With the next Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline almost upon us, we’re hearing from our panel of guest writers. Here, three-time top 500 finisher FPL General talks through his Gameweek 31 team.
Gameweek 30 Review
As is tradition with any Wildcard, a red arrow followed! Hopefully the troops perform better this weekend.
I was all over the place on Friday, overthinking and over-tinkering. In the end, I went back to the squad structure I originally wanted. The likes of Anthony Gordon (£7.4m), Joao Pedro (£5.6m) and Ezri Konsa (£4.4m) almost forced their way in. The very last decision I made was to take Bukayo Saka (£10.4m) out for Cole Palmer (£10.7m). I was keen on Palmer all week as I favoured the Chelsea fixtures and had concerns over Saka’s fitness. The plan is to make the switch in Gameweek 33.
Triple Crystal Palace didn’t get off to a great start but I was encouraged by the performance of Ismaila Sarr (£5.7m) in the 1-1 draw with Southampton. The trio will stay the course for the back-to-back doubles unless there’s an injury/suspension.
The Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) injury, coupled with the late clean sheet wipeout for David Raya (£5.5m), wasn’t fun. In hindsight, keeping Justin Kluivert (£6.2m) wasn’t the best play. Another case of overthinking it. I knew the majority of Wildcarders would lose him, which made me like the prospect of owning him for Ipswich at home if he shook off the injury niggle. It wasn’t to be and he’s now a major doubt for the weekend too. It’s a good job Gameweek 31 isn’t the Bench Boost week!
The Manchester City and Newcastle guys did the business. One of the reasons behind keeping Kluivert was that I was happy to have Jacob Murphy (£5.1m) come off the bench if the Bournemouth man missed out completely and it played out nicely with the Murphy assist.
The plan is to Bench Boost in Gameweek 32, which is why Nick Pope (£4.9m), Neco Williams (£4.4m) and Levi Colwill (£4.4m) made it in.
Gameweek 31 Team
