The festive period is always an exciting time of the season for FPL managers but boy was it hectic.
It feels good to return to normality now with more time to mull over our transfer decisions each week.
Time to double up on the Liverpool defence?
The Reds have been rock solid defensively this season with Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) keeping everything under control and Alisson (£5.9m) performing much better than his predecessors.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have conceded just ten goals in their opening twenty-one matches and they face just one of the current top six in the next ten Gameweeks (Manchester United away in Gameweek 27).
A defenesive double up looks good on paper with any combination of Andrew Robertson (£6.6m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.2m), van Dijk or Alisson likely to bring home the clean sheet points for managers between now and the next international break (yes there is another one).
Will Eden Hazard troll his owners again?
The Belgian has frustrated his backers in recent weeks with three blanks in his last four appearances against Leicester, Crystal Palace and Southampton.
Patience is required with Eden Hazard (£11.1m) as often has been the case. He’s an FPL asset that must be held long term to reap the benefits as his hauls are unpredictable. Watch him bag a brace this weekend to stick it to the sellers.
Despite three blanks in the last four, Hazard ranks first alongside Richarlison (£6.9m) among midfielders for shots in the box (10) over the same period as well as creating ten chances for his team mates. Some would say he’s due…
Why sell Richarlison before Bournemouth at home?
The Brazilian is the second most-transferred out player ahead of Gameweek 22 with more than 110,000 sales. Only his fellow countryman Felipe Anderson (£7.4m) has been shipped by more managers this week.
Selling Richarlison ahead of a plum home tie is risky business. The Cherries have conceded eighteen goals in the last six Gameweeks!
The Toffees looked jaded in the 1-0 defeat to Leicester back in Gameweek 21, but a rest for some of their first-team players in the FA Cup should see them looking much fresher in Sunday’s matchup at Goodison Park.
Raheem the dream differential?
Raheem Sterling (£11.3m) has eighteen attacking returns (nine goals, nine assists) in eighteen appearances in 2018/19, yet is owned by just 10.2% of managers ahead of Monday’s home tie against Wolves.
For those managers who are down the rankings or are chasing a lead in a mini-league, the Englishman could prove to be a devastating differential over the coming weeks.
Manchester City gave us a timely reminder of what they can do to teams with a 9-0 thrashing of Burton Albion in the EFL Cup midweek. Sterling was an unused substitute in that match which makes him even more appealing for Gameweek 22, maybe even as captain.
Is Marcus Rashford being overhyped?
The young striker has been excellent since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took the reins at Old Trafford, scoring 31 FPL points, but is his place in the starting XI as secure as most people seem to think?
There’s a lot of competition for places at United. Romelu Lukaku (£10.7m) isn’t going to be content with a place on the bench and will be pushing for starts.
Will Solskjaer play them both up front together, or could we see Rashford moved back to the wing where he would be in competition with the likes of Anthony Martial (£7.3m), Alexis Sanchez (£10.0m), Jesse Lingard (£6.8m) and Juan Mata (£6.2m).
For now, Rashford looks to be Solskjaer’s number one striker but all it takes is a poor display or two and we could see some positional/personnel changes.
Aaron Wan-Don’t-Bench-Me-Bissaka
Arguably the greatest £4.0m FPL asset of all time has picked up three clean sheets in the last five Gameweeks.
Crystal Palace have looked a lot more stable defensively in recent weeks since Vicente Guaita (£4.2m) took over from Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) between the sticks.
Five of the next six fixtures look good for Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m) to get starts in our teams rather than having to look at his points on the bench.
The FPL General has three top-500 finishes in the last four seasons. You can follow him on Twitter HERE.
Become a Member and access our data
Memberships for the rest of the 2018/19 campaign are now available for the reduced price of just £10.
Join now to get the following:
- Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
- Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
- Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
- Get access to over 130+ exclusive members articles over the season.
- Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
- Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
- View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
- Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.
5 years, 4 months ago
Play Pereyra against a solid Palace defence or Jimenez away to the best team in the league?