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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Wildcard version 1.
Think I prefer v1 but here’s v2 anyway. What do you think of both teams? (WC33,BB34,TC37)
EBC, i quite like the one with Sturridge in
It makes it quite hard to play 11 players in GW35 without taking a hit.
Is there any Sakho/Mignolet replacement you’d recommend that would give me the option of bringing Sturridge into team 1 at some point?
EBC, PvA maybe?
Full plan with future transfers v1
And v2
Butland going off injured.
Cheers DMC. This was never going to be an option for me given the make up of my squad, but you’ve made a good argument for it especially with the news of the Everton & Palace double.
Cheers Kop!
Only caught the last 30 minutes but England have been impressive tonight.
They’re going to win the Euro’s!
Same here. Tuned In on 55 mins and what a comeback. Vardy and Kane goals and very neet touches from Alli. I wonder if that will affect many 33/34 plans. Kane, Alli and Mahrez are keepers for me and will need to think this over on Vardy.
I’ll probably hang onto Kane & Mahrez and flog the rest. I’d rather regret selling them than regret not selling them! If that makes sense?
Sort of 😉
That’s ok so
Kop – who will come back into that team and why should they? There is a good balance in that team. Rooney simply should not be first team – but will he be?
I’d agree with you on Rooney but he will definitely start the first game, assuming he’s fit.
Kop – instead of Kane you reckon?
Certainly not. Kane has to be one of the first names on the team sheet. From that starting XI I’d expect him to start in place of Welbeck.
Be criminal if he did, you need to earn that spot and he hasn’t this season, Kane and Vardy certainly have.
Roy doesn’t have the balls to drop Rooney.
No he doesn’t unfortunately.
In fairness to Roy and I can’t stand the bloke, I can’t think of any English manager from the past who if they were in this situation would drop Rooney.
Different system though then in one sense. Welbeck is a bit of a striker and a bit of a winger.
What’s Roy done to you Kop?! Seems like an amiable enough fellow.
Paul Konchesky!
When funds are poor, buy …. shite players
I can think of a few that would have dropped him Kop.Terry Venables for one ! We actually have a bit of depth in a lot of positions at the mo and it’s great to see so many young players.But your right Hodgson will bring Rooney straight back in even though he is surplus to requirements now :noshake:
Putting the fact that England have just won the Euros to the side, what are peoples thoughts on Gabriel and Welbeck for GW34? Think they’ll both be high risk / high reward selections. I’m going to go with Gabriel but don’t know if its worth losing Vardy for Welbeck? (Keeping Mahrez regardless).
Rambo I’m tempted to get Welbeck and it would be in place of Vardy.
Rambo , I’d lose Vardy in a heart beat
Leicester don’t look like hammering anyone right now so that could be worth the punt. Depends on your ML situation a little bit too though in realation to what / who they have in chips / players.
Hey Rambo, I had Gabriel in an early draft but decided Mert returning slowly from injury could mean Gab doesn’t play so decided Monreal was safer and cheaper than Bellerin. Im going for Welbeck though as I think the potential returns for him from 34 till the end of the season could be great and Vardy hasn’t been hitting the back of the net in PL.
Thanks for all the thoughts lads!! Slowly edging towards Danny, especially with Mahrez cover. Cheers!