FPL Is Life: Wildcard special!
Stay for players running in a straight line
***GAMEWEEK 7 DEADLINE: SATURDAY - 11:00 GMT***
You think Premier League stars don’t know or care how they’re rated by FPL managers? Ivan Toney says otherwise. A hat-trick at the weekend after being sold off by a load of managers and falling in price as a result. Congrats if you owned him - he’s obviously appeared a few times in FPL Is Life…
It was a nightmare week for a lot of people (see below) - and with the top teams now having tougher games and 3 upfront looking the way to go, Wildcards are being popped all over the shop. So welcome to the FPL Is Life Wildcard Special! This week - when to Wildcard, a Wildcard Watchlist, a Wildcard for this week, next week and the week after - and some short-term punts before we get there.
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When to Wildcard - a guide
The World Cup is here in Gameweek 16, when we all get to make infinite transfers. So we have to use our first (of two) regular Wildcards before then. The teams with great fixtures until the World Cup aren’t great - Bournemouth, Leicester, Fulham for example. BUT things also soon look tougher for top teams, especially Arsenal and Brighton. There are really four weeks that look good to Wildcard. Here they are, together with some reasons for using the Wildcard. Which one are you?
Gameweek 7 (now): You hate your team - you can’t stand logging in to FPL and seeing it. You want to switch the 3-upfront asap. Also, the Champions League starts this week, so you want to improve your bench as rotation among the big teams will increase.
Gameweek 8: You want to give Salah another go vs Wolves this week to see how he goes after a dry scoring spell. You also think Arsenal vs Brentford is a hard fixture for your Arsenal players, which is this week - and want Newcastle players head of their Bournemouth game.
Gameweek 9: Probably the most popular. Arsenal’s fixtures become much harder for the next few - as well as Liverpool’s and Man City’s, so it’s worth using the Wildcard. It also gives you a couple of weeks to have some short-term punts on players. Nice!
Gameweek 12: Fancy being a bit different? If you think your side can get through without too much damage, you can move out Man City/Liverpool assets over a longer period, before bringing them all back in on a Gameweek 12 Wildcard.
UPDATE: Brighton/Palace called off Gameweek 8 - Wildcard next week just got more popular
Announced on Wednesday, due to a rail strike. Obviously take this into account with transfers this week and next. It could change when you Wildcard. If you have a lot of Brighton/Palace players, it could now mean Gameweek 8 is the best time to Wildcard.
Thomas Tuchel has been sacked by Chelsea, too. Immediate FPL relevance? Not much in the short term - hold what you have and wait. We’ll discuss next week, when the new manager should be known.
The Wildcard squad
Here’s a good collection of players to be thinking about for the Wildcard for Gameweeks 7-9. I’ve put together a graphic on the squad talked about by FPL General on his Athletic podcast. It’s worth listening to as he puts them all in context and he’s much keener on some than others. If I had to chuck in three more for fun? Maddison, Solanke, Saint Maximin (if fit). Pope is emerging as the best keeper.
A Wildcard draft for this week
This has been put together by FPL Salah, one of the best in the business. Isak is also an option upfront if you fancy a bit more risk - he’s looked great and Newcastle are a team to jump on. Notice Bailey is now just £4.7m and a GREAT first bench player.
Wildcards for Gameweeks 8/9 will be very similar…
Here’s one for each Gameweek from Let’s Talk FPL Andy. As said above, a lot depends on what you think of Arsenal vs Brentford and Newcastle vs Bournemouth in Gameweek 8 - if you want to take out Arsenal players and bring in Newcastle for that week, you can go a week earlier.
If you get rid of Salah, have an exit plan
A quick word on Salah (some stats below - signs he is assisting more and shooting less). His data isn’t actually that bad - he is 5th in the Prem for expected goal involvement (not including penalties). But with many now captaining Haaland every week, the £13m spent on Salah is now looking pricey.
If you are ditching him, it might be worth having a plan to get him back if he suddenly explodes - perhaps by having one premium slot in midfield (eg, KDB, Sterling…) so you can move back easily.
The world’s best FPL manager got 29 points this week
I had a shocker this week. It's easy to think that the season is over, but it's also worth reminding ourselves that bad weeks - where everything goes wrong - are part of the game. Here's the team of Fabio Borges - in my view the best ever. This Gameweek, he got 10 blanks - and one FPL return from the player he needed to blank (Haaland - he had Salah captain. Haaland was captained by so many that even having him in the team wasn’t enough to curb the damage).
Predicted MID points for the weeks ahead
These midfield predicted points - both for this week and the next five - are worth a look. Basically, a model is used to predict points by the excellent FPL Review site. They’ve been put into graphics by FPL Focal YouTube account. Takeaways: Saka has been unlucky so far. He could be worth looking at, especially with Diaz at Liverpool now facing competition from Nuñez and Jota.
Short terms punts…
The joy of knowing in advance that you are Wildcarding is that you can target players with some short-term punts, knowing you’ll fix everything if it goes wrong. Here are the Top6 teams for fixtures over the next two games, courtesy of Fantasy Football Scout. Man Utd vs Leeds looks a good one to target in a week’s time. Some short-term FUN punts over the next fortnight:
Man Utd have Palace then Leeds: Rashford (if fit), Bruno and Antony - in that order
Forest have Leeds and Fulham: Johnson and Morgan Gibbs-White worth a look.
Tottenham play Leicester in Gameweek 8. Kane/Son/Kulu could be good one-week punts if Rodgers remains in post.
Maybe Antonio or Bowen are worth a punt, despite West Ham’s poor start.
Running in a straight line works
I always thought that the second Maradona goal vs England in 1986 was a bit like this - but it’s amazing how good goals can look when players run… in a straight line. It just requires a lot of defenders to be temporarily hypnotised. There is something increasingly funny the more you watch this. Banger of a soundtrack.
Please get in touch with any FPL dilemmas or general football internet gold. Remember the DEADLINES and see you next week! I’m on Twitter here. Please help me grow FPL Is Life by sharing… thanks!