FPL GW24 Wildcard Attraction —Strategy, Planning, and Thoughts

‘Redemption-the action of saving or being saved from sin’  

Redemption always feels like an enticing, attractive option in our lives. We love such stories, adore them, recite them again and again in our drunken pub meet-ups with friends. Whichever club you support, success stories never touch us enough- dominating a season is not good enough, straightforward crushing win in a final doesn’t make good stories. It’s the turnaround, the act of letting your hopes go before regaining them slowly as you see a masterful change in the predicted outcome- that is the mother of all stories.

In continuously consuming world of FPL- it’s your wildcard draft. Having a bad season, press that button & watch your hopes and dreams go up again till the next GW arrives. I love this feeling and live for it. A week of making WC drafts is one where you can suddenly change your future, you can have your redemption. It is the story that you can tell in “ NIMA FEST” and watch every eye turn around on you. Aah, that’s the dream.

Having committed the sin of having double Watford forwards, I now consider wildcard as an act of saving myself from it. It is enticing no doubt but one of the reasons, it is more attractive to do is – Not many would like to go for it now. It gives you a first-mover advantage in a world of managers- still evaluating the trends, the fixtures and working out their own plan as the uncertainties of GW30s looms as well. Make no mistake, it is not an easy thing to do with continuous doubles, blanks for your primary targets- it’s a minefield and it’s one- I intend to try and navigate by writing an article about it!!

Without further delay let me share the next 7 weeks onto you, the reason I do so is things look a little clearer till GW 30 and also because only a psycho would analyze fixtures till GW29 ( such an odd number- I hate it really!!) This is assuming the fixtures stand the way it is- blanks for GW 30 remain unpredictable so I have to take it into my analysis for now.

Now we have the following situation:-

• GW 24 has Brighton & Chelsea blank
• GW 25 has Arsenal & Chelsea blank while United & Brighton double up
• GW 26 has Watford (Oh My!!), Spurs, Liverpool (Oh My My!!), Wolves, Palace, Burnley, Leeds & Arsenal double
• GW 27 has Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester blanks
• GW 28-30 seems pretty much normal as things stand now !!

Using FFH advanced fixture metrics- So, let me divide this into 3 halves to see if we can make some sense of it apart from the fact that we should not go for Chelsea players till GW 27-  GW 24-25, GW-26, GW 27-30.

(Above we see Advanced FDR for each of the teams in the given fixtures)

Teams to target on a FPL GW24 Wildcard

• Liverpool seem a simple choice and despite the blank in GW 27 are a team we can target back.
• No doubles means nothing for the methodical and mechanical Man City squad who shall continue to plunder points
• Spurs come out as a team to target and despite 1 tough fixture against City seem to be an easy move
• United have to be moved out post their double in GW 25
• Wolves, Arsenal & Watford seem the teams to target but only for DGW- Wolves seem to be a decent switch from GW 26 onwards.
• Chelsea assets will be in resurgence post GW 27

Further Read: FPL GW24 Wildcard- Planning ahead, Chip Strategy and Draft

Squad Management

GK- Foster remains the ideal second spot GK for me and the real question is between De Gea & Ramsdale on price budgets. However, as I write this, Wolves have come out of FA Cup meaning they might have doubles even after GW 26 as per Ben Crellin including a nonblank GW 30. This would put Sa as an interesting WC choice and a better long-term one, given we can play foster for GW 24 & 25. Another choice is to move from De Gea to him in DGW which again would be on a hit. 

Wolves are out of the FA Cup so Wolves vs Leeds won't be a Blank in GW30 and WOL vs WAT could be moved to GW27 (giving both teams a Double GW).

I'll post a spreadsheet covering GW30 after Southampton vs Coventry has finished.
(A Coventry win would make things interesting)

— Ben Crellin (@BenCrellin) February 5, 2022

Defence

• Trent & Cancelo select themselves as your first choice. 
• Robbo for me would be an interesting third choice given Liverpool’s fixtures do look solid. He can be downgraded to Chelsea defence at some point if Chelsea do regain their form. 
• Digne is a good choice too but only issue is he would not have a great DGW where you can bench him. He is cheaper alternative to growing popularity of Laporte.
• Ait Nouri & Dalot are the remaining cheaper options as we look at United DGW and Wolves consistent run. Ideally, I would like to start with Dalot and move to Ait Nouri sometime after DGW.

Further Read: What to Expect from Frank Lampard at Everton? | Tactical Analysis

Midfield

This is where things get interesting as Midfield has constantly outperformed other positions in the last 5-10 GWs.

• For me, I would keep my premium spend here- Salah KDB are my long term targets with plan to use Bruno till DGW 25. 
• Son is someone who is making things difficult for him to ignore given he is now fit and fixtures are consistently good for him. 
• Ideally, I would like to start with 3 assets- Salah, KDB, Bruno and move Bruno to Son in DGW26. This is easier said than done as for 2 GWs I need to really keep things tighter in other positions. They ofcourse need to be balanced by cheaper midfield assets.
• So, for me ideal 4^th & 5^th choice midfield targets are from Bowen, Martinelli & Ramsey. While we can start with Bowen- this again means we need to move to Martinelli in GW26, I feel we can save this transfer and take Bowen’s impact on chin for long term planning. 
• Midfield has all the chances of differentials working out with players like Olise, Odegaard,

Further Read: FPL GW24 Wildcard- Planning ahead, Chip Strategy and Draft

Forwards

I feel we have come to the season where we can play a 451 and get away with cheap forwards. Edouard has done well recently, Toney is chipping in as well. Ideally, I would like to start with Edouard and then move to Toney during GW 27-30.  The only premium forward who looks really attractive now is Harry Kane.

For that, we would need to discuss on the trade-off of selecting Kane or Son- Kane feels like a more explosive asset but Son is a consistency monster, and being 2m cheaper does give us the option to upgrade a non-playing bench option to a nice upgrade especially at back.

Position	Primary Squad Choices	The Fillers
GK	Sa, De Gea (Planned move during DGW works)	Foster
Def	Trent, Cancelo+ Digne/Robbo, Wolves def	Dalot (Planned move to White GW 28 onwards)
Mid	Bruno KDB Son Salah (Decision on 2-3 premiums), Foden/Jota, Bowen	Martinelli in GW 26, Ramsey
Fwd	Kane	Edouard (Planned move to Toney)

Before going further, Do vote in this week’s FPL GW24 allaboutfpl captaincy poll. The same will be available in the captaincy analysis and metrics blog written by@AK_FPL1. The metrics has a 19/23 record this year. Last week the metric predicted KDB as the best captaincy candidate. Stay tuned for the GW24 Captaincy metric to see who tops it. Link to all our FPL Gameweek 24 blogs. Our blogs cover a wide range of topics including the best free hit team, FPL chip strategy, players to target, differentials, and more.

[Total_Soft_Poll id=”34″]

The results and the captaincy metric blog will be published soon based on the votes.

The 50-50s decisions on FPL GW24 Wildcard

• KDB/Bruno or both: As difficult as it is for me to say to wait on Salah is plausible as long as you are using the money on Bruno or Ronaldo. Eye Test tells me Bruno is the guy who has picked up form and addition of Pogba hasn’t taken away the sheen as we saw in his positioning in FA Cup match. He even stands his own when compared against KDB (Per start metrics). If you are on WC, what’s stopping you from this combo for next 2 weeks really. But come double GW, decision becomes difficult- I am inclining towards KDB basis fixtures but do remember, once UCL starts and league is settled- City will rest premiums in league, Bruno is Mr. Consistent in starts and that is one thing we can count on.

Further Read: FPL GW24 Wildcard- Planning ahead, Chip Strategy and Draft

Third Liverpool Asset in FPL ~ Jota or Robbo?

We are certain on the Trent Salah combo for sure. Who will be the third guy – Jota or Robbo: 

With ownership of just 4.6%, Robbo has come out to be a strong alternative to Jota. While the return of Salah & Mane can definitely help in Jota coming up with stronger numbers but given the number of strong options in the middle, it does make sense to look at Robbo instead as our third best asset.

Further Read: FPL GW24 | Premium FPL Assets Rotational Planner

Which premium Spurs asset to own- Son or Kane ?

I have picked the last 6 matches played by both Son & Kane and while Kane has had a resurgence, Son still is able to retain both xPts & Pts in this area. From a gut feeling POV, I feel we are moving to a point where Kane is looking better and better but Son is like a cheat code in FPL- one that we are aware of but keep forgetting every season. If on a WC and looking for a long-term move, Son and the 1.7m saved seems like a sensible choice for me over the long term. You might see Kane doing well but it should not be by much and your other upgrade if used sensibly can more than makeup for this deficit.

FPL GW24 Wildcard Squad Formations

When it comes to formation, I like my formation to be heavy in an area where most returns are in last 6 weeks.

• If we look at top 20 players from GW 18-23, 12 are midfielders, 5 defenders, 2 FWDs with Kane & Edouard, 1 GK. Midfield looks to be a good place to invest heavily now.
• Looking back at last 10 GWs, we have same story- 12 Midfielders, 6 Defenders, 1 FWD and 1 GK.
• So, my first-choice draft would be a squad flexible between 451 & 541- which requires you to have 2 playing but cheap options in both mid and def. Currently for me they are Ramsey and Dalot. Dalot can be moved to someone similar DGW onwards. 
• The other one can be a 442 where you have Kane in forward squad ofcourse for that your fourth def and mid can be cheaper options and second striker can be someone like Edouard/Toney/Saint Maximin.

At the end of the day, a WC for me has to go for some risky moves ones that can give you reward of using it. Don’t use WC to fill yourself just with high ownership choices, balance it up with 2-3 differentials to spice up things a bit.

With this, my ramblings for the WC thoughts are over. Overall, WC24 is not an easy move considering the blanks that come in now and the fact that not all teams fare well post DGW26, and hence, it is not your ideal – “Let me push the Bench Boost” double GW. However, there can be some method to the madness and if navigated well, it should give you a boost over your Mini-League rivals. All the best !!

Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL Ahead of FPL Gameweek 24:

FPL GW24 | Premium FPL Assets Rotational Planner
FPL GW24 Scouting Report: Edouard, Olise, Kulusevski & Bentancur
FPL GW24 Wildcard- Planning ahead, Chip Strategy and Draft
FPL Double Gameweek Announcements Tracker & Fixtures to Target
New Premier League Signings and their FPL Impact ~ Should you buy or not?
What to Expect from Frank Lampard at Everton? | Tactical Analysis
Best Budget Players for FPL GW24 and beyond | Salah Enablers
FPL GW24 Ultimate Guide: Announcements, Tips, Differentials, Wildcard Drafts, Captaincy
FPL GW23 Fixture Wise Review & Key Stats That Caught Our Eye
What is FPL CUP? What are the rules? How to win the 2021/22 FPL CUP?

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