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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Hello all and sundry!
Can I get a RMT?
DDG, Jaku
Stones, Souare, McAuley, Amat, Parades
Hazard, Firmino, Payet, Townsend, Capoue
Kun, Vardy, Gray
Milk!
Think your defense is very thin mate… maybe downgrade a mid to help?
Else I like the rest
Brave to go without a United attacker though
Hey PeterPan!
Yeah defense is very weak, I just don’t know where to get the money from. I feel that midfield could produce big points.
Yeah, thing is, Manchester United could score 10 or 1. Who knows. It’s either Miki or Zlatan, but who do I replace then?
Milk,
Maybe Pogba? in for Payet?
Use the 1m to improve Parades to a 5m def? Maybe Williams or Morgan?
PeterPan
Pogba? He seems like a top player, but not much in terms of FPL points, yet. At least in my opinion!
Milk,
Alli?
PeterPan
You think Alli will have as successful a season?
Milk,
Dont see why not… basically plays behind Kane and they have decent fixtures.
Will be hungry to improve on last season
I think I finally have it… thoughts? Be brutal 😉
DDG
Souare Amat Stones
Redmond Townsend Firmino Hazard
Kun Ibra Gray
Jaku Walker Williams Fletcher
If Souare isnt fit can bring in Walker off the bench (or start him now above Amat?)
Williams is back GW2 so that is fine with me (They facing Spurs this GW so wouldnt start him anyway)
PeterPan:
Start Walker for me.
You happy with Redmond and Townsend, not one or the other?
Milk,
Can start Walker above Amat.
Unfortunatley budget will only allow that… what I have read is Redmond is playing high up and Townsend will hopefully keep his form from last season…
Could do Lamela and Kante in their places… but think R&T will do better
any thought mate
not too sure about stones, you have great attack, however your midfield is weak. I am not sure how this can sustain, but could work in your favour.
Draft number 100+
I think this is my final start up team. Alexis will play up front and is a bit of a differential at the moment.
Good to go?
Cheers
Yep, good to go @MagicchatMatt
Cheers Mito
Lots of tweaking and back and forth..
Thoughts of this team appreciated!
@Thufc, looks good, but if you want a bit of nitpicking, I would have worries over Kingsley and Nsue. Think they both start GW1, think Kingsley loses out to Taylor in the next week or two and Nsue will be in jeopardy of being dropped for Barragan once Ayala makes it back and Barragan can shift over to RB. Could be wrong on both, but if I were to gamble, I take Gibson or Friend from Boro over Nsue and probably gamble on Amat over Kingsley. Although Amat or Kingsley are both a gamble per say.
Cheers Mito!
1)Stones and redmond
2)deulofeu and souare/another 4.5 if he’s injured
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Thanks lads