I asked FOUR FPL World Champions for their current teams. So who have the Champions picked in their teams? What can we learn from their picks?

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Jonas Sand Låbakk

Jonas is a recent world champion, with 2,799 points a couple of years ago. An analytical manager and his team is Raya, Williams, Mosquera, Shaw, Anderson, Bruno, Gross, Szoboszlai, Calvert-Lewin, Haaland and Joao Pedro.

On his bench Dovin, Convot, Tavernier and Van Ewijk.

I asked each Champion for their thoughts and insight. Here's what Jonas said:

🗣️ Jonas's Insights:

• Raya safe way into the Arsenal defense, who I think will continue to be good defensively this season, even without Saliba for the beginning. Same goes for Mosquera and I like that double up.

• If Neco plays in the Munoz position, he will prove to be crazy value at just 5.0 imo.

• Shaw and Canvot rotate well for the start of the season. Canvot great for defcon - potentially the best 5.0 defcon defender imo.

• Bruno has so many routes to points, he’s a no brainer for me. Same goes for Szob who might be on pens, but we don’t know if Isak will be the designated pen taker. I still believe Szob will play 90 and Isak probably not, so he defo has some pen share.

• Anderson is the least nailed mid in my team rn. But if Rodri leaves, I think he will continue to do the defcons.

• Gross may have pens and in that case be the standout 5.5 option.

• Same goes for Tav at 6.0, but I believe Kluivert will take them. He can be Ndiaye for example if he stays at Everton.

• Haaland, I don’t really think I need to say too much.

• Joao Pedro would be interesting to see how performs. Came off a good season last year, but can easily downgrade to someone like DCL and spend that money in midfield.

• Hopefully Solanke manages to stay fit, I really like him for 6m possibly instead of Calvert-Lewin but he picked up a knock in pre-season so that's not off to a great start. If spurs don’t sign another striker I think he will take pens, and he’s got good stats to back him up. But there is some rotation risk with him.

• The structure is also something that’s important for me. I have 14/15 playing players, and there is not a single player I need more than two transfers to get to. Which is ideal to begin with.

• I'm currently looking to bench boost later than GW1 or GW2.

Really good team from Jonas, and it is a good reminder how strong a team you can build when you're not working towards an early bench boost. That said if any of you are already on a 3-4-3 formation you're almost there, perhaps Tavernier to a slightly cheaper mid to upgrade Dovin to a 4.5m and then it's almost bench boostable. I can see the appeal though and who am I to question a champion!

Gross is looking like such good value for 5.5. In case you're not aware Brighton have to play Europa Conference League play offs before GW1, and again right after GW1. So they're playing on Thursday 20th, and Thursday 27th, plus they have games on Sundays the opening weeks so that's perhaps the only criticism you can have of Brighton assets, it's not great they're playing midweek and weekends before a Premier League ball is even kicked. Set pieces, pens, corners - 5.5m is great anyway.

Canvot's been going so under the radar, there are an unbelievable amount of good 5m defenders to be fair and we'll get another Senesi this season. Last year Canvot averaged 10.6 defcons per start, only Hill and Senesi averaged more. Technically Lacroix did as well actually but literally only 0.1 more defcons per start.

Simon March

Simon is an FPL Champion and had a bunch of Top 10K finishes to his name.

It's Raya in goal, Gvardiol, Tarkowski and Williams in defence. Bruno, Szobo, Gross and Le Fee in midfield. Calvert-Lewin, Haaland and Joao Pedro up front. On his bench he's got Steele, Pedro Porro, Slater and Thomas.

Simon said the following:

🧤 GK

• Raya is expensive but there’s value in certainty and he offers a nailed-on route into the best defence in the league.

🛡️ DEF

• In defence, James Tarkowski’s defcon potential and Josko Gvardiol’s fixtures make them the rocks for my defence with Pedro Porro and Neco Williams adding some attacking flair and Bobby Thomas as the backup.

⚽ MID

• The midfielder profile I’m looking for is; nailed on, 90 minutes, on set-pieces, ideally penalties, some defcon potential and some open play threat. To varying degrees, these criteria apply to all four of Bruno Fernandes, Dominik Szoboszlai, Enzo Le Fee and Pascal Groß.

• I don’t expect huge scores from all of these but I’m banking on their more predictable supply of more moderate points being enough to offset those bigger attacking hauls, which I think are more difficult to predict, particularly at this stage of the season.These types of players often don’t need to do much in order to get bonus points either, which is a bonus (literally).

🎯 FWD

• Up front, Haaland’s fixtures and captaincy potential justify his place despite the 15.5m price tag. If Joao Pedro can generate 24 attacking returns in a side which finished 10th last season, he’s surely a great prospect at 7.5m in a likely improved Chelsea. Dominic Calvert-Lewin also looks great value at 6.0m with his nailed on status, tendency to play 90+ minutes and penalties all adding to his appeal.

So lots of cross over with Jonas's draft: Raya, Bruno, Szobo, Gross, DCL, Joao Pedro, Haaland.

We'll have to see if Pedro Porro is back for GW1 or not, but in this case it's irrelevant, Simon's set up really well to be able to bench him the first gameweek. Tarkowski is incredibly reliable for defcons and that should continue, and he's gone for Raya as his Arsenal defensive asset which is smart, basically this team is set up to avoid committing to an early wildcard. It's not necessarily bad to commit to a GW4 or GW6 wildcard but what if it were possible to not need it with some better longer term picks. That's what I'm weighing up with my team, there's some great short term picks, the likes of Hume, Mosquera, Shaw, Gomez but they may or may not become issues later depending on the window.

Lovro Budišin

Okay so lots of overlap between the first two, how about this next draft with a far more different set up?

Lovro is an even more recent world champion, 2024/25 champion.

He's gone Kinsky, Gvardiol, Calafiori, Munoz, Foden, Mbeumo, Palmer, Sarr, Brobbey, Haaland and Joao Pedro. With a bench of Dubravka, Wilson, Kadioglu and Thomas.

Here's what he said:

🗣️ Lovro's Insights:

• I'm still waiting for the final pre-season games before I start to truly lock players in, so right now I'm mostly just trying to get an idea of what kind of team I can build within the budget. I'm sure my team will look quite different in the final few days before the deadline!

• I think a lot depends on whether I decide to go with the BB GW1 strategy or not. At the moment, I'm leaning slightly towards using the Bench Boost straight away, but that could still easily change, and will need to change the bench if I do.

• Depending on a few transfers, some players could suddenly become very interesting, especially if their roles within their teams change significantly.

• I'm also still fighting an internal battle over the DEFCON defenders 😂, so for now I've gone with more attacking options.

• I think the start of the season could be really interesting with so many new managers around the league. I'll probably spend the first few GWs observing how things develop and looking for interesting picks to target when I eventually use my Wildcard.

So no Bruno, instead Palmer and he's spread that money around the team with 3 5.5m defenders, his cheapest mid being 6.5m Sarr and even has 6.5m Wilson on the bench to rotate in. It's potentially too much money to have sat on the bench, 6.5m is a lot and Wilson may share set pieces with Stach or not take them at all which puts me off him a bit despite how good he was at Fulham. Let's see how he beds in. Palmer is another question mark for me, he's not lit it up in pre-season unlike Joao Pedro so is Palmer back or is something still going on there?

Ben Crabtree

Lastly Ben Crabtree who won FPL with style points going no Liverpool the entire season because he's a Everton fan, this was right before Salah arrives and I'm sure he's glad to see the back of Salah again now that avoiding Liverpool might work again.

He's gone Verbruggen, Gvardiol, Mykolenko, Calafiori, Mbeumo, Semenyo, Ndiasye, Cunha, DCL, Haaland and Joao Pedro.

So he's got a bench of Rushworth, Rogers, Bogle and Van Ewuijk.

Ben said:

🗣️ Ben's Insights:

• I have settled on my attackers quite quickly with just a little question mark over Rogers starting gameweek 1 but I’ve been unsure on the defence. After deciding to bench boost in gameweek 2 followed by a likely, but not locked in wildcard shortly after, I’ve landed on some cheaper defenders that I’m happy with due to the short term nature of them. Gvardiol and Calafiori I like a lot but are rotation risks. I’m hoping good early form will at least keep them secure at the beginning. Bogle, Mykolenko and Van Ewijk all have reasonable fixtures for gameweek 1 and the gameweek 2 bench boost. The plan is to have 2 transfers for gameweek 3 where I’ll likely make at least one defensive transfer, hoping my attack will be in good shape and not need any changes.

• In midfield, the double up on Man U is to attack their first two fixtures with having to make the compromises that Fernandes requires. Cunha has a question mark over him at the moment so I will monitor his likely start and might have to make a late change. Tzolis would be on my thoughts here in the absence of another good, affordable Man U midfielder.

• Unless his form drops then Semenyo looks like a season keeper. Ndiaye would ideally be Dewsbury Hall and would probably become him if the Cunha to Tzolis switch happens. Rogers is a player I really like and is ok to bench for gameweek 1 on the assumption he’s deemed fully fit to start gameweek 2. I see myself owing him for a lot of the season.

• Up front feels like the obvious 3. Haaland and the underpriced Pedro are easy picks with DCL having the pre season form and early fixtures to be the safest bet for the 6m slot.

• In goal, I’m keeping it cheap with Rushworth in just for the bench boost. Again, a Cunha to Tzolis switch would allow an upgrade where I could go for a 5m keeper.

So he's our first world champion looking at the GW2 bench boost. The midfield is absolutely incredible and goes to show no Bruno has potential, especially when you have both Mbeumo and Cunha who could easily link up for goals with Bruno uninvolved and you wouldn't be at all surprised. It allows you to have Semenyo who is tearing it up in pre-season as well, plus Rogers and Ndiaye. As an Everton fan his two picks are Mykolenko and Ndiaye.

Who's got your favourite draft?

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