FPL Wrapped - Our New Teams

We hope you are having a wonderful pre-season! There are now only 8 days until the deadline, so we thought we would show you our latest drafts and discuss some of our updated thoughts. Make sure to join our £250 prize mini-league using the code below, and also check out our premium newsletter, more info below as well. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

• Harry's Team

• Ross's Team

• Oscar's Team

• Harry's Captaincy Rankings

• Final Thoughts

Currently when building my draft the hardest part I am finding is where to put my cheaper budget players. I find there are 7+ midfielders I want but actually the best budget options are there as well. So in this draft I have gone heavy up top and in defence with more budget friendly options rotating in midfield currently with Ndiaye, Anderson and Wilson currently on the bench.

Given the start to the season Aston Villa have I plan on having at least one of their attackers. Malen was an interesting option at £5.5m but with a new forward being signed over the past few days for Aston Villa I have opted to stick to Wilson at Fulham for now, the current most in form player during pre season even though I have concerns about his minutes.

The other real focus for me is the £7.5m forwards. Solanke is really my favourite but with time before the start of the season for him to get good pre season minutes it feels a risk to go with him so I have opted for the more reliable Chris Wood in his place. The other currently is Joao Pedro but I will be keeping a close eye on Chelsea’s pre-season games on Friday and Sunday, which I will be at to give a proper eye test evaluation of him.

For now I have no plan to rush to play any first half of the season chips. Free hit has been penciled in for Gameweek 6 due to a lack of Bournemouth and Manchester City against Leeds and Burnley that week.

Here are a few high-level things I have been thinking about this week, to try and improve my decision-making in FPL and in turn, my GW1 squad:

• Pick Players You Want: We often end up picking players because they are optimal, or because they are highly owned, or because they are good value. But I also want to pick players that I enjoy owning, that excite me and make me want to look at my team. Players like Evanilson, Dorgu, Bowen, they do that for me!

• Reduce the Rotation Risks: I have had a few drafts recently where 3 of my 8 attackers are all rotation risks. I think one or two is fine, but I like that my 8 attackers in this draft feel relatively nailed in.

• Stop Hyper-Fixating on Bench Boost: I want to have a decent bench boost, and it is worth planning and thinking about. But you can see in this draft, my GW2 bench boost would include double Burnley defence against Sunderland, Baleba against Everton, and Diouf against Chelsea. Oh well! I don’t want to pick players I don’t really want to own, just for the sake of the bench boost which will probably only get me 10 points anyway.

• Stop Worrying About Clashes: I realised this week that worrying too much about X player playing against Y player in your team is far too short-sighted. I think Sarr is probably the best £6.5m midfielder, but wasn’t choosing him because he played against Sanchez and then Williams. Again, oh well! If he’s the best for me, I should still pick him.

Anyway, I think this draft as things stand has a nice balance. There isn’t a huge area where this team is lacking, other than potentially the absence of a midfielder between £7.0m and £10.0m. What if Wirtz, Cunha, Marmoush, Bruno etc all look really good? I could potentially do Ndiaye and Bowen to Bruno and Beto/Piroe, and it is something I am considering, but I feel like the former is a better overall combination.

Still 8 days to go though, and plenty can change!

I've chopped and changed a few things in my team. Bruno comes in in place of Rogers. This feels very close though given the 2m price difference. Last season Bruno would have scored 193 points under the new rules - besides the set pieces, free kicks, goals, assists he also does well for DCs. Basically a differential as well! Expecting him to score very well this season, Man Utd have no Europe to contend with plus they’ve made some fantastic signings.

Thiago also joins my team but very much dependent on Wissa leaving. Brentford are reportedly ready to let him go for the right price, though Wissa is back in training. If Wissa stays then Thiago leaves my team. There’s a lack of 6m and under forwards so I may have to revert back to 3-5-2 in that scenario.

I’m wondering if we’ve become too hyperfixated on defensive contributions though, which has me considering Gvardiol over Van Dijk. I don’t think it’s out of the question for Liverpool’s defence to need time to gel with two new first choice full backs. They have NEW (A) in GW2 an ARS (A) in GW3, Gvardiol’s fixtures look better. Of course he may have done better for DCs in CB, he played a mix of LB and LCB last season. Van De Ven and Guehi rotate quite nicely, and when Murillo has ARS (A) in GW4 I’d look to start both of them. Joao Pedro vs Wood has become more of a consideration as well, David Ornstein has just reported that Nicolas Jackson is increasingly likely to leave Chelsea. Delap is still raw so I expect JP to be the main man. Not long to go and still not settled!

I’ve replaced Esteve with Bijol to avoid the Burnley double up with Dubravka’s expected arrival at Burnley now. Bijol has a reputation as a rock solid CB. He could end up Rodon or Gudmunsson, though I think he may fare best for defensive contributions, and is just suspended for GW1 after which point expected to cement himself at LCB.