Our Gameweek 1 Teams - 26/27 Season

Greetings all, and welcome to our final 26/27 FPL preview. I (Joe) can say that with some certainty, at last, since… we’ve ran out of time. The season starts this very day!

There was never any great mystery over what our last preseason piece would be. Like all good capital-C ‘Content Creators’, we were contractually obliged to make our #TeamReveals.

So, without any further ado, here they are!

James’s Team

James already posted a detailed piece yesterday outlining his final thoughts, ahead of the deadline. I would gently nudge you towards reading said piece in full right here.

The end result of it all – along with endless searching of the soul – was this:

Looks pretty good to me… despite it being very different to my own team! Well, one of us has to be right – and, for the record, it’s usually him.

I can officially confirm that he has also hit the big red Bench Boost button, going into GW 1.

He’s also unusually, disappointingly sure about this being his final team. I wouldn’t put it past him to engage in some panicked, last minute tinkering, but the old dog seems pretty set.

Anyway – again, if you want more details on all those picks, go back and read the full article!

Joe’s Team

Last season I had a massive last minute panic and ended up changing my entire team on deadline day. This resulted in me choosing Morgan Rogers over Semenyo, and buying into the Cole Palmer redemption arc.

Neither of these moves panned out.

This year, I’ve been through about three completely different drafts, over the past couple of weeks. But, I’ve been pretty set on this team for the last two days (since James and mine’s annual hour-plus summit), and feel pretty confident in it.

I decided on No-Bruno pretty early. His value lies in being a long-term, set-and-forget guy who will return for you most weeks, rather than explosive scores.

Since I’m wildcarding anyway, I don’t really need that, and don’t anticipate his points over the first 5 weeks or so to dwarf Mbeumo’s enough to justify spending another 4 mill.

Not having him also just frees up so much money to spend elsewhere.

I get ol’ reliable Tarko in defence, for example, and get to not-quite cheap out on a goalkeeper.

I also get Semenyo in midfield – one of the best mids in the whole league – to go alongside Mbeumo.

Anderson and Dango balance out the midfield nicely – one has the attacking upside, the other will hopefully provide the DefCons-based floor he showed last season.

It also allows me to spend big up top.

Haaland is obviously a lock, and I think it’s crazy not to have him, despite him obviously being incredibly expensive.

Despite not ending up with Isak himself, James has also talked me into getting him. He looked awful last season, even when he did play, but I’d assume he’s properly fit again now, and was the 2nd-best striker in the league before that rubbish season. I fancy Liverpool’s attack in general, and he should get plenty of chances (and be on pens).

I don’t really like JP, to be honest, mostly because of the fixtures. He was obviously great last year though, I assume Chelsea will be much better as a team, and I could see them – and by extension him – exploding straight out of the gate. His ownership is also so ridiculously high that I just want him covered in my team.

I’m not delighted with my non-Tarko defender.

Van Hecke is slightly speculative, but I think he’s good value. Spurs’ defence should be much better this season, and he was very good for DefCons last year (though I’d expect them to come down a bit). He’s an excellent passer too, so I could stumble into an attacking return.

I’m not confident in Calafiori at all. I think he’ll start at least the first game or two, but he’s definitely getting rotated with Hincapie at some point. I’m okay starting the season with him, for those couple of games, then I’ll probably move him to Konsa at 4.5 once the latter gets in the starting lineup (presumably around GW3-4).

The entire bench – Verbruggen plus the promoted lot – are simply there for a GW 1 bench boost. Saving a ton of money here has also helped me to splash out on the forwards and Semenyo.

Regarding chips…

I’m bench boosting in GW 1, as noted. I’ll TC Haaland in GW 3 for his inevitable one-man demolition of Coventry at home. FH is slightly trickier, but I’ll probably use it in GW 6, when my Spurs, Man U, City, and Liverpool players all face each other. I’m semi-flexible on my first wildcard – I’ve got it pencilled in for GW 7, but don’t think there’s any obvious, amazing week to use it. I’ll very likely still use it early, but play it by ear a little regarding when it actually happens.

And that’s it! I feel unusually confident in my team, heading into 26/27, which can only mean one thing – complete and unmitigated disaster.