FPL Updates XI – Gameweek 17 Tips – Fantasy Premier League Tips

Rudolph’s nose, the Coca Cola truck and Emily Ratajkowski’s bikini in her latest Instagram post. What do they all have in common with our team? Yep, they’re all f*cking red! Everywhere I look all I see is red. Christmas is meant to be a time for festive cheer, partying and time with family and friends, yet all I’m worrying about now is how to stop the run of red arrows for the FPL Updates XI.

After a game week which saw many a line up change we had three of our starting 11 not feature, so our bench came fully into play. 46pts on 48pt week average once again didn’t quite cut the mustard, but before we worry about how to try and steady the ship let’s look at our GW16 team.

Ben Foster was soooo close to only his 2nd clean sheet in 13 but a late Swansea consolation put pay to that. Looking at his next two games I think we may well be looking at just one cleanie in 15 for the WBA stopper.

In front of him it all looked a little rosier. Dejan Lovren bounced back from conceding six goals in two games to secure us 6pts against Middlesbrough. Any coincidence that Loris Karius was watching from the comfort of the Liverpool bench? Erik Pieters was part of a stoke team that played with 10 men for over an hour and still earned a valuable 6pts whilst Marcos Alonso picked up his now customary clean sheet whilst adding a bonus point for good measure. Championship bound Michael Dawson came off our bench and registered a whole point. Cheers Mike.

Our midfield was an embarrassment. 8pts total from four players just isn’t good enough. Especially when players like Adam Lallana and Christian Eriksen were racking up silly numbers. Roberto Firmino’s current drought is an issue. Five games in a row without return. I think the correlation between Coutinho being out and Firmino moving slightly wider has had an affect here and is certainly worth keeping an eye on. He has at least another week with us yet though. Mesut Ozil, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Etienne Capoue also all blanked to make it even more painful to be missing our captain Eden Hazard.

With Hazard out the captaincy moved to Diego Costa and as I predicted in my last write up he blanked. It really is the affect we are having on players. So much so I’m willing to take cash offers on our weekly transfers if any of you lovely readers want me to completely ruin any in form players to help you in mini leagues. Feel free to slide your way into my DM’s! Our move to bring in Kelechi Iheanacho looks inspired. He failed to play a single minute. With the unpredictability of Pep’s line ups we are expecting Yaya at left back and Bacary Sagna to play the lone striker role this week. Our week was salvaged though by Divock Origi. Brought on prior to GW16 he delivered 11pts 11 days before Christmas.

So with potential rotation kicking in and question marks on lingering knocks we have decided to save our free transfer this week (pending any late team news) so line up as follows

Ben Foster in goal. Home to United a clean sheet is unlikely but save points are. I’d take 3 or 4 right now.

Our back three obviously includes Marcos Alonso and Erik Pieters but we have gone with John Stones over Dejan Lovren or Michael Dawson. In all honesty I don’t think any keep a clean sheet but I always prefer a home team if it’s a tough call. We won’t be leaning on these three like GW16 but there’s certainly hope for a few points.
Our midfield is in the doghouse after last weeks poor showing so they’ve got some making up to do. A mix of tough and easy fixtures we are probably hoping Gylfi Sigurdsson and Eden Hazard can do the business against Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace respectively whilst Mesut Ozil and Roberto Firmino have Manchester City and Everton to deal with. Firmino, yet to score in a Merseyside derby could certainly choose worse games to end the drought. Eden Hazard looks a great option for the captaincy but with a little uncertainty over his fitness we have just given him the vice.

Up top is where we have placed the armband and it’s with Hazard’s team mate Diego Costa. I’m not a fan of captaining in an early kick off but with just one clean sheet all season, Crystal Palace should hold minimal resistance to the Chelsea onslaught. Alongside the fact I don’t feel confident in giving it to any of our other players. We keep Kelechi Iheancho in purely because he simply has to start one of the games Sergio Aguero is banned for and last up is Divock Origi. Four in his last four Prem games he is a man in form and will be chomping at the bit to face Everton on Monday.

So there we have it. I’m not sure I can see us drop any lower than 1.3m as it’s already the lowest our team has been for over 14 months. Not having any Spurs coverage could hurt us but we will have our fingers crossed with that one. Our team certainly has better fixtures for GW18 but we have plenty of big names that can click any given week.

Good luck to everyone reading and let’s all hope for some green arrows in the final gameweek this side of Christmas!

Written by FPL Guru (@FPL_Guru_)

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