I was tinkering about what to do with my FPL team for GW17. When doing so I scrolled through the FPL Reddit. During the scrolling I stumbled upon a post which was so interesting that I wanted to share it with you guys. I couldn’t write it any better myself, so I asked Reddit user Controversial Lemon if I could use his post. He was ok with it, so I want to thank Controversial Lemon a lot! This is his ultimate GW17 guide!
So, we’ve finally come to the end of the long awaited break. Fortunately for some of us it’s a breath of fresh air and a time to relax after a tough few weeks. On the other hand many of us are itching to get back and have already created 500 drafts and ran out of storage space due to screenshots. So how can we prevent ourselves from overthinking and entering GW17 with a team that’s worse then what we started with?
Template teams
Template teams will be seen everywhere with just a couple changes, just like at the start of the season, the ‘common consensus’ is what will drive most FPL decisions. We are going to see carbon copies of the same team everywhere. So what do you do? Follow the crowd or branch into a completely variance based team? The answer seems to lie in the middle, to move above others in FPL risks need to be taken, but not by such a degree that not owning a key asset ruins your GW by themselves. And by differential I don’t mean your sneaky Bueno or Summerville option that your going to permanently glue to the bench I mean a solid starter from an under-utilised team in FPL.
New management
Teams such as Southampton, Wolves and Aston Villa are under new management and no one knows where they could go after the break. Southampton have a great run of fixtures and hopefully under a new manger can turn things around, budget options from these sort of teams can be very interesting picks. Personally I have my eye on Perraud and possibly even Adams/Solanke. James Ward-Prowse could present a lot of value, he could be a very bold pick, especially at his price but it could pay off massively.
Double ups
In regards to double and triple ups I would be careful, usually strong defences have been noticeably poorer this season, such as Liverpool and even City at times. Personally I’m avoiding Cancelo, I don’t think his attacking numbers this season have been good enough to warrant his price and there are plenty of cheaper options out there such as Gabriel who has the potential to be involved in set piece goals. We don’t know how teams will perform differently after the break so maybe it’s smart to have a variety of players from teams with nice fixtures that you can easily swap to those in form rather than risky triple ups.
Players returning
After a long break many of those who were injured have finally returned. One example of this is Reece James, his fixtures are looking very nice and he recently played 60 mins in a friendly, he could be a solid option but it’s unlikely he plays every game so keep this is mind. However on the other side of the spectrum assets such as Trossard have been largely forgotten about, possibly due to lacklustre WC showings.
Threemium in GW17?
Regarding ‘threemium’ and ‘fourmium’, it sounds exciting and if you can manage it effectively could be amazing, but just make sure you aren’t underinvesting in other parts of your team. Common strategy at this point seems to be 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. So in this case budget options such as Bueno and Patterson could help fund a player like Kane.
Big at the back
With ‘big at the back’ seeming to have backfired it makes sense to move funds towards forwards and the midfield, downgrading at the back to players like Bueno and Perraud frees funds for players like Kulusevski who seems instrumental to Spurs and might be a way to benefit from Spurs without spending millions on Kane. Foden could be another example of this, he’s burned many but it’s possible that without a looming WC Pep plays him again, Leeds are a very attacking team and players like Foden could punish them if you’re willing to take a risk. If it’s too hard fitting Darwin in your team then Mitrovic/Solanke are great options, who feel really cheap for what they offer. A frontline of Haaland-Mitro-Kane is viable, although I feel the most common one we will see is Mitro Darwin Haaland. Although Marco Silva has coke out today saying that Mitrovic is a ‘doubt’, it’s up to you if you want to hold him and play someone like Andreas instead or if you want to start with another striker such as Wilson or even Nketiah who could be a good differential pick.
Double game weeks
On to DGW’s it’s looking like a Fulham asset is essential, my personal plan is to start with Wilson and transfer Mitrovic in for GW19. City also have an upcoming DGW, although the Spurs fixture looks very tricky, especially with Spurs outplaying City last season. Brighton also have a possible upcoming DGW or even TGW, in GW21. Personally I’m eyeing a future transfer of Rashford up to Trossard for GW21, however I’m not very confident in Brightons defence under DeZerbi so would avoid players like Dunk, especially when options like Ben White are available for the same price.
TLDR: if you really want to go all template and branch out from there you’re fine to do so, however it could be extremely beneficial to add a bit of variance to your team. Identify one or two players who really interest you and give them a punt, how are you going to make substantial progress in rank if you have the same team as everyone else?
Good luck for GW17 and I’ll see you in the deadline regret thread 🤣.