Fantasy Changes I’ve Made So Far

After an international break such as the one we just had, I like to re-evaluate the team I have in fantasy and see if there’s any changes that I think will do me good going forward. This got me thinking about how I often I actually do this over the course of the season. I think it’s important at least once a week for managers to view their squad and see how they can make the most drastic improvement. Sometimes this happens if a player is suspended or injured, but other times it can happen if a player is just simply out of form. By this time in the season, managers should have dropped their dead weight and replaced them with players that can contribute on a more regular basis. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to look at some of the most important changes I’ve made so far this season both good and bad, that can maybe give you ideas about what to change about your own teams.

My first week team looked like this

Simon Mignolet

Luke Shaw- Nacho Monreal- Kyle Walker

Dimitri Payet- Granit Xhaka- Roberto Firmino- Eric Dier

Diego Costa- Shane Long- Harry Kane

It was a solid team on paper, but it didn’t perform well at all in the official Premier League fantasy game. I started off the season with only a 30 point haul. Xhaka came on as a sub, Monreal played but gave up 4 goals to Liverpool, and Payet was injured. The changes I’ve made have come in short spurts, in Gameweek 2 and Gameweek 3 I made two big moves that I think have both hurt and helped my team. The first transfer I made was Eric Dier for Paul Pogba. The more I looked at Dier in my midfield the more confused I was by my choice. He’s a solid player, but he usually plays at the base of the Spurs team and has a defensive mindset, hardly the player that’s going to be scoring a lot of fantasy points.

The second change I made was a controversial one, but I deserted Firmino for Raheem Sterling. After Liverpool lost 2-0 to Burnley I lose the faith and jumped ship. Looking back at it, I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed because Sterling has been a standout player this season, but Firmino is playing in a squad that’s scoring goals for fun at the moment and I feel like I could’ve kept him without breaking the bank.

In Gameweek 4, I made two changes that I think are going to be a mixed bag going forward as well. I dropped Dimitri Payet and picked up Eden Hazard, who’s been relatively anonymous recently but I think is just going through a minor bump in the road. My second move in Gameweek 4 was to transfer Leroy Fer in place of Granit Xhaka. To be honest, I’m not sure why I made this move but as of right now I’m happy I did. Fer has had some good Game weeks since I picked him up, bagging me six points in Gameweek 4 and 7 in Gameweek 7.

As of the time of writing this piece, here’s how my team stands.

Petr Cech

Luke Shaw- Nacho Monreal- Kyle Walker

Eden Hazard- Leroy Fer- Raheem Sterling- Paul Pogba

Diego Costa- Charlie Austin- Daniel Sturridge

As you can see I’ve made some further changes since Gameweek 4 when I picked up Fer and Hazard. The injury of Harry Kane forced my hand so I had to pull the trigger to replace him, I landed upon Daniel Sturridge for a couple reasons. As I mentioned before, Liverpool are playing fantastic offensive football at the moment and if that continues Sturridge will most assuredly benefit. Second, I really feel as if the main striker position at Liverpool is up for grabs and with a couple solid performances, Sturridge can make it his own. I also replaced Shane Long with his teammate Charlie Austin who has had a good run of form, and I switched Simon Mignolet with Petr Cech. For me, the goalkeeping change was an easy choice and one I had been meaning to make for a while. Mignolet is in a precarious situation where he’s not really sure if he’s playing each week, whereas with Cech I know what I’m getting and I have much more faith in his back line. On top of that, If Arsenal get a shutout I can get the double benefit of having Monreal and Cech in the same team.

So what changes am I going to make in the future? Well, I’m considering getting rid of Fer if Swansea continue to take a turn for the worse under Bill Bradley. I’m also not entirely happy with the pickup of Sturridge. I’ll have to give it a few more gameweeks before I make a final decision on that one, but for now I’m comfortable with it. It’s important for fantasy managers to constantly be assessing their teams, and going forward I suggest you take the time to study your current squad and see how you can improve on it. What changes have you made so far this season or plan on making? Let us know in the comments below!