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Here are 3 players to push out of your thinking for the coming weeks. I’ll review their previous performances and lay out my thinking for you.
#1 Harry Maguire - Defender (£5.4m)
Clean Sheets: 1
Goals / Assists :1 / 1
Season Points: 43
Upcoming fixtures: Chelsea (A), Manchester City (H), Cardiff City (H)
Relatively standard for the whole of the Leicester defence, we’ve picked out Harry Maguire as he’s the most owned Leicester defender (obviously due to his heroics in the World Cup for Southgate’s men!) but they’re not solid defensively at the minute.
Harry’s just returning from injury having missed 5 games with a knee problem into a Leicester defence which has only kept 1 clean sheet in their last 5.
This is could only be short term, from GW20 they go on a 4 game-run of decent fixtures, so I may be talking about one of their assets at that point, more likely from an attacking perspective rather than defensively.
#2 Callum Wilson - Attacker (£6.9m)
Goals: 8
Assists: 8
Season Points: 93
Upcoming fixtures: Brighton (H), Tottenham (A), Manchester United (A)
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this… my beloved Wilson might be one to consider dropping. You might think I’m absolutely nuts to drop the lad going into a plum home fixture, I’m not I promise! He’s currently flagged which is a concern and @FFScout tweeted this morning that Eddie Howe “will make a decision on whether Callum Wilson (amongst others) is fit for the league cup tie against Chelsea”
You maybe want to keep an eye on whether he starts that game, but after missing the Liverpool game, making a sub appearance at the weekend and a few tough fixtures against top half opposition in 6 of their next 7 games it might be time to cash in on the Bournemouth front man, as much as it pains me to say it because he’s been great for me (I moved him on prior to the kick off in GW16)
#3 Wilfried Zaha – Attacker (£6.7m)
Goals: 3
Assists: 3
Season Points: 47
Upcoming fixtures: Manchester City (H), Cardiff City (A), Chelsea (H)
Zaha started the season well with 3 goals in his first 5. Since then he’s managed just 3 assists. I was really surprised to see him with 11.5% ownership still considering his poor run of form.
Palace, similarly to Bournemouth, have a tough run of fixtures with 5 of their next 6 coming against top-half teams. Zaha without a goal in 12 weeks shows he’s bang out of form.
Couple that with a plethora of great options in that price bracket means Zaha shouldn’t be in your thoughts right now.
Fantasy Premier League 2018-19: 3 Players to consider for the coming weeks
#1 Lukasz Fabianski – Goalkeeper (£4.6m)
Clean Sheets: 3
Save points: 18
Season Points: 72
Upcoming fixtures: Watford (H), Southampton (A), Burnley (A)
3rd top scoring Goalkeeper in the game having amassed save points in 14 of his 17 games. He’s also picked up 11 bonus points along the way which is 4 more than any other Goalkeeper has picked up so far this season. 6 of those bonus points were in games which ended as a draw, which shows the importance of ‘Flappy-hands’ to his team.
West Ham still have a nice run of fixtures up to GW22, but I’m not sure Fab will leave my team at all this year, such is his points scoring ability.
#2 Eden Hazard – Midfielder (£11.0m)
Goals: 8
Assists: 9
Season Points: 116
Upcoming fixtures: Leiscter (H), Watford (A), Crystal Palace (H)
Top points scorer in the FPL. Joint-top for bonus points. He’s got a lovely run of fixtures and there’s an argument he’s got his mojo back! Referred to in the FPL community as ‘The world’s biggest troll’ due to his consistent dips in form, it feels like a good time to hold the Chelsea talisman.
I looked through some of the underlying stats a few weeks ago and made the decision to keep Eden over Salah, with Hazard being a better value for money pick. That decision hurt me in GW16 where Salah scored a hat-trick! Now I’ve taken a step back and looked at the last 3 weeks – they’ve both scored 27 points, pretty happy with that. Added to that, I was able to upgrade Martial to Sané and have gained an extra 10 points net and now have an additional city midfielder!
Oh, and for those of you who like stats, he’s top for xA90 (0.49) for players in the game who have played more than 10 games according to Understat.
#3 Lucas Digne – Defender (£5.0m)
Clean Sheets: 4
Goals / Assists :1 / 2
Season Points: 56
Upcoming fixtures: Tottenham (H), Burnley (A), Brighton (A)
This guy is approaching Doherty-level status! You want him as much for his attacking output, as his defensive potential! Owned by just 4.8% of managers only one defender (Willy Boly 57) has scored more points for a cheaper price which is real value for money. He’s also made the most crosses of any player in the Premier League this season! He’s 12th for significant appearances (10 or more starts) for xA90 this year (0.32) which again is top for defenders (Holebas 2nd on 0.27)
He does have a tough fixture up next and then it’s an amazing run all the way until GW27, so it may be time to jump on early before his price begins to rocket (he’s had 1 rise already this week) due to his points potential.
Check out the next page for this weeks golden tip!
Pundit tips
“Patience, grasshopper”
The famous line from the 1970’s tv show ‘Kung Fu’
Don’t go early! It’s absolutely letting price rises pass you by if you can afford to wait to make your moves. There’s every chance you bring in a player to jump on his price rise, only for him to pick up an injury / be rotated. This happened to me with Barkley earlier in the year (he was rotated for the next game and got me 1 point off the bench) and you see it all the time in the FPL community.
Team value is important, but not as important as having a crop of 11 players who will start the game and deliver you some points. So wait as close to deadline as you can to make sure you don’t get stung by a last minute injury / event!
You can find me on Twitter @FPL_Jim, where you can send me any questions, send me a direct message if that's your thing and I'll always get back to you!
