In the latest article from our team of Hall of Famers and guest contributors, FPL General reflects on Gameweek 25 and reveals his big team decisions for Gameweek 26 and beyond.
GAMEWEEK 25 REVIEW
Another FPL achievement badge was unlocked last week – getting a Double Gameweek red arrow with my Triple Captain chip active! Sometimes, you just have to laugh (otherwise I’d cry).
A score of 83 points after the hit resulted in a drop from 43k to 51k. It could have been disastrous if Erling Haaland (£14.4m) hadn’t scored in the 71st minute of Manchester City’s second game. He made us sweat for way too long.
As far as my Triple Captain history is concerned, I’ve never had much success with it. Anything that outscores the infamous Sadio Mane three-pointer goes down as a win in my book. I’m actually envious of the prospective Dominic Solanke (£7.0m) triple captainers of Double Gameweek 28 now – another FPL sentence that I never thought I’d type.  Â
I wanted to attack Double Gameweek 25 given that it featured two of the league’s best sides. But having five attackers from Man City and Liverpool didn’t exactly go to plan. Selling Ollie Watkins (£8.7m) for Darwin Nunez (£7.6m) before Gameweek 24 was worse by four points and the transfer could instead have been used for other things.
However, I would do the same thing again. It was a logical play to back Darwin’s three games versus Watkins’ two. The subsequent injuries to both Darwin and Diogo Jota (£8.3m) are uncontrollable events that came at a very unfortunate time. So Watkins will be rejoining my squad this weekend.
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m) blanking in the first match and not featuring in the second one was frustrating too. Yet I’m hopeful that his midweek rest will see him start at Bournemouth and deliver the points.
Elsewhere, Solanke and Bukayo Saka (£9.1m) delivered the goods and are both likely to remain in the squad until my second Wildcard, whenever that is. The minus four brought in De Bruyne and Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.2m) for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) and Cole Palmer (£5.7m). There was a temptation to instead replace Trent with another doubler like Alfie Doughty (£4.6m) but I’m glad to have brought Gabriel back after losing him on the Gameweek 20 Wildcard.
Despite the annoyance caused by the Liverpool and Man City guys, I found the Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m) benching to be my most tilting moment of the Gameweek. Once I saw him listed as a substitute, I knew that Brighton and Hove Albion clean sheet was happening. But he’s going to survive one more week as it makes more sense to sell players that have no fixture. Please start him against Everton, Roberto!
BLANK GAMEWEEK 26 BUS TEAM
Best of luck this weekend, everyone!
There was no General’s Orders video this week (I was red-flagged due to illness) but it will return next week. Check out Thursday’s 59th Minute Podcast if you haven’t already.
