The calm before the storm- Player selection and captain choice tips for GW17
Before setting your squad for GW17, it is important to keep in mind the situation of Man City and Fulham. Their camps have been severely affected by COVID-19, so the chances that they’ll play against Chelsea and Burnley respectively, are very slim. Our primary suggestion would be to not rely much on these four teams, to avoid a drop in points.
GW17 is going to be a trickier one. Sides who score a lot of goals are pitted against sides who score a lot of goals in return and sides who score little are pitted against sides who score little. Only the matches between Arsenal and West Brom and Burnley and Fulham offer little hope of giving clean sheets. Therefore Bernd Leno, Sam Johnstone, and Nick Pope would be our first choices for a goalkeeper. Leno has the easiest fixtures lined up among the lot and also has a GW18 schedule which is all the more reason to select him if you don’t want to use your chips.
In defense, Kyle Walker-Peters and Jan Bednarek offer to be good options. They face Liverpool who as of now, are having a terrible away form. With Joel Matip also being out for 3 weeks, they can be a bit leaky in the upcoming fixtures, and the Saints will be looking forward to exploiting that. With the explosive duo of Danny Ings and Che Adams back in full swing, KWP and Bednarek will be expected to throw in some assists. From Liverpool, Andrew Robertson is a good option. The Scot has bagged 2 goal contributions and 2 clean sheets in the last four games and would be keen to step up and push himself during an injury crisis
Tottenham’s match against Leeds would be another interesting fixture to look forward to. Both sides have had unpredictable results since the start of the season. On one hand, the Lilywhites’ defense has secured more clean sheets, the Peacocks have produced the most number of chances and attacking returns from the defense line. So Eric Dier and Stuart Dallas are interesting candidates for the XI.
As previously mentioned, it is safe to only play a single-player from Man City and Chelsea. Since Kevin De Bruyne occupies the single slot for most of the managers, it is hard to suggest Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, or John Stones. However, feel free to add them, if you don’t have KDB. Chelsea are yet to make their mark against a top 6 side and added to that, they miss a game in GW18. So we’re going to sit this one out with respect to Chelsea defenders.
In midfield, as always, it’s better to keep the in-form players of Mo Salah, Jack Grealish, Bruno Fernandes, and Kevin De Bruyne. Apart from Fernandes, the remaining 3 midfielders have been increasingly frustrating, having just 10 goal contributions over the past 5 game weeks. However, we’d like to stress the fact that ups and downs in a player’s returns remain an inherent part of FPL. Adding to that, these players have time and again broken their out-of-form factor to produce the highest returns ever in previous FPL seasons. Therefore, it is important to stick with them for now. As mentioned in our previous articles, GW18 will provide a major turnaround among managers. It’d prove to be the ultimate litmus test for the out-of-form players, failing which major changes would be made in each squad.
The budget midfielders’ section offers a narrower list to choose from due to fixture arrangements. Some of them include Tomas Soucek, Daniel Podence, Jack Harrison, Raphinha, and James Maddison.
As often, the forwards have the same story. Dominic Calvert-Lewin would be our first choice, despite him struggling to score goals for the past few weeks, Everton have been slowly recovering from their injury crisis, and this might be just the time that they bounce back. Patrick Bamford will be the next choice as usual. It is becoming hard to ignore him, due to his high points per million value. The third choice for forwards is a bit tricky to choose. For now, we’ve decided not to go with Harry Kane/ Heung-Min Son, due to their poor form over the past 6 game weeks. The other options to choose from include Jamie Vardy, Danny Ings, Olivier Giroud, and Tammy Abraham.
Captain Choice:
The captain choice for this week would be Bruno Fernandes, which is pretty much an obvious choice due to his superb run of form. The Portuguese talisman has made 6 goal contributions in the past 3 GWs against Leicester, Wolves, and Leeds. He faces Aston Villa which is sought to pose the same amount of threat as before.
Bruno Fernandes could start the new year with a bang!
Ones to watch out for:
Anwar El Ghazi- 4 goals in the last 3 matches, faces Manchester United
Wilfried Zaha- Scored a goal vs Leicester, faces Sheffield United
Marcus Rashford- 5 goals in last 6 matches, faces Aston Villa
Bukayo Saka- 3 goal contributions in past 2 matches, faces West Brom
Chris Wood- Has recorded one of the highest xGs this season, faces Fulham
Viewers are once again advised that a high degree of uncertainty is about to prevail over this gameweek. Good luck to everyone and catch you next week!
