This blog is written by @FPLNima (overall rank 1,102 in the 19/20 season). Nima writes the weekly transfer tips article for Fantasy Football Hub and you can find more of his work here. Do give him a follow on Twitter here
Blog last updated on 11/01/2020, 3:30 PM GMT after the Spurs vs Fulham fixture announcement.
Gameweek 17 Review
Points: 56 points + Gameweek rank: 4.1 million
Gameweek 17 was not as good as Gameweek 16 for me. I managed 56 points all out which saw me drop from 251k OR to 325k. I was pleased with Captain Son but my biggest mistake was benching Soucek. I had always planned on playing Soucek over Rodrigo in GW17 but my eyes got turned by Leeds thrashing of West Brom in GW16. With the benefit of hindsight, I cost myself 9 points by playing 3 Leeds attackers firmly locking Soucek to my bench.
Overall Rank
I am now 35 points away from the Top 100k (a personal goal I strive for every season). In summary, I am 9 points further behind the pack than I was pre GW17 (so those Soucek points would’ve been very handy).
I feel confident of achieving this by the end of the season but the all elusive consecutive Top 10k finish is looking difficult to achieve whilst I am still 83 points behind!
The current state of play with Covid and postponed fixtures
All of my planning for a WC16, FH18 and BB19 have been ruined with the late announcement of fixtures being moved. Burnley, Aston Villa, Manchester United and Manchester City are now the only teams with a future in the Blank Gameweek 18 as well as two fixtures in Double Gameweek 19.
In WC16 I sold the likes of De Bruyne, Konsa and El Ghazi who all now play in BGW18 and play twice in DGW19.
Overall, I still feel happy with my plan as I did not need my WC before GW16 and had to use it or it would have expired. The new rise in positive covid cases does mean, that going forwards I am likely to only confirm transfers or chip usage in the minutes before each FPL GW deadline.
We have now heard of Aston Villa positive cases which could lead to Villa and Tottenham not having a fixture in BGW18. Even one of the Villa games in DGW19 is in doubt.
The cancelled Shrewsbury vs Southampton FA Cup game can also lead to some further complications as outlined by Mr. Double Gameweek himself, Ben Crellin:
Once BGW18 and DGW19 are over, I shall begin to include an ongoing Watchlist in these Team Reveal articles. Instead of the current discussions being dominated by my personal chip strategy plans.
FPL GW 18 Free Hit Team
My current Free hit draft with double Man City defence and Son in a 3-5-2.
Some thoughts about this plus my overall chip strategy going into the BGW18 and DGW19:
- I will very likely still be using Free Hit in Gameweek 18 as I will only have 4 players this Gameweek (Son, Martial, Bruno and Dias).
- I am now less likely to Bench Boost in Gameweek 19. McCarthy is isolating with covid right now, Johnson isn’t playing for West Ham and who knows what other casualties will happen to my team pre DGW18 deadline
- I am starting to consider using Triple Captain on Kevin De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes or Mo Salah if I do not end up activating a BB in DGW19.
- I will most likely still use the second Wildcard in Gameweek 25 once we’ve been given the fixtures for DGW26 and corresponding blanks in BGW 29.
- I’m still eager to use Triple Captain in Gameweek 26 (on Son or Kane, Spurs made the EFL cup final and so it is more likely they will have a DGW26 vs some pretty mediocre teams).
- The second wildcard team will have some BGW29 players as I only need 11 for the DGW26 triple captain team. I can use 4 free transfers between GW26 and 29 to bring in more BGW29 players.
- Finally, the Gameweek 33 blank is likely to be much smaller with just 2 matches being moved out of the fixture list (Spurs and Man City who play the EFL Cup Final)
Further Read: FPL GW18 Preview: Fixture Wise Analysis, Players to consider in Free Hit and Differentials
Captain for FPL Blank Gameweek 18
I intend on keeping my captain as De Bruyne for both the BGW18 fixture and the DGW19 fixtures. He has the best match in BGW18 at the Etihad stadium vs Brighton. He has now played as a forward both in the GW17 league match and the EFL cup semi-final vs Manchester United. He managed a tasty 13 point return vs Chelsea in GW17.
*Update with Spurs now playing Fulham in BGW18 I may choose to Captain Son or Kane. The decision between KDB, Son and Kane will go down to the wire right before FPL deadline.
Additional FPL GW 18 Free Hit Combinations and Drafts
I really like my first draft in this article but if Spurs do not have a game then I am more likely to go with Draft 2 below. I’ve listed players that may be added or removed from my 3 draft teams so you can see where my thinking is leading to right now:
- Rashford, Sterling or Son?
- Maguire, Saiss, Holding or Stones?
- Saka, Smith-Rowe or Gundogan?
Further Read: FPL GW18 Preview: Fixture Wise Analysis, Players to consider in Free Hit and Differentials
Draft #2 with no Spurs players at all in case they do not have a fixture in BGW18
*Please see update on Draft #3 below regarding the rescheduled Spurs fixture in GW19
Draft #3 with both Kane and Son if Spurs still have a FPL BGW 18 fixture
*Update 11.01.21 – Spurs will now be playing Fulham in BGW18 instead of Aston Villa. With this in mind I am going to keep Spurs players on my FH team but please note they are playing Fulham not Aston Villa.
Transfers Options post FH18 for DGW19 (1 free transfer) £2.5m ITB
This is for DGW19 rather than the FH in BGW18. In GW17 I downgraded Kane to Martial so I would have enough funds to bring in De Bruyne as my captain in the DGW.
The current plan is to transfer Son to De Bruyne which then would leave me with £0.5m in the bank for a second transfer on a -4 point hit. I may move Johnson to Lowton so I can activate the BB with 15 DGW19 players.
However, if by the DGW19 deadline more of my players are testing positive for covid or certain matches such as Leeds vs Southampton are moved to BGW18 instead (losing me 4 of my DGW players in GW19), then I will aim to use Triple Captain instead of Bench Boost and only do the Son to De Bruyne move as a free transfer with no hits to upgrade Johnson.
I will be holding off on my transfer till the last possible moment incase further news about postponed games or rescheduled games breaks before the FPL deadline.
Further Read: FPL GW18 Preview: Fixture Wise Analysis, Players to consider in Free Hit and Differentials
*Pre-Deadline Changes to my FPL GW 18 Team*
I may make some late changes on Tuesday nearer the deadline but won’t have time to update the article. As such I have included some ideas of what these changes may be in the article above so that you can see the thinking behind my decision-making process.
E.g. if Leeds plays Southampton in BGW18 and they both lose their DGW19, I could avoid using FH chip as I will have 8 players instead of 4 in BGW18 and can use a free transfer to get to 9 players including De Bruyne (C).
l look forward to hearing your thoughts and discussing your transfers in the lead up to the Gameweek 18 deadline at 16:30 GMT on Tuesday 12th January.
If you are looking to follow more of my content or interact on all things FPL, follow me on Twitter. You can also check out the Transfer Trends article for GW18 on FFH here:
Good luck with Gameweek 18 and your chip strategies!
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Further reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of FPL GW 18:
FPL GW18 Preview: Fixture Wise Analysis, Players to consider in Free Hit and Differentials
All that you need to know about FPL cup
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FPL History: Highest Scoring FPL Players Each Year Since The First FPL Season in 2002/03
FPL Tools – All That You Need To Know About Fantasy Football Fix
FPL Tools: All That You Need to Know About FPL Gameweek Tool
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FPL Tools: All That You Need to Know About FPL Review
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Nima Kafai
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