Our team of Hall of Famers and guest writers will provide Fantasy Premier League (FPL) tips and advice throughout 2023/24. Here, two-time Indian FPL champion Lateriser discusses chip strategy and bringing Phil Foden (£7.9m) into his midfield.
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It has been great soaking myself with FPL research and I’ve enjoyed getting back into it over the last week. December was a very hectic month for me so this little normalcy has felt great.
Coming into this week, I am sitting on 330k and have been feeling a little downbeat about it. This is primarily because halfway through the Liverpool v Newcastle United game, I was up at 160k as an Ollie Watkins (£8.9m) captainer, Mohamed Salah (£13.2m) non-captainer and Darwin Nunez (£7.4m) owner. The rest is history.
POSSIBLE CHIP STRATEGY
After a long break whereby you’ve lost ground, managers sometimes get desperate to make this up very quickly and wonder if they need to play a little freely to push the pedal.
However, on Wednesday, I sat down with the excellent Planet FPL podcast on chip strategy – essential listening. There were a ton of things to take away from it, the biggest one being that we have more than enough time to make amends and should play FPL normally rather than being too keen. There’s always a thin line between playing aggressively for the sake of it and actually finding a perfect FPL storm to make certain creative moves. Being aware of this is a good thing, so I’m always constantly asking myself such a question.
While a lot depends on results and none of the predictions come with 100% certainty, a few other lines from Planet FPL are:
- Most managers are likely aware of this but both Liverpool (versus Brentford and Luton Town) and Manchester City (versus Chelsea and Brentford) are likely to have a Double Gameweek 25. The latter is now confirmed.
- Blank Gameweek 29 has poor-looking fixtures so using a Free Hit probably won’t look great.
- As for the Triple Captain chip, Double Gameweek 25 would be a good opportunity to use it while all the teams still have something to play for.
- Sides with Double Gameweek 34 or 37 could be very different from each other, thus implying that you could instead need to Free Hit in one of those. Additionally, a lot of Double Gameweek 37 teams could not very little to play for.
Anyway, these are some of the key points to take away. I highly recommend you check this episode out at some point.
PHIL THE VOID
I currently own Salah, Son Heung-min (£9.8m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m), who are all unavailable. On Thursday, I shared my opinion on which sale should be prioritised.
Like the majority, I’m scouring for midfield replacements and have moved from one place to another quite a lot during the past week. As things stand, one player that I think I’ve definitely settled on buying is Phil Foden.
He’s a player who ticks a lot of boxes – a great run of medium-term fixtures, a definite fixture in Gameweek 26, a Double Gameweek 25 and right now he’s playing the best football of his career. Man City have a lot of their players returning from injury and there’s a good chance they’ll now go on their annual winning streak throughout the second half of the season.
Playing centrally, Foden is a very good FPL asset. He has had 10 shots and created nine chances in his last two league games alone. Watching the highlights of their last four outings, he’s just incredibly involved and a top-class finisher too.
Even so, let’s throw in some possible problems. I’ve always believed in Foden and his expected minutes more than Pep Guardiola has. With Kevin De Bruyne (£10.3m), Erling Haaland (£13.9m), Jack Grealish (£7.2m) and Jeremy Doku (£6.5m) all close to fitness, his game time might not be as secure as it should be. Although I still firmly think he’s first choice right now.
There is also no guarantee that he’ll continue to play centrally now that De Bruyne is back into proceedings. Foden is definitely a better FPL asset when used centrally, compared to being on one of the wings.
Lastly, when De Bruyne and Haaland are back, Man City might evolve their playing style, meaning you can’t use such underlying data and eye tests when making future predictions. Foden could play wide, become a minutes risk and see Haaland likely hog most chances. Despite such possibilities, the upside for a player playing his best football under Pep is worth rolling the dice on.
OTHER MIDFIELDERS
For my second replacement, I’m looking at three names: Cole Palmer (£5.7m), Diogo Jota (£7.8m) and Marcus Rashford (£8.4m). I already own Richarlison (£6.9m), otherwise he’d be very high up my list.
I think Jota has the highest potential of these and that his minutes will be better than most expect but Alexander-Arnold’s injury does take away his appeal a little. As well as that, Liverpool’s fixture schedule is a little tricky.
They have an FA Cup game before their Bournemouth trip, days before their second leg at Fulham. This adds question marks over his minutes but I still maintain his ceiling is very high.
Rashford is someone I’m contemplating as Manchester United have a great fixture run and he’s a captaincy option against Tottenham. Playing on the left with Alejandro Garnacho (£4.8m) on the right, next to Bruno Fernandes (£8.2m) and Rasmus Hojlund (£6.8m) – it’s the most balanced front four they’ve found.
Kobbie Mainoo (£4.4m) is also doing well and, with Casemiro (£5.3m) to hopefully play ahead of Scott McTominay (£4.7m) and Antony (£6.8m) not being near the first team, I expect the team’s output to improve.
Whilst Rashford, Fernandes and Garnacho are interesting punts, there is also some merit to just waiting and watching. Don’t want to make an early jump. We all know how streaky Rashford is and he’s looked a lot more confident of late.
COLD ON PALMER?
In regards to Palmer, I am wondering whether or not to swerve him. He’ll blank in Gameweek 26 if Chelsea overturn their deficit against Middlesbrough, so is it worth bringing him in if he’ll likely leave so soon? We all know that he brings set pieces, penalties and great underlying data to the table – four of his last five games have seen him rack up five shots.
Yet the fact that he’s under £6.0m and an absolute steal might mean that price bias comes into thought. Another thing about Palmer is that every chance he creates is ‘on the money’ and, over a short period, he’s displayed incredible finishing ability with some superb close control in the box.
We might not even be aware of his ceiling as a player. As an FPL asset, it’s telling me not to overthink it and simply get him in place.
That’s all from me this week. I am glad to be fully tuned in after watching the highlights of 25 games last night!
I’ve enjoyed writing this and, if you want more, our latest episode of The FPL Wire deep-dived into the Trent, Mo and Son conundrums, as well as future chip planning and tons more.
