In this piece, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of a Gameweek 11 Wildcard as well as put together a few possible drafts.

GAMEWEEK 11 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS FOR

• React to changing form. Tottenham Hotspur’s results are waning and they have Arsenal soon, while Newcastle United are struggling and face Manchester City in Gameweek 12. Whereas the likes of Manchester United and Crystal Palace are looking better and also rising up the Fixture Ticker.
• React to injuries. Own the likes of Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m) or Mohammed Kudus (£6.6m)? You can fix potential fitness issues (more of which could arise given English teams’ midweek involvement in European competitions) with a Wildcard.
• Change your cheapo bench fodder? Sunderland, despite being in good form, sit bottom of the Fixture Ticker over the next 10 Gameweeks. Someone like Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) could continue to serve as a decent budget-friendly midfielder, as could defender Nordi Mukiele (£4.2m), but could cheap players from the likes of Burnley or Fulham do the trick with their kinder schedules?
• Set up for the busy winter schedule. Particularly if you’ve yet to play your Bench Boost, but even if you already have, ensuring you have a few reliable options filling out your squad can go a long way if/when rotation strikes. 

GAMEWEEK 11 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST

• International break up next. Make it until the November break between Gameweeks 11 and 12, and you’ll have two weeks to tinker with your team, react to international injuries and catch price changes.
• Better fixture swings ahead. If you skip Manchester City and Liverpool this week, the outlook is much better after the break. You can instead load up on the Reds for their great fixtures from Gameweek 12 onwards. Indeed, they and City are top of the six-match Ticker between Gameweeks 13 and 18.
• Another week of data can never hurt. Is Mohamed Salah (£14.2m) really “back”, and is he still the best Liverpool attacker to own? Will Manchester United pass the Tottenham test before their fixtures turn? Was last weekend a blip for Bournemouth, or are the Cherries faltering – and what about Newcastle and Spurs? Do the likes of West Ham and Nottingham Forest have life in them yet? All these questions and more could be afforded more fully fledged answers when we are armed with (at least) another week’s worth of data and results. If you can therefore afford to hold off on pressing the Wildcard button for now, it could be worth doing so.
• Blocks the Bench Boost. Another reason for avoiding a Gameweek 11 Wildcard would be if your team looks in a good position to Bench Boost this week instead. There are some tricky fixtures like the aforementioned City v Liverpool clash, but plenty of teams (including those with cheap assets like Burnley and Leeds, which may already be lining your squad) have decent-looking games now but less so in the weeks to come.

BEST GAMEWEEK 11 WILDCARD TEAM DRAFTS

Erling Haaland (£14.8m) looks to be increasingly unstoppable after yet another Premier League brace. It’s surely only a matter of time before he nets a first hat-trick of the season for City, so the Norwegian remains ever-present throughout these drafts.

The same goes for Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) as a budget-friendly second – or potentially first – choice goalkeeper plus at least one (if not two, or three) Arsenal defenders, some Crystal Palace representation, and a Manchester United midfielder given the resurgent Red Devils have a great stretch of games and no midweek European involvement to muddy the waters.

DRAFT 1: ALL IN ON ARSENAL, CHELSEA, PALACE

In this first draft, we’ve gone for a double Arsenal defence of David Raya (£5.8m) – reliable, if not overly exciting – and the essentially essential Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.6m), plus a double Crystal Palace defence of the ever-threatening wing-back Daniel Munoz (£5.7m) and all-rounder captain Marc Guehi (£5.0m); the latter has been offering more going forward than his equally priced central defensive partner Maxence Lacroix (£5.0m) and has also started matching the Frenchman’s frequency of defensive contribution (DefCon) returns recently.

Completing our triple-ups on those two teams, who each rank near the top of our Fixture Ticker for the foreseeable future, are in-form Palace frontman Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.9m) – winner of a close call versus cheaper midfielder Ismaila Sarr (£6.6m) – and the Gunners’ set-piece boss Declan Rice (£6.8m), whose excellent all-round game last time out took him to second in the FPL midfielder points standings. The England international is currently proving to be a more reliable pick than countryman Bukayo Saka (£10.1m), while striker Gyokeres also had a good game versus Burnley but has a muscular problem that forced him off at half-time and necessitated his midweek absence from Champions League duty.

There’s another double-up on the cards, this time for Chelsea with Joao Pedro (£7.4m) and Moises Caicedo (£6.0m). Both men are seemingly fit again and combined for the Blues’ winner in a dominant Gameweek 10 display against Spurs, while they now face an enticing pair of fixtures on either side of the upcoming international break.

There are plenty of options around both of their respective price points which should make it easy to part ways after that if you wish, given Arsenal come to visit in Gameweek 13 – but if you choose to Free Hit that week, the following fixtures aren’t wholly terrible:

Elsewhere, Bryan Mbeumo (£8.4m) – typically Manchester United’s chief goal threat this season – completes the starting midfield alongside Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo (£8.1m) given both men’s good fixtures. 

If you’ve got the funds for him over a Sean Longstaff (£4.9m), Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) or cheaper but more rotation-prone Fulham teammate Joshua King (£4.5m), then Ryan Sessegnon (£5.4m) could be worth a punt as a fifth midfielder with excellent fixtures and a combination of DefCon potential plus some attacking threat. Nottingham Forest corner taker and DefCon magnet Elliot Anderson (£5.3m) is another alternative, as is Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) to Marcos Senesi (£5.0m) in defence given Fulham’s Gameweek 11-18 run:

Completing this draft is Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m). He combines DefCon potential with aerial threat from set plays and is the most reliable route into the Reds’ backline with their Ticker-topping Gameweek 12-20 fixtures in mind…

DRAFT 2: TRIPLE GUNNERS BACKLINE, UNITED MIDFIELD DUO

Still a triple-up on the Premier League leaders here, but this time with three of their record-setting defensive troops. Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) – who trails fellow full-back Jurrien Timber (£6.1m) by one for combined shots and key passes but is also slightly cheaper – joins Gabriel and Raya, replacing Munoz with Guehi the chosen Palace defender (due to budget, but also being a great pick in his own right).

The Eagles are this week up against free-scoring Brighton forward Danny Welbeck (£6.5m). There have been only two clean sheets in the last 15 Premier League iterations of this match-up, which is encouragement for attackers like Welbeck.

Plumping for both Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes (£8.9m) means that for budget reasons the eighth attacker here may have to be a non-playing one, however the upcoming fixtures of van Dijk and Andersen – or Senesi, if you prefer him to the latter and can afford the £0.5m difference – mean you might end up playing four or even five at the back anyway.

DRAFT 3: DOUBLES EVERYWHERE

It’s back to double Arsenal defence here, this time just with Gabriel and Calafiori alongside Palace skipper Guehi. That means out goes Raya for Senne Lammens (£5.0m). 

“A Manchester United goalkeeper?!” you scoff. “What year is this?”

Well, the young Belgian has a save point in all but one of his Premier League appearances so far as well as his clean sheet against Sunderland. If United can clean up the defensive lapses that saw them concede twice against Forest in two minutes last weekend, Lammens could record a few more shut-outs in the near future given the Red Devils sit top of the Fixture Ticker from Gameweek 11-19.

Ibrahima Konate (£5.4m) over van Dijk helps free up some funds to swap in Enzo Fernandez (£6.7m) for Caicedo, meanwhile. The box-crashing Argentine – who sometimes operates as a ‘10’ – remains second among all FPL midfielders for expected goals (xG) this season, even discounting penalties, and could capitalise on Chelsea’s good fixtures before being traded out for someone like Palace winger Sarr.

Joining the midfield is Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m). Arguably Liverpool’s player of the season so far, there’s always a chance the Hungarian utility man starts further back, including at right-back. However, Szoboszlai poses a decent attacking threat – both directly and in terms of chance creation – when given license to roam, and also offers another route to points with his set pieces duties, including free-kicks and some corners. All that for less than half the price of a certain someone…

A frontline of Haaland, Mateta and Pedro then requires a midfielder at or below the £6.0m mark. That could be any of the cheaper options from draft one, as well as Caicedo if you’re high on Chelsea at the moment, Brighton’s dangerous winger Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m) – fresh from a nine-point return in Gameweek 10 – or West Ham’s penalty taker Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m). 

The Brazilian No10 has proven himself capable of picking up DefCon points, takes some set pieces and has just scored his fourth goal of the season. And while he is also precariously perched on four yellow cards, this upcoming home meeting with Burnley might be all you need him for in the next few weeks given Liverpool’s fixture swing means Szoboszlai and Konate will come in after that.

DRAFT 4: HOW TO FIT SALAH IN

Is it worth it? 

That’s the inevitable question you’ll have to ask yourself if you’re considering a Wildcard draft that includes Salah alongside Haaland, particularly if – as you should – you want double Arsenal defence and at least one or two mid-priced explosive players in there as well.

Here’s what we’ve come up with…

Mbeumo and Mateta can stay but Semenyo may have to go, particularly if you’re particularly keen on someone like Rice, Caicedo, Enzo or Sarr (or prefer the pricier Fernandes from United’s midfield).

An enabler at the Longstaff/Xhaka price point or below will almost certainly be needed as a fifth (and maybe even fourth) midfielder, possibly in addition to Bournemouth youngster Eli Junior Kroupi (£4.6m) – no longer a surefire starter given Sunday’s return of Evanilson (£7.0m) – as a third forward. This team is at least capable of being sent out in 5-3-2 set-up (such as in Gameweek 12) so that the cheap bench options remain just that.

Sacrificing Guehi for Chris Richards (£4.5m) is another potentially necessary move here.

It’s still currently hard to argue that many of those sacrifices are worth it for the sake of having Salah, when there are other Liverpool attackers getting the job done as well this season. 

But if you trust that his upcoming run will help the Egyptian king come good, here are a few ways to fit him in. Have you found another? Let us know in the comments below!