And we're back...
The summer was a much needed break, and led to a change of tactic from me over the summer. Rather than constantly tinkering throughout pre-season, reacting to each and every Pre-Season friendly, transfer rumour, injury etc, I've limited myself to going onto the app on a Sunday morning for an hour to make changes to my draft, in order to reduce FPL fatigue.
The proof will be in the pudding, but it feels like it's worked, and I'm excited for the season to start now.
Obviously, I've still been taking in the news etc and thinking about team, but limiting my time on the app/website seems to have refreshed my appetite for the season to start.
This week will likely change with time spent on my team ramping up ahead of Friday nights deadline, but I'm currently on a line up that I'm fairly happy with, but I need to consider a lot of things as the clock ticks down to Friday evening.
Liverpool Assets
Trent and Salah.... Trent or Salah.... None of them. I Started pre-season with both Trent and Salah in my line up. I wanted the flexibility of having my team structure set up with them in. It's easier to start off with them and sell them, if they disappoint, than have to take points hits or an early wild card to bring them in if they hit the form we know they can.
As the summer went on though, curiosity got the better of me. First, I dropped Trent... and I liked the options it opened up, even with Mo Salah in the line up. It allowed me to be more flexible in terms of formation throughout the weeks.
Then i took Mo out too. It was potentially a knee jerk to Harry Kane scoring four this weekend, but I've settled on a team without Kane, and without Mo, and i really like how it's set up my team.
With Salah, there's only 1 week (GW2 vs Bournemouth) where I would definitely want to captain him.... And I've already been burnt by captaining him vs Bournemouth ahead of Haaland last year.... If Salah would've hauled that day (and this disappointment of seeing Liverpool win 9-0, and him not hauling still remains fresh), then I may be less reluctant to go without him, but I'm currently sat without him. This may change in the next few days, but I'm currently on the one Premium line up with just Haaland... but I know temptation will be there to bring in Kane or Salah alongside him.
It's not just Trent and Mo though. There's another Liverpool asset I'm tempted by. Diogo Jota.
As an £8m midfielder, who has played up front quite a lot in pre-season, and is an asset I've enjoyed owning previously. It would also give me some cover against Mo against Bournemouth in GW2, but the worry is that Liverpool have the likes of Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez, Salah, and Luis Diaz competing for positions in the attacking line up, so I'm expecting a lot of rotation, and in-game substitutions, and that's whats keeping him out of my team so far.
Who to play in goal?
The general consensus appears to be Man Uniteds new keeper Andre Onana. But I'm not sold on him. I think his passing stats and them being a route to extra bonus points is being overstated. If United are winning games, and on the front foot then Onana may not be getting those Bonus points.
I don't like spending £5m on a goalkeeper either. I'm quite happy to spend £4.5m and hope for save points.
My choice for most of the Summer has been Sam Johnstone, and I can't see him changing... Especially if Matt Turner completes his move to Nottingham Forest, and can be rotated when Palace play teams that you may not want your keeper facing.
Johnstone was also a hero of my free hit team last year, so i have fond memories of owning him.
Stones or Chilwell/James
John Stones was the catalyst for me removing Alexander-Arnold from my draft. Watching him gallop forward in his RB/CM Hybrid role, I thought he would be able to provide a good proportion of Trents points, with a big saving in terms of cost... but I can't help but want to get on the Chelsea bandwagon ahead of their great run of fixtures.
With my big-hitting midfield currently, I can only afford one 5.5 defender, so it comes down to Stones vs the Chelsea full-backs.
Without watching much of Chelsea, I was shocked at the lack of love for Reece James. I initially put it down to many people previously being burnt by him, as to why there was so much talk about Chilwell, but reading more about how they've played and it's clear that Chilwell has been the more advanced of the two when they've both played, and so I'm beginning to side with him too. The thought of Reece James as an uber-differential was appealing based on the twitter bubble, but Chilwell is actually owned by less teams, selected by just 11.4% at the time of writing, compared to James at 15.1%.
Forwards
Haaland obviously. But who goes next to him.... For years my FPL Mantra has been "Just Get Harry Kane" but the Bayern rumours have been around too much for me to bite that bullet. I tried yesterday, but I'd become too attached to several of my side to rip up the team structure.
One of those, is a guy who's been in nearly all versions of my drafts. Nicolas Jackson. I've already mentioned Chelsea's fixture run that I like, and I was already on JAckson ahead of fellow new boy Christian Nkunku, due to him playing as the number 9, with Nkunku playing more withdrawn.
Nkunku's unfortunate injury has had a doubly negative impact on my Jackson pick, firstly Nkunku owners will jump off him and some will simply switch Chelsea assets, meaning Jacksons ownership will increase, but secondly, and more importantly, it makes Chelsea less of an attacking threat. I'm still excited by Jackson, but I can feel my feet getting colder at the prospect of taking the plunge on an unproven Premier League asset, especially as the Ollie Watkins bandwagon is firing up once again, and it was painful watching that from the outside at the back end of last season.
My third forward, is currently Joao Pedro. Brighton's first few fixtures are too good to ignore, and he comes in cheaper than the likes of Mitoma and Solly March... and is seemingly on penalty duty too. At £5.5m he's a nice price point for a third striker, and if I want to drop to playing 2 or 1 up front, I can gain a million by dropping him to the 4.5 options.
6.5m Mid
Speaking of Mitoma and March, they're amongst the most debated price category of the game. Which 6.5m midfielder do we go for.
With a plethora of options, it feels like picking the right one, could reallly help us out in the first few weeks.
There's no doubt that Mitoma and March are both great options. They showed last year that they both have great points potential and the Brighton fixtures are excellent, but I feel Pedro can cover them, and triple Brighton (I also have Estupinan) seems overkill. Pascal Gross is another Brighton mid who consistently delivers points, but having seemingly lost penalties to Joao Pedro, and splitting his playing time between midfield and Right back, he doesn't necessarily appeal.
Brian Mbeumo was one of the first names on my team sheet for my initial draft. A £6.5m mid, with potential to play up front and become his teams talisman whilst Ivan Toney is suspended is well worth consideration, but I haven't been overly impressed with what I've seen from Brentford in pre-season, and Mbeumo still has that annoying trait of hitting the woodwork and ridiculous amount of times.
Other options include Ebere Eze, Harvey Barnes, Mykhailo Mudryk, Moussa Diaby and Bernardo Silva.
Eze is the real deal, a player I've loved watching since his QPR days, I also really like Palace's opening fixture against Sheffield United. He's another player who will be his clubs talisman this season, with Wilfried Zaha having left, and Michael Olise injured, and also rumoured to be leaving.
Barnes is a massive improvement to the Newcastle line up, and a signing I think is really impressive. If he can get back to the form he showed a few years ago, then £6.5m is a price point he has the ability to make a mockery of.
Mykhailo Mudryk is someone I never envisioned considering. I made no attempt to hide just how disppointed I was when seeing him live vs England for the Ukraine back in March, but at this price point, and with the Nkunku injury, i feel like he needs to be in the discussion, especially with the Chelsea fixtures. He showed decent link up play with Jackson to score against Brighton in pre-season, and if those two can continue to combine, then I would expect FPL managers to flock to him at such an affordable price point.
Bernardo Silva, is arguably the most reliable mid-priced Man City midfielder in terms of minutes. I Won't be going for him, but if people want to gamble on an attacking Man City asset, then I would expect him to play more than Foden, and possibly Grealish...In fact, only Julien Alvarez and Ruben Dias have played more minutes for Man City in pre-season.
Whether Bernardo can outperform them, even with additional minutes is another debate, but I could see the temptation in going with the security of minutes.
With three days to go, there's bound to be lots more chopping and changing. I intend to have my team sorted and not react to any Man City Leaks way before the deadline. I want to set my team up for gameweeks ahead, not just one week.