It’s been a hell of a week in FPL.
We’ve had the Haaland injury epic (explained in detail below). We’ve got Trippier and Bruno suspended. We had the rumours that – in what would’ve been one of the great FPL trolls of all time – Dubravka wasn’t even going to start in GW16. Diaby’s benched. Mbeumo’s injured for ages and ages. City’s upcoming blank gameweek only further muddies the waters. It’s madness!
How to make sense of all this? With your good pals here at Full 90 FPL, of course. Let’s all take a deep breath and have a nice, calm look ahead to Gameweek 17.
European Fallout
With their respective home losses, under-funded minnows Man U and Newcastle are both out of Europe. That means out-out – no Europa League or anything – which is bad for their fans but great for FPL managers.
Unfortunately, Man U are rubbish, so we don’t really care about them. Bruno is their one semi-appealing fantasy options, and now he’s suspended.
Newcastle are also a bit rubbish right now, but at least have FPL-relevant players, and are actually capable of scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. Here’s hoping the extra rest stops all their players getting injured!
Wildcard Mini-Special
I finally pulled the trigger and played my first wildcard this week.
I know it’s not a particularly popular time to do so. But my team was just loaded with dead weight (Areola, Diaby, Isak, Pinnock) plus injury question marks (Gordon, Haaland), and even a Trippier-shaped suspension. Also, while my OR is still somewhat respectable (around 575k, it’s trending in the wrong direction – I want to arrest that fall before it’s too late.
Here’s my current draft:
- Dubravka / Turner – Dubravka will be benched when Newcastle get a new keeper in January, but he’s still worth it until then at his price. Turner started last week… so hopefully is a starting 3.9 backup?
- Trippier/Porro – The two good defenders
- Colwill – Chelsea don’t actually keep cleans, but their fixtures are irresistible
- Mykolenko – Everton do keep cleans, even in hard fixtures
- Baldock – He’s 3.9
- Salah/Saka – Pick themselves
- Son – Getting him was one of the main reasons I wanted to wildcard. He’s got some of the highest upside in the game
- Palmer – Not super-confident in him, but his underlying stats are good, and Chelsea have those sweet sweet fixtures
- Gordon – Still a lock at his price, for me, despite Newcastle’s struggles
- Watkins – Fixtures get much better now, after two brutal matchups. He’s still the 2nd-best forward by miles
- Solanke – My short-term Haaland replacement
- Archer – Enabler
I’ve currently got 6.2 in the bank. Which would be a lot, except I also don’t have Haaland. Haaland probably isn’t playing this week (?), and blanks next week. I’ll get him back in for Solanke after that.
So… basically I’ve got 0.2 in the bank, after factoring in the Haaland move.
Do I absolutely, completely, adore my wildcard team? Not really. But defenders absolutely stink this year, Salah/Saka/Gordon all pick themselves, the keepers pick themselves, and Watkins is borderline must-own. In short, there aren’t a huge number of choices to make!
Overall, I think it’s fine. I don’t expect to shoot up the rankings with it, but it should stabilise my decline and see at least some bounce-back.
A Norse Saga
In case you missed it, we had an all-time ridiculous FPL story this week.
As you’ve probably noticed, Haaland has been injured. With little warning, he missed the game against Luton completely. But fine – we all got whatever rubbish we had on our bench, probably for 1pt. The rumours at this point said he would be out for a little while – likely until after City’s blank in Gameweek 18.
Early this week, some FPL Sherlock Holmes snooped around and found at least one league in which all Haaland’s family members play – his dad, girlfriend, and so on. They all transferred him out.
Clearly they know something we don’t, right? Watkins and Solanke were the two obvious replacements for two weeks of no-Haaland, and both were rising, so a move for either seemed completely safe. Haaland quickly became the most-binned player in FPL.
City play in Belgrade on Wednesday, in a Champions League dead rubber. Who should come out to warm up pre-game – looking completely fit and spry – but Erling Haaland?! He wasn’t even on the bench for the actual game – I guess Pep just brought him along to throw the FPL world into a frenzy.
So, now it seems like we’ve all messed up, and he’s playing anyway. And in a nice home game against Crystal Palace, no less.
Then, on Thursday, we get a leak from some FPL-related Man City insider that Haaland’s return date isn’t until the Club World Cup semi-final, next Tuesday (i.e. after Gameweek 17). Who the hell is the source for this? No idea.
In short, it’s been an absolute rollercoaster of a week, which basically summarises modern FPL in a nutshell. Knee jerks, social media rumours, internet detectives, and us – the FPL players -ultimately being left clueless.
Will Haaland play this weekend? After all this, we still have literally no idea.
Should I Buy?
As usual, here are the most-bought players in the game, per the official FPL site. Which of these bandwagons should you consider jumping on? Let’s find out!
- Solanke – Probably. He’s not a sexy name, but he’s a solid player, and he’s been in good form. At 6.6 he’s also very good value, especially when FPL forwards are generally rubbish. Luton isn’t the dream fixture it was to start the season, but when combined with Notts Forest straight after he’s still a tasty proposition
- Son – Yes. He’s great, has one of the highest ceilings in the game, and has Forest and Brighton in his next three games
- Porro – Yes. One of basically only three good defenders, along with Trent and Trippier, and is the cheapest of the three by miles
- Watkins – Yes. His two blanks came against Arsenal and City, so are meaningless. Get him back in when you can
- Gordon – Yes. He’s still excellent value, and has nice upcoming fixtures
- Senesi – No. He’s scored 29pts in the past 2 weeks (!), which I assume is why he’s this high on the list. If you really need a budget defender, I suppose he’s fine
- Trent – No. If he was 7.2, he’d be a maybe, verging on a yes. 8.2 is ridiculous
- Salah – Yes. Always yes
- Pau – Maybe. I don’t generally love getting CB’s for more than the minimum of around 4.5, since you’re relying entirely on clean sheets. That said, Villa’s defence is excellent, and Brentford (sans Mbeumo), Sheff Utd, and Man U are three nice defensive fixtures
- Alvarez – No. He’s a great proposition for this week, assuming Haaland is out, but you can’t get him in just before his blank in Gameweek 18
- Mykolenko – Maybe. If it’s a straight transfer, I don’t love it, since he has Spurs and City after Burnley. If you’re on a wildcard (like me), and plan to play him in GW17 then bench him and bring him back later, then he’s fine
- Emi Martinez – No. 5.0 is still too much to spend on a goalkeeper. I’d rather take Neto at 4.5, for example, and spend that money elsewhere
- Palmer – Yes. Still has good underlying stats, and nice fixtures
Should I Sell?
Between injury and suspension, we’re seeing some big names being jettisoned this gameweek. Here are the most-binned players by FPL managers.
- Haaland – Yes. The story changes by the day, but right now I’m assuming he’s not playing. I’m fine with moving him for a Solanke or Watkins, then getting him back after the blank. There’s always some risk to a ‘planned transfer’ like this, since anything could happen to your team by then, but it’s worth the risk in this case rather than taking 2 x 1 or 2 pts from your backup forward
- Trippier – No. He’s only missing one gameweek, and has some cracking defensive fixtures after that
- Mbeumo/Pope – Yes, injured for ages
- Reece James – Yes, hamstring injury as usual
- Bruno – Yes. He wasn’t getting the job done anyway, and is suspended this week
- Darwin – Yes. Increasingly a minutes worry, hasn’t scored since Gameweek 10, and has Arsenal coming up after Man U
- Areola – Maybe. If you’ve already got Dubravka, just bench Areola. If you’ve got Turner… it seems like he’s starting again? He’ll be getting you 1-2pts per week, but that’s also what Dubravka will probably deliver you right now anyway. Basically, if you can bench him, just do that. If you’ve got 2 transfers and no pressing concerns, move him
- Andersen – Yes. Overpriced, and plays City this week
- Alvarez – No. Play him this week, then sell him before the blank
- Cash – Yes. Immediately
- Diaby – Yes. Has lost his place to Bailey, and there’s lots of other good midfield options
- Bowen – No. He’s great, and his underlying stats remain strong
Captaincy Corner
If you have basically any of the highly-owned options, you’ll have a good captain this week. The obvious contenders are:
- Salah home to Man U
- Saka home to Brighton
- Son away to Forest
I’ve got the armband on Salah, and it’s a pretty easy choice for me. He’s blanked in 3 games all season, and now plays a shaky Man U defence at home.
Saka and Son are also very, very likely to return. I’d say Saka is the slightly safer pick, but Son has higher upside.
I wouldn’t go for a ‘differential’ this week, with those three choices being so solid. If you really want one though, Watkins obviously has hat trick-level upside, and is playing a so-so Brentford defence. Solanke and Palmer also have nice matchups.
Finally, if Haaland does play, he’d probably be my first choice home to Palace. It sounds like he either starts or misses out entirely, so it’s not a massive risk to captain him, and vice-captain one of the other big guns.
Final Thoughts
The scoring has been pretty pedestrian in general over the past few weeks. We’ve got a few tasty matchups on the ol’ fixture list now though, so here’s hoping Gameweek 17 is a bit more exciting.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and best of luck out there!
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