Welcome back for another article 🚀

It's been just over a week and I've made a huge number of changes to my team plus a change of chip strategy. My intention is to use it in GW2.

There's one major sticking point with delaying the bench boost, so rather than using it in one of the first two gameweeks you wait until after the first wildcard, and that is the fact that you will probably still need to spend a minimum of 4.5m on your second keeper, same as now. And we so rarely make goalkeeper transfers let alone on a backup so I'm seeing a world where you have that extra 0.5m sat on your bench all the way from your first wildcard until your second. 0.5m is actually a lot especially when you're talking potentially 20 to 30 gameweeks, 0.5m could be the tipping point some weeks that gives an edge. I want a 4m second keeper whether they ever play for their club or not. 🧤

The downside to BB1 or BB2 is you have to make sacrifices from the start of the season, instead of a 4.5m third forward and 4m bench keeper you're going to need at least 5.5m or 6m on that third forward and 0.5m on the second goalie, so that's 1.5m to 2m extra needed from somewhere else in your team. 📉

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🧤 Goalkeeper

So let's get in to the team. In goal the first change since the last draft is Raya has dropped down to Kinsky, 1.5m freed up. 🔄

I'm expecting to see a completely different Spurs side to what we saw last season before he came in. Even then he had a huge impact after arriving, after joining he turned Spurs around defensively to the best team in the league for xGC. They won't be #1 over the next 38 gameweeks but he should provide good value for 4.5m and he's having a strong pre-season if that's any indicator. 🛡️

🛡️ Defenders

In defence it's Mosquera, Shaw and Maguire.

Hoping that Man Utd don't sign a new left back and instead see this season as give Shaw another year and grow academy product Amass but we'll see, Hall has been rumoured as someone they're considering. Man Utd have the best two opening games. One of the things I like about BB2 much more over BB1 is number 1 you can see how the first week went just in case your read was wrong on any players, like maybe Carrick surprises us and Amass or Yoro start over Shaw or Maguire, it's unlikely but just to give an example of something that could happen to any of the 15 players, in which case bail on the plan. 🔴

The other more significant reason is it's home fixtures on the GW2 bench boost. Tons of my players have away games in GW1 but in GW2 you've got fixtures like Coventry home to Hull, Man Utd have Ipswich home, Bournemouth have Everton home - whatever it is you're targeting on the bench. 🏠

⚽ Midfielders

The midfield 5 is Anderson, Bruno, Semenyo, Szoboszlai and Sangare.

Let's talk about Sangare first. It's an unbelievable signing Brentford have pulled off. Got a graphic here from Alex Vollo to put in perspective just how good his defensive numbers are. You can see he actually achieved slightly more defcons per 90 than Anderson and slightly better for xGI per 90. 📈

The big question when a player moves from another league is can they achieve it in the Premier League? The most competitive league in the world. I do genuinely think he will be able to adapt and continue delivering top defcon numbers. Last season he had a 65% hit, plus 7 goal involvements. Only 5 yellows all season as well. I like Ampadu for the same price though his defcon numbers weren't quite as good, you can see he got about 12 defcons per 90 last season, but he did also get twice as many yellows with 10. So will he be this year's Anderson? For 5.5m as it stands I'm happy to find out and he's in. Gross is a really good 5.5m option I'm also considering.

Here's my defcon table on Scout, so you've got defcons per start, average defcon points earned per start, total earned, hit rate per appearance and per start. If you go to public data tables in the Scout members area and search my name you'll find all 11 of my tables used in content, feel free to steal them. Link below to join with a discount. 📊

Semenyo in my eyes is going to be a key player in Maresca's system, he can play both wings exceptionally and he's one of the few players I'm doing my absolute best not to compromise on. Are there any players in your team that you feel like you won't be taking out between now and GW1?

Palace away in GW2 could be very good, Lacroix is gone, Wharton is a question mark, Glasner gone. Coventry home in GW3, then the Manchester derby, then Sunderland home. Just such a good opening 5 and he's the most secure Man City attacker after Haaland. 🎯

One thing I'm going to have to keep in mind with Anderson is to stay patient. He very rarely had a big game, his first double digit return ironically came against Man City, maybe that was the game that sealed it for the Man City board to say we need to sign this guy at any price. Anyway, my point is he ticked along with some very unglamorous returns, lots of 4s and 5s but by the time you get to GW38 boom that's 180 points he's totalled which is big. ⏳

Bruno is another player I'm not going to compromise on and Szoboszlai is feeling fairly locked as well but Szobo could be sacrificed if an interesting combination pops up. I do really like Wirtz, scored the other day in pre-season and Iraola says he wants him playing as 10 not left wing, just behind Isak. 🔒

🎯 Forwards

And then up front it's Joao Pedro, nothing to write home about and admittedly template. No Haaland does have some genuine legs and I'm really interested to see how many go for it come GW1. We'll have to see what is Community Shield involvement looks like as well, that will be a spanner in the works if he's benched or not in the squad as Man City give him an extended rest before GW1. I expect he'll definitely be involved though, that's on Sunday 16th of August. 🏆

🪑 Bench Boost

So let's talk about the bench boost. The bench is Leno, Wright, Thomas, Van Ewijk.

So I've got 2 things to say about this:

• 1️⃣ Number 1 let me say first of all the bench boost is an overrated chip especially when it's a single gameweek bench. I'd take a 12 point bench.

• 2️⃣ The other obvious thing to underline is the fact that it's a big bet on Coventry. They are facing Hull which is what helps make BB2 so appealing. You can own 2 base price players for 4m that play them home. A clean sheet in that fixture would make the bench boost a major success in my eyes. In the Championship last season home and away both games ended 0 - 0 interestingly.

I'm finding it almost impossible to find anywhere I'm comfortable taking money out of the starting 11 to improve the bench, suggestions welcomed. Maguire could drop to a 4.5m defender, but which one that has a good GW2 fixture? That .4 would let me upgrade Van Ewijk to a 4.5m defender as well so I'd have two 4.5's instead of a 5 and a 4. 💡

Spend a ton of time on it and could not find a combination of 4.5's I liked so it's a big bet on Coventry.

As it stands it seems like Wright has a good chance of leading the line for Coventry, Simms can start as well and they both start together. One of them on the wing and Mason-Clark on the other potentially. Wright can run hot and cold, on his day unplayable but can be a frustrating player as well. I just need him to run hot in GW2 and that's it, not expecting him to be a good season long pick. ⚽

One option is Sangare to Rugoni who is a 5m highly rated Coventry midfielder. He did have shoulder surgery at the end of the season, so may be bedded back into full game slowly therefore not willing to risk him. There's Sakamoto for 5m as well. Wright is prolific from the penalty spot as well, he'll be on pen duties for them, has buried 17 missed 2 in his career. He's only just joined up for pre-season having been with the USA at the World Cup so that's why he's only been involved in one game for them so far. 🎯

I'm unsure about Fulham defence honestly, Marco Silva is a great manager, but Leno is pretty good for a GW2 bench boost vs Sunderland, and I was playing around with the ticker and noticed there's a really good rotation here if I make it far before needing to wildcard. So if we set it to first 8 gameweeks rather than 5, and remove ALL teams with 5m or more keepers since we need it super cheap. That leaves Coventry, Fulham, Spurs, Brighton, Hull and Ipswich. Tap Spurs and we've got Coventry and Fulham. Already on triple Coventry which means Fulham is the best possible option for me. You get a fixture run of Brentford away, Sunderland away, Palace home, Everton home, Villa home, Ipswich away, Hull home, Coventry away. 🧤

BB1 has potential as well, you've got Ipswich home to Sunderland so O'Shea for example is 4m, it's not as good as Hull home though. This is an example of how I'd line up with a GW1 bench boost. 🚀

• 🔄 Players in: Verbruggen, O'Shea, Kadioglu, Hume, Gross, Ndiaye and Igor Jesus.

• 🔄 Players out: Leno, Van Ewijk, Maguire, Sangare, Anderson and Wright.

I've included the forgotten man Ndiaye there. Nothing has been agreed and interestingly Everton posted a photo of him linking up with teammates for pre-season, and Gana Gueye commented Here to stay with a blue heart. It might mean nothing but given there were rumours swirling of interest from elsewhere that's quite a telling comment from his teammate of several years. 🔵

So yeah if you'd written Ndiaye off he just might be a great pick still for 6m. 🔥

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

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