FPL GW19 Team Selection

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Welcome back for another article. 📖

A disaster gameweek with 36 points out, one of the strongest teams I've fielded all season, everyone with a solid home fixtures besides the Man City triple up away at Forest who all blanked. No clean sheet from City, Liverpool or Raya who all conceded once, Timber not in the squad which meant Mukiele off the bench who did hit defcon at least. Thank god it's a quick turnaround because it's pretty mad who much the team underperformed. Dubravka with the 11 point haul though I was never starting him over Raya, well done if you had him starting. 🧤 The red arrow was so big that even if I'd gotten Dubravka and Andersen's points it was still a red. New rank is about 37K. 📉

The three players that came in were Cunha, Ekitike who only got an assist between them, Bruno, Semenyo and Guiu left the team.

Let's run through the team for GW19. ⚽

Goalkeeper

Although Villa are on an unbelievable run of 11 wins in a row, Arsenal are top of the GW19 bookies clean sheet odds given a 50% chance. Second is Man Utd home to Wolves, then Liverpool and Man City are joint third, then Newcastle, Chelsea, Forest, Palace. Villa will be missing both Cash and Kamara through yellow card suspension who could be big misses. 🛡️

Defence

It's a back 4 this week which is Van Dijk, O'Reilly, Timber and Andersen.

• Timber: So yeah Timber not in the Arsenal squad, the rumours are that it was just a precautionary measure and is expected back, though we won't hear from Arteta before the deadline - not that he'd give us anything honest or useful. So unless we get training pics with him or something like that it's down to unofficial sources that could be wrong. There would be some logic to giving him the Brighton game off, White and Mosquera are out still so they're probably about to start him on the 30th, the 3rd and the 8th, with FA Cup and League Cup straight after that, so he does need managing. Maybe they felt Brighton home is the game they could afford to rest him, but I'd have expected he at least made the bench so who knows. Anyway, a decision to make with him transfer wise.

• O'Reilly: O'Reilly has ended up literally the worst scoring of the four Man City defenders over the last 4 gameweeks, the other three all have attacking returns over that run and bonus points. Gotta stick it out with O'Reilly though, way too much of a luxury move to consider switching.

• Van Dijk: Van Dijk's been painful as well actually, conceding to the worst team in the league last gameweek, and 10 man Spurs the game before that. They are winning games but the lack of clean sheets isn't good, I'll likely keep him until at least GW22 when they have Burnley home and then make a call on him, maybe Gabriel in.

• Andersen: I wouldn't mind some low scoring games if it means some more clean sheets this week after how horrendously last gameweek went. Palace away could be a good fixture for defcon for Andersen, he's averaging exactly 11 per 90 this season, which ranks third best in the league after Senesi and Collins. Keane by the way doing better than Tarkowski!

LegoMane makes awesome fixture ticker graphics, this one shows all competitions including cups, plus colour co-ordination based on recovery periods. It really helps visualise just how hectic the schedule is right now, I wonder if Ake gets a start at some point, when you look at how mad their schedule in particular is. Just hope it's for Gvardiol and not O'Reilly. Those teams in particular with 3 red bars in a row could have particular rotation risk, Man City, Brentford, Fulham, Palace, Spurs, Leeds, Sunderland. 🗓️

Midfield

The midfield trio is Foden, Saka and Cunha.

• Cunha: Cunha captain this week, this does seem quite close because Sunderland isn't a bad fixture for City at all. Last time I went against Haaland is backfired with Bruno blanking besides defcon, but he did go on to show exactly why he can be captain material. He's registered 3.4 non pen xGI over the last 4, Haaland for comparison 1.99. Cunha has a good chance of taking any pens in Bruno's absence as well. armband:

• Saka & Foden: Saka really should've had more from that Brighton game, he put a chance on a plate for Martinelli late on which he skied, that would've been maximum bonus as well. He took 7 shots which was more than any player last gameweek as well, all 7 were in the box. Rice ended up matching him with the assist from a corner own goal, happy to keep the faith in Saka for a while longer and then pivot to Bruno or Palmer.

Forwards

The front 3 is Ekitike, Thiago and Haaland. 🚀

Good coverage of the top clean sheet odds and projected goals this week which hopefully leads to some good points this time round, Man Utd are top with 2.4 goals, then Chelsea, Liverpool and City joint second with 2.1, then Arsenal 2.0.

• Ekitike: Will see how the next few gameweeks go between Saka and Ekitike, I'm not opposed to swapping Ekitike to Palmer or Bruno instead after that Burnley game, though with 8 goals 2 assists despite limited minutes he's showing he could be a good hold. He's averaged a goal involvement every 104 minutes.

• Thiago: Thiago's turned into a bit of a differential for me again, he banged in 5 goals in 3 games straight after first buying him then the returns dried up coincidentally when he became template, an assist vs Bournemouth and hopefully he can kick on again now his ownership has plummeted. Spurs home next which won't be easy, Spurs have actually kept 4 clean sheets away which is joint most of any team.

• Haaland: Haaland vice captain then. Really need to think this one over fully because the rank downside is big. Was a brutal red arrow going Bruno captain over him that week Haaland smashed in 14 points. The captain widget has Cunha on 5 stars, Haaland on 4 so I'll likely put my money where my mouth is and back the widget. 🦾

Bench

The bench is Dubravka, Le Fee, Mukiele and Ba.

Just about the only positive last gameweek was Le Fee avoided a fifth yellow but it's a shocking bench really. He took a few corners and an indirect free kick so that was what he was bought for, hope to get lucky off one of those routes to points when he's starting, plus there's the penalties if they win one.

Strategy & Future Plans

1 free transfer and nothing in the bank. I really want to get some rolled transfers because obviously it makes you significantly more flexible. Therefore the plan is to roll this week. 🎟️

It was a bit aggressive making 3 moves last gameweek for Cunha and Ekitike, but it felt like the team could have the potential to roll more and have a set up that few have, you know with Foden, Saka, Cunha, Ekitike, Thiago, Haaland plus a few premium defenders.

But yeah the asterisk is if nothing else goes wrong I've got the option to roll, it usually does doesn't it!

See you soon for the next one. 👋

Please note my team and plans aren’t locked in and can change!

Welcome back for another article. 📖

A disaster gameweek with 36 points out, one of the strongest teams I've fielded all season, everyone with a solid home fixtures besides the Man City triple up away at Forest who all blanked. No clean sheet from City, Liverpool or Raya who all conceded once, Timber not in the squad which meant Mukiele off the bench who did hit defcon at least. Thank god it's a quick turnaround because it's pretty mad who much the team underperformed. Dubravka with the 11 point haul though I was never starting him over Raya, well done if you had him starting. 🧤 The red arrow was so big that even if I'd gotten Dubravka and Andersen's points it was still a red. New rank is about 37K. 📉

The three players that came in were Cunha, Ekitike who only got an assist between them, Bruno, Semenyo and Guiu left the team.

Let's run through the team for GW19. ⚽

Goalkeeper

Although Villa are on an unbelievable run of 11 wins in a row, Arsenal are top of the GW19 bookies clean sheet odds given a 50% chance. Second is Man Utd home to Wolves, then Liverpool and Man City are joint third, then Newcastle, Chelsea, Forest, Palace. Villa will be missing both Cash and Kamara through yellow card suspension who could be big misses. 🛡️

Defence

It's a back 4 this week which is Van Dijk, O'Reilly, Timber and Andersen.

• Timber: So yeah Timber not in the Arsenal squad, the rumours are that it was just a precautionary measure and is expected back, though we won't hear from Arteta before the deadline - not that he'd give us anything honest or useful. So unless we get training pics with him or something like that it's down to unofficial sources that could be wrong. There would be some logic to giving him the Brighton game off, White and Mosquera are out still so they're probably about to start him on the 30th, the 3rd and the 8th, with FA Cup and League Cup straight after that, so he does need managing. Maybe they felt Brighton home is the game they could afford to rest him, but I'd have expected he at least made the bench so who knows. Anyway, a decision to make with him transfer wise.

• O'Reilly: O'Reilly has ended up literally the worst scoring of the four Man City defenders over the last 4 gameweeks, the other three all have attacking returns over that run and bonus points. Gotta stick it out with O'Reilly though, way too much of a luxury move to consider switching.

• Van Dijk: Van Dijk's been painful as well actually, conceding to the worst team in the league last gameweek, and 10 man Spurs the game before that. They are winning games but the lack of clean sheets isn't good, I'll likely keep him until at least GW22 when they have Burnley home and then make a call on him, maybe Gabriel in.

• Andersen: I wouldn't mind some low scoring games if it means some more clean sheets this week after how horrendously last gameweek went. Palace away could be a good fixture for defcon for Andersen, he's averaging exactly 11 per 90 this season, which ranks third best in the league after Senesi and Collins. Keane by the way doing better than Tarkowski!

LegoMane makes awesome fixture ticker graphics, this one shows all competitions including cups, plus colour co-ordination based on recovery periods. It really helps visualise just how hectic the schedule is right now, I wonder if Ake gets a start at some point, when you look at how mad their schedule in particular is. Just hope it's for Gvardiol and not O'Reilly. Those teams in particular with 3 red bars in a row could have particular rotation risk, Man City, Brentford, Fulham, Palace, Spurs, Leeds, Sunderland. 🗓️

Midfield

The midfield trio is Foden, Saka and Cunha.

• Cunha: Cunha captain this week, this does seem quite close because Sunderland isn't a bad fixture for City at all. Last time I went against Haaland is backfired with Bruno blanking besides defcon, but he did go on to show exactly why he can be captain material. He's registered 3.4 non pen xGI over the last 4, Haaland for comparison 1.99. Cunha has a good chance of taking any pens in Bruno's absence as well. armband:

• Saka & Foden: Saka really should've had more from that Brighton game, he put a chance on a plate for Martinelli late on which he skied, that would've been maximum bonus as well. He took 7 shots which was more than any player last gameweek as well, all 7 were in the box. Rice ended up matching him with the assist from a corner own goal, happy to keep the faith in Saka for a while longer and then pivot to Bruno or Palmer.

Forwards

The front 3 is Ekitike, Thiago and Haaland. 🚀

Good coverage of the top clean sheet odds and projected goals this week which hopefully leads to some good points this time round, Man Utd are top with 2.4 goals, then Chelsea, Liverpool and City joint second with 2.1, then Arsenal 2.0.

• Ekitike: Will see how the next few gameweeks go between Saka and Ekitike, I'm not opposed to swapping Ekitike to Palmer or Bruno instead after that Burnley game, though with 8 goals 2 assists despite limited minutes he's showing he could be a good hold. He's averaged a goal involvement every 104 minutes.

• Thiago: Thiago's turned into a bit of a differential for me again, he banged in 5 goals in 3 games straight after first buying him then the returns dried up coincidentally when he became template, an assist vs Bournemouth and hopefully he can kick on again now his ownership has plummeted. Spurs home next which won't be easy, Spurs have actually kept 4 clean sheets away which is joint most of any team.

• Haaland: Haaland vice captain then. Really need to think this one over fully because the rank downside is big. Was a brutal red arrow going Bruno captain over him that week Haaland smashed in 14 points. The captain widget has Cunha on 5 stars, Haaland on 4 so I'll likely put my money where my mouth is and back the widget. 🦾

Bench

The bench is Dubravka, Le Fee, Mukiele and Ba.

Just about the only positive last gameweek was Le Fee avoided a fifth yellow but it's a shocking bench really. He took a few corners and an indirect free kick so that was what he was bought for, hope to get lucky off one of those routes to points when he's starting, plus there's the penalties if they win one.

Strategy & Future Plans

1 free transfer and nothing in the bank. I really want to get some rolled transfers because obviously it makes you significantly more flexible. Therefore the plan is to roll this week. 🎟️

It was a bit aggressive making 3 moves last gameweek for Cunha and Ekitike, but it felt like the team could have the potential to roll more and have a set up that few have, you know with Foden, Saka, Cunha, Ekitike, Thiago, Haaland plus a few premium defenders.

But yeah the asterisk is if nothing else goes wrong I've got the option to roll, it usually does doesn't it!

See you soon for the next one. 👋

Please note my team and plans aren’t locked in and can change!