Review of Game Week 2

Best Team

GW Points: 67
Overall Points: 116
Overall Rank: 33,833

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Main Blog Team

GW Points: 29
Overall Points: 59
Overall Rank: 440,271
Transfers used: Dalot out, Ake in
Kane out, Haaland in 

Although the game week hasn’t quite finished yet, I wanted to get my review out early today with the view to potentially making some changes this evening. The game week was a bit of a mixed bag once again, with a couple of players performing well and quite a few not performing at all. I’m glad I took Dalot out after the horror show from Man Utd again at the weekend. Ake also picked up 5 points which was a bonus. He should now rise again in value. Kane to Haaland didn’t work out so well but it’s a transfer that I imagine a lot of people made and was very unfortunate. Haaland started well with a brace against West Ham and I’d have expected the same again in his home debut against Bournemouth. Kane then typically pops up with a late goal against Chelsea. Obviously, I’m disappointed with only 29 points across the game week but I still think the decision making process has been logical and luck just hasn’t been on my side for this team in particular. 

The game is becoming increasingly different with a lot of people now using 10 teams and covering all bases on the overall leaderboard. With this approach, you’ll always perform better than someone just focussing on one team as you effectively always have the high scoring players in at least a few teams. 

Either way, onwards and upwards. Here are my thoughts on each player currently in my team:

Ramsdale: -1 point. Disappointing after a clean sheet in the first game. Hold for now. I do have my eye on Alisson though, if Liverpool fail to keep a clean sheet again this weekend, he could drop to the lowest price he will ever be and would be a pick and stick for the season.

Alexander-Arnold: 3 points. Another bad result for Liverpool, will lose value again but I’m likely to stick with him for the season.

Saliba: -1 point. Disappointing again after a solid game week 1. With good fixtures, he stays in for now.

Ake: 5 points. I’ll take 5 points from Ake’s first appearance in my team. Great fixtures for City but will need to keep an eye on his game time. Obviously stays in for now and should rise in value.

Mahrez: 0 points. Very disappointing as Mahrez started in a game where City scored 4 goals. To not score or assist for any of them is a poor result. I’m now questioning if he will be benched at the weekend and I’m considering taking him out. 

Saka: 0 points. Slow start from Saka but I’ll hold for now and hope he comes good before the end of the month. Simply because I’ve got bigger fires to put out.

Coutinho: 0 points. Looked like a relatively poor performance and he limped off in the second half. Question marks against if he will start this week, but Villa do have the additional EFL Cup fixture. I’m 50/50 on whether to take him out because of that extra fixture.

Sancho: 0 points. Can’t think of a reason to keep Sancho now, I gave him one more week and it didn’t pan out well. Considering taking him out tonight. 

Salah: 0 points. Hoped for more from Salah against Palace but I’m sticking with him anyway as he will come good. 

Haaland: 2 points. Wanted much more from Haaland in this game but he’s clearly going to score a lot of goals. No regrets about bringing him in yet.

Jesus: 22 points. Massive performance from Jesus, exactly why I picked him from the off. Will rise in value and stays in my team without doubt. 

Player watchlist

Following on from the theme of last week, here are the players that caught my eye for the watchlist:

De Bruyne – I’d written him off as being too expensive at the start of the season. I’m now debating if I can work him into my team if I take Mahrez out. Looks like he could have a huge season and should get a regular starts.

Diaz – I couldn’t decide between Diaz/Mahrez/Sterling at the start of the season. With a bit of a wonder goal on Monday it looks like Diaz would have been the better choice. Tempted to bring him in tonight before the prices change.

Mbeumo – he was on the list last week and remains on the list after 5 points this week. Good cheap enabler with potentially an extra game this week.

Cucurella – looked good against Spurs, might rise slightly with 4 points. Bit of a bargain at just over 3m for a Chelsea defender, even if he does share game time with Chilwell. 

Elliot – as expected, started in the absence of Thiago. Managed to get a rating and should do well over the next few weeks if he continues to start.

Pope – continues to be a star man magnet. As I don’t have him in my main team, I’m hoping City put an end to the consecutive clean sheets for Newcastle but one to keep an eye on. 

Trippier – another clean sheet for Newcastle and another rating for Trippier. Similar to Pope, I’m hoping City put a few past them so that they don’t rise too much in value. 

Kulusevski – I was glad to see Kulusevski blank against Chelsea after a good game week 1. I’ll be keeping an eye on how he does during game week 3.

Alisson – might soon be the cheapest price we can pick him up for all season, especially if Liverpool concede against Man Utd at the weekend. 

Sterling/Bowen/Cresswell – all players who will drop in value (unless they play tonight for West Ham) but they should score well over the season. Keeping an eye on them in case they drop enough to make them worth bringing in.

Plan for game week 3

Three players stand out in my team to come out and I could easily use 3 transfers this evening. That would include:

Sancho – with Liverpool at the weekend and two blanks, I can’t think of a single reason to keep Sancho any longer.

Mahrez – caught in two minds about this one. He will drop in value and there’s a good option available in Diaz but if he starts again at the weekend, we know he’s got quality and could well get on the scoresheet.

Coutinho – as mentioned above, he was poor at the weekend and limped off. I don’t think it was anything serious though and with the EFL Cup fixture this week, I’m tempted to hold him for one more week. At the same time, he will drop in value so I could cut my losses. 

If I make three transfers, this would leave me without any for the next two game weeks so I’d be relying on the players I’ve got performing well. Never a good position to be in but it’s also good to be proactive and make timely transfers.

I’m going to ponder it until this evening, but my options at the moment are:

Take all three out for De Bruyne, Mbeumo & Elliot

Take all three out for Diaz, Mbeumo & Cucurella (leaving 1m in the bank)

Just swap Sancho for Mbeumo

Swap Sancho and Mahrez for Mbeumo and Diaz

If you’re making a similar choice for next week, I’ve set up my usual spreadsheet that tracks fixtures for the top teams here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CJdq5SxZqrb7EXOpEBbCtbF0hDulMoL05ULja_ng5nY/ 

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My other teams

I’m not overly bothered about my other teams as I’d rather my main team adds value to everyone who follows this blog, rather than me talking about 10 teams that cover all bases. However, I am going to include a quick write up on their performance each week.

West Ham are still to play so things could change by I’ve got two teams on over 100 points. My best team is on 116 points and includes players such as Pope, Trippier, Diaz and Jesus who all did well this week. 

I’ve then got three teams in the 80 point bracket. One of these has Scamacca still to play as a big differential. 

I’ve also got Nunez in 5 teams so I’m facing the same problem in those teams as other people will be. I’d imagine I’ll take him out this evening with him missing 3 fixtures.

The rest of my teams are around the 50 point mark, with one doing particularly badly on 44 points. 

Here’s a graphic that shows how all of my teams are performing against each other. My main team was picked over hours of research and the rest were picked in 5-10 minutes each, so it just goes to show how much luck comes into the equation. 

I’d also be very interested in hearing what other people are doing with their players this week in the comments below.