The 22/23 Season is nearly upon us. The pre-season excitement begins to turn to nerves for all premier league football fans, and the FPL managers scramble to make those last minute changes to their teams, and I'm no different to them.
Throughout the summer, I have been relatively tinker-free. My squad has been settled, and every time I did try and make changes, I ended up back at where I was.
The Fantasy Football Scout and FPL REview models weren't overly keen on my team... but I coudn't bring myself to change it. I was even set on an old-school 3-4-3 formation, a distinct change from last years when I championed playing 5 at the back.
But then something this week has changed. A couple of regulars have been discarded (for now) and I suddenly have a few key spots, and formation decisions to make.
I'm still settled on a front three (although one of these spots is up for grabs) and I'm still settled on Ederson in goal... although the Leicester double up at £4.0m each is tempting if they do not sign a new keeper.
But my defence and midfield is where there could be some major changes.
Up until this week, with no surprise to anyone, I'd been set on James Maddison. Brendan Rodgers has been saying how he's looking the best he's ever seen him this pre-season... but now he's left my drafts. The transfer speculation regarding Maddison means that I can see him not featuring in GW1 (which ever club he's at), and with the plethora of options at a similar price point, it feel like a wasted opportunity to run with him. There's also the consideration of whether a move to Newcastle could impact his production.
Whilst he would without doubt become Newcastles main provider, he could potentially end up sharing set-pieces with Kieran Trippier, potentially reducing his impact.... The same through has also meant that Trippier has dropped out of my reckoning currently.
If Maddison stays, then the whole situation at Leicester is enough to put me off. The loss of Kasper Schmeichel, the rumoured losses of Maddison, Tielemans, Harvey Barnes and Wes Fofana, along with the lack of incoming transfers suggests all is not well at the King Power.
Coming into my thinking this week has been Ivan Perisic. I've been consistent all season in thinking that Spurs wing backs are ideal for FPL, but could also be a nightmare in terms of rotation. I'd planned to sit and wait on them, but the reports from Spurs friendly vs Roma has Perisic (and Matt Doherty) back on my radar, despite Antonio Conte's cautious words about their fitness levels .
Another defensive concern for me, is that I currently don't have Andy Robertson, or Joao Cancelo in my team.... and they feel like players that should be included.
Essentially it comes down to one of Three combinations of two spots for me here if I want to get them in.
I can go Cancelo or Robertson with a £6m midfielder. I already have Gabriel Martinelli who has impressed for Arsenal in pre-season, and seen his main rival for his position (Emile Smith-Rowe) go down with injury), so Newcastles Bruno Guimaraes looks the best option at that price point.... although the manic tinkering this morning saw me end up with Rodri in that position earlier. It was at that very point, I realised I needed to take a break from playing around with my team)
Or I can go with a £5m defender and an £8m midfielder, and this option seems to more favourable in terms of team flexibility. It gives the option of being to flick between the multiple tempting £8m midfielders, and there are plenty of £5m or less defenders that I like the look of. I'm not expecting those defenders to be able to cover the output of Robertson or Cancelo, but if they can offset the difference between the £6m and £8m midfielders then hopefully they can provide the balance I need for my team.
I just need to remember that the £13m combination for the two slots need to outscore Robertson/Cancelo and Bruno rather than the traditional head to head comparisons we often do when analysing our teams.
In terms of what we want from that £8m spot. You could arguably use it as a set and forget, you’d like to think that most of them will end with a similar amount of points throughout the season, but in my eyes there’s a real opportunity to rotate your options, targetting form and fixtures to try and capture the hauls those options will no doubt provide.
And so I'm currently sat on a 4-3-3 formation, and I think I’m happy with it. Jesus is definitely going nowhere, and I’ve been championing the cause of Callum Wilson for most of his career. He’s always a great FPL option when fit, and I really like the Forest fixture for him this week.
The next decision is which forward to go for out of Haaland or Kane. It should be a no-lose situation. Both should be great options, but there's the nagging feeling that getting on the wrong option could easily de-rail the start of your season.
Kane's GW1 fixture vs Southampton is very tasty... but then I'd be going into Man City's GW 2 fixture vs Bournemouth without Haaland, and that sounds like lunacy.
You could book a transfer in for between the gameweeks, but it would need to be done early to avoid the gameweeks and that brings its on risks in.... Plus I like to leave my team for GW2 to allo myself to bank a transfer for later on in the season
The GW1 deadline is less than 48 hours away. Decisions need to be made.
P.S... My Gaffr side had an excellent start to the season. 34th overall (thanks to the Away days chip)... and could've been so much better. Jonathan Panzo hit the bar with an audacious attempt from 25 yards, and Matty Godden missed a chance that he would put away 99 times out of 100. I also had a blank from my captain Teemu Pukki.