Perhaps 'no name' is a name.

is "I dont know" an answer?

For me the issue of no starting 4.5 forwards is a pretty glaring problem. Other than that it's good, but not so good that it justifies the imbalance and lack of back-up if Haaland misses games.

Not imo, Ederson is, though not ideal.

I don't think any are as nailed as I'd like

Stones or Ake, I think - at least until we see what happens with Cancelo and Gvardiol.

We’ll know the preferred city defence after the community shield

Prefer Stones up until the UCL.

If Pep reignites his faith in him then Cancelo at 6.0m is a steal imo

Stones for me, although I probably won't have any of them

Pick a cheaper GK

I'd say that's a nice team.

If McGinn is in there I think it's more likely a 4-3-3 with Luiz, Tielemens, and McGinn behind the front three.

Probably kamara over Luiz. Luiz and Tielemans competing for the spot next to him

Just as you have it, would be my best guess at the moment. Which has got me wondering, if they do go with this lopsided defence from the off, could troll extraordinaire Lucas Digne be a good option til Moreno is back?

Kamara might get ahead of Tielemens. Could be opposition specific.

I think Luiz and McGinn are nailed in midfield. With Ramsay out, Buendia probably starts.

Villa squad is capable of challenging for top 4 .

Cash will be the RB

Emi
Cash, Konsa, Torres, Moreno
Luiz, Kamara Mcginn
Diaby Watkins Ramsey

With no transfers I'm pretty sure this is it, with following to consider;

- Konsa place until Carlos proves some consistency - missed a lot of - football and was new to prem even then
- Buendia and Tielemans will rotate a lot with Ramsey and McGinn
- Expect us to sign a RB and another option across the front 3

GTG?

I'm still on auto complete. I think messing with it now just to end up with the template team anyway is the ultimate definition of a waste of time

R.I.P. you 🙁

Newcastle have been linked to diaby for over a year now so I’m sure a newcastle fan would be better placed to write about him

He's never played for Villa, what difference does it make?

If you're going to moan at least make it a good one

Tough call but if pushed B

B

Thanks both

A for me. Martinelli over Bruno even if they were the same price

Yeah solid Salah team and McNeil looks like the pick of the 5.5s at the moment and they have decent fixtures so why not. Eze a good punt to make through the Mbuemo and Mitoma hype

Pretty strong non-Salah team, I like it.

Like it

Son is an interesting one. Think he has potential to be great value this season but personally leaving Spurs alone for now to see how they look early in the season. Looks a good side though

Similar to me but I am 352. Son is the one I keep going back and forth on - really really want to believe in him and pick him, but I know it’s a bit punty

Hasn't had much game time last season . Coming with a better head on his shoulders so Cooper should get him playing well looking at probably gw5ish IMO also monitor the last couple of preseasons if can get a run out . But could be a good prospect . Personally would have MGW in my team at this point .

Maybe if looking for a cheap 5th midfielder and not on a 352/451 setup

I'm never convinced by the fringe players of the big clubs. Man Utd ripping teams off with their rejects is a tale as old as time

Opening fixtures tough- a wait and see for now and assess how fits in

Reply fail

Not sure of Enciso and Diaz starts, but not bad for a fairly template team.

Is that Darwin on your bench? Maybe slim down the team a bit and not have that much cash on the bench?

4-5-1 with two filler forwards?

Yup.
£42.5m in my midfield.

No Trent and 6m 2nd FWD?

I have had even stronger midfield with triple Ars + 2x MU, but dropped Øde. The problem is whether to have TAA or not.

Yes, midfield is Saka, Rashford, Bruno F, Foden, Martinelli

I think there are a lot of good 6.5 options to go with this season. I think I'll end up having at least one 6.5 mid for most of the season.

There are some good ones to start the season with such as Mbeumo, Mitoma, Gross and others who will have good fixtures runs later on in the season like Diaby, Mudryk, Almiron, Eze etc. Think it's a good price point to have in the team and it's not too difficult to move up to 7.0 to get the likes of Richarlison or Sterling if they look like good options later.

That said, if you're starting off with all your mids from 7.5 upwards then it will be easy to downgrade to the 6.5 of choice to free up funds

Quite like that bracket actually. Starting with Mitoma. Pretty set on Salah so I think that entails balancing the budget with at least one 6.5m (or cheaper) mid. Current structure:
12.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8 / 6.5

Yep, same price points as you.

My is 12.5 , 8.5 , 8.5 , 6.5 and 6.5

Team seems a bit skint for a 343

Elanga and Pedro especially

Trim down the cost of your defence to improve midfield as there are some good value 4.5 def about.

I think it shows why having Salah and Haaland in team is difficult to make work particularly in this formation. You are relying on one of Pedro or Elanga each week. Given the powerful options in midfield having only 3 will be a problem

Ditch Robbo to beef up the midfield. Pool are still using an inverted RB so 6.5m for the LCB looks a waste of funds to me

I might have sorted it and it gave me 11 starters, assuming Jackson ends up top in Poch's system.

Leno
Gabriel - Shaw - Stones
Salah - Saka - Bruno - Mitoma
Haaland - Jackson - Wissa

Areola, Ahamada, Baldock, Bell

Robbo is not for me, I have Stones over him atm.

Double (Saka & Martinelli). Definitely would like more than one attacker for NFO, but Palace away are no pushovers, Fulham gave them a good contest at Emirates last season (not so much at CC but then Palhinha was suspended), and I don't want to be overinvested for the Man Utd game. So if I go with WC5 I might actually just have Saka for GWs2-4

Considered it, but atm. I'm covering the Ars defense.

Nah. Only double. Saka Martinelli.

Loathe to go triple attack or triple defence for any team unless it's a one week punt on a free hit. Feels like putting too many eggs in one basket.

I'm on Gabriel, Saka and Jesus from Arsenal at the moment

Gabriel is more difficult to replace than Jesus, so it comes to:

A) Jesus + other 5.0
B) other fwd + Gabriel

I believe B wins it long term.

Thank you for this, great insight.

Leverkusen have an impressive scouting network and do some very good business. No doubt Diaby's replacement, Victor Boniface will ended up being a star too.

Cheers, always appreciate you sharing your Bundesliga knowledge

You don't need to get to Jota imo .

Curious as to why you want 3 Liverpool for opening fixtures and double Arsenal defence with so many good attacking options

Assuming you'd want Jota for Diaz? I'd prefer Diaz over Jota personally.

Otherwise ditch one of the Brighton mids for a 4.5, go with a 442 formation, and use the funds to upgrade Diaz to Jota and turn one of your 4.0 defenders into a 5 or 5.5 defender.

In time yes

Emery clearly loves him & keeps going on about how they can improve playing out from the back

Cash better option to start with(?)

Not at all. Really like this draft, even if I'm skipping the 6.5m mids all together.

Check mine below. We have same defenders. So it comes to:

A) Rashford, Bruno vs Salah + Eze
2) Martinelli + Wissa vs Jesus + Mbeumo

Trouble with having 3 midfielders at 6.5 is that if say Foden, Maddison or another mid in the 7-9 m range starts firing more difficult to get there (unless you take out Salah) so structure a bit inflexible to respond to early bandwagons. Also if any of the 3 start poorly harder to jump off as not much at that price.

With Onama, Estop and Hal I assume you're playing Aldi fantasy this year?

Good team, I think you could shave .5 off defence and go for one of the nailed 4 m defenders.

Good team. Got some subs in there too.

Solid. I can never settle on anything with that much itb myself but it certainly has its benefits

It's certainly not flexible, but I'm on the Trent/Mo/Haaland camp with you. I actually like it. Botman every week not ideal too, and not keen on Kluivert, but can't have them all!

I’m not the one to tell people what to do, BUT on this occasion…

Start again, can’t be having a 4.0 defender and Kluivert starting.

You’ll be competing against teams that will have 11 really good players.

Son > Maddison

Bruno > Rashford

Kluivert > McNeil/other 5.5 you like

4.0 > Pau

I am sorry to say this, but my team^ will beat yours.

Can't be carrying any passengers. Fail and back to the drawing board. Son needs to go, as well as the obvious

Funny timing - check out above!

Fair point but all them points do add up esp for MLs that a lot of people only care about. Last year I won mine by 13 points so I like to think I every point matters..

I’m also on 4-5-1 atm for what it’s worth lol

I wouldn't be too worried about Haaland rests leaving you down to 10, at least to start with. The bigger issue for me would be the extra FT required to switch formation if you think there's a reasonable chance you want Nkunku/Watkins/Isak/Jesus/Gakpo etc (more of an issue if you aim to hold your 1st WC fairly late), since you obviously wouldn't ditch Haaland.

The issue I see is you could end up playing with 10 players if your main FWD doesn't play and 2 fodders also get 0 mins.

For folks that say the team isn't flexible, you can get any player you want in 2-3 moves so not a big issue from that POV.

4-5-1 with two 4.5 fodder forwards lacks flexibility in my opinion. If there's another striker who's on a purple patch and you want to bring him in, then you'd have to reshuffle your team to do so with multiple transfers.

Most teams with a second striker between 7-8m won't have that problem as it will be a straight swap

About the only thing Im set on is 5 strong mids
How I make it work with Halland and Watkins is the kicker

I do disagree. Every year there is usually huge bench jam at least once. I haven't calculated how many points, but over 20 over the season I'd think.

Weird false dichotomy. Who is starting with two 4.5 mids?

My android is working properly.

Does it work if you disable it and then refresh the page?

Only happens for me on the home page, articles are fine (for now)

Tough. I think Onana - 4.5 is a fair tradeoff for upgrading McNeil, who I'm not too enthused by personally. But Estupinan would be a much more reluctant sacrifice

No Salah but can't tell where your budget went. Need to have Darwin if you're going without Salah.

If you're thinking Kovacic takes Gundo's place on the cheap, I'd re-think that. He won't get you much as a fourth mid.