Fantasy Premier League 2024/25

[Sied]

Haaland so that's shite too as he always gets shut out in these games.

I think it's like 40% of managers have gone with Haaland this GW so it could be worse.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Think I prefer double Arsenal defence and Saka to triple defence.

My thought here is Arsenal are most likely to keep clean sheets over the next 3 (and I have already 2 FTs due to wildcarding)

So I’m then looking at is Gabriel + Salah going to outscore Saka + upgrade on Gabriel?

I could turn Salah into Saka and then either turn a ST into Jackson or a midfielder into Luiz.

But then I need to get Salah back at some point and I think he’ll rise in price (he’s the closest point scorer who is a guaranteed starter as midfielder to Haaland).

I worry Diaz will be rotated with Gakpo.

ST Jota/Nunez/Gakpo
LW Diaz/Gakpo/Jota
RW Salah/Chiesa/Diaz

I think Salah is comfortably ahead of his competition whereas Diaz is more at risk of rotation eventually.

Wildcard active

Sanchez Fabianski
TAA Gabriel Konate Robinson Greaves
Saka Diaz Mbeumo ESR Rogers
Haaland Jackson Wood

0.6 ITB

I really like this side. But Id want double Arsenal defence with the double Liverpool.

Is Wood worth downgrading to afford Raya here?

Other than that my only worry is Diaz rotation. If he isn’t , then this is as close to perfect as you’ll find.

I just don't see a 37 year old Vardy getting loads of points for one of the worst teams in the league. I would downgrade him to a 4.5m striker and spread the funds elsewhere.

He’s got a terrible next fixture but he’s started all games so far as captain.

I’ll have a look at what I can afford with a downgrade.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Big dillema for me is ESR - should I keep him on a wildcard when he’s delivered in 3 out of 5? But all 3 were home games and now Fulham have two away fixtures… might make the way for Mbuemo/Diaz

It depends what your plan is long term.

ESR is good value for his returns and clearly a big part of what Fulham do. The only player on his price range that I think is better value is Semenyo (who was unlucky not to get a goal yesterday due to offside).

Personally I’m more concerned about Arsenal losing Odegaard and so playing a more control oriented than attacking game. Their xG isn’t that high but their xGA is very good.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I’ve had a play around:

Raya +£4m
Trent Saliba Gabriel Mazraoui Greaves
Diaz Mbeumo ESR Semenyo Rogers
Haaland Watkins Jackson/Solanke

Thoughts ?

 

[Red Star One]

Raya +£4m
Trent Saliba Gabriel Mazraoui Greaves
Diaz Mbeumo ESR Semenyo Rogers
Haaland Watkins Jackson/Solanke

Thoughts ?

Looks really good but there’s some benching dilemmas in the attach which I don’t love. Triple Arsenal def is quite bold too

 

[Red Star One]

Latest WC drafts come down to whether to keep Salah or not.

Raya Fabianski
Gabriel Colwill Moreno Greaves VDB
Salah Diaz Mbuemo Rogers Dibling
Haaland Havertz Jackson

or

Sanchez Fabianski
Gabriel TAA Colwill Greaves VDB
Saka Diaz Mbuemo Semenyo Dibling
Haaland Havertz Jackson

 

[Dirty Schwein]

I’ve had a play around:

Raya +£4m
Trent Saliba Gabriel Mazraoui Greaves
Diaz Mbeumo ESR Semenyo Rogers
Haaland Watkins Jackson/Solanke

Thoughts ?

I think it's a good team but no Salah means you want to have another premium priced player to give your team flexibility. Saka/Palmer/Son etc.

You have 3 mids at 5-6m range so may struggle with manoeuvrability.

With that said, solid defence and attack though.

 

[Sied]

My current wildcard draft:

Sanchez Fabianski
Konsa TAA Gabriel Mazraoui Greaves
Saka Diaz Mbeumo Smith Rowe Dibling
Haaland Watkins Jiminez

 

[Red Star One]

I think it's a good team but no Salah means you want to have another premium priced player to give your team flexibility. Saka/Palmer/Son etc.

You have 3 mids at 5-6m range so may struggle with manoeuvrability.

With that said, solid defence and attack though.

Agreed. Think one of Saka/Salah is quite a must, Palmer and Son feel more punty but also great

 

[Red Star One]

One crazy punt could be Trossard at 6.9. With Odegaard out he seems quite likely to get minutes

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Looks really good but there’s some benching dilemmas in the attach which I don’t love. Triple Arsenal def is quite bold too

I think I’d just constantly play the front 3.

So you have a base side of:

Raya
Trent Saliba Gabriel
Diaz Mbeumo Semenyo ESR/Rogers
Haaland Watkins Jackson/Solanke

Bench
Mazraoui ESR/Rogers Greaves £4m GK

Ive done this based on the data available and in terms of highest xG/90 (that I consider starters not super subs or major rotation risks Duran 2.12/ Garnacho 0.86 etc)

Best FWD/MID = Gold
2nd = Grey
3rd = Bronze

1. Haaland 1.14
2. Watkins 1.13
3. Solanke 0.94
4. Wissa 0.91 (injured)
5. Diaz 0.8
6. Jackson 0.79
7. Jota 0.75 (he’s been unlucky)
8. Zirkzee 0.69
9. Madueke 0.66
10. Evanilson 0.63 (potentially value here)
11. Wood 0.6
12. Mitoma 0.59
13. Havertz 0.55
14. Salah 0.54
15. Semenyo 0.53 (great value)
16. Tavenir 0.52
17. Saka 0.48
18. Mateta 0.47
19. Eze 0.47
20. Johnson 0.46
21. Traore 0.46
22. DCL 0.44
23. Cunha 0.42
24. Mbeumo 0.36
25. Fernandes 0.36
26. ESR 0.36
27. De Ligt 0.34
28. Onana 0.34
29. Vardy 0.29
30. Maddison 0.29
31. Isak 0.28

I can go lower but you’re better off looking here now XG tables (source) as we get into players I’m not considering based on that metric.

If we cross reference with xA/90 (again with reasonable filters for rotation risk etc)

1. Palmer 0.61
2. TAA 0.57
3. McNeil 0.54
4. De Brunye 0.53
5. Barnes 0.51
6. Digne 0.49
7. Silva 0.5
8. Maddison 0.49
9. Traore 0.47
10. Rogers 0.44
11. Salah 0.44
12. Saka 0.43
13. Son 0.38
14. Semenyo 0.37 (such good value)
15. MGW 0.37
16. Sugawara 0.37
17. Tielemans 0.36
18. Rashford 0.36
19. Mbeumo 0.36
20. Iwobi 0.36

Again we can go lower but by that point you’ve covered most of the players you’d realistically consider.

Now if we consider current xG/90 for each side:

1. Liverpool 2.472
2. Villa 2.336
3. Man City 2.25
4. Bournemouth 2.082
5. Spurs 2.068
6. United 2.042
7. Fulham 1.934
8. Chelsea 1.88
9. Brighton 1.8775
10. Arsenal 1.645
11. Southampton 1.614
12. Brentford 1.53

Again you can use the link to figure out the rest.

Finally if we consider clean sheets as points for defenders so xGA/90:

1. Liverpool 0.872
2. City 0.885
3. Spurs 1.056
4. Not For 1.057
5. Fulham 1.078
6. Arsenal 1.125
7. Brighton 1.2075

So this suggests to me at least those 7 sides are good value for clean sheets early doors.

So my conclusions…. I’ll do in a bit but there you go guys.

Latest WC drafts come down to whether to keep Salah or not.

Raya Fabianski
Gabriel Colwill Moreno Greaves VDB
Salah Diaz Mbuemo Rogers Dibling
Haaland Havertz Jackson

or

Sanchez Fabianski
Gabriel TAA Colwill Greaves VDB
Saka Diaz Mbuemo Semenyo Dibling
Haaland Havertz Jackson

Double Arsenal attack?

I think it's a good team but no Salah means you want to have another premium priced player to give your team flexibility. Saka/Palmer/Son etc.

You have 3 mids at 5-6m range so may struggle with manoeuvrability.

With that said, solid defence and attack though.

I disagree. In the midfield see above. They are good value for their goal involvement and sides attacking shows so far.

Should have 2 FTs week after wild card then 3 the week after. That’s enough to swap 2 forwards and a midfielder if needed. Or a defender, forward and midfielder.

I’m less convinced now by an Arsenal defence triple up though.

 

[RaddyRed]

Joao Pedro on the bench

 

[Red Star One]

I think I’d just constantly play the front 3.

So you have a base side of:

Raya
Trent Saliba Gabriel
Diaz Mbeumo Semenyo ESR/Rogers
Haaland Watkins Jackson/Solanke

Bench
Mazraoui ESR/Rogers Greaves £4m GK

Ive done this based on the data available and in terms of highest xG/90 (that I consider starters not super subs or major rotation risks Duran 2.12/ Garnacho 0.86 etc)

Best FWD/MID = Gold
2nd = Grey
3rd = Bronze

1. Haaland 1.14
2. Watkins 1.13
3. Solanke 0.94
4. Wissa 0.91 (injured)
5. Diaz 0.8
6. Jackson 0.79
7. Jota 0.75 (he’s been unlucky)
8. Zirkzee 0.69
9. Madueke 0.66
10. Evanilson 0.63 (potentially value here)
11. Wood 0.6
12. Mitoma 0.59
13. Havertz 0.55
14. Salah 0.54
15. Semenyo 0.53 (great value)
16. Tavenir 0.52
17. Saka 0.48
18. Mateta 0.47
19. Eze 0.47
20. Johnson 0.46
21. Traore 0.46
22. DCL 0.44
23. Cunha 0.42
24. Mbeumo 0.36
25. Fernandes 0.36
26. ESR 0.36
27. De Ligt 0.34
28. Onana 0.34
29. Vardy 0.29
30. Maddison 0.29
31. Isak 0.28

I can go lower but you’re better off looking here now XG tables (source) as we get into players I’m not considering based on that metric.

If we cross reference with xA/90 (again with reasonable filters for rotation risk etc)

1. Palmer 0.61
2. TAA 0.57
3. McNeil 0.54
4. De Brunye 0.53
5. Barnes 0.51
6. Digne 0.49
7. Silva 0.5
8. Maddison 0.49
9. Traore 0.47
10. Rogers 0.44
11. Salah 0.44
12. Saka 0.43
13. Son 0.38
14. Semenyo 0.37 (such good value)
15. MGW 0.37
16. Sugawara 0.37
17. Tielemans 0.36
18. Rashford 0.36
19. Mbeumo 0.36
20. Iwobi 0.36

Again we can go lower but by that point you’ve covered most of the players you’d realistically consider.

Now if we consider current xG/90 for each side:

1. Liverpool 2.472
2. Villa 2.336
3. Man City 2.25
4. Bournemouth 2.082
5. Spurs 2.068
6. United 2.042
7. Fulham 1.934
8. Chelsea 1.88
9. Brighton 1.8775
10. Arsenal 1.645
11. Southampton 1.614
12. Brentford 1.53

Again you can use the link to figure out the rest.

Finally if we consider clean sheets as points for defenders so xGA/90:

1. Liverpool 0.872
2. City 0.885
3. Spurs 1.056
4. Not For 1.057
5. Fulham 1.078
6. Arsenal 1.125
7. Brighton 1.2075

So this suggests to me at least those 7 sides are good value for clean sheets early doors.

So my conclusions…. I’ll do in a bit but there you go guys.


Double Arsenal attack?

I disagree. In the midfield see above. They are good value for their goal involvement and sides attacking shows so far.

Should have 2 FTs week after wild card then 3 the week after. That’s enough to swap 2 forwards and a midfielder if needed. Or a defender, forward and midfielder.

I’m less convinced now by an Arsenal defence triple up though.

Great stats. Makes me want to keep Watkins now

 

[BenitoSTARR]

The point of the above is Salah is going to score goals and get points. But Saka and Arsenal are not playing traditionally attacking football the game is about control.

So if you’re going premium attack in midfield you have enablers in midfield and attack to do so.

But avoiding Salah and Saka you get 3 strikers with around 1xG/90.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I also look at the game this way:

£10m+ Return every or haul potential
£9.0m+ Return every 1
£7.0m+ Return every 2
£6.0m+ Return every 3
£5.0m+ Return every 4
£4.0m+ Any return ever and I’m happy.

 

[redcucumber]

Cool write up @BenitoSTARR - good looking out.

I have an issue with a midfield that contains Semeyo, ESR, and Rodgers, though (compounded by the risk of Diaz being hooked early, or rotated). If you played 4-3-3, only one would be on the pitch at any one time, but then you're leaving quite a lot of value tied up on the bench. I guess you could downgrade Semeyo and bank the spare cash.

 

[Chipper]

This is quite similar to mine but maybe I try to keep Salah over Saka and try to have Arsenal coverage through Havertz.

Great team

Cheers, liking yours as well, plus that comment you made over Dibling was interesting.

It's my second season playing, and last year I liked how we had Archer and later the emergence of Semenyo as a 4.5 forward who would play all the time. Meant we could select one of those as emergency backup, safe in the knowledge that we could fall back on them, even if it was only often 2 points a week for Archer. We could then field 3-5-2 every week, focusing on packing the midfield with quality options. The emergence of Branthwaite, and Lascelles getting quite a lot of game time as cheap options at the back made it even easier to go down that route.

This season we don't have the 4.5 forward yet and might never so the the nearest thing is trying to it with midfielders and lock into a 3-4-3. Winks, who isn't far off a price rise I believe was the only way to go if trying that from the start, but now Dibling possibly gives us that opportunity too. 3 starting strikers, Dibling/Winks hopefully as reliable backup and then go from there.

The problem with that is that at the very start of this season a lot of the big name strikers weren't firing. Watkins blanking, Isak being a bit meh, Solanke injured while a lot of midfielders have been in top form. Many of the players who chose to 3 up front to begin with will have found it difficult to navigate in terms of picking the right ones to accompany Haaland. They're picking up now though so it looks interesting if we were to jump on Dibling to enable it all.

Creates other issues though - who to take out of midfield to do it, and there's no Branthwaite or Lascelles equivalent at the back yet either. We do have those 4.0 centre backs from the promoted sides but they're not on that level. Even finding a viable 4.3-4.4 defender from a mid-table team would be great. Without that, the options are double 4.0 dross on the bench at the back or to spend that extra money on a 4.5+ who we may not want to start so often and there's always the feeling that it's a little bit of a waste. Mosquera might have been best bet, rubbish so far but they've had hard fixtures - and he only went and got injured yesterday. Perhaps we park it on Andersen at Fulham? He is a 4.4 and should start regularly now.

I really like this side. But Id want double Arsenal defence with the double Liverpool.

Is Wood worth downgrading to afford Raya here?

Other than that my only worry is Diaz rotation. If he isn’t , then this is as close to perfect as you’ll find.

Thanks, I did temporarily downgrade Wood before the price change for DCL to bag that and keep options open. If he scores next GW he might move to 6.1 as he that nice looking run of fixtures. Wasn't enough to reach Raya, especially with Raya's price rise too, but I could if I went back to Joao Pedro.

I'm not completely sold on keeping Robinson in my WC. 2 assists, yes but that xA isn't that great. Mind you he overperformed it last season too - 6 off about 3 I think without checking so he does produce. No rush though, would be considering moving to Maz/Dalot after United play Villa. Diaz is a bit of a concern now that at least some rotation has begun at Liverpool like you said, but again I couldn't resist getting on that price rise last night. Not sure where else I'd go at this moment though.

 

[El-Manos]

Tempted to go salah - Saka. I have Diaz as well

 

[mu4c_20le]

Joao Pedro on the bench

I know someome here will be thrilled if he came on for a few minutes

 

[Red Star One]

Let’s go Wood!

 

[Samid]

My man Wood

 

[Leonzo1]

And now Gibbs white is suddenly not the penalty taker. Same as Eze. I hate this game so much.

 

[saik]

Some very crucial points from Wood! Hope he bangs a hattrick.

 

[saivet]

Unless Pedro comes on and bags a hatrick, I think it's time to move him on. Plenty left in the bank, so likely to replace him with Havertz. Pedro has risen in value for me. I'll leave it late in case of injuries or other problems. Getting Saka in is possible but a I'd have to take a sacrifice somewhere.

Pedro to Havertz and possibly Robertson to an Arsenal defender will likely be my moves on Friday.

 

[Chipper]

And now Gibbs white is suddenly not the penalty taker. Same as Eze. I hate this game so much.

Just looking - the only penalty Forest scored last season was in the 76th minute v Brighton. Wood was subbed off 10 minutes before that. Wood does have a background in taking pens too, 29 out of 32. I would have assumed Gibbs-White would have kept his job on them, not going to lie. He's not taken many for them but he's also not let them down - 3 out of 3.

Huge competition for them now there. Ward-Prowse often been on them in his career with 20 out of 26, and JWP likely ousts him from direct free kicks.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Cool write up @BenitoSTARR - good looking out.

I have an issue with a midfield that contains Semeyo, ESR, and Rodgers, though (compounded by the risk of Diaz being hooked early, or rotated). If you played 4-3-3, only one would be on the pitch at any one time, but then you're leaving quite a lot of value tied up on the bench. I guess you could downgrade Semeyo and bank the spare cash.

See now Im open to downgrading ESR to 4.5 (and you’ve probably guessed based on other conversations who that would be) so that I’ve got a value but playing Mid, value but playing def and then all other value is in the team.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Wood vs Muniz at the start of the season has cost me so many points!

 

[mu4c_20le]

Spoiler: Me watching Welbeck Wood owners

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Spoiler: Me watching Welbeck Wood owners

Meanwhile Jimenez is scoring the goals Muniz should have too!

 

[Pickle85]

Please please please stay off pedro

 

[mu4c_20le]

Break glass in case of emergency here he comes

 

[Dirty Schwein]

Break glass in case of emergency here he comes

Yes!!!

Ffs Rico Lewis that useless plank

 

[Samid]

The turd coming on to block my Konsa 9 pointer

 

[Red Star One]

Foden benched even without KDB

 

[RaddyRed]

Joao Pedro going off injured would be peak Pedro.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Hm, thinking to switch Pedro to Welbeck or Raul.

 

[Red Star One]

Thanks Wood now I’m not sure if to sell him on WC

 

[Samid]

Thanks Wood now I’m not sure if to sell him on WC

Good fixtures, on pens, any goal is basically 2-3 bonus. Easy keep imo.

 

[Sandikan]

One crazy punt could be Trossard at 6.9. With Odegaard out he seems quite likely to get minutes

Looked at that earlier, could definitely work as not sure what other good options they have.
Only thing that stops me doing it is probably needing to trim Rashy (6.9) value down to upgrade Pedro to Jackson. Already have 1.2m but need another 0.6 or so

 

[Sandikan]

Thanks Wood now I’m not sure if to sell him on WC

Did consider shipping him instead of Pedro to facilitate Jackson but he's as strong an option as there for this price range.

8 pointer which would have stayed on my bench if not for Jota missing out