GW Points: 47
Overall Points: 295
Overall Rank: 101,551
Transfers: Wan-Bissaka out, Robertson in
Tanganga out, Bertrand in
Kane out, Lukaku in
Benrahma out, Grealish in
After getting up to around 15,000th on the leaderboard, the past two game weeks have been a complete disaster. At the moment I can’t do right for doing wrong, by that I mean, I’m following the same logic and approach that has been successful in the past but at the moment it’s just not paying off. A couple of examples which should have gone my way this week but didn’t, include swapping Benrahma for Grealish. Man City had a decent home fixture against Southampton and news from West Ham was that Benrahma was a doubt for their more difficult fixture against Man Utd. It made perfect sense to swap them. I also generally saw this is a good upgrade longer term. Of course, Grealish then only picks up 3 points and Benrahma picks up 13 against Man Utd – where he had competition for those 5 points from the likes of Ronaldo and Fernandes. There was also Kane, I think we could all agree that no one wants to take Kane out but his form and Spurs in general hasn’t been great. I believe he didn’t touch the ball in the box against Palace while Lukaku was looking like he would score in every game he played. There was also going to be a big price swing. At the time that move made perfect sense. Of course, Lukaku doesn’t get on the score sheet and Kane is the only big name striker to start in the EFL Cup – picking up 13 points in the process. There was also Alexander-Arnold and Robertson missing out on a clean sheet for Liverpool at the weekend – the right choices but unfortunate again that they were not involved. Despite the current run of poor form, I’m still fairly happy with my team going into the last game week of the month – thankfully as I’ve got no transfers left. It’s also worth noting that with so many options this season, it’s very difficult when only picking one team. Those who focus on their overall position on the leaderboard come the end of the season often run 10 teams and simply pick out their best one as their top performer. This is much easier when you can cover all bases across multiple teams but that’s not the game I play (although I do fill my quota of teams, I’m not interested in the ones that I’m not blogging about on here).
Positives:
De Gea looked like he was going to flop again, however a late penalty save bought him up to 6 points. Happy with that after they conceded again.
5 points for Robertson after coming on in the EFL Cup softened the blow of him not playing at the weekend.
8 points from Torres was an OK result. I’d have liked for a bit more from him considering that he was starting up front against a less opposition. However, to put his place in perspective, he’s a 3.5m midfielder playing up front for Man City. That’s a bargain and we shouldn’t expect a goal every time he plays.
12 points for Salah and 8 points for Ronaldo were both solid returns. Although Man Utd should have clearly had at least 1 penalty so it could have been more for Ronaldo or Fernandes. It would have been useful to see who was going to take it as well.
Potential issues
My main issue isn’t players I’ve currently got in my team, as I’m pretty much happy with all of them. It’s how to play catch up based on the volume of teams ahead of me. I’ll put more thought into this when we get fresh transfers. But what worries me going into October is the volume of clean sheets that Man City and Chelsea could pick up, given their fixtures. It may make sense to get some early transfers in to have a mixture of defenders from these clubs, which is going to take some major reshuffling. I’m fairly happy with my front 6 going into October.
The players who may need to make way to make this happen could be: De Gea, Robertson, Grealish and Bertrand. I’ll have to see what I can afford budget wise but Grealish may need to come out to allow me to upgrade some other positions.
Tips for Game Week 6
If you’re fortunate enough to have transfers left, Liverpool, Man Utd and Leicester all seem to have good fixtures this week on paper. Chelsea have a particularly difficult game week, but their fixtures look exceptional in October. You could use your final transfers to start to shape your team for next month or even hold them until the game week is over and make some moves with October in mind. As always, the spreadsheet below shows the fixtures ahead and I’ll be adding November shortly:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vAtgJN53MKh-u007SOFmPKu8lwbyD7eYVlB1-CLm0qo/
Listening to RR, suggesting he’s going to keep Bruno long-term is interesting, since Ronaldo arrived 34pts, Bruno 13, if at the start of the season we expect each million we spend on a player, to attain 45-50pts, can Bruno sustain that, as Paul has pointed out we don’t even know who will be taking penalties, I’m happy retaining Bruno as long as it doesn’t weaken my overall team, I guess I’m just trying to determine what is the best 3 man midfield moving forwards, as for defence I already have 2 Chelsea defensive assets & 1 City, a must for October & beyond.
Well mate I wouldn’t put much notice on what I say as I am struggling this season.
I don’t put any emphasis on the points per mill concept otherwise I would put in Wan Bissaka who is now 3.1m. People thought he was a bargain and season long pick pre season at 3.5m. I did come across a team where they replaced TAA with AWB today (not a move I would have done) so maybe that was influenced by this concept.
Back to Fernandes, I am open and flexible to reluctantly replace him (brave move but I like to think fortune favours the brave) but only with a city midfielder. A future popular move on the cards could be Fernandes to De Bruyne (if De Bruyne proves fitness) as highly unlikely to be able fit in both. A concern is that teams in the higher ranks not only have more points but deeper pockets to pick the high valued players with relative ease. Slim pickings overall in midfield so I don’t mind having one big name proven midfielder.
I also like the idea of having two city midfielders in my team as already have Torres. My preference would be (in this order) KDB, Grealish (wish I didn’t sell him, now looking to bring him back next month), Torres, Mahrez, Foden, Gundogan, Sterling (what happened with him at City) and Silva. If can handle the city rotation then Fernandes to Mahrez is not a bad shout to me. It will be very annoying though when Mahrez starts 2 out of 4 games or 1 out of 4. Grealish and Jesus have probably cemented those attacking wide positions of the front three with Torres, KDB (as false nine) or Sterling (Grealish has taken up his best position) up front centrally.
The dream midfield for me would be Fernandes, Torres, Grealish and Traore. In reality Grealish might be beyond me but if he plays more aggressively on the left and scores more goals, he could easily become a must have in the game. He has the consistency of point scoring but question marks on whether he can be explosive as well? A deadly combo that very few players possess.
If only Dream Team put Mane as a midfielder, that would have been nice.
agree about mane in midfield.
I am thinking of outing Fernandes only reason is
to bring in Chelsea players especially kovacic .
he could be a bargain.
I think I’ll personally stick with Fernandes until we know who is on penalties. If he’s off them, I think that’s when the question needs to be asked and a decision made
They have found the new James Bond and the best news is that he is available in Sun Dream Team. Introducing:
Jadon Sancho 007
0 goals, 0 points, 7 games played.
Differential at good price of 3.5m. Licence to destroy teams.
😂 I’m surprised he’s only dropped by 1m. Do you think he will come good at some point?
Torres on the bench.
another player thinking of outing.
try to get D.B in.
It will be a wait and see on Torres for me, depends if he starts in the week
Grealish 6.8 the mind boggles.
Anyone in favour of starting this season again from scratch? 😂
3 points with two players to go this weekend. Oh….my……days…..
I feel your pain however it’s still early days, plenty more points to be won/dropped across the course of the season.
😂 100% behind that, the amount of thought and preparation that went into that initial team for it to flop as much as it has is remarkable. I’ve don’t think I’ve ever had a patch this bad while playing the game
I was thinking about replacing Fernandez even before yesterday’s moon shot. Had him in the World Cup and he’s not the same with Ronaldo in the team. Can’t see Cristiano being that deferential on pens again…Bruno’s miss purely psychological.
Even with the pens, which is a big question mark, his stats are pretty woeful without the hat trick.
Thoughts?
I still believe in Fernandes and he could become a good differential if everyone is taking him out (i.e. Kane) in order to climb in rank. At the same time the move to KDB or Cancelo (if my team needs a city defender) has become much appealing to me after yesterday’s events.
Totally agree, I’d love to keep him, but for the sake of a major team strengthening , he’s the one to go. Unfortunately we can’t have all the big hitters in our teams, but with Man Utd playing the way they are, I don’t think he’ll be a big loss.
Form over reputation for me.
I’ll have to consider it myself to get Man City/Chelsea defensive coverage in October but it’s a tough call
Tough one but I’m going to need to find some budget from somewhere. Will be interesting to see who takes the next penalty. Fine margins though as he was close to star man before missing that, he would have taken 13 points had he scored.
Paul it could be weeks before there is a penalty
for man u, he could well be worthless by then.
in theory.
No I agree but I’d rather get rid of TAA and Grealish before Fernandes I think
Now Traore dropped to the bench. Maybe worth taking him out as Wolves play only once a week and no longer in the league cup.
#theweekendthatkeepsongiving
This is where I need that Simpsons “STOP, STOP he’s already dead!” GIF. 🤣
And to top it off, Luke Shaw is now also injured. Cue to United clean sheet mid-week…🤦♂️
I thought the same but players who I want to swap are starting to stack up
May I also join the ranks of people having a shocker of a weekend, I don’t want to be to impulsive or have a kneejerk reaction, but I’ll be looking at 3 transfers straight away next week, just hope the player’s I plan to take out have a better midweek performance or their price will drop further.
I honestly don’t know how it could have gone so wrong at this stage of the season. Fixtures and common sense suggested we should have all got off to a good start but it’s gone the complete opposite way.
I’m having an absolute mare! Dropping like a stone in my Cash ML’s and on 0 points for the week thanks to TAA, Matip & Alisson all -2pts and Alonso & Bertrand -1pts wiping out the 8pts from Salah. Fernandes, Torres, Traore, Ronaldo and Lukaku all blanked! Hoping for something special from midweek but the way this season is going I’m not hopeful of anything positive at present!
On the plus side I am less stressed about it than I would have been in previous seasons having made a conscious decision to keep it in perspective, try to enjoy it more and dropping FPL completely this year.
I’m in exactly the same position, it’s been a strange start to the season but fingers crossed for something tonight and tomorrow.
I’m just hoping Chelsea concede against Juve so there defenders either drop or no rise at all so i can put a couple in as there fixtures look appealing. I also don’t think going heavy with the front 3 this season will win us anything. Some cheaper strikers ie Vardy, Antonio being in Europe could score well over the course of the season and would free up extra funds to then upgrade in other areas and give a better balance to the team. Any thoughts?
Good question. It’s a question of risk management of going without the top three right now in Lukaku, Salah and Ronaldo. Not only are they highly owned but they play for teams that are very attacking so the chances of a big haul are great. So you don’t want to miss out or there will be a ranking drop.
Lukaku- great fixtures ahead for Chelsea, Salah – on pens and in great form irrespective of fixtures and Ronaldo – no doubt the best player in the league and now possibly on pens. I think there is a case later for Kane when/if (depends on Nuno making changes or the Spurs board making them!) when he/Spurs hit form and have good fixtures. Easy to swap around with the top 3 strategy in place.
Potential replacements like Vardy and Antonio are good but question marks on their involvement in Europa due to their age, injury prone, backup options and importance to league. I get Benrahma in my team who can provide a bit of West Ham coverage and may have a chance of playing in Europa. I am looking at Harvey Barnes as a replacement for Traore (no end product, no Europe, no league cup and maybe now prone to rotation). It can provide some cover for not having Vardy (although not the same thing) but believe Barnes has big potential given Leicester’s good run of incoming games.
There is a case of releasing funds by selling Fernandes. I don’t like it (selling a big name plus I feel bigger problems elsewhere in my team bigger than owning Fernandes) but might very reluctantly accept it might be the right call.
Some good points there. I was thinking of Barnes for Traore as well tbf, makes a lot more sense, he was my little gem last season until he got injured. Not quite found that form as of yet but could all change. I don’t think I can bring myself to take Fernandes out though because 80% of the goals United will score he will be involved that’s for sure. Not many midfielders will out score Bruno over the course of the season. He has the highest ownership as well.
I tend to agree with RR, surely the big names get the big points over the course of the season. I think we could tinker with the front line and end up missing out on points. For me, there’s better bargains to be had in midfield.
Trent not playing tonight. With City at the weekend and more difficult fixtures in October is it time to move on? A lot of funds tied up in him, not sure I see him scoring a huge amount of points more than some of the premium City/Chelsea defenders
Klopp also said last night Trent’s injured and doesn’t look likely to feature against City at the weekend! No idea how serious but he’s likely to be my first makeweight for a Chelsea or City defender, and as I do still have Matip and Alisson for Liverpool cover. Alisson to Ederson may also have to happen however!
I think I’d only want him back in soon after though so I’ll just ride this one out. If there’s a game I probably don’t mind missing him then it’s a game against City. International break after the City game so he’ll be back after that in all likelihood having had a nice rest. Besides, I have other fires in my team that need extinguishing.
Maguire also out for several weeks, Shaw currently a doubt as well and hot off the press… AWB has just had his Champions League suspension extended from 1 game to 3 (“rough play”) in case anyone needed any additional reasons to switch out Utd defenders!
was thinking of outing D Gea.
after last nights performance not so sure now.
my head is in a spin at the moment, teams above me
look well unbalanced, but they are points ahead.
its a funny old game. 😭
Same but with there upcoming fixtures, injuries at the back and the fact they never keep a clean sheet i think its best to move on. However i have so much more problems within my team i might do that transfer next month.
Is a keeper really that much of an importance , they rarely score big points and as long as they play in Europe I’m happy to keep them. De Gea stays for me.
Bigger fish to fry.
fair point.
DTT sort this mess out 😂 I’ve gone from top to bottom with an 80 point lead gone 🙈 work your magic
I feel your pain Jack. This is the worst start I’ve had to a season by a mile as well. From the 10 teams I’ve entered, the one I spend most of my time trying to succeed in is the one that’s performing the worst. I feel an Alanis Morrisette song coming on…..
😂 it’s just not working this season so far but surely we turn a corner at some point.