How to handle the emerging ‘template’ ahead of Gameweek 5

She may have enjoyed the first two Gameweek’s but she’s not as chirpy now! Having been 2-0 down in the General vs Mrs General head-to-head league, I’ve clawed it back to 2-2 and life is bearable again.

We can blame her for Raheem Sterling (£12.3m) registering a grand total of zero shots in Gameweek 4 as she triple-captained him. I won’t repeat what she said about him after the final whistle. Mrs. General owns Anthony Martial (£7.7m) and Aymeric Laporte (£6.4m) too so maybe the curse has been passed on to her this season, at least I hope so.

Things have been going smoothly for me with no major fires to fight aside from the misfiring Diogo Jota (£6.3m) who will be booted out of the battalion before the weekend. The Wildcard is neatly tucked away in the back pocket (why doesn’t anyone keep it in the front pocket?).

There’s been a lot of debate about the ‘Template’ in FPL this week. I mean, what does it even mean? One of the most common mistakes FPL managers make (and we’ve all been guilty of doing it at some point) is worrying too much about what others are doing. Looking at the teams of rivals in your mini-league or seeing similar teams posted on Twitter each week clouds our judgement.

It’s not about following the pack, the goal is the beat the pack. One of the hardest things to do in FPL nowadays is to focus 100% on your own team without being influenced by other factors such as the ‘Template’.

Focus on bringing in the players you believe will score you the most points and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing or saying. I like to think of it as having tunnel vision for my team only. Block out everything else especially when you sit down to make your transfer/captaincy decisions for the weekend. Trust your own judgement/research/instinct/eye test. FPL is a simple game which we overcomplicate. The only ‘Template’ you need to worry about is your own.

The international break and the upcoming Champions League/Europa League fixtures have been well covered already so rather than repeat what’s already been said, I’ll mention a few players/teams that we may be overlooking/are not being talked about much.

Jamie Vardy (£8.9m), owned by less than 10% of managers, has scored three goals in his last two matches yet he’s only the 22nd most-transferred in player ahead of Gameweek 5. Fixtures and his awkward price point are the main reason but Manchester United (away) and Tottenham (home) in the next two are not bad fixtures for Vardy. He loves a game against the ‘big six’. United and Spurs have managed just one clean sheet between them out of a possible eight. I have a feeling Vardy is going to be in a lot of teams soon. Those who own him already/move early for him despite the fixtures could be rewarded.

The North London clubs, Arsenal and Tottenham have great fixtures coming up and most of us don’t own many of their players if any at all. The four goals Harry Kane (£11.0m) scored for England during the break will do his confidence the world of good. It doesn’t matter how they go in or who it’s against. He’s got the penalty miss out of his system now too!

Son Heung-min (£9.5m) and Christian Eriksen (£8.8m) are worthy of consideration as well. It’s probably best to avoid the defence (the same can be said for Arsenal) until they show signs of improvement.

Nicolas Pépé (£9.4m) has the potential to be an excellent FPL asset. Liverpool (away) and the North London derby were tricky tests for him, but he passed the eye test and with a bit more composure in front of goal, he will rack up plenty of Fantasy points. At just 3.7% ownership, getting on him before the masses do could be a shrewd move. I prefer Pépé to the more expensive Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) who has spent a lot of time on the wing with Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) through the middle. We can’t trust Unai Emery to give Lacazette enough minutes to justify his price tag (he’s yet to complete 90 minutes this season). Europa League will only make things worse.

Looking at the Arsenal midfielders on the FPL site, there ar quite a few flags which bodes well for Dani Ceballos (£5.7m) who should start against Watford on Sunday. Like Pépé, he’s got all the attributes to be a great FPL option, we just need Emery to start him every week.

A few others who I think will score well over the next few weeks are Alex Iwobi (£5.9m) at Everton and the Fraser/Wilson (Callum) combo at Bournemouth which was back in action in Gameweek 4.

I’m going to spend the next 24 hours figuring out how to replace Jota with either Ashley Barnes (£6.7m) or Sébastien Haller (£7.5m) with two free transfers and £0.0m in the bank. One of Andrew Robertson (£6.9m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.6m) or John McGinn (£5.6m) will have to be reluctantly sold. A good headache to have, I guess. Or I could just get Chris Wood (£6.3m) and bank the other trans…..(slaps self in face).

Good luck in Gameweek 5 everyone and most importantly, enjoy your weekend. It’s good to have FPL back!