Well, we’ve had worse weeks with the FPL Updates XI. In what has been a fairly disappointing season we decided to wait until the last few weeks to absolutely smash the granny out of it. After gameweek 35 we sat outside of the top 1m having seen our mini revival stunted by back to back red arrows. Therefore the players and staff would have been forgiven if they decided to shift their attention from green arrows to summer pool parties in Marbella.
Instead we hit the training ground, worked on our attacking movement and made the most of our Wildcard and Bench Boost. The 86pts last week moved us up to 772k and gave us outside hope of making the top 500k. Not quite the pre-season hopes of the top 100k, but a way of finishing on a high, and that is exactly how gameweek 37 went.
199pts! The highest score of any team I have ever run in FPL and all I can think about is Leroy Sane and Rob Holding getting booked! 1 bloody point off joining the 200 club. One day. Anyway, our big score meant we finished 1,484th for the week and moved up to 314k overall.
Any chance of a contract extension and a pay rise boys? You know where I am.
11pts between Willy Caballero and Jordan Pickford was fine. Nothing to write home about, but contributed sufficiently. It would be wrong to ignore Pickford’s obscene game against Arsenal though. 11 saves in a masterful display says to me that he will be an FPL pick next season regardless of Sunderland’s relegation. The boy is a class act.
At the back we picked up some really helpful totals. We had brought in bargain basement Rob Holding in gameweek 36 and after scoring just 9pts all season he racked us up 22pts over the two weeks we have had him. Certianly one of the more pleasing transfers we have made this season. Alongside the Arsenal man we had Jack Stephens and Maya Yoshida who scored 8pts and 9pts respectively. If it wasn’t for that pesky Patrick Bamford they would have both picked up two cleanies and comfortably surpassed double figures. Ben Davies failed to register a clean sheet in either game but picked up two assists and 11pts. Since starting in place of the injured Danny Rose in gameweek 24 he has averaged 4.8pts a match. Chris Brunt came in due to the double but his fixtures against Chelsea and Man City proved too much.
Our midfield certainly came to play so why start with anyone other than Alexis Sanchez. We gave him the armband knowing he had Stoke and Sunderland and he duly delivered. Surprisingly there were quite a few Twitter folk questioning this decision last week, we wont name names, but 54pts suggests we got it right. Up until the Leicester-Spurs game it was actually the highest individual FPL total of the season. I wont lie, it was a little ‘squeaky bum time’ at the Emirates on Tuesday night as Jordan Pickford channelled his inner Gig Buffon, but thankfully the Chilean notched a couple late on. He wasn’t the only midfielder of ours to break double figures. Heung Min Son may have blanked against Man United but went crazy against Leicester. Two goals and an assist meant he scored 19pts and took his overall total to 169pts. Stunning numbers for a player that has only completed 90 minutes on seven separate occassions in the league this season. Leroy Sane hit 12pts with two assists against Leicester, Pedro scored a miserly 4pts given that Antonio Conte rotated heavily and our sole single gamer Josh King scored 9pts following his 14th goal of the season against Burnley. When your midfield five score 98pts combined I think it’s safe to assume you’re going to be rolling in green arrows.
Up top wasn’t too bad either. Aside from our Marcus Rashford gamble not really paying off we had 19pts from Gabriel Jesus and 31pts from Harry Kane. The highest weekly score from any player this season. After scoring once against Man United he followed up with four goals and an assist against Leicester to soar to the top of the scoring charts. Just imagine if he started doing this for England. I also think we need to start preparing ourselves for the fact we will need to part with at least 12m to acquire his services next season. Gabriel Jesus’ 19pts were more evenly split with 8pts against Leicester and 11pts against WBA. Six goals in the six games he played at least 20 minutes suggests he could well be the real deal. Really interested to see how this summer pans out at City. If Sergio Aguero happened to leave I think Jesus becomes an absolute must-have next season.
What a week! Now I’m over us missing out on breaking 200 I can look back at our week fondly. It is clear that if the FPL keep the bulk of these chips next season (I’m fairly sure they will oversee a change this summer) that using the Wildcard and Bench Boost in unison with a big double gameweek is the way forward. If only we had been a bit more consistent throughout the entirety of the season. 18 weeks of green arrows over 37 just isn’t good enough. We do have the chance to make it exactly half the gameweek’s with green arrows this week though and it would be great to finish on a continued high. With no transfers made in gameweek 35 and the Wildcard in gameweek 36 it means we have two free transfers this week. We are avoiding taking a hi and happy to use just the two.
Rashford (OUT) – Sturridge (IN)
Sane (OUT) – Stanislas (IN)
Marcus Rashford in for one week may not go down as the most inspired of transfers by me but even I underestimated Jose Mourinho’s utter contempt with the Premier League. How f*cking dare they have the audacity to expect Man United to play actual Premier League matches. So he comes out, along with Leroy Sane to accommodate Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge is looking sharp right now and the fact we don’t have to rely on him past this week makes the move even more appealing. Home to Middlesbrough is also a huge bonus.
So with just 90 minutes of Premier League football left let’s see how we set up for it.
In goal we’ve got ourselves some Big Willy Style. Caballero starts against Watford and although I tend to think Watford will score I just can’t start Jordan Pickford at The Bridge.
At the back it has been quite a challenge to know which three to start. We decided to hedge our bets and start one Southampton defender and bench the other. Maya Yoshida starts and Jack Stephens warms the bench. Rob Holding starts at home to Everton with Arsenal still wanting to win to give them a chance at the top four and they are joined by Ben Davies. Hull down, Spurs still playing well and Davies bombing forward. He had to start.
Our midfield decision was a little easier given that we only have to bench one but given my ability to tempt fate Junior Stanislas will no doubt score a couple. We do start his team mate Josh King though. How his ownership is under 20% hurts my head trying to comprehend it. Even if 50% of the teams are ‘dead’ teams I still can’t understand how he’s not sitting on 35%-40%. Anyway, his points have helped us and hopefully he can finish the season in the same way. Pedro gets the start. Question marks surround Chelsea’s line up this week with the league won and the FA Cup on the horizon but Pedro didn’t start against Watford so I think he starts here. Heung Min Son starts against Hull looking to add to his 14 league goals and last weeks captain Alexis Sanchez starts against Everton but only gets the vice captaincy this week.
Up top we welcome in new boy Daniel Sturridge. I will be completely honest and admit I didn’t think for one second that we include him in our team at any point this season. Klopp just doesn’t seem to rate him and he has the fitness levels of my 87 year old nan. But he does have the potential to smash any given game. We need to gamble if we want to have one last push for the top 250k and this looks the best one this week. He joins Gabriel Jesus against a Watford team that have conceded 14 in their last six games and our final captain of the season Harry Kane. His frankly ridiculous performance against Leicester has catapulted him to the top of the Premier League scoring charts and he will be wanting to add to that against relegated Hull. 24 goals scored this season with half of them coming in the last nine games he’s played in, he looks the main man this week.
So there we have it. The final FPL Updates XI line up of the season. It’s been a mixed season but I’m really keen to finish on a high and take the buzz through to next season. Especially as we are walking into a completely football-less summer. Will Tuesday morning be too early to start drafting out my 2017/18 team?
Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone still competing overall or for any mini league places. As always don’t hesitate to give myself and FPL Updates a tweet over the weekend if you need any last minute advice. We are always happy to help out.
Written by FPL Guru (@FPL_Guru_)
