FPL Devil’s Advocate

Welcome to the first edition of Devil’s Advocate. I have asked popular site member/writer and overall good guy Smash if he would be willing to put his team up for me to try and poke holes in it. Naturally, he agreed, because being helpful on the site or in the background is who he is. A little about Smash fpl wise. Last season he finished 15K, he has been playing since the 06/07 season and has had 2 finishes inside 2K on top of a whole host of other good rankings.

Hopefully in this article his team will also address some of the concerns that you may have and I think that what will you find is that it is ok to be unsure. Being ready to adjust as the pre-season continues and paying close attention to little details are the makings of a strong fpl manager and our friend Smash is certainly that. Ok, enough of the pleasantries, let me sharpen my knife and see where I can try and carve up his team a bit. Let’s roll.

Team Smash

Keepers

Mito: Hello Newman Smash (in my best Seinfeld voice) I would say I am happy to see you, but I don’t want to play nice. Let us get right to it and start with your keepers, if that’s what you want to call them. So I see you have gone for Pope and Button or as I prefer to call them Nope and Nuttin. Button is a 4.0 so many will say he is just a filler, but wouldn’t he be a nicer filler to, say Ryan? Ryan goes down and you have a 4.0 starting keeper. Plus if Pope loses his job, you have no keeper and we all know how much we all hate wasting a transfer on a keeper. Heaton could leave, but he is still there and Hart has more pre-season minutes so far. Besides, fixtures favour Ryan over the first few weeks and seeing that many wildcard early, why not have the better fixtures early if one is to go the cheap route at keeper. There is also the argument of owning a more expensive keeper. Why not Allison or Ederson?

Smash: I don’t like an expensive keeper. I’d probably get a maximum of 6 points from Ederson. As for Allison I prefer the Liverpool defenders who are pretty much nailed and offer potential attacking returns. I like a 4.5 keeper as they will always pick up some save points even when they lose so yeah it might not be 6 points but could be 4. They often get the odd penalty save. As for my keeper picks I try and save as much money as possible here, I hate rotation as they can have a haul against anyone. I’ve chosen Pope as he’s favourite to be the number one. Burnley won’t have Europe this year so should be more solid again. History tells us they pick up save points as they defend pretty deep. Heaton is looking like leaving, but if it’s really not clear before the season starts and Heaton is still around, I’ll be forced to go with Ryan. I see Brighton really struggling this year as they will try to be more attacking. Though I don’t really care much about keepers as it’s pretty boring.

Mito: I play keeper. And by the way, Ederson had attacking returns last season!!

Defenders

Mito: I won’t take up much of your time debating Kelly as that is what it is, a 4.0 guy who might play early on. Only thing I will ask about him is if Tarkowski is sold, would you switch Kelly to Gibson?

Let us concentrate more on the other four. Are you not worried about tying up two LFC spots in your backline? And do you trust them to produce similar numbers this season? Z&Z… Think anyone would love these two options to play day in and day out, but owners would probably be hard pressed to feel confident about their minutes. I get that they are great value, but they are only great value if you are getting guaranteed minutes from them. Christensen/Rudiger and Angelino/Mendy are still in the background and in the case of Mendy and Rudiger is not like they are out injured for too long. You think Z&Z are still worth the gamble?

Smash: Well Maguire looks like he’s moving. Tarks is favourite to move to Leicester which means Gibson should become a regular. So yeah Kelly will become Gibson. Also keeping an eye on Rico and Lundstram for that position. No, I’m not worried about having two Liverpool defenders as I don’t want any of their attacking players except Salah. They present great value and are both very capable of providing attacking returns as well. It’s a settled team now, so there’s no evidence that this will make them less solid and they are both nailed on. TAA has a slight rotation worry, but he’s a year older now and his stats towards the end of last season were insane. The same can’t really be said for Zouma and Zinchenko, they are a concern. Zinchenko is a cheap route into the City backline. We will get an indication as to how the team line-ups before hand with the Community Shield which may help. He should start the season as he had the place last season. Angelino has looked pretty terrible so far and Pep when asked about him hinted he will have to learn how City play. As for Mendy he was fit towards the end of last season but still did not come in. He’s hardly played in the last two years and has missed another pre-season. It looks like Stones will start the season as well so I could go with him. Zouma is more of a risk, but could be great value as he’s only 5 million which is very cheap for Chelsea defensive coverage. Kante returning to his usual position should in theory make Chelsea more solid again this season. Rudiger is injured and my thinking is if Zouma wasn’t assured of minutes, he would move to Everton who want to buy him. Basically I’ll have to keep an eye on the last couple of friendlies.

Mids

Mito: Salah and Sterling eh, that’s a lot of money on two players, but they were the two highest scoring players so perhaps this is not the hill to die on arguing against them two. So will let you get away with them… for now. Perez seems a popular pick on the boards and I get it, but I did read Rosco’s article and he provided this nugget on Ayoze; “Before you all start whacking him in your GW1 draft, a note of caution, Pérez historically starts the season badly. Last season he scored just 2 of his 12 goals in game-weeks 1 to 19, the season before he scored just a solitary goal in the same period”. Considering that Rosco cares about the well being of our teams, why are you dismissing his warning? And how about the fact that they play Wolves, CFC, United, Spurs and Liverpool in five of the first eight? I like Perez, so I was being nice, but let’s move on the Argentinian. Why Pereyra? Are you still sad that you missed out on his early hauls last season? The man has not scored a goal or assisted since December in the PL and he will come back after mostly sitting on a bench in the Copa America (only played 46 minutes) and coming in late to Watford’s pre-season. Are you hoping he is saving up his minutes and goals for the first few Game-weeks on your team?

Smash: Salah and Sterling is pretty self explanatory. I’m surprised Salah is not owned by more. Sterling and Salah will probably be the two highest scorers in the game. I’m hoping their points will be enough to cover the other two midfielders I have. Perez has been signed to help Leicester score more goals, said Rodgers. 6.5 for someone who will be in the box a lot in a decent attacking team like Leicester presents great value. I never pay too much attention to stats at the start of the season as every season is different. Rafa probably had him playing LWB plus Newcastle had a pretty rough start last season. I also like the look of Tielemans. Yeah Leicester have a pretty tough start, but they are capable of beating anyone. I don’t really like Pereyra, I want Hudson-Odoi. If there is any indication he might be fit, CHO will be in straight away and I’ll be comfortable with that. My thoughts on why Pereyra though, is the fixtures really, with Brighton, Newcastle and West Ham in the opening four. Watford are a decent side and hoping he can find some form. Townsend is another option as he might need to step up if Zaha leaves, plus he has a decent opening. Basically Pereyra/Townsend are just a placeholder for Hudson-Odoi for whenever he is fit who will be a regular for Chelsea this season I expect. I also like the idea of having KDB instead of Pereyra and having someone else instead of Kane but I think that offers less flexibility.

Mito: Did you just try to use Brendan Rodgers to make a point? “My biggest mentor is myself because I’ve had to study and that’s been my biggest influence”. The guy who said that. I get that Rodgers likes his team going forward, but he did put out somewhat defensive sides against the top teams last season, that could mean Perez might come off the bench in many of those early games, but it is all speculation I guess. On Odoi, I will defer to you since you are a CFC fan. One question on Salah and Sterling though, are they set and forget or will their price tag make you a bit jumpy on the transfer button?

Smash: Kind of. Rodgers talked him up which is good enough for me. Perez might just drop slightly more deep when he plays against the big boys. He can play a number of positions and will be very tactically aware after playing under Rafa. Will he come off the bench in those games? I doubt it, but guess it’s possible. Tielemans is more nailed but is further away from the goal and Perez has missed the last couple of games. Chelsea have gone all out to keep Odoi and will be expecting big things. So much potential there and just 6 million. Salah is set and forget but I’m not so sure on Sterling. He comes in and out of my side as without him I can get more balance e.g I could have KDB and BSilva and 0.5 left over which also gets me rid of the Pereyra problem. It looks very pretty on the screen, but who will score more? I’m not sure, as it’s possible for City to score 6 with BSilva doing nothing, while you would expect Sterling to have a couple of goals. Will KDB be too deep and end up assisting the assister?

Mito: I ask the questions here!!

Forwards

Mito: So you feel comfortable with King’s minutes this pre-season and Solanke not stealing some of them once the season starts?

Most would not question Kane, well except those that believe in the curse, I will stay away from the curse, but will bring up some of my concerns. Many will say that he didn’t produce fpl points like other forwards because he played less minutes. Well Kun only played 34 more minutes than Kane last season and yet outscored him by 41 points, why is he not worth the extra 1.0? Laca and Wilson played 74 and 105 more minutes than Kane and outscored him by 6 and 8 points respectively and those guys are cheaper so considerably better value, to be fair to Kun so was he, based on last season. Even players like Vardy, Firmino and Deulofeu provided similar PP90 for less cost.

Smash: You know what I’m not too happy with King in my team. I own him more out of fear. Bournemouth have a decent opening and he’s cheap coverage. I can’t afford 8 million for Wilson in this current set up. Plus everyone will have at least one Bournemouth player. Promoted teams do tend to start seasons well so are the fixtures as easy as they look. As for minutes I’d expect him to get some in next few friendlies as he’s just been ill. I’d actually prefer Jota who is a much better player, but the opposite is true with him as Wolves have a heavy and pretty tough schedule with Europe. Ah yeah, Kane’s August curse zzzzzz I don’t buy into that. Kane would have had a full pre-season and a much needed rest and looks in better shape. He’s always there or thereabouts in the golden boot race and when Spurs score he’s always likely to be involved. Spurs have strengthened their midfield which should see Kane dropping deep less I think. Kane also takes a while to get going after injuries which will influence the stats you have presented. The reasons you have presented are why he’s dropped to 11 million, but it’s only one season and we know what he’s capable of. Wilson had a great season hence the big price increase, but can he repeat it at Bournemouth again, he’s also had plenty of average seasons. I like starting with Kane because of flexibility, he’s easy to move to Aguero or Auba throughout the season. I have toyed with starting both Jota and King, but if they both fail to perform are there enough alternatives in that price range?

Mito:I agree with you on Kane, but for the sake of this article, I think you are completely wrong!

Bench

Mito: I am all for putting money on the pitch and not on the bench, but considering some of the concerns we have talked about with some of your players are you completely comfortable with the bench you currently have?

Smash: FPL is about points on the pitch I always have the cheapest possible bench. I doubt I’d ever need all three bench players. I’m fine with Dendoncker coming in. Hence why it’s always been 4 in midfield for me as he’s ideal bench fodder. Kelly at least should start the season and cover if I have made any mistakes to start. The season hasn’t started and I still might get better options in. If Zouma, Perez or King don’t look like playing I’ll replace them. Zouma and Kelly could become two 4.5s which could be safer. King could be Jota. Pope could be Ryan. These are the concerns, well that and the 6 million mid, but we also get transfers so can always swap them out. Other than that the other players I think are nailed enough.

Mito: “FPL is about points on the pitch” wow, that sounded very Brendan Rodgeresque. 😉

In Conclusion

Mito: What are your thoughts on the 4 back and do you feel you will have the patience to stick if your defenders don’t deliver right away. Say mid price mids or forwards start off well, will you look to quickly shift your team to a back 3 or will you ride it out? Any chance of an early wildcard or do you prefer holding onto it for as long as possible?

Smash: It’s important to note there are two weeks left until the transfer market closes so stuff could change. I think there is plenty of value in defence this year and this is the first season I’m not going with three at the back. Will I stick to it, who knows, it’s important to be flexible in this game. Currently I’m not keen on the mid priced mids or forwards tbh and I don’t see lots of them producing. A defender can always be downgraded if a slightly more expensive midfielder shows themselves. I do usually hold onto the wildcard for too long, it’s definitely a weakness of mine. In conclusion; is having Salah, Kane and Sterling too much or am I getting away with it that’s the question I would be keen to hear thoughts from the site community, perhaps suggestions for potential improvements. Are the likes of Maddison or Zaha guaranteed to get more points than a 6.0 mid, is Digne more than Zouma, as examples. This is what, under my current set up, I’m sacrificing to have the big three! Is it possible to have a decent enough side with Salah, Kane and Sterling?

Mito: Socrates Smash…

Thanks for reading FPL Devil’s Advocate. This article was written by Mito21.

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