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I hope you're all ready for the New Year! Here are 2 players to push out of your thinking for the coming weeks. I’ll review their previous performances and lay out my thinking for you. You could make a direct switch between these two players and save yourself £1.3m!
I’ve picked 2 for each category today and I’ll be picking another 2 on Thursday for you as a preview for GW22.
Check out the next page for the Pundit's views on who you may want to consider instead!
Fantasy Premier League 2018-19: Who to move out
#1 Marcos Alonso - Defender (£6.8m)
Clean Sheets: 9
Goals / Assists :1 / 7
Season Points: 109
Upcoming fixtures: SOU (H), NEW (H), ARS (A)
Despite just coming off a clean sheet we’re pretty fed up with Alonso now! I felt the whole Twitter community scream in frustration when the Spaniard got an unnecessary yellow card in the first 10 minutes of the match by throwing the ball away after conceding a throw in!
The Chelsea man was in fine form at the start of the season, averaging 9.2 points per game in his first 5. He’s had no attacking returns since GW11 (assist vs Palace) and has been slightly unlucky in hitting the woodwork 5 times this year, the joint most in the league (with his Chelsea teammate Willian) but as the most expensive defender in the game, you’d expect more bang for your buck!
There is still an opportunity to take advantage of that solid Chelsea defence though……
#2 Wayne Hennessey – Goalkeeper (£4.5m)
Clean Sheets: 5
Save points: 10
Season Points: 69
Upcoming fixtures: WOL (A), WAT (H), LIV (A)
It looks like Wayne Hennessey has lost his place in the Palace team now to Spaniard Guaita, after he had suffered a small back injury prior to Palace home fixture against Leicester in GW17.
Prior to that Hennessey had made 41 saves, which was 18th in the league and was joint 7th in the league for clean sheets. Hennessey also lost his place last year, playing only 27 of 38 games, meaning he may have to wait in the wings for now.
Fantasy Premier League 2018-19: Who to bring in
#1 David Luiz – Defender (£5.8m)
Clean Sheets: 9
Goals / Assists :1 / 1
Season Points: 91
Upcoming fixtures: SOU (H), NEW (H), ARS (A)
Save yourself £1.0m and bring in the Chelsea centre-back instead! He’s only scored 18 points less than Alonso, is cheaper and has 6 bonus points, 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 5! Luiz also has only 1 yellow card for the season compared to 4 from Alonso.
Luiz passing game also improves his chances of bonus points. He’s completed 1512 passes so far this year, which is 5th in the league. Their xG90 and xA90 also are incredibly similar between Luiz (0.10 & 0.06 respectively) and Alonso (0.13 & 0.10 respectively) which says to me you want them more for their clean sheet and bonus potential, another reason to save yourself £1.0m!
Finally, if that’s not enough, there’s been murmurs for a couple weeks now that Emerson should be given a chance at LB.
#2 Vicente Guaita – Goalkeeper (£4.2m)
Clean Sheets: 1
Save points: 3
Season Points: 18
Upcoming fixtures: WOL (A), WAT (H), LIV (A)
Guaita has averaged 3 saves per game in his last 4 compared to 2.5 saves per game for Hennessey this season so far.
Guaita has also picked up 2 bps in his 4 appearances (against Cardiff in GW19) and is £0.3m cheaper than Hennessey so is a great way to pick up some extra cash for your squad. Guiata has also picked up 2 yellow cards so far, the joint-most of any keeper this season (with Etheridge of Cardiff!)
Pundit tips
“Remain on track”
Don’t go chasing points. Just because a player has had 1 good week don’t go rushing for them. Assess all the data you have available. Watch highlights of their performance, did they score from their only shot? Were they getting into good attacking positions? Were they lucky to score? We've seen that at times this season with various players. @FPL_Heisenberg talked about the 'Barkley-Bandwagon' earlier this year, there were small ones earlier in the year for Andre Gray and Luciano Vietto following them having 1 or 2 good games.
And always look at their upcoming fixtures and remember to plan for the longer term! This will stop you regretting moves and ‘Knee-jerking’ on players.
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!
