FPL Gameweek 15 Preview – Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

Well. Gameweek 14 was a bit of a rollercoaster! 

First, we had the quick turnaround. I’m sure none of you forgot about the early deadline… I certainly didn’t. I definitely need James to remind me the night before. Not this guy, no sir – I’m on top of things. 

Then, we had the aforementioned rollercoaster. On the one hand, we had big names – Salah, Isak, Saliba, etc. – returning in style. On the other, we had the likes of Jackson, Gabriel, and Son not starting. 

If you’re anything like me, you probably couldn’t decide whether to wildly celebrate what went well, or curse this stupid, unpredictable game for what went wrong. Now that I mention it, that’s basically FPL in a nutshell.

Anyway! Enough ruminating on the past. Let’s start looking ahead, courtesy of your full FPL Gameweek 15 preview. 

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

In the words of the great Douglas Adams – Don’t Panic.

(Admittedly Douglas Adams never played Fantasy Premier League. So, we don’t know if even he would indeed have panicked – when faced with a Salah vs Newcastle/Palmer vs Southampon captaincy dilemma, for example – if he’d survived into the FPL era.)   

Yes, there were a number of big-name non-starters this week: Gabriel, Jackson, Trent (though he still got 2 assists), Porro, Son, Welbeck, et cetera and so on. 

But, again, let’s not panic. Yes, it was annoying they didn’t start. It doesn’t mean they’re dropped, or are even ‘rotation-prone’ going forward. It was just a very quick turnaround. Chelsea, Spurs, and Liverpool all played on Sunday afternoon. It’s no surprise their coaches decided to rotate a bit, just this once. 

In classic FPL knee-jerk fashion, Welbeck is one of the most-sold players right now. He hasn’t returned for three games, and him being benched has clearly been a final straw. 

Relax! He’s still a very good asset! Brighton play four bad defences in a row now, and he’d literally started every game in a row until Gameweek 14!

Jackson is even more highly-sold. He had also started every game in the Prem this season, and has been in fine goalscoring form. He also has six nice matchups in a row now, and Chelsea look great. He’s also still a great asset – that hasn’t changed just because he got rested one game, and Nkunku scored against an awful team (who also went down to 10 men). 

TLDR: yes, we got some big benchings this week, and it was annoying. Do not overreact to this. We’re back on a normal schedule now for the next three gameweeks, and the chances are the starting lineups will go back to whatever they were before. 

Best Upcoming FPL Fixtures

Right, let’s start planning ahead for the next few gameweeks. These are the five sides with the five best upcoming fixture runs, in order.

(Home games are in caps). 

• I’m so jealous of James’ double Arsenal defence. As he predicted, they’ve promptly gone back to being an excellent defensive bet with their fixtures turning. Those fixtures continue for the next five gameweeks or so, and I’m heavily considering taking my first hit of the season for Timber before Fulham.
  Going forward though, I’m still not interested in anyone right not except Saka.

• Bournemouth just generally look very good. I’m still not interested in their defenders, but continue to love Evanilson as a pick. Along with JP, he’s arguably the best value forward in the game right now.
  Semenyo is… Semenyo – he’ll keep giving you underlying stats, but not many returns. On paper he’s a good pick. In reality he’s been spotty since his early run of form

• Brighton have disappointed us two games in a row. I still can’t believe the 1-1 home to Southampton.
  I still love JP as a pick, and am delighted to have him. Apart from him though, I wouldn’t be rushing to bring in anyone right now

• Liverpool keep dominating, and will probably continue to do so.
  Apart from Salah, you can’t trust any of their forwards for minutes right now. I still like their defenders though – they’re generally keeping cleans against the teams they’re supposed to, and have several promising fixtures in that department coming up

• Man City are just a bit rubbish from an FPL perspective.
  I discussed Haaland at length in the Gameweek 14 preview, and my feelings haven’t really changed. Kev was great on his full return, but I wouldn’t get him yet at a pricey 9.4. Gvardiol once again looked like a menace going forward, but I’d simply rather have an Arsenal defender at that price, for the much greater clean sheet probability

Should I Buy?

Here’s a quick rundown of the most-bought players in FPL, ahead of Gameweek 15, along with some equally quick takes on whether you should get them or not!

• Saka/Salah – Yes, always
• Isak – Yes. Playing 90mins was a big relief, after going off injured in the previous game, getting 2 returns against Liverpool is fantastic, and he has 3 nice fixtures in a row now

• Watkins – Maybe. He’s definitely looked a bit better recently, and his appeal goes up if he’s actually on pens now. But he’s also got Forest, City, and Newcastle after this nice Southampton fixture. Also, it just feels like there are so many better-value forwards this year – Isak, Cunha, JP, Evanilson, etc. – that I’m not sure he’s a good use of funds

• Saliba/Timber – Yes to both. Arsenal are getting back to their best defensively, and have nice fixtures. Saliba’s not much of a goal threat, so I’d just take Timber and save the money

• Trent – Maybe, but I won’t get him myself. I’d much rather put all my money into midfield and attack. If I was spending at the back, I’d get a significantly cheaper Arsenal defender. He’s also just not getting the assist to justify his price this year – before his excellent cameo against Newcastle, he had one all season

• Joao Pedro – Yes. Excellent player, fantastic value, and with very good fixtures

• Cunha – Yes. I’m not put off at all by his two blanks. West Ham are rubbish, then he has Ipswich and Leicester back to back. Wolves are also rubbish, admittedly, but that’s been the case all season and he’s still returned

• Rogers – Maybe. At the price he remains a very good enabler, especially as your first player off the bench. I just wouldn’t feel confident actually starting him

• Jackson – Yes. I’m not worried by him being rotated for one game, and he still has excellent fixtures

• Kluivert – No. If he didn’t randomly have a penalty hat trick, we wouldn’t even be talking about him. I’d rather have Rogers at this price, Semenyo if you want to go a bit higher, or Amad to save money

• Palmer – Yes. Isn’t in form, but has returned in the last two games anyway, and I like his next six fixtures

• Amad – Maybe. As with Rogers, I love him as an enabler/first bench player, but wouldn’t want to actually start him. If you do want him as a starter… don’t get him right now, just before he plays Forest then City

Should I Sell?

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” – Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Fantasy Premier League. Yes, that’s right – to make room for all those exciting new players, we must first do away with our boring old players. Here are my quick takes on the most-sold players in the game right now.

• Mbeumo – Yes. Brentford’s fixtures have officially turned, and he and Wissa are off the menu until further notice

• Haaland – Yes. Hasn’t come anywhere close to delivering on his price tag for months now. Time to move on (… until he starts banging in hat tricks again. Then it’ll be time to come crawling back)

• Konate – Yes, he’s injured. Get up to Timber if you can. If not, I don’t hate the idea of gambling on Quansah, who just played 90mins against Newcastle

• Smith Rowe – Yes. In terrible form, and now he plays Arsenal and Liverpool. Eek

• L Diaz – Yes. His minutes are far too inconsistent

• Jackson – No. As stated above (multiple times), this seems like a massive panic move. He’s still an excellent asset

• Gabriel – No. He should be back soon, and if you’ve got an Arsenal defender already you should count yourself lucky, and treasure him
• Welbeck – No. As with Jackson, this just seems like a big-time panic move 

• Solanke – Yes. Hasn’t impressed in ages, Spurs are ridiculously inconsistent, he has Chelsea and Liverpool either side of Southampton, and there are so many good forwards out there

• Cunha – No. I’d still be looking to buy him, never mind selling him! He’s just about to play three of the worst teams in the league, for God’s sake!

• Wood – Yes. Should’ve scored against City, but regardless, his form has taken a predictable downswing with the turn in fixtures. I’d much rather have JP or Evanilson for less money

• Ait Nouri – Maybe. I do get it, Wolves have been awful. Personally though, I just can’t bring myself to sell a defender with his upcoming fixtures. As Dido once sang – specifically about selling Ait Nouri, I think – I will go down with this ship

Captaincy Corner

Is there even a question any more? 

I tried to get cute with it in GW 14, and captained Palmer over Salah. I will not be making any such mistake again, any time soon. 

With the form he’s in right now, just captain Salah if he’s got even a vaguely appealing matchup. 

If you would like to look a little further ahead, and dive a bit deeper than my amazing ‘just captain Salah’ analysis, here are the matchups for the main captaincy options across the next few gameweeks. 

Final Thoughts

Well, friends, that’ll just about do it for your Gameweek 15 preview. 

Hopefully things settle down a bit this week from a rotation point of view… but we still keep scoring loads of points. Wouldn’t that be nice! 

As always, thanks for reading everybody, and – if you didn’t absolutely hate what you did read – give us a courtesy follow on Reddit.