EPL GW-26: Rate My FPL and Fantrax Teams

GW-26 is yet another double week as teams continue to catch up on their many postponements. This time we get a good choice of DGW players since eight teams, including some top teams, have two fixtures.

Arsenal, Burnley, Palace, Leeds, Liverpool, Tottenham, Watford and Wolves each have two games. Liverpool and Arsenal probably have the best fixtures, Norwich/Leeds and Brentford/Wolves respectively - all at home.

My strategy has been to maximize double-game players, and this week is no exception. In Fantrax this has been paying off well. In FPL I am having a season to forget, so I am hoping I’ll get helpful advice and not just commiserations here! I have already made extensive changes to all my teams, so have a look at my thinking and then... please rate my teams.

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FPL

My season has lurched from bad to worse, but last week slightly bucked the trend with an acceptable return, my four double-gamers producing decent points:

I captained De Gea on a whim — trying to be different. The alternative was Ronaldo, and in the end they earned the same. I expected either Cancelo or Reguilon to play, but neither did, so I got Dennis’ one point instead.

My score of 80 was well above the weekly average of 47, moving me up a bit, but my ranking remains terrible:

Total points 1345

Overall: 1,466,841 (up nearly 300,000)

NMA: 2,187th

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I’ve been struggling with injuries and poor choices for ages, and only three of my GW-25 players have the double GW-26, including Dennis who is off form and Reguilon who started since... since... well, he hasn’t been starting. Ramsdale is the only player I am keen on for the week.

Of the rest of the team, Villa has a decent fixture at home to Watford, and Man City has a reasonable game against Tottenham, but I’ve decided to go large with the free hit chip this week so I can field a full DGW team. It feels the right time for this — a free hit team effectively gives me seven or eight ‘extra’ games-played (if I can pick people who do actually play twice), as well as good representation from Liverpool and Arsenal who have the strongest fixtures.

I still have my wildcard available, and I don’t imagine it will be long before I use it on the train-wreck of a team that will reappear like zombies from a mass-grave in GW-27.

Here’s how my team looks for GW-26, although with the free hit active there could well be some more tinkering:

I’m not entirely sure which of Cornet, Raphina and Edouard to start, but I have DGW backup in case of a last minute unexpected injury.

I am guessing I won’t be alone in captaining Salah (I expect quite a few to use triple captain), and since every time I’ve tried to do something cute with my captaincy it has failed miserably (with the exception of last week) I don’t mind going with majority for once.

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FANTRAX NMA-11

I’ve always preferred the Fantrax format since we have full control over our entire team every week (pressed but not locked by discounts), and after a fairly slow start my season has been improving rapidly. I decided during December not to worry much about discounts, and it might be a coincidence, but since January my teams have been the league’s top scorers.

I have been concentrating on double-week players, and even though most players from Man United and Brighton didn’t look great on paper, I still managed to include eight of them (seven from United). Other than Rashford’s miserable 2.5 points, all my double-gamers managed double-digits, CR7, Lamptey and De Gea over 20 points and Bruno over 30. The single-gamers were less impressive, but still not far off cost (these do have decent discounts), despite KDB not showing at all and Coutinho managing only 1 point.

My score for the week was 162.5, which was 8th for the week. Coincidentally, my league position is also 8th, as high as I’ve been all season.

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For week 26 I’ve already ditched all the United and Brighton players (I didn’t even look at how much discount I was losing). I’m certainly keeping Kane @7.59 for the double week, and also KDB @7.53 and Coutinho @1.00. Coutinho looks to be boom or bust, but at 1.00 even if the boom only happens every so often that seems like good value to me — and home to Watford is a good fixture.

I would like to bring in as many Liverpool and Arsenal players as possible, but there are a lot of expensive players there, so as it stands I haven’t managed as many as I’d like.

In goal I’ve gone for Pope. He is no longer cheap, but his numbers have been very good recently and hopefully I’ll get very-good times 2.

In defense, I have the very cheap Cedric, Hjelde and Samir, but I will be keeping a close eye on starting status — for the first two especially. I’d love to have TAA, but he’s just too danged expensive, so have settled on Robertson for now.

In midfield, I’m currently on affordable Fabhino who seems to have started producing really well (although I’m a little concerned that with Salah and Mane back that might change). I’m also on match-proof Son. But it’s here in particular that I could well make changes.

Up front I have Salah; $25 is a lot to pay, but it feels like the sort of week where he could have a monster score, so I think I’m prepared to stump up the cash.

That leaves me just $1.02 in the bank. I know I’m light on Arsenal attackers, which is a worry (especially against Brentford), and Wolves players also have some potential, so there is plenty of scope for overthinking more changes!

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FANTRAX NMA-17

As one would expect, my F-17 team did better than my F-11 team, and I accept there was a lot of good fortune here. It was one of those weeks where the one big gamble really paid off. Again I went heavily in on double-week players, with 10 in total.

I carried my seven single-week players largely because of discounts. I think it’s important to try to keep one or two $1.00 players here, so Samir and Coutinho stayed (as it happens they didn’t contribute to the weekly score, but they’re there for another week). I’ve had Ederson all season @6.93, and he’s been a reliable floor for when my other keeper-of-the-week doesn’t pay off. Ederson didn’t contribute to the weekly score either, despite a decent 17.5 point return. KDB didn’t show up, but at least in this format there’s cover. Gallagher proved to be a poor punt. I fancied him to do well against Brentford, but he’s really been off the boil recently and it didn’t pay off. He was my most expensive player apart from De Gea, so his 5.5 points was a disappointing return.

It was up front that my single-gamers really paid off. Kane @5.85 has been significantly outperforming cost most weeks, and 13 points was no exception, but my other pick of Sterling proved really inspired, with a 31 point haul! I’m not wishing to sound greedy, but it would have been nice if he’d scored the penalty directly instead of on the rebound. Still, he could easily have been Mahrez, Foden or Grealish, so it was absolutely the best pick I could have made.

As with my F-11 team, most of the double week players did really well, and the two that didn’t, Rashford and Dunk, weren’t needed anyway since the others at their positions did so well.

This resulted in a league-leading 162.5 point haul, moving me up to 3rd place in the league, a nice jump and higher than I’ve been all season (and for a few years).

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The key when you’ve had a great week is to follow up — so often I’ve stuck with players who did well when there were many better alternatives. Fortunately, the DGW-26 means that I’m not tempted by any Man United or Brighton players, and although Gallagher is a double-week player, his poor form and high price have convinced me to dump him. So that means I’ve made eleven changes.

Many of the same players as in F-11 are here, although I’ve managed to include TAA over Robertson for now. The price difference is significant, so he won’t necessarily stay.

I have managed to include an Arsenal attacker in Lacazette, and also Jimenez from Wolves. Both are fairly erratic scorers, but dropping weak earner(s) in F-17 makes high-ceiling / low floor a more acceptable risk.

In midfield I also have two more Wolves players in Podence and Dendoncker, mainly because they are so cheap. But I’m not entirely happy with the midfield yet, so there could be more changes. I know I have four bargain-basement defenders out of five, so some need to do well, but at least I’m not relying on them all, and they all should get two games — I hope.

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So, what do you think of my teams? Have I given you any ideas for DGW-26? Am I justified in pulling the trigger on a chip in FPL? Whom would you captain? Am I making any mistakes? How many double-gamers will be in your sides? Please rate my teams below. And would you like the NMA community to rate your team? Please log in and post in the comments!

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