Fantasy Premier League returns this weekend — and things are about to get serious.
Saturday, November 23, marks the start of Gameweek 12 and a run of nine gameweeks in the space of six actual weeks between then and January 4-6.
So, ahead of tomorrow’s Gameweek 12 deadline (11am GMT; 6am ET), Holly Shand has answered the best of your questions ahead of a winter period that looks certain to test the wits of FPL managers around the world.
Premium defenders aren’t really providing much value this season. Could you recommend some of the best sub-£5m defenders to target over the coming weeks? — J E.
With the attacking data in mind, Lucas Digne (£4.7m) looks to be a wise investment ahead of a kind run of fixtures for Aston Villa. He is however prone to an early substitution, which is a concern during this busy period of the season.
Wolves’ Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.7m) would still be my go-to buy in this price category, given how advanced his positioning is. He’s already racked up five goal involvements this season, plus Wolves kept their first clean sheet last time out — and have the fixtures to add more heading into December.
Lewis Hall (£4.4m) is another alternative, having made Newcastle’s left-back spot his own. They have kept two clean sheets in their past six games, with Hall also notching an assist in that time, and have some good fixtures — despite hosting Liverpool in Gameweek 14. And at that price, you can afford to bench him for their tougher games.
Should I be worried half of my team (Manuel Akanji, Virgil van Dijk, Levi Colwill, Bryan Mbeumo, Phil Foden and Antoine Semenyo) have yellow flags beside their name? Time to wildcard or risk it for a biscuit? — Chris L.
It’s the nature of the international break that we see a lot of our players flagged. As the demands of the football calendar continue to increase, there is also a tendency for players to be protected and sit out the international windows. There’s a constant battle between clubs and countries, with Premier League sides willing to do anything to protect their players going into the most intense phase of the season.
Gameweek 12 is however a good time to wildcard, given the swings in the fixtures — especially if you aren’t on the optimal combination of premium players.
The best thing to do is to build a wildcard team in preparation and compare it to your current squad. If a significant number of those yellow flags haven’t disappeared following today’s pre-game press conferences, then you’ll be in a good place to activate the wildcard ahead of the deadline. Plenty of the names mentioned have been spotted back in training for their respective clubs this week.
Hi, Holly. I was wondering: If we are but fleeting sparks in an infinite void, does the fire of our existence hold any meaning beyond its own glow? Also, is it time to sell Trent Alexander-Arnold and invest in a midfield premium? — Dom H.
No, but let’s not dwell on the meaning of life when we can play a football game with a pretend team that exists entirely online!
Now does feel like the perfect opportunity to sell Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m), with his hamstring injury likely to keep him out for the next couple of weeks. We cannot afford to hold players who aren’t 100 per cent fit with nine FPL gameweeks within the next six weeks. Given a lack of consistent clean sheets from any club right now, it makes sense to release those funds tied up in the Liverpool full-back and move them further forward into your midfield.
His Anfield colleague Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) is a must-own given his current form and it’s possible to own Cole Palmer (£10.9m) and Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) alongside him, given the fixture swings now in play for Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. Both have had small issues hindering their involvement for England over the international break but I’d expect them both to be back and firing at club level ahead of Gameweek 12.
What stats do you prioritise for selecting defensive assets, and in what order of importance? — Ross A.
I think given the current climate, where clean sheets are hard to predict and no team are showing significant defensive qualities, we have to look towards assets with good underlying attacking data.
We tend to see a theme where centre-backs have aerial goal threat from dead balls and often full-backs can be involved in taking a side’s set pieces, enabling them to accumulate assist threat. Where goal-threat is concerned, shots in the box and big chances are good indicators of possible goalscoring form, with Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol (£6.3m) and Gabriel (£6.1m) of Arsenal particularly prevalent in this area.
For creativity, it’s useful to look at corners and free kicks taken, with Leif Davis (£4.5m) of Ipswich and Villa’s Digne two of the key specialists in the league this season. You can then drill down into key passes and big chances created, where Tottenham’s Pedro Porro (£5.5m) is among the leading creators, along with Alexander-Arnold.
As Erling Haaland isn’t living up to his hefty price tag, who’s your striker to target after him? — Adam B.
While I do believe that for some teams, there’s an opportunity to sell Haaland (£15.2m), particularly if he’s your only route to Salah in midfield, the optimal play for me right now is to own both.
Haaland was sensational over this international break, scoring four goals for Norway in their two matches. And City’s form has to improve soon after losing four in a row across all competitions, with Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m) expected to come back in for his first start since mid-September at home against Spurs tomorrow.
With that being said, if you do want to part company with Haaland, then Newcastle’s Alexander Isak (£8.5m) is among the best replacements. He has four goal involvements in four games since returning from injury, consistently completes the 90 minutes, and he’s on penalties. If you want to move even more funds into midfield, consider Brighton’s Joao Pedro (£5.5m), who provided a double-digit haul off the bench in a 2-1 win against champions City last time out.
Would you play a wildcard immediately after this gameweek or wait for the festive period? — Saketh R.
As stated earlier, Gameweek 12 is a good opportunity to play that first wildcard, with fixture swings for Arsenal and Chelsea to take advantage of, plus the slightly tougher schedule for City.
This two-week international break should have given time for planning. Logistically, it’s not that easy to play the wildcard in the festive period, with the quick turnarounds between gameweeks giving little time for research. We also find that information is less readily available when it comes to late December, with coverage of press conferences sparse.
In addition, key details regarding some clubs and players can come out after a deadline, given the spread of fixtures across several days, making proper planning impossible. The first wildcard is available up until the Gameweek 19 deadline on Sunday, December 29 — use it or lose it.
Should FPL give points for international performance? As a curveball to shake up a model that changes very little — William F.
For me, the biggest appeal of FPL is its simplicity and it shouldn’t be tampered with. I’m a purist!
The introduction of five free transfers this season has been the biggest shake-up to the fundamentals of the game in its history and has been very clever. This new mechanism rewards engaged managers who are patient by allowing them to make major changes without using a wildcard during crucial windows of the season. It also helps keep the interest of managers who are less engaged if they have forgotten to set their teams for several weeks.
Some fantasy formats do cater for what players do outside domestic competitions and it would provide an interesting element, but international performances are so unpredictable that it would completely change the game into something so far away from the format we have now. We’ve seen several high-profile players absent this international break, too.
To ease the boredom of those weekends when we’re without Premier League football, drill down into the underlying numbers of players and plan ahead for the busy festive period.
What’s your bench strategy looking like? Mine seem to all be cheap duffers but I’m worried about getting anything from Bench Boost come double gameweek time. Possibly overthinking it. Thanks for your help! — Tom C.
I think at this time of year, it’s important to have starters on your bench because of the quick turnarounds between gameweeks. We have a midweek Gameweek 14 looming, plus four rounds of action within two weeks at the end of December.
However, it’s fine for your substitutes just to be cheap players who will more than likely just provide the base two points each week. There are too many good premiums in the game right now demanding our budget to have significant funds tied up on the bench, although it’s wise to have a good first sub.
Traditionally, the Bench Boost chip is best played in a double gameweek towards the latter stages of the season and often in conjunction with the second wildcard to spread funds more evenly through the squad and onto those substitute players.
However, with five free transfers available this season, plus the introduction of the mystery chip, things could change from a strategy point of view. If you do reach a single gameweek with a good complement of bench players, don’t be afraid to play the chip.
What do you think the mystery chip will be? — Jason B.
I’m still not convinced the Premier League has a definitive plan for the mystery chip, which makes it a challenge to theorise over its exact purpose.
We know FPL has used the new Challenge format of the game to test out different concepts to bring over to the main game, and so it’s likely to be something we’ve seen before.
I’d like to see a Limitless chip, similar to those used in international tournament fantasy games, allowing you to use an unlimited budget to build a squad for one gameweek. This chip would be immensely powerful, especially if we were to get a big double gameweek towards the latter stages of the season.
Alternatively, the mystery chip could implement enhanced scoring for one week, giving additional utility to defensive-minded players by rewarding them for passes, blocks or interceptions — these are common scoring metrics in other fantasy formats.
(Top photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
