Playing the WC prior to DGW37
– Your Honour, the Plaintiff would like to change their plea!
– We’re on final allegations, counsel.
– The Plaintiff is well aware of that, but new evidence has just arrived.
– And what’s that?
– Well respectfully your Honour, another double game week has just been announced!
– Which are the teams involved?
– Everton and Crystal Palace your Honour.
– Humm … well, reluctantly, I’ll allow it.
Well, well, another DGW! Just the two teams involved but a DGW nonetheless. So, they still blank on GW35 but hey they play 4 times in two consecutive gws. Can’t ask for much more really and this surely dismisses any plans for a hypothetical WC36/BB37. Or does it?
Well, it does, in all honesty, but let’s give it a go for the sake of it.
Strategies regarding early WC (that is on GW32) or WC33/BB34 have been well documented and what they show is that you either play 15 doublers to take full advantage of the WC/BB or you mix it up a bit in order to keep a few big points hitters such as Mahrez, Kane, Alli and of course that man Vardy. Both options are valid ones but the former offers of course a bigger risk given that those with 15 doublers will be facing the last 6 GWs without several FPL key players.
My initial approach to this was that of building a decent enough DGW34 team with free transfers and play the BB on that DGW but keeping key players with a single game AND keeping my WC for DGW37. The reasoning behind this strategy is that I don’t think GW34 offers great fixtures for the teams with two games, except Arsenal and of course Man Utd, but they blank on GW35, which would lead me to deplete my squad on GW33 which I see as too early if compared to the (slim) returns I expect GW34 to produce.
Now, I’m leading my ML here and with a 40 points cushion, so maybe I can ‘afford’ to not go all in on DGW34 and save the WC for 37. If my opponents endure the WC33/BB34 path they will surely outscore me on GW34, but maybe not in GW33 and surely not enough to actually take the lead; and then I’ll still have my WC to deploy on 37.
And while Everton’s and Palace’s DGW33 must be considered, one can’t also overlook Arsenal’s TC potential in DGW34 which can’t be met by any of the DGW37 teams/players. All in all I still think this could be the best way to go for managers in this situation. Much depends of each manager’s situation and there are no right or wrong approaches here. Well, there are, but we’ll only know that comewhat May. Literally!
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Let’s see, then, what does WC36/BB37 offer in terms of players/teams who could score big.
Firstly, we need to know which teams have a double and they are West Ham, Man Utd, Norwich, Watford, Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Chelsea:
One thing that springs to mind is that out of those 8 teams 4 have two home games (Liverpool, Norwich, Sunderland and WestHam) and the other 4 have two away games.
None of the combos is too appealing but maybe West Ham and Liverpool should be favoured here, with Chelsea and Everton also looking good on the attacking front.
Before we enter in any player discussions we need to also assess these teams fixture in GW36 and GW38 given it’s likely we’ll need to use most of them in all those gws:
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Let’s look at these fixtures closely.
West Ham: Good double home fixtures for GW37 with the Swans and Man Utd and in deed decent away games at West Brom (36) and Stoke (38).
Man Utd: Difficult home game in 36 with Leicester, good away game at Norwich for the first game in 37, not so good second 37 game at West Ham and a great final fixture at home to Bournemouth.
Liverpool: Decent enough double home fixtures for GW37 with struggling Watford and Chelsea and decent away games at Swansea (36) and West Brom (38).
Chelsea: Tough home games actually in 36 and 38 with Spurs and Leicester respectively and not the easiest of fixtures in DGW37 itself.
Everton: Excellent home games to Norwich on 36 and Bournemouth on 38 sandwiched with not that good away games at Leicester and Sunderland in gw37 itself.
Watford: As good as it gets for 36 at home to Villa and a half decent game at Sunderland on 38 sandwiched with one tough away game at Liverpool and a decent enough away game at Norwich for DGW37.
Norwich: It’s Norwich, enough said. Oh, and they face Arsenal (away, 36), Man Utd (37) and Everton (away, 38) in the process.
Sunderland: It’s Sunderland, enough said. Ok, not as bad as Norwich given that their 36 and 38 games are against lesser opposition but still Stoke and Watford away don’t offer much.
So, how does that leave us? It leaves us no doubt with going for WC33BB34 I hear? Well, that’s seems sensible enough surely. Then again, if you didn’t chase that with these final games in mind you could do worse with the following:
3 from West Ham, 3 from Liverpool, 3 from Everton, 1 Man Utd, 1 Chelsea, 1 Watford and keep your 3 Arsenal that you’re carrying because they face Villa and Norwich at home in their last 3!
Here’s an example of your team could look like with a late wildcard:
That’s all folks.
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Big thanks to DMC – you defo got the hospital pass here, but brilliantly covered mate.
That wasn’t the only hospital pass received today but that’s another story! #oops
Brilliant effort there DMC and many thanks, you make a good case for it but I rather suspect this will be the least popular method now.
Cheers Init yeah it’s tuff to argue for 37. ‘Challenge accepted’ and all that. Could work for some though.
Ehe Thx cookie bring it on!
Cheers for this DMC, if I had a few more doublers for 33 and 34 I’d be considering it! Just reposting a question that missed this new article: what are people’s thoughts on Lukaku TC in GW33? Would mean using WC now, a week earlier than planned but that might have its merits. BB in 34, then just get doublers in for 37 as I won’t have any chips left
TT, he could well be a good option in 33 mate. Those of us still with TC are going to have to bite the bullet at some point and pull the trigger.
I’ve got a plan, one which only Pancho may appreciate (I can’t use Arsenal players). The abbreviated plan is:
GW34 GW35 DGW37
Adrian X 2
Mignolet Y 2
Rojo N 1 Azpi35
Sakho Y 2 !!32 Fabregas-Willian/Sigurdsson
Cress X 2
Mangala Y 1 Ota?
Funes N 2 Wijnaldum Y 1 33Willian Back in35
Mahrez Y 1
Firmino Y 2 Cout33?Antonio?Lanzini?37
Payet X 2
Barkley X 2
GW35=8+2FT 2 Chel Azpi, Will, Costa? for New in 35 1Hit
GW33=13+Barkley and Lukaku dgws
Aguero? Y 1 36 Ighalo?
Kane Y 1
Lukaku X 2
Kane
4FT from gw34-37=GW37=12DGWers +TC=Payet, Costa, or Lukaku
I reckon its a plan only Pancho will understand as well
Cookie,
Fair call. I tried to copy my plan from my “manager” option on the Fl transfer page. Many thanks to whoever pointed out this option, as it has, all appearance to the contrary, cleaned up my scheming immensely. Problem is, they limit stuff to 1000 characters. Unfortunately, the end of the season takes volumes.
The plan is basically WC33/BB34, and I’ve tried to track implications for 35 and TC37 (as well as 33, with Everton in).
A (much) simpler schematization may be:
GW33 Picks Active in 33/34 Available in GW35 Available in DGW37
Adrian No 2 Games
Mignolet Yes 2 Games
Rojo No 2 Games Azpilcueta in on FT34/35
Sakho Yes 2 Games
Cresswell No 2 Games
Mangala/Otamendi Yes 1 Game
Funes Mori No 2 Games
Wijnaldum Yes 2 Games Willian in on FT34/35
Mahrez Yes 1 Game (He and Kane stay)
Firmino/Coutinho Yes 2 Games
Payet No 2 Games
Barkley No 2 Games
Aguero Yes 2 Games Costa on FT36/37
Kane Yes 1 Game
Lukaku No 1 Hit Costa? 2 Games Lukaku on FT36/37
GW33=13+Barkley and Lukaku 2 games
GW34=13DGWers+Mahrez and Kane on BB
GW35=8+2FT=10 Players Take 1 Hit for Chelsea Costa for Lukaku?
GW37=11+ 2FT from gw36-37=11DGWers +TC=Probably Payet
Hope this makes more sense.
Cookie,
Forget it. I can’t copy my “Manager Notes”. Needless to say, they’re brilliant, or at least clever enough to stage a league comeback of some proportions. My thanks for all the back-and-forth banter and options to prepare for a very complicated end to the season.
Ki, i think i’ve got it. Sort of!
I was trying to work out how you could afford all that, then realised there is no Arsenal. Which if course you said at the very start
Cookie,
Thanks for giving it a go. Yes, I don’t need to consider Sanchez, or his other expensive teammates. I have also built up a fair amount of cash (108.4) with some longterm Leicester and Spurs gambles-for once, they’re paying off.
I have 0.2m ITB and 1 FT left. Planning to bring
1.cresswell in place of toby this gw and bringing
2.lennon and lukaku for kane and antonio next gw
Any suggestion regarding my transfer plan, team, starting cap and XI would be very much appreciated
This moves are good mate and can’t see anything wrong with them.
Yes agreed, good moves. I do have reservations about Lukaku’s minutes in the second DGW though with the semi-final in mind. Really no reason why you shouldn’t bring him in for the first at least though.
who should be my 3rd FWD for gw 34 ??
I’ll probably have Welbeck, Sturridge or even Ighalo myself, depends on your funds really and who’s fit when we get there. Good chance the first two won’t be!
I’ll have Welbeck mate and I hope Init is wrong and he won’t be injured but Ighalo could be a good punt as well.
Afternoon Gents, just a few quick questions.
1. Any Norwich fans out there to give me some advice over Martin or Klose in defence?
2. Who’s the best to TC in 37? Payet?
3. Or is there a better time to play the chip?
4. For this week how does Kompany to Azpi sound before my WC?
Transfer looks good Matt. Yes I’d say 37 for that one with him firmly in mind. Either that or Kun in 34 but depends on your other chip plans.
Cheers Init. I’ll be playing BB in 34 so that’s the TC out the window. I was also thinking of Ozil/Welbeck against Villa in 38 but I think that’s too far away.
Do you have any idea on Norwich defenders I can’t really find anything useful haha
I’m sorry Matt, Norwich defenders are not exactly my area of expertise! I don’t think I’ve ever even owned one. All I could tell you is the minutes played for each but you can see that for yourself. Whether there have been players out who will soon return and change things I really don’t know.
Yeah same here Init I remember a few seasons ago I had Bassong for most of the season but that was it. This season I haven’t touched them except for Redmond for about 2 weeks at the start of the season. I think there may be Ryan Bennett to come back but I’m not sure if he’d be a problem. Guess I’ll just have to keep asking till I find a Norwich fan (could be looking a while!!)
Matt – not a Norwich fan but expect both to be first choice.
2. Too far away but maybe
3. no
4. Depends on rest of team
Cheers Dreamers, I think I’ll keep an eye on their GW32 game and see which one gets forward more.
As for the other questions cheers foryour thoughts mate.
Lukuka talking about leaving Everton…not going to help the DGW!?
His stupid agents been talking about leaving since the second he got here, I don’t think it has any immediate impact on FPL matters. He’s away for international duty and they always start this nonsense when they’re away and doing ‘local’ interviews. I think they forget about the internet sometimes and think it’ll just get reported over there!