In his latest article, three-time top 200 finisher Lateriser discusses his Gameweek 34 Free Hit.
He picks out some Fantasy Premier League (FPL) essentials, plus the players he has a gut feeling about.
Too much indulgence in chips isn’t good for our health, but that won’t stop us FPL managers.
Like many, I am activating a Free Hit this week. I used my Wildcard in Gameweek 32 and Bench Boost in 33, which naturally means I have barely any players for this big blank.
- READ MORE: Best Free Hit team for Blank Gameweek 34
- READ MORE: Zophar’s Blank Gameweek 34 Free Hit team + Q&A
All the matchups look tight, so a lot of this Free Hit is going to come down to ‘vibes’. FPL is a high-variance game, which increases exponentially when trying to build a team for just one Gameweek.
This ties in with football being a low-event sport. When variance is so high, and the margins are this tight, this becomes a week where you just need to listen to your heart and go where the vibes are. With some slight rationality, of course.
WANTING SOME SPURS
When trying to predict chaos, one game jumps out at me: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur.
The now-relegated home side has conceded nine goals in its last three encounters. And the number could have been much more, when looking at the sheer amount of chances that Leeds United – Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.7m), basically – had last Saturday. Another factor is that Yerson Mosquera (£4.3m), one of their better defenders, remains suspended for this one.
Maybe Wolves will want to put on a good performance for their own fans, which might leave open spaces for Roberto De Zerbi’s side to capitalise on.
- READ MORE: Are any Spurs players worth buying?
After all, Spurs’ best attacking display in recent times came last time, against in-form Brighton and Hove Albion. I’m therefore hoping this will be a basketball-style match, from which I’ll likely have one or two attackers.
Xavi Simons (£6.5m) had two big chances and created another versus the Seagulls. He was at the heart of everything they did, and this De Zerbi quote is encouraging:
“He’s lucky to work with me – not because I’m good, because I was number 10. What he thinks now, I thought 20 years ago. So, we have a special connection.
“A number 10 has to understand that he has to score and he has to make assists, not just play to be nice to the people – goals and assists. He played very well against Brighton, a great game. I think he can play better and better, because a player like this, he needs to feel confidence from the manager.
“I think I’m lucky to have this player on my team, but also he’s lucky because with number 10, I can understand better than other coaches.” – Roberto De Zerbi
I particularly like the doubling down on scoring and assisting.
Meanwhile, Dominic Solanke (£7.2m) hasn’t been the most mobile, but racked up six close-range shots across the last two matches and could be on penalties. Wolves have a propensity to concede shots to centre forwards, and I’m hoping for the same this time.
Rob Edwards’ side is also fairly susceptible to set pieces, shown by Konstantinos Mavropanos‘ (£4.4m) brace. That’s something that frequent taker Pedro Porro (£5.1m) can take advantage of.
Encouragingly, he’s looking more like the Porro under Ange Postecoglou than the one during Thomas Frank’s reign. He has five shots in two games, created four chances in Gameweek 33 and also managed to clock defensive contribution (DefCon) points. Although I don’t expect a clean sheet, I like the Spaniard’s attacking potential.
Right now, Porro and Simons are fairly secure in my Free Hit draft, while Solanke is a maybe.
NAILED-ON PICKS
We discussed Blank Gameweek 34 in detail during this week’s episode of The FPL Wire, alongside Zophar and Pras.
