a decent attacking side. Keeping a cleansheet against them seems unlikely. New vs Sou 0-0 has a better probability I think.
Ramsey is fit and in the squad…will he start is the big question now?
Mr Bean – do you think he will play?