A Newbie’s Journey Into FPL, Episode 4: Head-To-Head MiQ vs Ali

Ali

Game-week 17 provided me with a decent 60 points as teams finally managed to find goals that have been AWoL in recent weeks. At keeper, Aston Villa’s Martinez has been amazing for me but didn’t deliver last game-week after four clean sheets in a row before that.

Instead, it was Arsenal’s Leno finding form, providing 8, 6 and 7 points in his last three fixtures. The Gunners’ now have some decent fixtures coming up, and with their form, it’s not a risk to put Leno in goal for the next two games against Crystal Palace and Newcastle.

The back line has been a consistent problem for me, but that has been the case for others too given the manner the season is developing, especially with the rise of VAR-assisted penalties this term. Lamptey was impressive with overlapping runs forward, but his injury has been disappointing, lasting longer than expected. Since Soyuncu has no match in GW 18, I might need a solution. I will have to risk the young full-back later since there is a chance for him to appear against Manchester City next week despite missing four games and maybe not rushed back against Newport for their Sunday’s cup clash. Other than that, I need to invest in replacing Coady for a decent fullback while leaving Thiago Silva and Eric Dier in place.

My major focus and hope for my team is always the middle of the park. It’s difficult to rule out Fernandes and Grealish as they are among the biggest fantasy players, but Son has been proven the best of them all. The South Korean’s partnership with Harry Kane has been deadly, and the dynamic duo just scores and assists, so keeping them will always be beneficial some way or another. I will remove Podence and Maddison due to their injury concerns, bringing on Foden and Saka; each has a good run of fixtures, and Saka has been brilliant for Arsenal lately.

My only shift in focus is toward the Citizens who have found their best form with Phil Foden expected to play a major part. Since KDB is out of my budget at the moment, Foden is good enough to deliver decent points from GW-18 to GW-22 in ‘friendly’ enough fixtures against Brighton, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, West Brom, Sheffield United and Burnley where the young playmaker can be essential.

My front force has been sensational. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than Calvert-Lewin and Bamford scoring goals for fun while still very affordable halfway through the season. And of course, nothing more need be said about Harry Kane and the form he is in.

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The Plan

The following weeks might push me to focus around the back line since my playmaker issues have been resolved for now. I am very satisfied with my forwards, but who really knows what the Premier League can offer next week? I’ll just hope for the best. Also, MiQ has a very strong squad, so I’ve got to make correct calls sooner rather than later.

Good luck, everbody!

Current Rank:

Globally: (2,380,401)

Own Country: (5,208)

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MiQ

GW-17 was my best yet (of my four game weeks). I used my triple captain chip on Hueng-min Son, and he brought in 39 points! Focusing on midfield has paid off with Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne, Soucek and James Ward-Prowse also returning great points.

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MiQ vs Paul final scores

I was pretty disappointed with McCarthy’s last minute positive test result and with Andrew Robertson even though he created so many chances. My disappointment is more related to not reaching 100 points than anything else! At 70 points, my GW-17 opponent Paul also did well considering the surprises that hit so many FPL players. This was my first victory in head-to-head.

Game Week 18

As you have already seen, Ali has been preparing well for GW-18. By contrast, half my team will blank in GW-18. As a result, I have done another overhaul using the free hit chip to get this as a preliminary plan. Some of the names are new to me (as usual) and I still have a couple of days to figure the final line-up. In order for me to build a winning streak in the blog, how would the readers use their free hit chip in GW-18? Any advice would be appreciated.

My main objective as usual is midfield. The one match that is difficult to predict is Aston Villa versus Tottenham, especially after a Covid-19 outbreak closed Villa’s training ground. The plan is always to avoid defenders and goalkeepers from such difficult games (and avoid all players from matches that could be postponed), but I might bring in attackers and midfielders. I played around as much as possible with the budget to afford Jack Grealish and Ollie Watkins, and I hope that I will not regret not having Harry Kane. Late news might rewrite these decisions for me, so I am glad to be riding my chip to the deadline.

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Newbie’s Journey

Team Name: MiQsters.

Current Level: Newbie (35/100)

Current Rank:

• Globally: 7,605,300 —> 7,570,115
• Own Country: 46,119 —> 45,952
• NMA: 5,008 —> 5,001
• GW14: 3,612 —> 489 (Apparently this compares me to other players who started on GW-14 as well)

Self-imposed criteria to become “Competent”:

• 10 Points: Prepare for GW14 and select initial 15-player squad
• 15 Points: Score more than 70 points in one GW
• 10 Points: Defeat one NMA blogger! (Current Score Wins 1, Draws 0, Defeats 1)
• 10 Points: Defeat 2nd NMA blogger! (Current Score Wins 1, Draws 0, Defeats 3)
• 10 Points: Successful selection of Captain/Vice Captain 2 GW in a row (GW-17 captain selection was Son again and that worked. This can be cleared if Bruno earns double digits in GW-18)
• 5 Points: Play a total of 5 GW (Current progress 4/5)
• 10 Points: Play a total of 10 GW (Current progress 4/10)
• 20 Points: After 70 points are collected, NMA blog readers to vote MiQ as a competent EPL fan and FPL manager (90%)

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What do you all think? Whose FPL team looks better? Please answer the poll and then look for updates and share your thoughts in the comments!

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