We knew gameweek 32 would be one for maintaining position for the FPL Updates XI and so it turned out. 60 points scored on a 47 average meant we only dropped to 82k from 77k. This is fairly pleasing given the Wildcard is now in action and the 2 main chips still burning a hole in our pockets. So before we discuss our assault on the next few gameweek’s let’s have a little look at how we did last weekend.
In goal we had Wayne Hennessey and unsurprisingly he conceded. Twice. We said we weren’t expecting clean sheet points from him and predictably that was the case. Palace still haven’t kept a clean sheet in 2016 so these upcoming double gameweek’s could be nothing more than false hope.
Unfortunately for us one of our 2 free transfer’s was used on Angelo Ogbonna in the same game and typically it was a goalfest. 1 solitary point was all we got from him, but given he had scored zero points in his previous 2 I guess we should be pleased?! Ashley Williams scored 3 in a mixed performance. A very rare assist, only his 3rd attacking return of the season, was all but cancelled out by conceding 2 and a yellow card. I guess we shouldn’t be greedy. Especially considering the new FPL golden boy Christian Fuchs stepped up and delivered again! Double figures from his clean sheet, assist and 2 bonus points mean he has now returned 41 points in his last 6 games. Unfortunately his distinct lack of a double gameweek means he will find it hard to survive the FPL Updates Wildcard overhaul.
Our midfield did enough. 3 point returns from new boy Mesut Ozil and Riyad Mahrez, 5 from Marko Arnautovic and following his gravity defying free kick, Dimitri Payet gave us a healthy 9. 20 points from our midfield will suffice.
Up top was the same 3 we have had for a while. We have persisted with Jamie Vardy and it will actually be quite a relief dropping him with our wildcard called in. 6 games without a goal and his now customary 2 point return for us last week. Harry Kane on the other hand delivered yet again. 6 goals in his last 4 games it has been a tough decision with whether he remains in our new look line up. Lastly to our captain Sergio Aguero. Bournemouth were no match for City and the Argentine striker scored and picked up a bonus point to deliver us a fairly acceptable 14 points.
So now gameweek 32 is in the rear view mirror the wildcard is in! The plan had always been to get this ready to stockpile for the upcoming gameweek 34, but also allowing reasonable double gameweek coverage this week and enough to field a full gameweek 35 line up. The transfers made are as follows
Butland (OUT) – Mignolet (IN)
Hennessey (OUT) – Darlow (IN)
Fuchs (OUT) – Bellerin (IN)
Martin (OUT) – Sakho (IN)
Ogbonna (OUT) – Ward (IN)
Williams (OUT) – Gabriel (IN)
Dier (OUT) – Evans (IN)
Ozil (OUT) – Sanchez (IN)
Mahrez (OUT) – Barkley (IN)
Arnautovic (OUT) – Bolasie (IN)
Alli (OUT) – Coutinho (IN)
Kane (OUT) – Lukaku (IN)
Vardy (OUT) – Ighalo (IN)
13 changes, so absolutely no messing about from the FPL Updates XI backroom staff! In it’s current state it covers 4 double gameweek players this week with a full 15 next week, where the Bench Boost chip looks the one! Without too much chat about next week let’s see how we line up for gameweek 33.
Jack Butland has gone! We can honestly say we now know how hard it was for Rose to let go of her Jack in Titanic! ‘I’ll never let go. I promise’. Oh we feel ya Rose! So now the Updates XI has spent the past week mourning the loss we move onto starting Simon Mignolet! What have we let ourselves in for! Well he has a double gameweek next week and is probably a little better than Karl Darlow for this week. Well maybe. Not that I know who the f**k Karl Darlow is. Stoke home will do, even if they have scored 6 goals in their last 3 away games.
The back 3 is completely new look. How we have failed to own Hector Bellerin until this week is almost inexcusable. Seeing as we have missed his 35 points over the last 3 weeks I’m fully expecting, in true FPL style, Arsenal to concede in their next 7 games whilst we own him. Mo Sakho is in. As Joey Barton recently said, he is the most unorthodox, efficient, unbalanced, effective defender on the planet. We tend to agree. At 4.7m he looks a worthwhile option with good fixtures and no blank week. Last up is our only bit of double gameweek defensive coverage, Joel Ward. Nice and cheap and a fairly decent couple games this week, he is in.
Just the one midfielder survives and he doesn’t even start. Dimitri Payet benched. Yes, I am expecting some Twitter abuse for this, but we can’t help but feel our other 4 justify selection over him. Barkley is in. He is a worrying one. Aside from his 2 penalties against Newcastle in February he hasn’t actually scored a goal since November. His 2 double gameweek’s are good enough for us to show some faith. Also, he is going to hell bent on making the plane to France, so in Ross we believe. Yannick Bolasie get’s a late call up. He wasn’t part of our original plans, but we are gambling on him. No goal for him since November would ordinarily mean no chance of a look in with our squad. We are confident of at least 1 attacking return over this week and his low 3.7% ownership made our minds up. The 2 midfielders we start with just 1 game this week are Sanchez and Coutinho. Both looked great last week and seem no brainers to own for next week.
So to the front 3. Letting go of Harry Kane was almost as hard as Butland. Not quite, but almost. It’s not often you sell the league’s top scorer in the midst of a purple patch, but double gameweek’s make you do some funny things. With him out Romelu Lukaku is in and he also get’s the armband. Everton’s away form is actually pretty good (excluding United last week), so Watford and Palace this week look good for him. His 40% ownership will no doubt increase before tomorrow’s deadline so it seems sensible to own him. Next to him is Odion Ighalo. Yes, we know what you are thinking and no, we have no clue what we are doing here too! But we had 5.7m left in the bank and needed a cheap striker with a double gameweek next week. Also, Everton are rubbish at the back so we will show faith. Even if he was bloody woeful for us back in January and February. Last up is Sergio Aguero. The second of only 2 survivors of the wildcard cull and surprisingly only owned by 33% of teams. He has WBA home this week, a double gameweek next and a fixture in gameweek 35 so he should be the first name on every team sheet in my opinion. Especially give the return of Kevin De Bruyne. KDB plays Aguero scores, it’s just how it works.
Since our terrible start the aim has always been the top 50k and given the current line up and chips locked and loaded ready to go we are confident of achieving that. There are many trains of thought for the upcoming weeks and the next 3 weeks will determine the men from the boys in the world of FPL so use your free transfers, wildcards and chips wisely and the FPL Updates team is always round and willing to help.
Good luck to all, I’m off to pretend I haven’t transferred out Mahrez and Kane and replaced them with Bolasie and Ighalo. As we said, double gameweek’s make you do some funny things!
Written by FPL Guru
