I’ve finally settled on my starting 11 for the forthcoming season. My selection is generally based around 3 principles:
- Select players who have the most games in a given month. This tends to be teams involved in European football.
- Select players with an easy run of short term fixtures.
- Generally spread risk by selecting players from a mixture of the top 4-5 teams in the league.
In an ideal world my team would look something like this:
Goalkeeper: Arsenal
Defence: Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Tottenham
Midfield: Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham
Forwards: Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal
Having said that West Ham and Man City both have 2 additional games during August compared to everyone else. This could be a huge opportunity to generate extra points early on. As a result my starting line up is heavily favoured in their direction. I will look to balance the team with transfers late on in August.
Foster (West Brom – 2.5m) – a budget choice keeper. West Brom tend to keep it fairly tight at the back. I don’t see the value in spending much of the budget on a goalkeeper when they traditionally score less points.
Terry (Chelsea – 3m) – following the same principle I try not to spend too much on defenders. As a result Terry seems a bargain at only 3m. It could be a risk depending on how often he plays.
Stones (Man City – 3m) – with Stones moving to Man City, 3m is the cheapest option of City defenders. This is a complete no brainer with the extra fixtures in the month as well.
Masuaku (West Ham – 2m) – another budget choice. Masuaku will be covering for Cresswell at left back and will hopefully play some part in West Ham’s Europa League qualifiers. Not a long term solution.
Shaw (Man Utd – 2.5m) – at 2.5m Shaw is an absolute bargain. The only risk comes from his horrific injury last season. If he remains fit he could have a great season.
De Bruyne (Man City – 7m) – an expensive option in midfield however with the additional games in August and a huge tally of points last season De Bruyne was a must have for me.
Silva (Man City – 6.5m) – a short term option with Man City’s Champions League qualifying games coming up. Will be transferred out shortly.
Eriksen (Tottenham – 5m) – with Tottenham in the Champions League this season I wanted some representation for them in my attacking 6. Eriksen always seems to score well with assists and goals consistently over the season.
Aguero (Man City – 8m) – Aguero is always the first name on my team sheet when it comes to fantasy football. Has consistently picked up huge points over the past few seasons.
Ibrahimovic (Man Utd – 6m) – should be the main man at Old Trafford this year. Has a proven goal scoring record so will hopefully be a long term fixture in my team.
Carroll (West Ham – 3.5m) – short term solution in the hope that Carroll will pick up points in the Europa League qualifying games. He will be transferred out at the end of August.
This is very much a short term solution. I’m taking a risk by excluding any Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool players in my attacking 6. However I already have transfers in mind for the end of August. With plans to bring in Sanchez, Coutinho or Hazard.
Some players I considered and it may be a risk to exclude were:
Arsenal: Sanchez, Ozil
Chelsea: Hazard, Costa
Everton: Lukaku
Liverpool: Coutinho, Mane
Man City: Sterling
Man Utd: Mkhitaryan
Tottenham: Kane, Alli
As always, share your thoughts/ideas in the comments below.
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