13 Nov, 2024

Game Week 12: Best Wildcard Team

Game Week 12: Wildcard Strategy

I have been back and forth on Wildcard strategy for the last week or so. The plethora of different options available across all positions, and the mortality of previous giants Arsenal and City, has sent the FPL climate into chaos.

I’ll do my best to attempt to cut through and provide the best WC team I can but it is worth pointing out that given how many options there are, this is very subject to change.

Goalkeeper:

I started with Fabianski and Sanchez as the goalkeeper pairing. Fabianski appears to have a great chance to lock down the starting job at West Ham, which would cement himself as the only starting £4m keeper in FPL.

Sanchez has a fantastic run of fixtures himself, and as FPL Goat pointed out, he also rotates very nicely with Fabianski right up until Game Week 22. I will also take his lack of clean sheets in the last 6 with a pinch of salt considering they played Arsenal, United, Newcastle, Liverpool, Forest and Brighton.

Fabianski

Sanchez

Defence:

This season it is hard to trust any defence outside of Liverpool’s, as such my desire for traditional premium options such as Gabriel, Saliba, Gvardiol etc is currently not that high. That being said, Arsenal do have a nice run of fixtures coming up and Odegaard returning means Rice may provide more defensive cover and Arsenal’s defence as a whole will improve, but i’m happy to be slightly late to that party.

Konate is my Liverpool option as he is £1m cheaper than VVD and with Trent injured and the LB spot currently on rotation, he provides the best route in.

Fulham somehow currently sit 2nd top of the xGA table, making a very attacking asset like Antonee Robinson, extremely attractive at just £4.7m. They do face Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool in their next 5 however, but then have a great run right up until Game Week 22. So rotating him is a solid option. If you have less money in the bank you can always go for Anderson (£4.3m), who provides a much cheaper route into the Fulham defence.

Brentford and Ipswich are hardly the best defensive units in the league, but at £4m and £4.1m for O’ Shea and Van Den Berg respectively, its hard to complain given they are both nailed.

Ait-Nouri is also one of the most attacking defenders in the league and has good potential to return in both departments given Wolves’ upcoming run of fixtures.

Midfield:

This is where it gets spicy.

Not too much needs to be said about the reasons behind each of these picks, they are all talismanic studs who have potential to grab some serious points.

Having these 5 options all in the team also provides me with a nice route to either premium City or Arsenal defenders should they get their acts together at the back. So I will wait and see which of these 5 is performing worst.

Best case scenario they are all firing and no change is needed.

Worst case scenario I can easily bolster my defence if 1 or 2 are underperforming.

Forwards:

We really have been spoilt for choice this year with budget forwards, which has seen many top FPL teams sporting insane midfields as a result.

Wissa has been my favourite budget striker for a while now, and the article we did ranking them a few weeks ago can be found here. With a ridiculous per 90 xG of 0.71, including 2 in their last outing, Wissa stocks are on the up, so act fast.

Brentford also seem to be scoring enough to justify doubling him up with Mbuemo as they sit 2^nd in the prem for Goals scored with 22, only 1 behind leaders Spurs.

Joao Pedro recently reminded everyone of his talismanic status with a goal and assist in just 25 mins against City. He also boasts and xGI per 90 of 60, a price of only £5.4m and an amazing set of fixtures.

Hurzeler was recently quoted saying:

“Yeah he makes a difference. I think every premier league club has this one player who makes the special things, and I think he’s exactly that player for us.”

So I wouldn’t worry too much about his minutes moving forward either.

Isak has also begun to resemble the demon we saw last year.

With 3 in his last 3, against some of the leagues better defences, I think we can safely say that Isak is back.  With West Ham, Palace, Brentford, Leicester and Ipswich as 5 of their next 6, now is as good a time as ever to bring him in.

It is worth noting however that given the plethora of other options at forward such as Raul (£5.8m), Wood £6.6m, Cunha (£6.8m), Delap (£5.8m), Evanilson (£5.9m), if you were looking to have a stronger defence, sacrificing Isak and going triple budget up top is more than viable.

Summary

Overall, this WC was constructed around my general lack of trust for any defensive assets right now, hence it being forward and midfield heavy. But by covering midfield with expensive options, and forward with at least 1 expensive option, it also allows me to be pretty nimble with transfers and rotations.

By: George Lean

Last Updated: 13/11