It was a great week for my team in FPL, amassing 97 points without making a transfer, while the For Foot Sake team made an above average 89 points, but fell slightly in the overall rankings. There were plenty more learnings to take from this weekend, and while this goes out on the morning of transfer deadline day, there are some fascinating options and real conundrums to consider ahead of FPL Gameweek 3.
My Squad
A very pleasing week and I’m glad I held my nerve in keeping my two Manchester United midfielders. Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo both had big hauls, while Erling Haaland justified the captaincy with two goals at Crystal Palace. Joao Pedro got on the scoresheet again while Ricardo Calafiori got an assist to make it four double-figure points-getters for the week. Bobby Thomas coming into the starting XI also paid off as he picked up a handy eight points, as he was substituted before Hull scored.
Luke Shaw and Antonin Kinsky are concerns, but thankfully Bart Verbruggen has a decent couple of fixtures coming up, and Diego Gomez can come in to make my team a 3-5-2 formation, with Shaw or Thomas dropping to the bench.
With two transfers in the bank there is a clear line of attack for Gameweek 3. Manchester City face Coventry at home and this seems like a strong fixture to target, in more ways than one. I’m happy to keep Haaland and Marc Guehi in the side, while Rayan Cherki was superb on Friday night, he comes in for Mbeumo, and as I write this, Iliman Ndiaye has agreed terms with City too, so I’m going to draft him in for Christos Tzolis, who was subbed at half time last night.
That gives me four City players for a plum fixture, and they also have Sunderland and Ipswich at home in the next five games, so providing each of those four are getting enough minutes, I made hold onto them well into October. Of course, you have to transfer out a City player before you can make any other switches under FPL rules.
The second way to target the Coventry fixture is to make Haaland triple captain. Frank Lampard’s side have lost their first two games and haven’t scored yet, so this may be City’s easiest game in the first 19 of the season. With plenty of managers using two chips in the opening two weeks, now seems a good time to load up the cannon to try and make up some ground.
For Foot Sake Squad
An above-average but unspectacular week for Tommy’s team, with 89 points coming largely thanks to Fernandes (23) and Haaland (26), as captain. Like my team, he also had Calafiori and Joao Pedro, while Gvardiol and Morgan Rogers picked up five points apiece.
This week, Ola Aina and Diego Gomez will come into the side for Andy Robertson and Levi Colwill. Tottenham are still awful and Chelsea travel to Arsenal, so those substitutions are easy to justify. The captaincy will probably remain with Haaland but Tommy is looking likely to pull the trigger on his first transfer of the campaign, with either Yoan Wissa or Gonzalo Garcia coming in for Kai Havertz, and providing budget for further changes in Gameweek 4.
FPL Gameweek 3 Pointers
Plenty of value to be found – This season, just Erling Haaland and Bruno Fernandes are the only players valued about 10.0m, so there are a huge number of options across squads, making differentials and value picks all the more important. This weekend though, we saw the likes of Wilson Isidor (5.5m), Chuba Akpom (5.0m), Wissa (6.1m) scoring in the forward area, while midfielders like Anthony Elanga (6.1m), Kevin Schade (6.0m), Adam Scott (6.0m) and Anton Stach (6.0m) have all started the season in great form and are sub-10% owned, meaning there are heaps of variations teams can have and still perform well.
The big guns do look ominous – Look at the current player points tallies and it’s a familiar sight. Erling Haaland and Joao Pedro are the top two attackers, and the two most popular by far. At the top of the midfield standings, Bruno Fernandes, Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka, the three most expensive in their position, are in the top four, all with 20+ points already, while there are two Arsenal defenders in the top four defenders in Ben White and Calafiori. Having a spine with these high-value assets and picking out the best value differentials is more important than ever.
Chips in the opening weeks reap dividends – The top player in the game has amassed a whopping 249 points from the first two weeks with a smart bench boost/triple captain strategy. No Haaland but the three Chelsea forwards everyone’s talking about, a triple up on Arsenal’s defence, Maxim de Cuyper, a shrewd signing, and a triple captaincy with Bruno Fernandes this weekend have put him six clear of the pack already. Well played, sir!
Keep playing the fixtures – In our season preview we highlighted the two Manchester clubs, Brighton and Nottingham Forest, and popular players from those clubs have made flying starts to the season. Mbeumo, Fernandes, Cherki, Haaland, de Cuyper, Gibbs-White and Pascal Gros were all listed as players to follow because of their good fixtures over the opening 5-6 weeks of the campaign, and that strategy is already bearing fruit for followers of the series.
Head back here tomorrow for my preview of my team for Gameweek 3.