FF247 Site Team Game-week 1 FPL Tips
Welcome to the FF247 Site Team Game-week 1 article.
A blank page. A clean slate. A slab upon which to paint fantasy football glory. 15 slots to fill with the finest at our disposal. This should be easy then. Last seasons heroes go in first – Vardy, Payet, Kane, Bellerin, Cech, Ozil and Toby. Add in the best of the new arrivals and transfers- Ibra, Pogba, Feghouli, Miki, Stones, Redmond, Valdes and Mane and we should be good to go, yeah? Dead easy. Oh hang on, what do you mean there’s a budget? And a formation, you say? Back to the drawing board then… and the reality that you can realistically only have a small handful of the aforementioned stars. And the skill is not only in picking which of those to take but also in finding the bargain ones who will produce consistently to augment the top boys. That’s the journey on which we all set out on right now.
What we will do over the next 38 weeks is publish that journey, step by step, blow by blow. Now for those of you who have followed us before you will know that by ‘blow by blow’, we sometimes mean that literally. It’s a committee. And we vote on the decisions each week. It’s not a very civilised committee at times, but it’s a committee. Democracy in it’s purest and most volatile form, basically. And that’s just when we have one transfer decision to make, this week we had 15….
Who picks the team?
Just to fill you in on the details a bit, the committee is made up of five very experienced fantasy football managers. They have all had some some degree of success in FPL, as well as other fantasy football games in their own right. None of them purport to be fantasy experts by any means but all have an in-depth knowledge of the Premier League. This is despite four of them not actually residing in the UK! One of them does, but one is in Ireland, one is in Monaco, one is in America and the other is from Cloud Cuckoo Land. An eclectic mix. You can probably guess who at least four of those are!
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Onto the team itself…
This wasn’t actually as painful as we expected it might be. Probably because we realise we are all just p*ssing in the wind a bit, at this point. What do we have to go on really, info wise? A bit of pre-season, some past reputations and hope and gut feeling. Do you pick Townsend or Lamela, as one example? Who really knows. As such we’ve picked a team which we feel covers the main bases –
The key decisions –
Forwards
Aguero – must have, end of. Pep’s teams tend to be exciting and produce goals. He’s at the sharp end of that point. For us it’s not a case of whether to, it’s a case of Aguero +14 others.
Ibrahimovic – To Ibra or not probably influences most fantasy team set-ups this summer. He’s pricey but is he worth it? We’ve decided to err on the side of caution. He usually delivers. If for some reason he flops then it’s much easier to exit that strategy than it is the other way around.
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Midfield – We feel Hazard may be about to be on fire again. He looked back to his usual self in the Euro’s and has had a decent enough pre-season. We can’t figure out the slump last season. He seems to have literally just switched himself off and then on again. Maybe it was just a gap year. Maybe it was Windows 10. Either way he’s in.
Firmino makes the team on the basis that a Liverpool inspired Klopp side will be attack minded and he is absolutely key to that. His inclusion somewhat ignores any fixture bias as they don’t have the best start on paper but they do also have a decent pedigree against the ‘better’ teams.
Lamela is probably our punt here. Hopefully he can kick on and be a bit of an under the radar star. His pre-season form certainly suggests potential.
We have high hopes for Redmond. That’s it really, we have high hopes for him! He’s been deployed in very attacking roles in pre-season and has produced so far. Let’s see if that can translate into actual FPL points.
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Defence
We have tried to mix a couple of ‘assist-meisters’ with a bunch of other cheapies who rotate well in terms of fixtures. It’s not an ‘ideal’ defence by any means, probably more functional than anything. We could improve it by losing a midfielder but this is what we went with.
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Keepers
This was probably the only decision which was contested with any vigour. Ultimately we decided to go with a couple who tick the two boxes of rotation and cheapness.
Here’s our team in full. If any surprises pop up in the press conferences tomorrow then we will of course alter accordingly. We shall be sure to post in the comments if this happens though.
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If anyone is interested in following the site teams progress then you can do so here
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Thanks for reading FF247 Site Team Game-week 1 FPL Tips
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Just remembered we put Lamela in for Townsend at the end.
I just tweeted and said on here why I prefer Townsend. I wonder why I didn’t contest that, oh well.
Congrats Rich, I think
To be fair I let that one pass as well having just said the same. Guess what’s gonna happen next 😉
I know
Hi lads.
Can someone walk me through the Hojbjerg choice?
Looks to be a budget pick at 4.5 mate, if it’s the same hojbjerg as the one from the under 21s last summer he was a little bit of an assist machine and he’s decent from set plays, I’m not sure just how nailed he is at Southampton yet but it could be a decent punt, I’ve nothing to do with that team by the way.
Exactly what Andy said Makeya. Game isn’t exactly awash with 4.5m mids and he seems as good as any. We hope not to have to use him anytime soon anyway.
Do you think about Negredo?
I don’t think Negredo’s a bad option. I think more people will be on Gray which is why I’ve gone with him but either could do alright.
Might be worth considering downgrading Boruc – if you have De Gea you’ll probably start him eveyweek and you can use the money elsewhere
I can see Negredo doing well this season, just not sure how fast he will settle. Might take him a few games to get going.
I agree with Dave, downgrading Boroc to the Hull keeper would give you some extra $ to upgrade Zaha to Townsend. Besides that, solid team!
De Gea (Jakupovic)
Walker, Coleman, Pieters (Nsue, Souare)
Hazard, Eriksen, Redmond, Bolasie (Capoue)
Aguero,Ibra, Gray
Can someone please RMT?
Worried Bolasie –> Everton and then less game time. Or this is what I hear, so I had him out and downgraded Eriksen –> Lamela because pre-seasons been good.
Love that team Dave.
I’ve not seen any Everton in pre season to say whether or not Coleman can find the form of a few years back. Is there a cheaper Everton option for the good fixtures and spend the money upgrading Bolasie or Redmond?
I’ve been tinkering a bit since @ohyesali mentioned that Bolaisie is out. I think I might wait a bit on Coleman too, might be best to see how they are playing this season before bringing someone in.
Team now looks like
Lloris, Jakupovic
Shaw, Pieters, Souare, Nsue, McAuley
Hazard, Firminio, Lamela, Redmond, Capoue
Aguero, Ibra, Hazard
Really I’d rather have Eriksen than Lamela, but not sure what else to do with the other two mid spots (Firminio and Redmond) to be able to get him in
Any thoughts?
Hazard as a striker? Interesting.
😉
oops, meant Gray. Although it would be nice to have two Hazards
I like this team more to start off with Dave.
Dave, it’s really hard to fit Eriksen/Alli/Kane in. I’d also rather have one of them, but I think Lamela could surprise people this season. As a Spurs fan I’m excited because he finally looks worthy of the price we paid!
1, or 2? Consider schedule.
Thanks in advance!
Magnum, I posted this on the other chat.
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Magnum, I think Redmond could score as well as Tadic because it seems as though Puel likes him as a second forward. I’d save the 1.5 and go Redmond.l, but I’d go with Terry or Walker instead of VVD in that 5.5m defender spot.
Or you could go crazy and do the Redmond plan with Souare and keepers -> Stones, Lloris & Jaku. Get tin’ crazy here!
Negredo is also my 6,5 m stricker choice, but I finally went to Wickham in order to free up 0,5 m.
Why have a 4,5 m keeper as back-up? If you downgrade, you can use that 0,5 m to boost up that midfield. Zaha or Ramirez to Redmond maybe?
I see that Valencia is a popular choice lately as a cover in the MU deffence, but I just don’t see him being a regular throughout the whole season. Darmian should step in. I have went with Shaw personally and if he brings back the pre-injury form, I feel that his assist potential is higher, considering that Martial is playing on the left.
Xaco … I also don’t see Valencia being a main stay in the defence, but with his pre-season form, fixtures and Mourinho wanting to get off to a good start I see him being picked for the 1st few comfortable games. Once Man U take a serious loss or Valencia makes a serious mistake he’ll bring down the hammer and be out and return to a strong foundation (my thoughts anyway). But my initial plan is to WC after GW3 to catch increases and the international break so I can assess clearly at this time.
That’s why I’ve got him anyway
If you plan on an early WC card, then it’s fine. Why start with Barkley then though? Opening fixtures are tough.