Review of Game Week 6

Best Team 

GW Points: 34
Overall Points: 371
Overall Rank: 14,596

Main Blog Team

GW Points: 32
Overall Points: 285
Overall Rank: 271,631
Transfers used: Jesus out, Kane in
Alexander-Arnold out, Emerson Royal in
Saliba out, Dalot in

Game week 6 was another strange one with Premier League fixtures cancelled at the weekend and even Arsenal’s Europa League fixture postponed on Thursday evening. This didn’t really help my team at all with a large number of Arsenal players in the team. However, I tried to make some positive transfers to gain the upper hand. This started on Thursday evening with two Spurs players coming in. It was fairly clear by the 90th minute that Kane wasn’t going to score but Emerson looked on course for a clean sheet and a rating. I’d have been fairly happy with that despite the blank from Kane. It wasn’t to be with Sporting scoring two very late goals. I still think the transfers make sense – Jesus has made a great start to the season but it doesn’t look like he’s going to start in the Europa League. I personally think we need to play the fixtures and make the most of the double game weeks so bringing in a striker in the Champions League made perfect sense to me. On top of that, Jesus wasn’t going to play in game week 6 at all with Arsenal’s fixture being postponed anyway. To make this move happen, and to unlock other transfers down the line something had to give in the team. I took the difficult decision to take TAA out. It cost me 5 points this week but on another day Emerson finished on 7 points in his match and I’d have been better off. It was just unfortunate. The third transfer I made this week was to bring in Dalot for Saliba. In the very short term, I favoured Dalot getting a clean sheet last night over Saliba getting a clean sheet against Brentford. Dalot got his clean sheet and an assist so I’m initially very happy with the 10 points but let’s see what happens for Saliba at the weekend. This move also frees up some budget with Dalot being slightly cheaper than Saliba. It leaves me with 1 transfer for the month and I’m aiming to have a team full of players with a double game week going into October. As a result, I’ll probably take out Trippier for Sterling as my final transfer of the month – if everyone makes it through the International break without an injury. Overall, I’m far from happy with where the team is, however, I’ve just been unlucky in catching a break with players scoring points. Hopefully, things will start to turn around for this team during October.

Here are my thoughts on each player:

Ramsdale: Did not play. If I had enough transfers I’d take Ramsdale out as I don’t think he will play in the Europa League. Will monitor in October. 

Emerson Royal: -2 points. Unfortunate to concede two late goals and looked on course to be a good transfer. Given his value, he stays in my team while he’s starting games.

Dalot: 10 points. I picked him at the start of the season for a reason and had Man Utd not got off to such an awful start, I’d have never taken him out. Good return from his first game back in the team, will keep as long as their form continues.

Trippier: Did not play. Kept for the Bournemouth fixture at the weekend. May cash in on him after that one. 

Cucurella: 3 points. Should have had a clean sheet other than a sloppy goal. Still think he’s good value longer term so he stays in my team. 

Diaz: 0 points. Disappointing return from Diaz this week but still think he will be a good point scorer longer term. Stays in the team.

Saka: Did not play. May consider taking him out in October as I can’t imagine he will start in the Europa League. Depends what he does at the weekend against Brentford. 

Mbeumo: Did not play. Will almost certainly take Mbeumo out in October with no European football. Can’t see him registering any points this weekend either. 

Salah: 8 points. Glad to see Salah picking up 8 points and I think he will come good. Shame it wasn’t more but I plan to hold onto him for now.

Haaland: 13 points. Another goal for Haaland, he’s a keeper for the season.

Kane: 0 points. A blank for Kane was far from ideal but hoping he does something against Leicester at the weekend. I wasn’t convinced that having the big three up front was a wise move at the start of the season and that may be proved right if they don’t start scoring big consistently. There’s a lot of talk about Salah being out of form but he’s only a point behind Kane. Having said that, it’s the ideal front three with so many Champions League fixtures in October. 

Player watchlist

Given that Premier League games have been cancelled this weekend, and assuming that the European fixtures will go ahead, we can only really consider players who will be involved in those fixtures:

Sterling – scored again this week. Has to be top of my current watchlist given the goals he scores and that he’s almost certain to start for Chelsea in double game weeks. Could well bring him in with my last transfer of the month.

Lloris – Although Lloris lost his clean sheet, given his value, he’d be the keeper I’d bring in for Ramsdale if I could afford it.

De Bruyne – I think he’s going to be on my watch list every week but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get him in.

Cancelo – another player who will inevitably score well this season. Again, funds mean it’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford him.

Sancho – I was tempted by a double transfer last night and Sancho was the other name on my list. As with Dalot, I picked him for a reason at the start of the season and would have stuck with him had Man Utd not looked so poor. I don’t think anyone expected things to change as quickly as they have.

Jesus – I’ve only just taken him out but I’m not 100% convinced it’s the right move. Will monitor to see if he plays in the Europa League longer term.

Plan for game week 7

In my main team, my plan for game week 7 is to do nothing. I’ve got one transfer left and the player who is top of my list to bring in isn’t playing this weekend (Sterling). I’m going to save this transfer to use after the International break and hope for the best this weekend. If you’re looking at making transfers yourself, I’m personally only looking to bring in players who should start in the Premier League and Europe. That rules out most Arsenal players and Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd don’t play this weekend. As a result, I’d be looking at Spurs or Man City players if I did plan to make a change. 

If you’re interested in the fixtures for the clubs involved in Europe, you can check them out here:

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

My other teams

Most of my teams scored between 20-46 points this week and they continue to look very similar. I don’t invest a huge amount of time in my other 9 teams so I’m finding myself applying the same logic to most of them despite still trying to think outside of the box. 

With my best team, I took a punt on Richarlison as he’s cheap and was in good form. I took Salah out and this allowed me to bring De Bruyne in. I thought I’d bring him in for this team as I’ve struggled to get him in others so wanted to try something different. That team is on 371 points and is going OK on the leaderboard. The only real difference between that team and my main team is luck. 

Half of my teams are now over the 300 point mark and a couple have started really badly. With one in particular on 217 points. In this team, I had some really bad luck with players like Son. The team was mainly made up of players that I hadn’t considered for my main teams in case they made a good start to the season. As expected, most of them didn’t – which is why they aren’t in my main team. I’ll continue to develop this team for a bit longer but I’ll take some massive risks which will either bring it back into contention or destroy it for the rest of the season. 

For complete transparency, I’ve pasted my 10 teams below. As you can probably see, when I get a player in mind, he often ends up in more teams than I intended for speed. I don’t really have time to evaluate every team in detail. As an example, I had Dalot in mind last night and now he’s in 6 of my teams as I didn’t have the chance to think outside of the box. You’ll also see a lot of Emerson’s and a lot of Cucurella’s for the same reason.