Review of Game Week 14

GW Points: 161
Overall Points: 1,585
Overall Rank: 161

On paper, if you look at my overall rank on the leaderboard and points total for the week, we could assume that game week 14 was a positive week. However, considering I’d played my park the bus booster I’m bitterly disappointed with how the week panned out. Alexander-Arnold performed way above my expectation but my other 4 defenders performed way below. I’d have been happy with 1 clean sheet from each defender, and this should have happened very early on in the week had Arsenal not conceded a late goal against Wolves. It was also fairly unfortunate that Alexander-Arnold’s free kick ended up being an own goal. I’m about 30-50 points behind where I wanted to be when I decided to play the booster. If I had secured these points I believe I’d now be sat within the top 50 on the leaderboard, which I’d be over the moon with. However, it didn’t pan out that way, but I don’t regret the decision to play the booster when I did. On paper, the fixtures looked good and I already had most of the players in place, ultimately I was probably 1 late goal away from it being worthwhile. Regardless of this disappointment, when I reflect on my overall rank, I’m still delighted to be in the position that I’m in. 161st on the leaderboard is actually the highest position I’ve ever been in at any point playing Dream Team so there is a huge positive to take away from the game week – but it is still a case of what could have been. I’ve also had a look at the top 100 teams, and I believe everyone has used their park the bus booster so I’m in good company. 

Here is my breakdown of each player:

Sanchez –  very happy with 10 points from Sanchez. 

Saliba – awful return of 1 point (2 with PTB) this week but he’s still the third highest scoring defender and is relatively cheap so I’ll keep hold of him.

Tsimikas – 6 points (12 with PTB)  isn’t quite as bad as Saliba. Would have been nice if he played against Sheff Utd and got the clean sheet but it wasn’t to be. Can’t see a reason to move him on yet given his value.

Gabriel – 4 points (8 with PTB) is an awful return across 2 games. I’m taking him out as one of my transfers this week.

Zinchenko – not overly happy with 6 points (12 points with PTB) from Zinchenko. Depending on who I want to bring in, he may come out.

Alexander-Arnold – delighted with 24 points (48 points with PTB) from Alexander-Arnold, it saved my game week from being a complete disaster.

Saka – delighted with 22 points, stays in my team.

Foden – happy with 12 points. Stays in my team. 

Bruno – not happy with 4 points from Fernandes this week but Man Utd do have a double game week coming up and they will have to play a strong team in the Champions League.

Haaland – stays in for the season unless he gets injured.

Salah – 11 points was OK from Salah, he stays in my team.

Player watchlist

Dubravka – very cheap and standing in for the highest scoring keeper in the game at the moment. Not the best start with a 3-0 defeat to Everton though.

Trippier – is the highest scoring defender and I can see him keeping this up.

Martinelli – hitting some good points at the moment and is worth considering.

Bowen – back on the score sheet last night. I didn’t really want to take him out when I did so may bring him back in.

Gordon – is regularly picking up points and outscoring the likes of Fernandes at the moment at a much cheaper cost.

Watkins – could be a good option to save some budget.

Nunez – a good price considering his points total.

Plan for game week 15

In an ideal world, I’d take out Gabriel and Zinchenko for Trippier and Bowen. However, that’s not going to work from a budget point of view. I may swerve bringing in Trippier this week, simply because they play Spurs and Milan, and without Pope I’m wondering how strong they will be at the back. If I swap Gabriel for Bowen, this only leaves me with 2.8m in the bank to swap Zinchenko for someone else. The only real option is Digne and I feel that’s a bit of a downgrade. This is making me consider Fernandes again. I could swap him for someone like Nunez as Liverpool have good fixture volume coming up and he seems to get good points when he does play. At the moment, I’m undecided on what to do but I’ll post an update once I’ve made a decision.