With the next Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline almost upon us, we’re getting insight and team reveals from our panel of Hall of Famers and guest writers.
Here, three-time top 500 finisher FPL General – now inside the top 30k in 2024/25 – talks us through Gameweek 16, plus his plans for Gameweek 17 and beyond.
Gameweek 16 Review
Following four green arrows on the bounce, a red one arrived in Gameweek 16. It was self-inflicted which made it a frustrating Gameweek. I went to bed on Friday night planning to roll again to get to four frees. Saturday morning came and I had a few hours to kill at the airport which resulted in two transfers being made. I’m calling it the FPL boredom trap after a few weeks of not making any move.
Out went Mark Flekken (£4.5m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.4m) for Alisson (£5.4m) and Jarrod Bowen (£7.4m), which did not go to plan. Alisson is a long-term pick and Bowen has two more favourable fixtures so I’m not going to label it a mistake just yet. Not buying Alexander Isak (£8.8m) for the Leicester game and making it harder to get there by putting more budget into the goalkeeper position, could come back to bite me (again). The Chris Wood (£6.6m) VAR decision and the Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) red card rubbed salt in the wounds!
It wasn’t all bad, however. Double Arsenal defence came through again, Bryan Mbeumo (£7.6m) continues to be a hero and Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) did what he does best, scooping all three bonus after scoring. Will he be available this weekend is the big question?!? My overall rank dropped from 19k to 25k. Not my favourite Gameweek of the season but I’m delighted to be 25k at this point.
We all experience difficult weekends playing this game. The key is not to overreact. Avoiding emotional charged transfers on Sunday night/Monday isn’t easy but it’s usually worth it as there’s often new information that arises during the week to alter our thinking. I stayed away from the FPL website for a few days and now I’ve got a clear head with two free transfers available.
Gameweek 17 Bus Team
