Weak bench yes
Ings question but Pool mate reckons he will play from the off. Could go Gray or Negredo and get a pool mid if needed

Ooh, I do like it.
I'd prefer Costa to Kane at this point, but that is nitpicking, really.

I have your EXACT midfield.

Although my back and front is different.

Soaré . Shaw . Friend (Smith, McAuley)
Aguero . Ibra . Rhodes

All good except for midfield.

Kante is an excellent player but terrible fpl pick, doesn't get involved in goals.

Payet likely to be eased in to the season after reaching euro finals.

Double united seems bit much. Would replace Miki/kante to siggy/tadic

That's not weird.
One year, I named my (NFL) fantasy football team "dislocated elbow" after I had dislocated my elbow a few months before. 20 minutes into Week 1, one of the players on my team dislocated his elbow. That is weird.

Doubling up on Saints? So early?

Hazard was finding form at the endof last season aswell. A lot of us finished the season with him in our fpl teams. I see no reason why he won't be near his best this season.

With the price they paid it is very likely he is nailed

I feel quite strongly about this one. I have seen people abused and ridiculed just for choosing players the majority do not agree with.
We need to respect differences of opinion not try to change those opinions. And not just in Fantasy
football !!

Have not read it yet, but groupthink is definitely a worry frequenting sites such as this.
At least there is healthy disagreement around here, though. And there are enough contrarians to make people question their assumptions.
It is like the media. If you only listen to opinions that reinforce your own, you end up being part of a self-reinforcing echo chamber.

Nicely said. Crowd mentality and psychological safety in numbers is an interesting thing and it's a gratifying feeling to break free of it and be proved right in doing so.

I hope you don't mind me being a grump by saying this but I think your articles would benefit from just one extra proof read, things like spaces before commas, uncapitalised i's, Capitals in the middle of sentences etc. I only say so because I think you write really well on the subject and good writing, persuasive or otherwise, holds itself to its small details.

Nice article, and I agree with most of it.
One thing to consider, though. Following the herd is a risk-mitigation strategy. Going against the herd is not just scary (to our animal brains) but it can be costly for those playing for overall rank.
If things go wrong following the herd, you do not fall behind. If things go wrong going against the herd, you are lost.
Yes, playing a defensive, risk-averse strategy may be boring, but part of the challenge of FPL is to know when to strike out on your own.

10.0 is a lot to spend on gks, go DDG + 4.0 or 2x 4.5.
A lot spent on def, I'd consider downgrading one of Toby/Bellerin.
All 7.5 mids makes it very difficult to change to more expensive mids. Downgrade one to a 6.5. Upgrade one to a 9.5 and another to a 8.5.

Gray

Rondon and missing mid could perhaps be changed.

No idea, but with those first 3 fixtures i wouldn't touch their def.

Probably Nordtveit unless they buy cover, which I expect they might if it's a long term injury

Byram can fill in at lb but remains to be seen if he is a long term option there, and Hendrie may still be too raw

Morgan imo

Gray

Huge question on here. You'll find many schools of thought on the issue.
They all have some merit.

Ibracadabra

Or if you like a cheaper attacker, you could get them and keep money itb, e.g. Lukaku and 2m itb

why not just start with Arry? Fixtures are good imo.

Different to the structure I'd choose, but I'd rather not discourage variety. If you believe this is the best way to maximise points, go for it!

Personally I think it's a bit soon for RMTs, we'll have infinity more info after the community shield and the Mahrez saga is over.

Wow, nice.
I've been trying to find a team stacked with value players that could play 352 or 343 any given week. I'm not totally in love with all the individual picks (Carroll, Mahrez, Baines), but the structure is something that I'll look at...

I think you need arsenal, liverpool and mayb man utd coverage
such as xhaka, ozil
mane,firmino
Ibra,mkhitaryan

They never do that with the big clubs, even if you play around 5 games they bump up the prices next season. Unfortunately

Forward missing in B. Like B in Ibra is there.

3 of those might not even start GW1.

Player fatigue. It means they won't be at their optimum

It is silly. Especially as Kane will be going back to a team where he knows exactly how to play. I think Kane was tired but he'll be ready and so will most of them

I may start with Kane actually. I need to look into this Dembele theory 😀

It's not daft. A long season followed by Euros followed by short holiday can leave a player either mentally stale or lacking match fitness due to returning late from their holidays. I badly want either Sanchez, Ozil or Payet in my team but I need to know they're ready to go.

Disagree completely - everyone needs to recharge the batteries. No-one can play flat out all of the time. A long season can be a a mentally draining process - especially if you're a top level professional footballer with all commensurate pressures. Go ahead with all the above picks .... good luck with them. You'll need it.

A) wouldn't bank on-watching brief
B)excellent player-wrong position-avoid
C)you're either for or against-I've never understood the charm.
D) has he got the EPL quality?
E)Don't get it

a) Good but will he score enough points? I want to see how stoke start before getting any of their men in.

b) Excellent but OOP in defence? Assists will still be there but his position rules him out for me.

c) Potentially a great FPL asset - again I'm not sure about Pardew and want to see how Palace start. On my watchlist.

d) Leicester or Burnley? Leicester - if he replaces Mahrez he'll be good value; otherwise not a certain starter. Burnley - I suspect Burnley won't score too many and he won't get a lot of chances. But he's could be this seasons Ighalo/Deeney, so he's on my watchlist.

e) Close to my team. Good price and if he's a regular starter I think there's assists in him.

A) Good player, injured a lot, disadvantaged with Stoke not having a great striker- avoid for now

B) Will play rb unless injuries/poor form with feghouli/tore. Great goalscorer (mainly headers), not many assists but great long throw- watchlist and in if he plays rm

C) Good goalscorer, may overtake cabaye on set pieces and good fixtures- in

D) good championship goal scorer, came from non league, very poor first touch but good pace, places with Vokes so will share goals with him- avoid for now

E) good pace, good for asisists but not goals, many similar players at Bournemouth (mousset/gradel/King) etc- avoid for now

B I'm worried about Antonio at right back. I'd prefer Kun but do you want both KdB and Aguero?

Continuing that article big man?

Everton have decent opening fixtures that a premium striker ought to capitalize on. But with Lukaku you just don't know what you're going to get.

He looked tired in the Euro's though.

No - Ozil, Sanchez and possibly Mahrez are far more dependable.

Yes after first int. break

*who

All of them have mediocre defences imo. So yeah, I like them for attacking returns.

The west brom looks hard for lukaku but good for everton wingers. Lukaku got drowned out against them in their second fixture, the rugby players wouldn't let him get the ball. But he did score twice in the first fixture but only had 2 shots

I've got this thought about Spurs that no one has expressed.

Poch requires his team to be superfit to do all that pressing. Last pre-season he had time to prepare them, but this summer Spurs had the most players at the Euros of any club in the world. That worries me - I fear they'll be motoring on 90% early doors and get off to a sluggish start. I'm hanging back on Spurs picks for GW1.

I have high hopes for that man.

Cheers Tina, not buying the Ibra hype when I can grab proven Kane for 0.5m less.

RE: Mirallas
When this guy is on the park he is absolutely fpl gold. Do yourself a favour and look at his history comparing mins played and goals/assists. If he looks first choice for Koeman than he simply too good not to have at that price tag.

Martinez did not like Miralles and Baines in the same side. But then he did get fired. I think Koeman will be more defensively minded or get a higher work rate out of Miralles. This makes me think he will get a more central role as he is capable of playing there.