Double, no ice.
Hello! You know how the old adage goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on Mike Dean and VAR. With half the season complete, the question remains - is VAR worth it? Common sentiment seems to be:
This post brings you FPL advice from this week’s free podcasts:
Topics Covered
🎙️ Team/Players Talk
💰 Double Talk
🛡️ Chip talk
♟️ Sell or not… talk
👑 Captaincy
🎙️ Team/Players Talk
Below are some of the brief reviews of a handful of teams.
🐝 Burnley
Both the pods agreed that Burnley defense is a good place to shop for defenders, especially with the double week up next.
Burnley is still setting up to defend and the goal they conceded in the last match was from a set-piece, which can happen to any good team. Further, their last few fixtures have been against bigger teams, where you would expect them to concede. But their next set of fixtures, even after the DGW24, are against teams you would expect them to keep a clean against.
FMLFPL did briefly discuss the concern that with injuries to some key players like Brownhill and Taylor, the system may not work as well. But overall, still a good place to pick defenders.
Between, Mee, Towraski, and Lowton, AC folks recommended going with the cheapest one as there isn’t much to differentiate these players. And FMLFPL noted that Towraski has a bit of better attacking potential. However, avoid Pieters, in case Taylor comes back from injury.
🔴 Liverpool - 🏙️ Manchester City
These are the two best teams in the league. But the scoreline didn’t reflect that. Allison had a really bad day with two errors leading to goals. Robertson didn’t play well either and has been doing poorly the last few games.
Giving credit where it’s due, Foden had an amazing game. He was running circles around Liverpool defenders and showed the class he possesses. And for all his heroics, Pep rewarded him by telling him that he is still not a surefire starter. Kudos to Foden though, for trying to beat the Pep Roulette at the age of 20.
It’s no news that Gundogan has been an absolute trooper for City last few games. But, it’s time for some cautions to be handed out. First, he has been getting very few shots and has been converting most of them into goals. While that is good, it may not be sustainable in the long term. Second, KDB will be back soon, so you can expect Gundo to drop deep again. So, while you should hold on to him for now, don't think he has earned the mantle of being called a season keeper yet.
🌀 Kane
What do you do after you twist both your ankles? You use your wolverine-esque healing powers, roar back to fitness, and score on your return.
While you should be cautious buying him before City as you wouldn’t expect Spurs to score, he should be in your plans for the long term. He looked really good and should keep ticking all throughout the season.
🔵 Chelsea
The attack still doesn’t seem to be functioning. Tuchel’s system is notoriously complex and the players will take some time to get used it. Stay clear for now.
However, they do keep a lot of possession which bodes well for their clean sheet potential. While most of the defenders are not nailed yet, Rudiger is a good buy at just 4.6m.
🦅 Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace is in some really poor form. How does that impact your fantasy decisions? Trust good teams to keep clean against Palace, and target players to score against Palace.
🐺 Wolverhampton Wanderers
With a lack of any attacking pedigree, Wolves are back to parking the bus and not attacking much. So you should back good teams to keep clean against them as well.
💰 Double Talk
You probably already know this, but it’s worth repeating:
In GW24, City, Everton, Fulham, Burnley have double fixtures
In GW25, Leeds and Southampton have double fixtures
In GW26, tons of teams will have double fixutres. Next week’s pods will probably discuss this in much more detail as we will have clarity on fixtures by then.
You probably already know this too, but it’s worth repeating as well: For next week -
Target triple City players.
Target Burnley defense.
You could have targetted DCL, but he seems to be out for at least one game.
Hamez is enticing, but his fitness is suspect, and may not play both the games.
With double game week next, you would probably have a selection dilemma for your team. You should note that it’s worth chasing the upside here and FMLFPL discussed some players with a single game that you can bench to allow for doublers to play:
If you have to, you can bench Son (*gasps*). It’s highly unlikely he scores against City.
You can even bench Villa players to play doublers instead. Brighton’s defense has improved drastically and can make it hard for Villa to score.
Do not even think about benching your united assets. West Brom is the worst team in the league. However, it could mean that some United players get rested or play limited minutes, so cross your fingers and clench your butts.
🛡️ Chip talk
If your head hurts thinking about chip strategies again, here is a little flow that FPL Zh0u created to help us pleebs.
AC folks discussed a similar strategy:
If you have Bench Boost available, wildcard in 25, BB in 26
If you don’t have BB, then WC directly in 26 to get doublers for your starting 11
If you don’t have your second WC, cry your heart out, wipe your tears, and play FPL for the fun of it.
Tripple captain in next week is an option too. Gundogan with his form is an option, and maybe even Dias (if he recovers from his injury) as he is least likely to be rotated among City defenders.
♟️ Sell or not
AC folks discussed some of the players that regularly feature in FPL managers’ thoughts when they are considering their transfer plans.
As disappointing as he seems, Salah is still averaging 5.5 points per game in the last few weeks. You should continue to hold him.
Although he plays City and Spurs’ recent attacking form has been great, Son should also be help as Kane is now back in the team.
For all those you dropped Martinez last week, including yours truly…. suckaaasss!!! His next game has a decent chance of clean sheet so it may not be worth dropping him now for Pope. You can instead focus on bringing in Burnely defenders.
Cancelo has not really been getting attacking returns to match his really good underlying attacking stats. Also, he is a bit of a rotation risk. So it’s fine to have Stones/Dias as the City double up and drop Cancelo.
👑 Captaincy
City is the standout shout for this week. They are capable of keeping two cleans and scoring butt loads of goals. Gundo is a fine pick, and so are City defenders. The only concern with City defense is Cancelo and Stones’ potential rotation, and Dias’ potential injury.
Burnley defense is a decent cap shout too. Moreover, FMLFPL’s Alon is seriously considering a triple captain on Pope because if Burnley gets a clan sheet, there is a decent chance of Pope getting bonus points too.
If you are interested in knowing the captaincy picks from some of the FPL content creators from the community, check out FFTitan’s captaincy round-up for this week.
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