After a fairly poor gameweek last week, accentuated by the decision to leave Calvert-Lewin on my bench, I’ve decided to be bold and make wholesale changes to my team, hoping to prepare it for the run in to the end of the season, or at least until a point where I want to play my wildcard.
injuries to two of my forwards saw my team lacking firepower and although I had two free transfers I couldn’t settle on moves I was happy with (at one point Che Adams was back in my team).
There was also the quandary of which Man City players I wanted ahead of their first of a few upcoming game weeks, and I kept coming back to one man, and it was one man I didn’t have - Raheem Sterling.
I had almost settled myself into accepting not bringing him in, and rolling with the Stones, Cancelo and Gundogan trio that has served me so well, until I listened to the excellent FPL BlackBox podcast, and a quote from Az convinced me to take the gamble. To paraphrase it was something like
“Why wouldn’t you want the most attacking player, in the best team of the league?”
With me flirting with the idea of bringing him in, coupled with rumours of a more defensive role for Gundogan, my mind was made up.
With 3 goals and an assist in his last 4 matches, Sterling is starting to show the type of form that made him such a premium asset over the last few years, and although I’ve noticed a few on Twitter bringing him in this week, he could still be somewhat of a differential as I look to climb the rankings.
To get Sterling in, it came at a cost. I needed to remove Mo Salah, one of my Man City assets, and replace injured duo Callum Wilson and Calvert Lewin.
Up front, one man I felt vital to get back, even ahead of a game against Man City, was Harry a Kane. He’s returned from injury and carried on where he left off, amongst the goals, and proving to be vital for Mourinho’s men. Without Son in my team as well, I knew that every Spurs goal would see a massively detrimental effect on my rankings, so Kane came straight back in.
I could’ve left him until next week, and left Calvert Lewin in , in the hope he would be fit for the second game of his double gameweek, that’s also against Man City, and so I’ve taken the hit this week, as I think Kane is more likely to trouble the champions elect out of the two of them. And as my advice in the FF Scout Network article a few weeks ago said “just get Harry Kane”
in order to replace Callum Wilson, in comes Edison Cavani. Cavani has long been a favourite of mine, and his influence in Uniteds attack is increasing each week. Whilst there is a rotation threat, Cavani faces West Brom this weekend, who’s defence looks as leaky as ever, so it’s a gamble worth taking in my eyes.
My final decision was which Man City player to lose. With City having a double gameweek, I wanted to replace them with someone else with a double this week, and looking at the options it realistically meant Burnley defenders were the best option.
This meant it was either Cancelo or Stones. Both have been brilliant for me this season, but Cancelo stayed simply because of the increased threat of attacking returns he possesses due to the advanced positions he takes up.
I’m not expecting bumper hauls from Burnley defenders, and so I’ve gone for the cheapest yet secure option of Matt Lowton, in order to cover any Burnley clean sheets that people have targeted with the likes of Pope and Ben Mee proving to be popular transfers in this week ahead of the fixtures against a goal shy Crystal Palace and Fulham.
With the likes of Digne, Cancelo and Shaw as part of my defence, it’s likely that whichever Burnley defender I brought in would be spending a lot of time on the bench in future weeks, so I’ve decided to save my cash and go with Lowton.
With my heavily butchered squad in place, I’m going with a 4-4-2 this week, with the captains armband placed on Sterling. Jack Grealish, Patrick Bamford and Eric Dier on the bench in that order.
If it wasn’t for Dier, I’d be very tempted to bench boost
