Review of Game Week 16

Best Team 

GW Points: 123
Overall Points: 1,039
Overall Rank: 27,865

Main Blog Team

GW Points: 123
Overall Points: 1,039
Overall Rank: 27,865
Transfers used: Foden out, Saka in
Amartey out, Schar in

Another brilliant week for my blog team, who would have thought as we went into the World Cup break that this team would climb over 100,000 places on the leaderboard in just two game weeks. I didn’t even think that would be possible at this stage in the season but its been a remarkable turnaround. Having said that, I’m still not overly happy with being around 27,000th on the leaderboard and I’d like to finish much higher by the end of the season but at least there’s been progress in the right direction. I’ve still got three transfers left but I’ve decided to let them go – given the performance of the team in the last two game weeks, I’ve not really got a case for making changes just because I’ve got transfers left. 

This leaves me with a strong core of Newcastle, Man Utd and Man City players for the game week ahead, all three clubs have an additional EFL Cup fixture this week so I think it’s a good base to start from. Here’s a brief breakdown of how I view each player in my team at the moment:

De Gea – season long pick, fantastic form since I’ve put him in

Trippier – season long pick, one of the cheapest most consistent point scoring defenders this season. Needs to stay in.

Shaw – brilliant returns this week, not 100% convinced about Man Utd defensively still but I’ll keep him while the momentum is with them.

Schar – very happy with 13 points from his first week in my team. Will keep for now and hope Newcastle remain strong at the back.

Almiron – has good fixtures so I’ll keep him for now, not sure he can keep up his good form for the whole season.

Fernandes – has chipped in with a good amount of points since I’ve put him in. Will keep until he gives me a reason to take him out.

Saka – happy with his goal this week, shame he’s not got an EFL cup fixture but another that I’ll keep until I’ve got a good reason to take him out.

De Bruyne – slightly disappointing week but given Man City player twice next week and he starts most games, I’ll keep him for now. 

Haaland – season long pick.

Salah – another one with no EFL Cup fixture this week and had a slow point scoring game week. However, it would take a lot for me to want to take him out so he’s a hold for now and I’ll monitor Kane in the meantime.

Rashford – took a punt on him and didn’t plan to keep him if he didn’t get instant returns, he’s achieved that so he stays in for the time being.

Player watchlist

I’m not currently looking to make any changes for the game week ahead, having said that if someone like Salah is benched in the FA Cup it might be wise to swap him for someone else. As a result, it’s going to be useful to have some players in mind as replacements:

Kane – back amongst the goals with a mid week double. Can’t be ignored if he starts doing that week in week out.

Odegaard – it was between him and Saka for me last week and I went with Saka. I’m still considering Odegaard as a cheaper option at some point.

Mahrez – if he’s about to go on a purple patch it might be the time to bring him in. Huge question marks against his game time though.

Beyond these three I’m not really considering anyone else at the moment as my team is in good form, but watch this space as a lot can change in a week.

Plan for game week 17

My plan for game week 17 is to sit tight on the team I’ve got and of course monitor who is starting in the FA Cup. As an example, if Salah doesn’t feature for Liverpool, it’s an obvious move to check the line ups later in the day and bring someone in who is starting. Salah can then be put back in the week after. However, if all of my players start, I’m not going to be making any changes this weekend.

If you wanted to check out the upcoming fixtures, they can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CJdq5SxZqrb7EXOpEBbCtbF0hDulMoL05ULja_ng5nY/

I’ll update this plan with fixtures for February as well shortly. 

My other teams

I mentioned last week that I’ve struggled to keep on top of my 10 teams. That trend continued this week as I even forgot to take out a full Leicester block in one team. Since the revival of my blog team, I’ve just lost interest in most of my other teams as most of them aren’t in any mini leagues. I do have one that’s not far behind my main team, and it is in a mini league so I’ll probably use this as my B team, bringing in players who haven’t quite made my blog team – such as Kane and Odegaard, in an attempt to cover as many bases as possible. Other than that, unless my other teams get a revival by chance, I’ll probably leave them to drop off. 

As always, for complete transparency, here are my 10 teams: