Fantasy Premier League 2015/16.

[KingPush]

Wildcard activated.  Am i the first?

Activated mine yesterday, I was going to lose too much value with Rooney, Walcott, Sinclair and Coates and miss the bandwagons.

Done it too. Having Walcott in at the start was an absolute shocker

[Junior Senior]

I've never seen such panic early season in all my years of playing this game.

just need aguero to pick up a little hammy strain for the next 8 days and the bandwagon will end.

Rooney and Memphis will destoy Newcastle... i hope.

[Honeybadger]

Using my WC this week. Here is my provisional squad, I have not confirmed it yet. Any comments/suggestions to help a FF first-timer before I take the plunge?

Click to see full-size image.

[Honeybadger]

Just had friend tell me I am making a huge mistake playing WC early, and it should be saved till later to crush double game weeks. Is he correct in this, or is early WC use a valid strategy?

[nuros]

In previous seasons he'd've been right but this year one wildcard has to be used in first half of the season, the other in the second half unlike before where one lasted the whole season and one was only for the january transfer window. Basically there aren't going to be any double gameweeks in the first half of the season so you can't save it for them. Use it whenever you think it will benefit your team the most although it's worth remembering the transfer window hasn't shut yet!

[nuros]

The team looks pretty good btw though I'd be wary you only have one legitimate captain choice in Aguero, also looks like you've chased last weeks points a bit however those are the players that will be rising in price, can't buy people who are falling when on a wildcard!

[thesilkworm]

Agree with both of nuros' posts. A lot of very good FPL players are wildcarding right now, and you will still have a late season wildcard, so ignore what your friend said.

As for the team itself, I agree that you need to squeeze an extra premium player in. Can you find the money for Cazorla to Sanchez somewhere? Your 8th most expensive attacking player is 5.8m, which is a lot of money to be benching every week. Your 7th most expensive is 7.1m, which is a huge amount for a player you might sometimes bench. Either get a base price player who you will bench every week and invest the money elsewhere, or if you prefer to rotate, it still needs to be a cheaper rotation than 7.1/5.8 imo.

[Honeybadger]

Hey nuros and silkworm, thanks for advice! Really appreciated.

As regards the captain issue and premium player issue... I could replace replace Depay with a midfielder up to 6.6m and use excess money to have Rooney as a forward (Rooney is in my team now before the WC use). This gives me two potential captains and two premium players. It also keeps ManU represented in my squad (since they play my team NUFC tomorrow this seems necessary!). Then I would be rotating 5.8m and 6.6m players which is a little better, right?

There are not that many decent midfielders for 6.6m or less though. Barkley, Cabaye, Navas, Montero, Kouyate, Albrighton are all possible options - and some of these are substantially less than 6.6m which would give me a little spare in the bank for wiggle room in the future. What you reckon? All options seem to have issues (e.g. bad fixtures coming up, or over-representing one team in my squad, or may not play regularly, or not very good but just had good start to season etc).

[nuros]

You want as much budget as possible to be in your starting XI without having a bench that doesn't play. Your defense is perfectly set up like that with rotation between 4 cheap guys. At the minute though your attack isn';t set up for roation because it will always involve leaving too much money on the bench. If you want to rotate you need either 1 forward + 1 midfielder both at around 5.5m or two midfielders around the same price, who have complimentary fixtures. Alternatively you want 7 mid price or higher attackers and one 4.5m (or max 5m) player(who actually plays) just to warm the bench. Personally i'd use the extra funds to do cazorla to sanchez and downgrade one of ayew/payet/depay to a 4.5m mid, probably ayew as you have gomis aswell. OR alternatively gomis to a 5m forward who you'd be benching most weeks which would give you a tiny bit of squad flexibitlity regarding fixtures tho would take up an extra 0.5m, and involve having a striker on the bench most weeks which is usually not ideal. If you still have cash left could then consider upgrading one of your 4.5 defenders to a 5/5.5m player you'd play the vast majority of weeks alongside azpi.

[Honeybadger]

New version, very different... tried to take your advice (and that of others) into account:

Click to see full-size image.

Remodelled defence, removing Azpi. Going for a two 'premium' and three cheap rotaters strategy in defence with Sagna and Shaw always starting and then choose one of the other three cheapies. Sagna gonna be a reg for next month due to Zabaletta being injured, so chose him over Kolarov to save a bit of money (even though Kolarov has been looking good getting forward so far).

Albrighton is my bench player (although he is gonna start I assume so still a decent sub if needed) and he is only 5.1m... so not TOO much money on the bench?

No Southampton representation. I could choose to have Mane instead of Depay, have Rooney up front instead of Sakho or Gomez, and replace Sanchez with a cheaper midfielder. This would mean I have both Southampton and ManU represented in my squad and have two premium forwards. But on other hand, I might have sacrificed my midfield too much to accommodate Rooney?

Atm I have two Swansea players. Ayew seems to play as a second striker but is ofc classed as a midfielder which I assume is a good thing? Don't know if it is good to have two attacking guys from same team, bit of a gamble?

[nuros]

I like it, a little light upfront maybe in that it will be hard for you to switch to another premium striker if necessary later on without 1 or more points hits and you definitely won't want to keep 2 west ham and 2 swansea players for the whole season but the fixtures, at least for this week, are good for both teams so could easily pay off! I'm also leaning towards Depay as manu coverage (if any) as he's very selfish and greedy which whilst being annoying to watch is v good for fantasy league! The price difference between him and rooney considering rooney's very underwhelming form is a massive factor too, gonna be horrible not having him home v Newcastle tho! At the same time everyone's getting rid of him for aguero so you can't put him in your team on wildcard, maybe in the future once/if his form improves and hopefully he'll be a few 100k cheaper by then!

[Ironside]

ffs cant believe i didnt read about the wc having to be used in 1st half of season

guess there goes my plan of saving it

shall i use tonight or not

[Honeybadger]

Yeah as regards the two players from West Ham and Swansea issue... my provisional plan is to replace either Sakho/Gomis with Diouf after this week. Pinnacle of a pretty impressive looking Stoke attack, especially with the Shaqiri signing... and a good fixture next GW. Seem a reasonable plan? And also, is it okay strategy to be making WC choices with next week's transfer plan in mind, or is that fishy thinking?

[nuros]

Yeah as long as you're not hampering your team to make the trade it's definitely not a problem, shouldn't need to save the transfer afterall given you've played your wildcard and, barring injuries, won't be forced into transfers for a couple weeks.

Wouldn't use your wildcard now iron it's too close to the end of the gameweek to make much use of it, better to have a whole week for players to rise/fall and make/save you some money - there's an international break after GW4 so wildcard will be active for two weeks then, unless your team really needs it might be worth waiting till then (also the transfer window closes in that period).

[Honeybadger]

Wait... what? So I should not be using my WC now either?