MyFPL is a series where we will go through our thought process before every FPL Gameweek in the 2018/2019 season.
2017/18 Overall Ranking: 9058
Current Overall Points: 262
Current Overall Ranking: 196,411?
Last Gameweek Points: 65
Last week I made the case for why you should sell Mo Salah and everyone has started to catch up after the Egyptian’s first blank of the season. I also stuck to my guns and told you to sell Mané, oops. The players I brought in for the Salah money however, Hazard and Alonso, are slowly reaching essential status, especially the latter, who is the top scorer so far in FPL.
Alonso and Hazard helped me have a good gameweek compared to everyone else, who struggled with rotation and injury hell. This is why I have a good bench, so I can get 6 points from Doherty when Zaha is injured. Other people struggled with not just Zaha’s injury, but the benching of players like Mkhitaryan and Pedro on top of Salah’s blank.
Many people are now turning to the popular international break wildcard, and while I luckily don’t have to use it myself, I am here to guide you on which players to get. I even set up what I’d do personally if I did wildcard this week:
Starting with the GKs, I think Patricio (£4.5) and Foster (£4.5) looks like a great GK pairing going forward. BUR, ful, SOU, BOU, WAT, HUD, new, sou, HUD, car… You can ride them out until GW15 with plenty of solid clean sheet chances with hardly any tough decisions on who to start. Wolverhampton are slowly starting to get it together, while Watford have been this season’s surprise hit.
In defence, we are of course sticking with premium left-backs. Alonso (£6.8) and Mendy (£6.4) are practically wingers. I have however opted to sell the wonderful Scotland captain Robertson (£6.1) to get Mourinho’s new favorite player, Shaw (£5.1). Man Utd’s fixtures are way easier, and they actually have started to figure things out defensively, as I promised. Wan-Bissaka (£4.1) is still a bargain, but hopefully Tomkins is back after the break to shore up Palace’s defence.
Rico (£4.5) is my differential punt. The man took corners for Bournemouth and might be what we all imagined Daniels could be. He was very close to getting an assist on a corner to Aké and Bournemouth will be better defensively with Lerma getting more and more comfortable with the team. Doherty (£4.4) who I currently have on my team is also one to watch, but with Patricio we already have a Wolverhampton defensive player. Bennett is £4.0, but I think Dendoncker takes his place soon.
In midfield you might be surprised to see that I have 0 players from Liverpool. I opted for Hazard (£10.7) and Sterling (£11.0) over either Salah (£13.0) or Mané (£9.9). Once again it’s down to the fixtures and I’d be looking to upgrade or downgrade Sterling to Salah or Mané later on, depending on who looks better value. The schedules for Man City and Liverpool start to turn right around the time they face each other at Anfield, a stadium Sterling has struggled at since leaving. But for now, I gotta go with the best triple City coverage possible as they face Fulham (H), Cardiff (A) and Brighton (H) the next 3 gamesweeks.
Maddison (£6.5) stays after a promising display against Liverpool, getting an assist that could’ve just as easily been a goal. Leicester have one of the best schedules going forward for quite some time. Vardy (£8.9) is tempting, but Maddison is a lot cheaper. Richarlison (£6.7) will be a must have once again when he returns, as his popular replacement Walcott (£6.8) couldn’t be relied upon. Traoré (£5.5) also caught my eye, as I was there live to see him sink my beloved West Ham with a 90th minute winner after coming on. His end-product is getting there and he has so much more potential than any other Wolverhampton midfielder.
Up front we are obviously keeping Aguero (£11.3), no questions asked. He can explode any minute and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets 6 goals in the next 3 matches. To accompany him, we get Ings (£5.6) who looks like a bargain as Southampton’s unquestioned #1 striker. Could he be on pens now that Austin missed his? I’m also keeping Zaha (£7.0), who has terrific matches, assuming he is fit, which it looks likely that he will be for GW5 and beyond.
Look who’s back ??♂️ #CPFC #GodIsGreat pic.twitter.com/NFBJnjFSU6
— Wilfried Zaha (@wilfriedzaha) September 13, 2023
Happy wildcarding!
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