FPL Team Reveal: Injury problems and the hunt for Bamford replacements

Phil Gill, aka @fplsorcerer, is an incredibly successful Fantasy Premier League (FPL) veteran who can boast of two top 1k finished, six top 5k finishes and eight top 10k finishes.

Phil sits 85^th in the Career Hall of Fame and currently has an overall rank of 143k.

Here he discusses his team plans for the weekend and beyond.

FPL Gameweek 5 Review

• Points: 72
• Overall Rank: 143k 

Gameweek 5 felt like a breakthrough with my rank moving from 220k to 143k. My moves to take out Harry Kane (£12.2m) and Diego Jota (£7.7m) for Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) and Patrick Bamford (£7.9m) paid dividends although Bamford is now injured for this week. These moves, although quite template, pushed my rank up more than 70k places. 

Gameweek 6 ‘Bus Team’

When I set my team after the game updated on Friday evening, I was thinking how great it looked and how I would save my transfer for the Chelsea fixture shift next week. But then broke the news in midweek that Bamford was out and Luke Ayling (£4.5m) and Raphinha (£6.5m) were doubts. So my team is currently looking problematic with the risk that I only have nine players available.

Here are my thoughts on how to optimize my team this week.

An obvious transfer for me to make is to take out Bamford who is out this week. I thought about keeping him especially looking at the Leeds fixtures but not knowing how long he is out for is problematic. For all we know, he could miss Gameweek 7 too as there is no clear-cut news on his length of absence and I need players starting this Gameweek. 

I looked at the following Bamford replacements…

• Romelu Lukaku (£11.6m), whose run after this week looks irresistible but this means also losing Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m) or Mason Greenwood (£7.7m) and I don’t want to lose them especially not for a bench player when I need all the players I can this week.

• Chris Wood (£6.8m), who faces a Leicester team that has been giving away many headed chances and who has Norwich at home next week. But then he faces Man City away.

• Odsonne Edouard, (£6.5m) passes the eye test and has some good fixtures on the way. But he may still not start as Viera feels he still needs bedding into the premier league.

• Adam Armstrong (£6.0m), who has been getting a lot of chances and faces Wolves at home next but then next week it’s Chelsea away.

• Salomón Rondón (£6.0m), with Norwich at home but that would be a transfer for one week and I am not keen to use my Wildcard anytime soon.

None of these options appeal to me so I looked at possible midfield player transfers. The key players I wanted for this week even before the injuries filtered through were Demarai Gray (£5.8m) and Ismaila Sarr (£5.8m). Both players are in top form and have good fixtures this week with Gray probably the slightly better option with his long-term fixtures and Everton’s injuries. However, I don’t have the funds to upgrade Josh Brownhill (£4.5m) to one of them and I am not too keen to replace Raphinha as he has good fixtures and may even play this Gameweek.

So I have opted for a double transfer move which means yet another 4 point hit but almost guarantees me 11 playing players this week whilst strengthening my squad. 

Gameweek 6 Transfers

Bamford and Brownhill have gone out and in come Emmanuel Dennis (£5.3m) and Sarr.

This allows me to get Sarr, the top player that I wanted this week, and to start Raphinha with Dennis as a back-up if he doesn’t play. This move also frees up money in the bank for me to get a premium Chelsea player next week without taking a hit so it seems like the most sensible option all round despite the four-point hit. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet as I’m waiting to see if any more team news becomes available about Raphinha especially and any other of my players. But I am almost certain that these will be my moves which I feel will safeguard my team for this week and going forward despite taking another four-point hit.

Gameweek 6 Captain

Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.7m) gets the captaincy for me at home to Aston Villa. Other good options are Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) away to Brentford and Michael Antonio (£7.9m) away to Leeds. However, I think Ronaldo is the best pick this week with the home fixture and he will also likely be the highest owned captain.  If I was to gamble though, I would go for Antonio captain against an injury-hit Leeds team. 

Thanks again for reading and good luck for the Gameweek.