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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Vote on our Captain Poll Now
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wazzalam, this one was supposed to be a Re: to your squad. Sorry.
I don’t understand what you’re saying about? Sorry, too!
Cause I didn’t post it as a RE:. More like sorry to the mods. Anyway… was way too early
Mods?!?! What, like Moderators?!
Cookie – Unconscious after a night of losing at the casino.
Init – Passed out after a cheeky midnight feast of mature cheddar and crackers.
Kop – out working the midnight shift filling pot holes on the Irish motorways.
Rich – Awake, but sitting there reading this frustrated because he can’t remember his password.
We’re safe. Post freely.
:hippo:
Ooops. Forgot about Mito.
Last I heard from him he was building a tunnel underneath the Mexico / US border. Not sure why he doesn’t just drive through customs.
So, you’re safe. Post freely.
I heard Trump is going to gather us and have Hillary shoot us if he wins. They have cells so they can keep us, customs is a trap. Sorry got to go back to digging…
Wassup motha crunchas?!
Good looking team there chaps. Almost identical to my current draft team. Not sure if that should worry you or me the most.
Booked myself the day off work tomorrow to tinker (NOT a euphemism) so I should be able to land on something decent. Plus build up some forearm muscle mass.
Anyway… Real reason I’m here annoying you all with waffle is to say that several of the regulars (and me) from the site play in a Fantasy NFL league. We have up to 3 spots open for the upcoming season. If anyone fancies giving it a try (and why the hell wouldn’t you?!) then send me an email.
We had a few newbies last season and they all really enjoyed it. It has a draft format which means no two teams in the league can have the same player. Loads of fun and banter, and at the end of it all, Mito wins. Anyway, if you’re interested please let me know.
Chins.
chinsandbellies@gmail.com
I am curious about your thoughts on a Non-Hazard Chelsea midfield option? Pedro, Fab, Willian, & Oscar are all at 7.5, somewhat surprisingly. Who is likely to start from that list? Oscar had the best production in preseason, but will he start? Some thoughts from anyone please! Thanks!
Evening Pancho. (Well you did invite thoughts from “anyone”)
Chelski mids other than Haz are going to a lottery until we have a few weeks under our belt.
Fab is probably the safest for game time but also the most likely to play deep. If he gets a spot in the 3 behind Costa then I’d go him over the rest.
I love Oscar and would say he’s your best bet if Fab lines up deep. My issue last season was that Jose was very hot and cold on him. Great one week. Benched the next.
William was more a fav with Jose cos he works so damn hard. I think he offers the least from a goals / assists perspective.
So… Given the risk until we see how they line up, I’d go Hazard.
You sir, are welcome.
Chins, much appreciated sir! I noticed you invite to NFL fantasy football. Feels funny for a Yankee like myself to be here in the Midwest and care so much about EPL without really giving 2 craps about the NFL :/
Yes, I take tons of crap from pretty much every guy I know
You’re welcome mate.
And not giving a crap about NFL might even put you at an advantage over some of our players.
Mito’s love of the way Cam Newton looks in his jock strap actually clouds his judgement.
Chins, well played. How much work is this Fantasy NFL business? Are we talking “20 minutes a week while sitting on the can” or “absent father status”?
@Pancho, the nfl fantasy sites are absolutely ridiculous in terms of stats, plus major networks do fantasy analysis and have podcasts. They take fantasy nfl very seriously ovah here. It’s really up to you though. You can listen to podcasts or read an article or two and you will be ok.
Good analysis and so ose tomy thinking the only 2 questions
Is vardy better than gray abd downgrade firmino
You dropped lesciter and Liverpool rotation with this big squad is headache
Also valencia good but i am concerned with darmian rotation so i got 1 keeper de gea with hull gk
What do you think
Valencia should be safe until he has a few stinkers, then he’ll become a problem when the 50 year old baby start milling rattlers around like the bellend he is.
Is Vardy better than Gray? Yup.
To be fair NIN, I’m pretty sure Cookie isn’t 50. Looks 50? Yes. But I’m pretty sure he’s 49 tops.
Oops my bad.
Nice team fellas, a job well done. Interesting picks with the cheap defenders I must say but, hey, who gives a monkeys about them for the most part. Hope the team smashes it this year and gets that coveted top 10K spot, or better of course. Let’s do this shit!!
Go team :green-flag:
Hi NIN.
Thought it only fair to tell you first… I’m running a book on a few fantasy bets this year.
I have the under/over set at 7 weeks for you to be the first to have a shower cry and declare you’re going to delete your team. Most bets on the under I suspect.
Is playing the wildcard counted in that or just total team deletion?
Nope. Needs to be full on shower crying, self loathing, suicide attempt and team deletion.
Nice gw selection. You know your stuff :thumbup:
Which mids in the 6.5-5.5 range aare worth considering other than Redmond?
Townsend, Feghouli, Shaqiri. There are probably more but I can’t think just now. I think Townsend is the best of the bunch but only time will tell.
Snodgrass looks good even though he plays for Hull