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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Januzaj loaned to Sunderland….
5,5m…
Could be worth it
Doubt it. He’ll probably play cb like everyone else.
hahaha Nin
Looking at Sunderland’s squad… surely he will start and play very attacking?
They dont have many other options
I don’t think he’ll play this weekend but after that I reckon he could be a steal
Well, he is a winger
Under the radar team
V low ownership for what they offer for team/player stats, at least gw2 onwards. Potential for rapid price increase if they do kick off.
oops
No I’m not fielding these, just illustrates what’s hiding
Nope, not for me other than Sanchez and maybe Masuaku
Manchester United’s world-record new signing Paul Pogba is suspended for his side’s first Premier League match of the season, the Football Association (FA) has confirmed.
Pogba, 23, returned to Old Trafford from Juventus this summer for £89.3 million, four years after leaving for Turin for just £800,000 following a lack of game time and a dispute over a new contract.
However, he will have to wait to make his second United debut as he is banned from appearing in the club’s first Premier League match of the new season at Bournemouth on Sunday.
The France midfielder is suspended due to the two bookings he received in last season’s Coppa Italia, the second of which came in the 1-0 victory over AC Milan in the final.
Crazy. Pogba >> Firminho then.
Unless any major news comes out this afternoon this should be my team. Please don’t suggest any United players as they wont be going anywhere near my team
So what do you think?
Looks alright I’d suggest 2 things though, I’d switch Souare to Evans/McAuley and also sell Chambers to anyone
Cheers Matt
No worries mate
Zlatan, Miki and Valencia. Do it.
Never!
Being biased in fantasy premier league will get you nowhere!
Anybody use the fantasy team app on iPhone? When I press on transfers, at the top of the pitch it says my wildcard is unavailable, is that normal or have I accidentally pressed wildcard at some point? -.-
More likely it’s just that it’s not available yet, which technically it isn’t.
The app won’t even download to my phone
I don’t see the need for it. Just use the normal search and the actual site adapts to your jammer. Grand job
I just wanted to see what it would be like but the download is just pending.
Unlucky pal. I think you’re right innit
Everyone is on a wildcard.
Guys, is it worth having Ozil from the start? It looks like he made it into the provisional squad for the Liverpool game, but may be used as a sub.
I dnt see anyone better than him at 9.5, maybe mahrez but he did have a quite pre season and who knows if he can keep his form up, is he still in pens?
I haven’t even considered Ozil so that’s a no from me. Mahrez all the way.
No I wouldn’t. Mahrez all the way