The New Years resolution of healthy eating is out the window now with all this talk about chips.
It’s more complicated than ever before this season with the way the blanks and doubles are falling. Having a battle plan has never been more important in FPL.
Managers are colour coding their excel spreadsheets, Ben Crellin is working 24-hour shifts, while old school folk like me are plotting for this crucial stage of the season with a good old fashioned bic biro and a foolscap.
With a carefully thought out plan, huge gains can be made between now and Gameweek 38.
For those struggling like myself (310k), keep the faith, don’t give up on the season. Smash the remaining twelve Gameweeks and you will soar up the rankings.
The various chip strategies have been covered in depth already this week. The most important thing is to do what is right for your team. We are all going into this period from a different starting point.
Don’t feel that you need to go for the strategy that most others seem to be going for. That route may not work for your side. Think outside the box too, spend time looking at all the options and be open to new ideas.
A lot of FPL managers feel uneasy about going into a Gameweek with less than eleven players and do everything in their power to avoid it. Going into a Blank Gamweek with just eight, nine or 10 starters is fine. The key is to ensure the players you do have are the players that are most likely to do well as well as having a strong captaincy option.
As a manager with no Manchester City coverage, focusing my next four or five transfers solely on players who play in Gameweek 31 could result in missing out on huge hauls from Pep Guardiola’s players who face West Ham (home), Bournemouth (away) and Watford (home) from Gameweeks 28 to 30.
I’m weighing up the possibility of selling Eden Hazard (£10.8m) for Raheem Sterling (£11.3m) in Gameweek 28. It would mean fielding less than eleven players in Gameweek 31 (unless hits are taken) but Sterling could easily score 25+ points in those three fixtures and would be a strong captaincy option too.
For those who are planning to build towards Gameweeks 31 and 33 with their free transfers, Liverpool, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Leicester City and West Ham are the five teams I’d be targeting for transfers in between now and then.
Mohamed Salah (£13.6m), Andrew Robertson (£6.8m) and the in-form Sadio Mane (£9.6m) is the triple-up I fancy from the Reds.
When it comes to Chelsea, a lot depends on their form and whether Maurizio Sarri is still the manager by the time the blanks roll around.
Ryan Fraser (£6.1m) will become popular again as will David Brooks (£5.0m) and Callum Wilson (£6.3m) if they can recover from their respective injuries in time.
For the Foxes, Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m), Ricardo Pereira (£5.3m), Ben Chilwell (£5.0) and Harry Maguire (£5.4m) are all worthy of consideration.
In attack, it’s difficult to predict what Claude Puel will do from week to week but James Maddison (£6.6m), Harvey Barnes (£5.5m) and Jamie Vardy (£8.8m) will also get attention from FPL managers.
The Hammers have been pretty poor defensively this season registering just four clean sheets. Can they improve on that with a kind run of fixtures ahead? Lukasz Fabianski (£4.7m) is always a viable option while further up the pitch his teammates Felipe Anderson (£7.2m) and Marko Arnautovic (£6.8m) (if he can stay fit) should deliver points. Manuel Lanzini (£6.4m) could be a nice differential, he’s due to return to action very soon.
Captaincy for Gameweek 27 is not straightforward with no Man City or Chelsea to choose from and Manchester United facing old foes Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.1) and Heung-min Son (£9.0m) are leading the way in the captain poll but the Arsenal man may have to play ninety minutes in the Europa League tonight due to Alexandre Lacazette’s (£9.5m) European ban.
Meanwhile, Salah has returned in just one of seven games against the ‘top-six’ this season. Can he do it against United? Will Paul Pogba (£8.8m) be the hero? It’s a tough one to call.
I’m going to entrust the South Korean with the armband for Spurs’ trip to Turf Moor.
Good luck with the planning for the best part of the season and may your arrow be green in Gameweek 27.
