Value for money and points for free…
“Play air guitar with MTV
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way to do it,
Points for nothing & chics for free.
I want my, I want my, I want my FPL.”
No, I can’t do anything about partners for free, we ‘re talking someone who can’t score in a house of ill repute the night after winning the lottery here.
But through many Sunday mornings of a sore head from trying to work out how 3 pints and a poppadom with the lads cost me £70 I am now well equipped to advise on spending a bare minimum, even if it does severely limit your social life; but hey this is FPL not Love Island.
The way fpl bumps up the price of every player who remembered to tie his laces before going on the pitch means our wonderful polished end of season teams would now cost well over £110m.
Last season I was in Dire Straits spending weeks poring over reports of pre season versus the likes of Hicksville Galaxy and DownUnderChunder FC for who would be coming out the gates hot and who not. Yeh that’s right, I guessed, crossed my fingers, then despairingly Wildcarded in GW2.
Needing to squeeze £10m+ out of a team is not going to be easy, so knowing who was a banker & who was a late season luxury could be a vital guide.
To do this I used points per game rather than total points on the basis we transfer out players if they are injured or not getting in the team. We need players who were scoring at least 4 points per game each and to be averaging over 5ppg across the team to get a good OR. This is looking for the core of a squad, so bench fillers and rotators are not in consideration, hence I set a base of 4 points per game to consider. If they aren’t listed below, they weren’t a 4 pointer, and don’t get looked at.
To give a ‘valuation price’ for each player a base value of £5.5m for 4points per game, with an increase of £2m for each extra point per game gives a good comparison to actual cost.
What we are looking for are players whose actual price comes in lower than this valuation or at least not much over, to get as much ‘valuation’ over our £100m budget as we can.
Players priced well over the valuation need to have some compelling reason they will seriously out perform next season to be chosen otherwise we are overpaying for points on one player that will cost us heavily elsewhere..
All initial prices given are their points per game valuation in millions –
Forwards
Kane £12.5
Jesus £11
Lukaku £9.5
Aguero £8.5
Vardy £7
Firminho,Defoe,Llorente £6.5
Austin £6,
Ayew, Giroud £5.5
Taking away those overvalued by more than £1m, & showing actual price leaves only four -:
Kane £12.5,Jesus £10.5,Austin £6.5,Ayew £5.0
Kane & Jesus have high points per game and their valuations are equal or less than actual price so they are definitely the best choice here, I need to balance that cost with a cheap but still 4 pointer and so select Ayew at £5. Their total actual cost £28m. Added value in points per game +£1.0m
Midfield
Sánchez £11
Hazard £10
Eriksen, Alli £9.5
Mane £9
Coutinho, DeBruyne £8.5
Son, Ozil, Stanislas £7.5
Siggy £7
Pedro, Sterling, Lallana, Antonio £6.5
Zaha, Walcott, Phillips, Fabregas £6
Wijnaldum, Mata, Barkley £5.5
Some are heavily overpriced but there is quite a bit more value to be found here.
More of a problem is that if you take the luxury of Sanchez then its a hard squeeze to find any value with the cash left.
At actual price without £1m overprice are-:
Sanchez £12, Hazard £10.5, Eriksen, Alli, Mané £9.5, Coutinho £9, Sané £8.5, Son £8,Ayew, Fabregas £7, Stanislas, Phillips £6
With Hazard initially injured I chose to have mid/fwd value mix from top 5 teams and go
Eriksen, Mane, Fabregas, Stanislas 4.5m. Total cost £38 . value from points per game +£1.5
Defence
Alonso £9m
Cahill, Rose, Milner £7m
Azpi, Ake, Bertrand £6.5m
Valencia, Walker, Trippier, Bailly £6m
Baines, Daniels, Luiz, Aldo £5.5m
Better value here, with none overpriced. Though only one at the value 7.5+ that we really need to be hitting top OR.
Alonso at actual £7.0 is simply a must have. After that I have to select mainly on not overspending but still gaining value in points per game.
I chose Ake £5.0, Bertrand £5.5, Trippier £5.5 and a 4.0 for actual cost – £26m Added value in points per game +£5.0m
To justify this I’m classing Alonso as a MID and having 4-4-2 as my initial default base line-up.
The players in midfield below 7 (actual price) of good value are too few to choose over having Alonso + 3 good defenders.
(This likely changes some weeks in when one or two of the cheap MIDs turn out to be gold dust)
Goalkeepers
Heaton,Lloris £6m, Adrian,Butland £5.5m
Given the initial fixtures, I am plumping Hart £4.5 (actual cost) & a 4.0 for £8.5m Added value in points per game +£1.0m
My Final Team
Based upon the above information my team looks like this, so far…
Hart, (A 4.0)
Alonso, Trippier, Bertrand, Ake (A 4.0)
Mane, Eriksen, Fabregas, Stanislas (A 4.5)
Kane, Jesus (Ayew)
Team actual spend £99m, Added value in points per game +£9.5m.
This means I should be getting 5 points extra every game week than if I wasn’t using this method.
Over the season that’s about 200 points for nothing, but no chics 
It’s going to be tighter than a gnats chuff, & the big call for now looks to be Kane &/or Sanchez.
Thanks for reading Value for money and points for free…. This article was written by Takasaki Tiger
The Fixture Tracker…
Some thoughts would would be greatly appreciated gents
Strong team Nishant.You could downgrade De bruyne who I personally feel is not worth the price tag.Get Eriksen for him and maybe upgrade one bench player
Cheers mate. KDB is the only route to Man City. Not too keen on getting Kun/Jesus in at the start of the season
Nice balance, but not too sure re shelvey. Too unpredictable for me.
Cheers mate
appreciate your thoughts
He’s good on his day, but you know he’s gonna get suspended for something stupid at some point.
Haha.
Joe Allen then?
I’d favour Allen. He’s steady if unspectacular and will play. If Berahino finds himself this season, Stoke might pick up.
I think there are a lot of decent strikers this year. However I really like the team. You have all the big teams covered. You have also managed to squeeze Alonso in there with Kane and Lukaku
Cheers mate.
Happy to have DDG, Alonso, Trippier, KDB, Lukaku and Kane together
the bench is weak though
Yeah my bench is non existent at the moment. Budget is tough
Hi nishant
Had a nice summer mate?
Can you do KDB to Alli and Kane to Aguero and then improve Shelvey and that bench with the leftover?
Hello Sir
Having a peaceful summer and its great to be back to the FPL world
Hope you are fine too
and speaking of KDB, I am not really keen on getting in either of Kun/Jesus at the start of the season.
But my bench does look weak though
Thoughts on Shelvey?
I think I would take Rosco and Milburn’s advice in their excellent article here:
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/promoted-teams-analysis-fpl-201718-newcastle/
that Shelvey won’t be able to have it as easy in the premier league as he had it at the start of last season in the Championship.
I would rather the money went on a decent attacking player such as Walters at Burnley or Ince at Huddersfield or Knockaert or Phillips/Chadli if you can squeeze another £0.5M from somewhere.
Thank you Sir
Looks like Fab will go.
I really doubt if i will still remain with a 3-5-2 come 11 August
Lets see
You on the Morata band wagon?
He is in my latest draft mate yes. I think he has been fairly priced.
With his skills, yes very much well priced. Much better than Laccazette and Jesus atleast :cuss:
Can’t see Quaner getting many minutes, nor Cranie of Smith is back.
If
They are the perma bench fillers until the first IB. :smirk:
Cheers for your thoughts mate
Any thoughts on this. Alonso looks expensive, but plays in MID in reality.
Solid team there. I would Try and upgrade Dier to someone else. Maybe Myhill instead of Hart or Alli instead of KDB
Willian bothers me a bit as a third mid which makes Dier look a bit more boring
Maybe downgrade KDB since you already have MCI attack covered??
I’m ok with Willian in there. Think playing off the left will suit him more. Well he’s fine while Hazard is out anyway
Willian is decent enough, and you have decent options for swapping out – Fabregas, Lanzini, Zaha all 7m.
I have seen this Hunemeier in a few drafts. Is he likely to start?
Can’t see it. Only appeared last season due to an injury.
Thanks AT. So as unlikely as Rangel then
Yeah. Haven’t found a £4m defender likely to start yet.
Yeah with budget I’ll have at least one of them
Hunemeier is just a cheap 4m option. I rarely use the fifth DEF unless benchboost or injury requires it.
@Smash10. Myhill and Ali would bring 1m in saving plus a further 0.5m ITB. 6.5m to replace Dyer, but who?
Ha that’s the problem price I’m having trouble with. Southampton have decent fixtures so possibly Tadic. I do like the double City as well though.
Not sure why I’m spending so much time on it. WC in wk 3 last two seasons due to slow starts by the experienced players! Played catch up season from then on.
Tadic mate
This is for mito and for everyone who is interested. The team below is after my first draft in fpl draft, bolasie was an accident that i am going to fix with my first waiver, ritchie is the replacement as he is free agent. Has anyone else had his first draft? i d like to see what teams you ended up with.
Too much money spent on defence mate
That is worth playing a 5-3-2 every week
To tell you the truth , this is how the draft roll, i did expect that, i played with the toys i was given, i wanted one more 7m+ mildfilder, but it was a massacre.
I would downgrade Kompany and Yoshida to a 4.5 mn playing and a 4.0 mn non playing defenderand use the released 2.5 mn to upgrade Bolasie and alter Klassen
Way too much spent in defence there. Bolasie wont make the start. You might as well wait on Klassen see how he starts as Everton have a really difficult start. Slimani has been linked with a move away
No nis, that s not you play the game, you don t have budget, you can choose whoever you want, see here https://draft.premierleague.com/help. You don t have to downgrade anyone to save funds, you can take whoever you want if he is free or if you can get him before the others in your league, see the rules it s quite interesting actually.
Teo
That doesn’t look a bad hand to me.
I’d be happy with that.
Good luck.
Thanks GP. It needs 1-2 changes. Will you play fpl draft? if you had the draft post your team if you want.
I’m not planning to play no. I’m stripping my fantasy involvement right back this year to just my own regular FPL side so that I can dedicate more time to being on here and (hopefully) and improved overall rank fir my side by the end of it!
Any Chelsea fans about?
Thought for this evening: is Moses going to continue RWB? Could be a cheaper way of getting a wing back. Though that’d leave Azpi rud Luiz cahill battling for 3 cb spots.
I’m not a Chelsea fan so they may be better placed to answer but from what I’ve been reading Moses is expected to be dropped with Rudiger coming into the centre and Azpi being pushed out wide. Given that they paid almost 30 million for Rudiger he will surely play, Luiz seems integral to how Conte plays and he Loves Azpi so with all that in mind either Moses or Cahill makes way, my money is on Moses. Hoepfully some Chelsea fans can clarify this though!
Yeah just Moses pre-season form has me wondering.
Yeah me too, it might be that he plays more defensively (Rud) against certain opponents and more attacking ( Moses) against others. Think I’ll avoid such situations and spend more on one of Azpi or Alonso
Moses is suspended for the start anyway. But you can’t see Azpil, Cahill or Luiz being dropped though
Gents
This will probably be my team until I WC in GW2; what do you think?
Think I need to get in Kun!
Solid team that mate. Double Soton at the back might prove wonders. The Kun Jesus pick is a true dilemma and hence i am going for KDB instead as my only City coverage
Saints fixtures look frickin awesome
Looks decent but if you’re planning on WCing in GW2 is there not another 4.5 over Simpson as surely there must be a better chance of a CS with someone else!
Why are you thinking of WC so soon? I was looking at 4 or 8 when the breaks are but even then I will only do that if my team is shite!
Rosco
I was only joking mate…. I will probsky take a couple of hits before I WC!
Thats the Mitro style. Hits that always pay.
Ha ha!
I’m going to track my season this time round to see what the gain or loss is!
Haha I should have known! thought it was a genuine tactic!! well on that note I think it looks dandy!! I feel im overlooking Ramsey what with you being a gunner is he looking like a solid pick? Same with Laca, I’ve always liked him as a player but im hesitant over players new to the league!
If I had to be picky I’d say your defence is light but as you’ve roved in the past, your midfield can often more than make up for that!
Rosco
My gut is telling me Rambo is going to have a great season!! Yeah my defence ain’t the best but saints fixtures do look really good so I’m hoping doubling up on them will help!
Be great if we got the Rambo from a few seasons back, especially at that price!!
I still haven’t posted an RMT, had a million variations but just can’t settle on a side I’m satisfied with!!
I have around 20 screenshots and I am leaning towards this version! I do have an alternative which involves Sanchez
It’s going to be really exciting season whatever we go for!
I like it. Must admit I prefer Aguero to Jesus. Leicester have a tough start to be playing Simpson every week. But with that attack you might get away with it
Smash
Any other suggestions for 4.5?
Just had a quick look and did not find any better which is probably why I have had Simpson in most drafts. Looking at the fixtures possibly Yedlin but I can see Leicester finishing above Newcastle