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.
WC? Thoughts? Sanchez is a gut pick
Yoshida’s place in the Saints back four will no doubt be under serious threat now that they’ve signed Alderweild and Gardos has recovered from his injury, can see him spending a lot more time on the bench, I’d look at other alternatives to rotate with either Mcshane or Taylor.
Racko
I would much prefer Fabregas to Sanchez and what Andy says above is also true
Thanks, I have fab and Sanchez!
In fact Mcshane may also be a risky pick from Hull as well with Chester returning from suspension as I can’t see Dawson and Davies being benched to often.
Okay thanks for heads up! Who do you suggest at 4.6?
Martin Kelly of Crystal Palace might be a good shout as they have both Leicester and Burnley at home in 2 out of their next 3 games.
+1 on this.
Downgrade Sanchez to Dyer, and upgrade your third striker to Welbeck maybe?
Morning guys! Should I go ahead with this plan? This week: Jovetic >> Welbeck, Ramsey >> Di Maria. Next week: Rooney >> Aguero, Terry >> Clyne?
Veer,
I would just do the Jovetic – Welbeck move this week and then review it again next week and see if anything else becomes clearer for you.
why not the ramsey – ADM one? I think I really should have him for the same reason as the FF247 team: “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.'”
Veer
Yeah I read that but the difference is that the FF247 team is on WC and it won’t cost them -4 points.
Ramsey may well play today and do well – even if he doesn’t it is a minor injury and he is still a great long-term prospect. I still think you can put out a good side this weekend with ADM but it is your call as to whether you need him.
Yeah, I agree about the -4 thing. Do you think Ramsey’s better long term than ADM? And is it worth it to have 2 arsenal attacking players and none from Manu? Hmm, this’ll probably go right to the deadline 😉
Veer
Difficult to say but ADM could go on to have a fantastic debut season. Ramsey I think will also have a fantastic season again. Ideally I like to spread my risk so I would advise one from both Arsenal and Man Utd.
yeah i think so too. I’ll do the transfer in a couple of hours. Cheers!
Veer
I didn’t necessarily mean for you to do it this week but I meant generally, I will try to cover all the main teams.
Anyway, if you go for the hit, good luck. Hope ADM scores big for you (also because I have him too!)
I know, I just think he’ll outscore Ramsey even if he plays, plus its probably better long term
Veer, your mid/forwards are very similar to mine and your transfers are very similar to what I have planned. For what its worth i’ve just done the same as your talking; Jov/Ramsey to Welbeck/ADM. And I am planning on Augero over the next few weeks! I fully understand where GP is coming from but my gut says this is the correct decision and id rather get wrong going with my gut than not! Good luck either way
Who should I captain?
1.sterling:Was set for the armband before I heard some gossips about him being rested.
2.costa:Not sure if he’ll start or get full 90 mins.
3. Rooney:Could do well against qpr and is nailed on to start but United’s poor form concerns me.
Any suggestions appreciated.
KP
I’m going for Sterling and I’m unmoved by these suggestions of rotation. If it happens, it happens but I don’t think it will especially with Daniel Sturridge missing. It could be argued that more may be expected of Sterling now because of Sturridge’s injury.
If you want to have zero worry about it for the rest of the morning, go with Rooney as he is the most likely to get guaranteed 90 mins.
Ramsey and Falcao or Di Maria and Rooney? On wild card
I’d stick with old man rooney
How’s my team looking? Also, who should I captain?
Fish,
Looks good. Good captain.
I like Dezeko in the team. Could be a great pick
Solid team IMO…dimaria is quite a punt with so many attacking, shall I say potentially attacking, players at ManU…best wishes
I was thinking of getting on The Welbeck bandwagon, but then I though……this is Welbeck!
Sure he has moved to a new team, but I’m not sure he will get much of a game. I can see Ozil playing central and Sanchez up front and in a few weeks Walcott will be back. Gunners have City this week,AVL then spurs and Chelsea, not a good run of games.
Setback isn’t that cheap, 7.0 is not a barging.
bundeena
For an Arsenal striker, 6.9M (as I got him) is very reasonable. I have good back-up in case he doesn’t play so I’m not worried. One thing, the man begins his Arsenal career in great confidence after his two goals for England.
I tend to listen to the ex-pros as most of the time as they (generally) know a player and a good piece of business when its done. I mean Gary Neville saying £16M is a brilliant price for the calibre of player and Alan Shearer commenting that he could get 20 goals if he is played centrally.
We only need to convince Arsene to use him now
let’s hope Arsene doesnt keep faith in Sanogo 😉
Lol Veer morning mate! Keep faith?? You have to achieve or believe in something to have faith in it!! 😉