I know you are all dying to hear about the most important news coming out of last week, so I will dive right in and save you from any unnecessary suspense....
Yes, my Wildcard play was a positive one.
If I had to assign it a grade, it would probably be a solid B. There were enough things to moan about to keep it from being an A+. I felt the least amount of confidence in Raheem Sterling and, naturally, he repaid me with what I find to be the most annoying occurrence as a fantasy football manager - a 59-minute blank. Yes, he couldn’t stay on the pitch for that one minute more to double his 1 pointer to 2. I also felt the sting of opting for Alexis and seeing him only make a substitute appearance. You never want to see a player in your XI kept out of his club’s XI, but when that player costs nearly 11m, it really, really hurts. Then there were things that one may find annoying but I cannot really assign blame to the Wildcard. I watched Etienne Capoue grab another giant score..that gets wasted on my bench. Tom Heaton lost a clean sheet in the dying embers of his match. I captained Eden Hazard and got nothing in return. In fact, heading into Monday, I was ready to give a much worse grade to the Wildcard but I still had two bullets left in the chamber.
Romelu Lukaku and Ashley Williams rescued the gameweek for me and validated the Wildcard play in my estimation. Lukaku was the quintessential perfect Wildcard selection. Bringing him in while his ownership was still rather low and getting a hat trick in return was brilliant. Williams gave me a clean sheet, which was nice. I was also happy to have Michail Antonio and Christian Benteke in the squad. In the end, I earned a healthy green arrow as I moved up from a 38k rank to a 16k rank. More importantly, I have a plan in place to get Sergio Aguero back in the side for Week 6 without making any hits or major surgery to the squad I have.
It was also a rather healthy week in term of advice to you readers out there. I advised Antonio was the midfielder to buy, as was Costa at forward and I said to hang on to Lukaku. It wasn’t perfect though, as I feel remorse for telling you to get a West Ham defender and proceeding to watch them get dismantled by Watford. But, in all, I feel pretty about good about the notion that my advice helped create more green arrows than red, and that is about all one can hope for.
Follow the entire Rotoworld Premier League team on Twitter: Neal | Steve | Andrew | Sean | Stag | Ben | Galin | Nik
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
So now it is time to look at the players to think about ahead of Week 4. As a reminder, there are four categories of players which I feel are worth mentioning week to week when making decisions about transfers....
1) Players to buy
2) Players to sell
3) Players to hold onto
4) Players to avoid buying
I will also include later in the section, my top choices for the captain’s armband. While I will consider every player from A to Z, it is pretty hard to look past the A (Aguero) or the Z (Zlatan).
Right, so let’s dive in...
GOALKEEPERS
*Just as a reminder, keepers should always be the last position to think about using transfers for, unless there is an urgent need. So, when you see who I have listed here, bear in mind that my keeper advice does not carry as much weight as the outfield positions.
Player to buy: Hugo Lloris - After getting injured in Week 1 and missing some time, Lloris saw a .1m drop in price. He now represents the cheapest path to Tottenham clean sheets and Spurs have some fixtures ahead where they should be grabbing their fair share of them. He is the one I want if I am shopping for a premium keeper.
Player to sell: Heurelho Gomes - Gomes had a great fantasy season during Watford’s promotional year but he is not worth the 5m price tag. There are too many sub-5m keepers like Tom Heaton and Ben Foster that will save you cash and probably outscore Gomes for the season. Even with a nice schedule opening up after this week, I am not keen on him. I’d much rather get 4.5m defender from the Hornets or invest in the attacking returns Daryl Janmaat can provide.
Player to hold: Steve Mandanda - Last week, Mandanda was my “keeper to buy”. Now, I am telling you to be patient with the Frenchman. He is a good bet for a clean sheet this week at home to a struggling Stoke City attack.
Player to avoid: Lukasz Fabianski - There is just bound to be occasional repetition at the keeper spot in this column. There is only a pool of 20 players at any given time and, some like Shay Given, will probably never make an appearance. So, since Fabianski is still the joint-top scoring keeper in the game, I am repeating the advice from last week - do not buy him now. Swansea are in a rough stretch of their schedule and clean sheets will be hard to come by. Once the fixtures start to get kind again, feel free to look his way.
DEFENDERS
Player to buy: Kyle Walker - Tottenham have a good defense, this much we know. They seemed safe enough to go without representation in our fantasy teams through the first few weeks because there were a couple of tough fixtures. However, they still have kept two cleanies in four and Walker has a pair of assists in that time, so he is looking like the best candidate from the defender position to give you returns on both sides of the ball. He is also cheaper than Toby Alderweireld and the currently-injured Danny Rose. Buy him now before his price shoots up.
Player to sell: Cesar Azpilicueta - Plenty of managers started the season with Azpilicueta as their path to Chelsea defensive coverage, and for good reason. He was their best fantasy defender a year ago and, with the arrival of Antonio Conte, looked primed to return even more points this time around. I still believe he will have a fine season, but the Blues don’t look like the clamp-down defense Conte’s arrival promised and now they hit a tough patch of their schedule against clubs with good attacks. Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester and Manchester United in the next five weeks does not sound promising to me and that is too long to hold a defender costing you 6m.
Player to hold: John Stones - The most owned defender in the game had an even higher ownership once he made his move to Manchester City, but it has been a fail so far in terms of fantasy returns. Only scores of 1’s and 2’s in the first month has to have some managers ready to jump ship. But, I urge you to give him two more weeks of faith. City play home to Bournemouth and then away to Swansea in that span. If Stones doesn’t provide you a haul after that point, you have my blessing to boot him out of your squad.
Player to avoid: Charlie Daniels - Last year, Daniels was a surprise fantasy stud. Despite a poor defensive record from the Cherries, Daniels was consistently providing attacking returns and that is why he costs .5m more than other Bournemouth options at the back. But, much of that attacking production came by way of the penalty spot and that was in a season when Callum Wilson spent the majority of the campaign on the sideline. Wilson is healthy again and is the PK taker when he is playing. Daniels got a nice score last week because of a rare clean sheet for the Cherries but do not get enticed into buying him.
MIDFIELDERS
Player to buy: Etienne Capoue - Way to go out on a limb, Fuzzy. Tell managers to buy the highest scoring defender and now the highest scoring midfielder. Two things: 1) it is officially time to write off Capoue’s production as merely a fluke. 2) You are going to want to get him in before his price surpasses his value. Right now, he is still under 5m. He should be in everyone’s side at least as their 5th midfielder and, with Watford’s fixtures starting in Week 6, he may be good enough to be your 4th mid and in your Starting XI.
Player to sell: Paul Pogba - I never quite understood the appeal Pogba had for fantasy managers who rushed to get him into their FPL team the moment the Frenchman signed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he is an excellent footballer in terms of reality and, in other fantasy formats, he has already proven to be a solid contributor. But, this is FPL. It is all about goals and assists. Pogba will see a little of both this season but not enough to warrant an 8.5m price tag. He costs more than Roberto Firmino right now. Dump him for Firmino and thank me later.
Player to hold: Nathan Redmond - Redmond looked like such a good buy at the start of the FPL season. Playing at a forward position and scoring in Week 1 while only setting you back 6m. There have been three straight quiet weeks and managers who are seeing other players grab points are rightfully getting anxious. But, I urge them to give Redmond one more week. The Saints are at home against Swansea, which is a pretty attractive fixture. If he still cannot get it done in Week 5, I understand the desire to dump at that point, especially to pick up someone like Capoue if you do not own him already.
Player to avoid: Heung-Min Son - Son had a breakout party against Stoke last week and put up the highest score of any midfielder in the round, so naturally there are going to be some prospective buyers out there. I advise you avoid this one. Son may be able to provide help in draft leagues, but, in the FPL format, you need a player who’s job as a starter is safe, and Son’s is far from that. He was handed a start in the Champions League loss to Monaco and I would be far more surprised if he started again this weekend against Sunderland than I would be if he didn’t. Don’t waste a transfer.
FORWARDS
Player to buy: Harry Kane - Having listed Diego Costa as the forward to buy and Romelu Lukaku as the forward to hold onto last week, I felt it was necessary to anoint someone different, but, if you are shopping for forward, there is still plenty of appeal with Costa and Lukaku. Kane also has to enter the conversation now though as two factors have given him a boost in potential. 1) He opened his account last weekend. It was a tap in, but it should still provide confidence and take some pressure off after getting that first goal. 2) Mousa Dembele has completed his suspension and, should he return to Pochettino’s XI this weekend, the stats from last year are very, very good for Kane with Dembele in the side. Throw in a tasy matchup against Sunderland, who just allowed Romelu Lukaku to explode, and you have reason to get excited.
Player to sell: Andre Gray - A home game against Hull was Gray’s last chance to gain your confidence and he came up empty. In fact, the Clarets are bottom of the league in shots on target and perhaps this Twitter scandal Gray is still involved in is causing a distraction. Either way, the schedule gets tougher now for Burnley and there are too many other 3rd striker options to consider.
Player to hold: Marcus Rashford - Some of you may have already seen the quality Rashford had to offer and put him in your Week 1 side, only to give up on the idea of him ever starting and sold him in the past few weeks. Well, apparently Jose Mourinho got the memo. It would be a major shock at this point to see Rashford kept out of the XI this weekend against Watford. This certainly isn’t the right time to sell him if you have waited this long.
Player to avoid: Lucas Perez - I was as thrilled as anyone to see Lucas given a chance to start straight away for Arsenal but his debut was a forgettable one. He had no influence in the match against Southampton and, in a league where I used him that has scoring categories for just about any stat you can imagine, he returned next to nothing. I would be surprised to see him start again this week so, for those thinking they can have a cheap route into the Gunners attack while also sporting a differential to the likes of Alexis or Ozil...it is time to bin that idea.
TOP CAPTAIN CHOICES
3) Diego Costa
4) Eden Hazard
5) Harry Kane
That’s it from me this week folks. Please, bear in mind much can change between the publishing of this column and the FPL deadline on Friday. There will be press conferences from managers that may reveal late news that can cause some of these picks to be reconsidered. Be sure to check in as much as possible here at Rotoworld for the latest news, especially concerning late injuries that can crop up from midweek action in European play. Always try to refrain from executing your transfers for as long as possible to avoid wasting it on a player who turns out to have had a problem in training. That said, if you only have just enough money for the player you are looking to bring in and that player is at risk of rising in price, then sometimes you need to take a calculated risk and hope the fantasy gods will be kind to you.
Good luck, and may your arrows be green.
