Chief's #FPL Team - Gameweek 10

Disclaimer: *FPLH reserves the right to change this team at any time. Any changes made will  most likely be confirmed on FPLH's Twitter account. 

 CHIPS USED: 0 

GW TRANSFER(S): 2

-4 HIT

  VARDY & WIJNALDUM (IN)

MARTIAL & MAHREZ (OUT)

  WILDCARD: UNTOUCHED

@FPLHints Classic League Code: 274-641

Thoughts & Reasoning:

Gameweek 9 brought my FPL team back down to reality. The acquisition of Costa proved to be a mini-masterstroke, but captaining de Bruyne again was anything but.  The fumble on not buying Wijnaldum proved costly and buying Mahrez for Walcott (-4) was dire.  All in all, my team fell 100,000-ish places. Pish. Another Gameweek to write off.

I was fortunate enough to be a panelist a few days ago on the Weekly Fantasy Football Show podcast alongside the current champion and a former champion (Simon and Matt). Hearing their thoughts and validation on some points gave me another light bulb moment. I realised that I had  to get Wijnaldum. In addition, having Vardy would be a massive bonus. At the same time, I had to act fast to avoid price rises.

I sold Ritchie as he has been indifferent this season. Despite a rocky start he showed glimmers of hope, but it wasn't enough.  Who else could I sell? Simpson for Cedric could have funded a move for Wijnaldum, but it didn't make sense for a -4. I had to look further up field. Martial faced my ire, after his inability to score in recent weeks. I know the Manchester derby could be a kick start time for him, but I'm worried he'll be forced out on the flank, rendering him as being ineffective.  On paper, Vardy and Wijnaldum made sense due to their form and upcoming fixtures.

My captain picks haven't been that delightful this season. If only I could captain my highest points scorer, always. If Wijnaldum was at home again I probably would have given him the armband. But it came down to Sanchez and Vardy the former with double digit points in his last 3 and the latter not blanking for FPL returns since Gameweek 2. In the end I went for the Chilean as I feel he is more capable to score 2+ than Vardy.  HOWEVER if I suspect by Friday evening that Sanchez will be rested, I will make Vardy my captain and confirm it on Twitter.

Good luck to you all!

Stag's Knight - Gameweek 10

The Stag surveyed the expanse of colours laid out before him. The jerseyed knights jostled for positions, snarling as they sought the upper ground and over enthusiastically celebrated their triumphs. However, The Stag required a differential.  Only a knight less than 20% of the herd would do.  Only one knight could help him vault the others over the next 3 gameweeks.  Only one knight could bring him the fabled Green Arrows.  A knight to brighten his day.

It’s extraordinary how quickly the FPL landscape can be changed. A few weeks ago, people scrambled to bring Anthony Martial after he went on an unbelievable hot-streak. Then we had the Aguero injury which forced people to invest money elsewhere. Indeed, the injury to the Argentinian was a huge factor in Gameweek 7’s Stag’s Knight Raheem Sterling being deployed further forward last weekend, where, as you all surely know, he got a hat-trick. Meanwhile Wilfried Bony reemerged from relative FPL obscurity to score 2, assist 1, and notch up 3 BAPs alongside the Englishman. His instant impact honestly surprised me. I had considered him for both my own team and Stag’s Knight but doubted him too much to take the plunge. He proved me wrong! So with that slice of humble pie in one hand and my own FT in the other, I’m selecting Wilfried Bony as Gameweek 10’s Stag’s Knight.

I’ll get straight to the facts here. Bony has got only 3 Premier League games to prove his worth to manager Manuel Pellegrini as star man Sergio Aguero is expected to then return in time for the Liverpool game on November 21^st. In that sense, Bony fits the Stag’s Knight metric perfectly - a 3 week pick for a 3 week player. In terms of ownership, Bony is owned by only 3.1% of all FPL managers, 2.8% if you include all “ghost ship” teams according to Fantasy Football Fix. This highlights the striker as a staggering differential for improving your overall rank. Furthermore, the case for Bony is supported by an ownership of 7.3% among the eminent top 1000.

Bony’s Premier League stats this season are not comprehensive enough to paint a true picture of his performances, good or bad. Stats from sub appearances here and there coupled with a one-sided trouncing of Bournemouth hardly merit mentioning, let alone reliance. Hence, I’ll do an unusual thing and just highlight pure ability. He has 30 Premier League goals and 9 assists in 71 appearances. If you were to discount the cameos as a sub for City, you’d find he has been averaging about a goal every second game. That’s a solid ratio for any striker.

Apart from the psychological “now or never” factor and evident ability, Bony has decent fixtures on his side too. I tend to run an “avoid Manchester Derbies” policy when I’m looking at FPL players - the risk of cards is a major deterrent in general. I’m willing to turn a blind eye on this occasion though because those derbies tend to produce goals in bucket loads also. Following on from the clash in Old Trafford, Bony and co. host the league’s worst defence at the Etihad. You can probably guess who that is… yup, Norwich City. They’ve shipped 20 goals in 9 games so far. Bony will finish his term as Stag’s Knight when City visit Villa Park, where Tim Sherwood’s men are seriously struggling. I’d even go as far to predict that poor Tim won’t even be in charge by the time City visit. Regardless, I reckon City will go nuts there, especially with David Silva back providing assists.

Big, strong and sometimes lethal – Your Stag’s Knight for Gameweek 10 is Wilfried Bony.

                                     

As I highlighted at the top of the article, so much can change in a week. I concluded last week’s article hoping for a change of fortune for Stag’s Knights. That’s exactly what I got. All three came up trumps, each scoring goals..

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Find me and follow me @FPLStag

Weekly @FanFeudPodcast - Gameweek 10

Weekly Fantasy Football Show

*Match Winners and Fixture-proof-ability*

This show features the reigning champion and a former world champion of FPL!


You can also listen on iTunes. 

Please follow FanFeudPodcast on Twitter!

Chief's #FPL Team - Gameweek 9

Disclaimer: *FPLH reserves the right to change this team at any time. Any changes made will  most likely be confirmed on FPLH's Twitter account.

 CHIPS USED: 0 

GW TRANSFER(S): 2

-4 HIT

  WALCOTT & COSTA (IN)

MAHREZ & AGUERO (OUT)

  WILDCARD: UNTOUCHED

@FPLHints Classic League Code: 274-641

Thoughts & Reasoning:

What a difference a Gameweek can make. I was stuck at 1.4 million and out of the blue Aguero scores 5 goals.  This was complemented by good fantasy returns from Sanchez, de Bruyne and Payet.  Had I captained Aguero instead of de Bruyne, I would have scored over 100 points, but 97 was sufficient and elevated my team up to 400k.  It was a much needed boost to a sluggish start.  Unfortunately, Aguero got injured on international duty.  What's also worrying is that there are fitness questions over Mahrez, Kolarov and even Sanchez. With all the post-international knocks flying about, I felt this was an appropriate time to take another -4 hit.

I had a light bulb moment when listening live to the Gameweek 9 FanFeud podcast. I came to the conclusion that I needed attacking cover from Chelsea. They need a big win and in their recent past they have hammered Aston Villa who are going through a rocky patch. I decided to buy Costa in part due to his low ownership. I know his form has been poor this season, but I'm hoping that he has attained some rest after his three match suspension. He scored 20 league goals last season, he's definitely due more goals this season. I was on the cusp of buying Berahino to replace my dud sub Graham. But I was worried that Berahino hasn't played many full matches this season, despite three decent upcoming games.

I had to change tact on Thursday evening, specifically after hearing news about Mahrez and Sanchez. I wanted a striker. What better one is there than an out of position midfielder - Theo Walcott has form on his side, scored on international duty, 5% ownership, returned early to his club and is a steal at £8.6M. I simply couldn't ignore him.  My 3-5-2 is in essence a 3-4-3.  Having said that, I know Watford haven't conceded a lot at home this season, but they are prone to being weak at the back against bigger clubs. If either of my Costa/Walcott moves fail, I can always remove them with my wildcard during the November international break. Finally, I have let de Bruyne retain the armband due to his consistency and reliability.

Good luck to you all!

Stag's Knight - Gameweek 9

The Stag surveyed the expanse of colours laid out before him. The jerseyed knights jostled for positions, snarling as they sought the upperground and overenthusiastically celebrated their triumphs. However, The Stag required a differential.  Only a knight less than 20% of the herd would do.  Only one knight could help him vault the others over the next 3 gameweeks.  Only one knight could bring him the fabled Green Arrows.  A knight to brighten his day.

Can you smell that in the air? I shouldn’t have to tell you that that whiff is the much anticipated return of everybody’s favourite self-torture device, FPL! Luckily for you all reading this, FPL’s return correlates with the return of Stag’s Knight. Hopefully, all of you are celebrating the triumphs of your respective countries over the International Break. I for one had a fantastic time, managing to attend mighty Ireland’s 1-0 crushing of world champions Germany. That night, I would have told you Shane Long was the most gifted striker ever to grace the emerald isle and the planet as a whole. Unfortunately, the hero of our age sustained a minor (thank goodness) injury in our defeat in Warsaw so he is ruled out of Premier League contention for at least 2 weeks. Had he been fit, I probably would have ignored all logical argument and selected him as Stag’s Knight for Gameweek 9.

Instead, I’ve gone with 22 year old English striker Saido Berahino of West Brom as my Stag’s Knight for the coming gameweek. At this stage, we all know about Bera’s controversial summer transfer window when he failed to sign for Spurs and announced he’d never play for the club again. Isn't it amazing though how a player’s opinion and attitude on the pitch can change when they realise that only good performances will help them get a move away! Tony Pulis has slowly begun to reintroduce the young striker back into his match-day squads in an effort to score much needed goals with the Baggies hanging precariously, 4 points clear of the relegation zone in 17^th place. I do stress the word slowly though!

Bera’s last 3 appearances have seen him on the playing field for 66, 90 and 45 minutes respectively. Don’t be too alarmed though, he managed to score 2 goals in that limited time accruing 5 Bonus Points along the way. Why isn’t the starlet playing 90 minutes every game? Well obviously he is still going through “rehab” after his transfer saga. Along with that, Pulis is trying to share playing time with misfiring club record signing Salomón Rondón (who hasn’t hit the back of the net in 4 PL games) and Rickie Lambert.

I usually try to judge a player’s FPL potential by looking back on their last 5 games and looking forward to their fixtures to come. Berahino’s form I’ve already outlined, there is no more to go by. In terms of what’s to come, this is where my argument in favour of the striker gains more traction. West Brom’s next two games are relegation “6 pointers”. First, they host Big Sam’s Sunderland at the Hawthorns. No matter how much of a kick the new boss gives the Black Cats, I can’t see their lousy defence suddenly becoming impregnable. Next they take on Norwich away before finally hosting Leicester. Fascinatingly, these are the three teams in the league that are yet to keep a clean sheet!

As further back up, we see that Fantasy Football Fix’s algorithm churns out the Baggies as the team with the best attacking potential for the next 3 gameweeks. What I do concede is that their algorithm is nowhere near as optimistic as I am about Berahino’s points potential!!

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Saido Berahino - He’s sharp, he’s got a point to prove, owned by 7.9%. He’s my Knight for Gameweek 9.

Ask me questions, follow me and laud me @FPLStag

Results haven't gone our way of late. Hopefully things change this weekend.

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Weekly Fantasy Football Show - Gameweek 9

Weekly Fantasy Football Show

Golden tips at your disposal.

Gameweek 9's episode is hosted by DaveOGrady1.  It also features JonnyGould, RobHarriman77, Kev92Kelly & EmKWhy

You can also listen on iTunes. 

Please follow FanFeudPodcast on Twitter.

Chief's #FPL Team - Gameweek 8

Disclaimer: *FPLH reserves the right to change this team at any time. Any changes made will  most likely be confirmed on FPLH's Twitter account.

 CHIPS USED: 0 

GW TRANSFER(S): 1

  PAYET

IN

CHADLI

OUT

  WILDCARD: UNTOUCHED

@FPLHints Classic League Code: 274-641

Thoughts & Reasoning:

Gameweek 7 proved to be another damp squib.  My team went all out on Saturday and got close to the now coveted 1,000,000 mark. The only problem was that I captained Martial (when I had Sanchez) and I had no Sunday or Monday players; the latter being more detrimental as Lukaku (19% ownership) exploded.  The hit for Begovic was pointless literally a negative move. My single day 400,000 net gain ended up as a 16,000 net fall and thus a much maligned red arrow came way.

Looking back to my lacklustre start to the season, there's no doubt that I've made some poor choices and have been unlucky at times.  I may use the international break as a perfect window to activate my wildcard and tweak my team for the cold winter slog ahead. In the meantime, I didn't want to panic by taking another hit or spontaneously playing a chip. There's simply no need for that.

I purchased Payet as he's been awesome thus far. His 3 goals and 3 assists is testament of his prowess in a team that likes scoring goals.  In addition, a quarter of #FPL managers own him which shows how much he is appreciated.  Having said that he has yet to score on the road for West Ham. With good upcoming fixtures it made sense to buy him. He's also averaging more than a bonus point per game which is significant. I had no qualms with selling Chadli as he has been squeezed out with the returning Eriksen, revitalised Lamela and new signing Son.

The majority of my first XI are high ownership players. This puts me in danger of having a template team - and a rubbish one at that.  In addition, as I'm "chasing" I feel that I have nothing to lose with my captain pick and can take risks. Yes, Aguero v NUFC makes sense on paper, but I want to be different. Kevin de Bruyne has bagged 17 points in his last two PL games - he's only owned by 6%. This makes him the perfect combination of not only being a de facto differential, but also being an in-form player. Barring a last minute change on Saturday morning, he is my captain.  If all else fails, the wildcard is just around the corner.

Good luck to you all!

Stag's Knight - Gameweek 8

The Stag surveyed the expanse of colours laid out before him. The jerseyed knights jostled for positions, snarling as they sought the upper ground and over enthusiastically celebrated their triumphs. However, The Stag required a differential.  Only a knight less than 20% of the herd would do.  Only one knight could help him vault the others over the next 3 gameweeks.  Only one knight could bring him the fabled Green Arrows.  A knight to brighten his day.

FPL's a funny old game isn't it? You spend a whole week carefully deciding on transfers, you daydream about your players scoring hat tricks and you subdue the awful possibility that the player you transferred out does well. At the end of the day it's all a bit of luck. 53 missed shots and no goals caused me to ditch Alexis before gameweek 7. You can imagine my pain as he tore Leicester's porous defence to shreds. I feared for my selection of Coutinho as Stag's Knight after he wasted multiple opportunities against Norwich for the same reason, lots of shots and no returns. Yet there he was assisting the returning prodigal son Daniel Sturridge to two goals against Villa. If there's any lesson to be taken here, it's that irrational patience is key (I don't really believe this but it has proven true this season). Does that bode well for Aguero owners? I hope so!

With Nathan Redmond, the same principle could be applied in a microcosmic way. Sure, he started the season on fire, racking up 24 points in three gameweeks for only £5.5m; after that though, things changed. A drought descended where the young Englishman failed to pull any attacking returns for three games despite his team netting 4 goals. In the ruthless world of professional football, nobody is safe and Redmond's was punished for his dip in performance, dropping from the starting line up to play West Ham. He showed real character (at risk of sounding like Brendan Rodgers) by slotting home in the 83rd minute with a low shot to put his team in a lead that was cancelled out late on.

Why then, after telling you all that Redmond was dropped for poor performances, am I telling you to pick the £5.7m, 7.7% owned midfielder? Is he even guaranteed his place in the team?

Well I'll attempt to allay your fears. Redmond didn't start the Canaries' first game this season in the 3-1 defeat to Palace but he did score a goal in his 37 minute cameo as a sub. For that, Alex Neil rewarded Redmond with a string of starts which lasted until gameweek 7. As far as evidence goes, that's as much as is available right now. As always, keeping an ear open to the manager's press conference would be worthwhile, worry not, there's no risk of price changes with Redmond.

Delving into the stats, in 500 minutes of Premier League football so far this season, Redmond's offensive averages are not to be scoffed at. He has had an average of 1.7 shots per game and gives 2.3 key passes per game. Keep in mind that with those he has returned 3 goals and an assist. He also acquired 5 bonus points in gameweeks 2 and 3.

Finally I'll run through the fixtures. Norwich entertain Leicester before travelling to Newcastle and then hosting West Brom. Leicester STILL haven't kept a clean sheet so far this season in spite of their unbelievable form. They're the sort of team that try to outscore their opponents rather than choke them out and win 1-0. It would be astounding if Norwich fail to put at least one past Kasper Schmeichel. Everyone to visit St James' Park so far the season has managed to score and Norwich have lost only once on their travels under Alex Neil. Both those facts bode well for Redmond to do himself justice. Finally the home game against Tony Pulis' men would be tough for any team. I could see this game falling to a stalemate or exploding into life, let's hope it’s the latter with gameweek 8's Stag's Knight Nathan Redmond getting on the scoresheet!

Find me, contact me, follow me @FPLStag

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