Last week turned out pretty nicely. Following the Aguero injury news, I opted to remove him and Naughton for Morata and Monreal. The 4 point hit was a bit of a double edged sword. Monreal brought home a tidy 15 point haul (who said you should never take a hit for defender?). Less fortunately, Morata picked up an injury to bring home a single point. This leaves me in a quandary as conflicting reports has left me questioning whether I should ship out the Spaniard this week.

 

Last Game points: 78
Rank: 207,450
Squad value: 101.4
Team link

Last time out captain Kane delivered the goods over more popular choice Lukaku. Elsewhere Davies produced a big haul to see my team’s rank get slashed by almost 2/3rds. This time around, I’m looking to spend more points…

Investing in Sterling

Overall I’m pretty happy with 433 set up, but I need some Manchester City cover for their run ahead. Plenty of names jump out, including Jesus, Silva, De Bruyne and Sane, not to mention their resolute defence. But the one that I’m plumping for is Raheem Sterling. The winger has some brilliant stats behind him, excellent form and is well priced at 7.9. This combo makes him almost a no brainer to replace Mkhitaryan. The Man United playmaker hasn’t done a huge amount wrong, but his fixtures stiffen over the next month. With Mourinho set to park the bus against the top teams, I’m happy to say thanks for the points and move the Armenian on.

Taking advantage of hits

Regular readers will notice that I like to play FPL aggressively and hits if I feel there is an opportunity for them to pay off. You have to be careful with hits, but its an extra device in a fantasy managers toolkit that should be utilised. If you make reasoned and informed choices, hits, in my experience at least, usually pay off. Maybe not immediately, but over a few games they are capable of doubling of tripling the 4 point investment.

What hits am I planning? Canny managers will notice that, as well as City, Chelsea have a big fixture swing. I’m very tempted by Alonso, I just can’t see him being anything other than a steady stream of points over the next few months.

The problem is I need funds. For that, I’m looking to ship either Morata or Lukaku. I’d like to keep Morata, even if he misses this week as I brought him in for the long haul and think he could well be the highest scoring player over the next couple of months. If I think he may miss two games though, he’ll have to go.

If Morata looks like he’ll be back sooner than expected, I’ll be downgrading Lukaku to Vardy. I’d then use the extra funds to upgrade Rosenior to Alonso for a double hit. Strangely, this will see me line up 523. The first time I have ever played this formation in all my 8 years playing the game. Still, each season presents its own unique challenges and this year has seen the apparent demise of the midfielders, especially the mid priced ones. That said, I’ll move back to 433 next week as Choupo-Moting has a great run of fixtures on the horizon.

Conclusion

In short, I’ll probably be doing Lukaku/ Morata, Mkhitaryan, Rosenoir > Vardy, Sterling and Alonso. 

FFH League

Another new leader in our £50 cash league as Karim Naim displaces Loisa Milton at the top of the pile.

You can join via this link. Or enter the league code: 83713-1076602.

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How to win at FPL Guide

Here’s a members guide I wrote on how to win at FPL. It took me a long time to create and includes a host of features, tips and strategies to help FPL managers improve their game. I’ll also be updating it regularly throughout the season.

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Good luck for the weekend!

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