Fantasy Football 247 FPL Team – GW3
GW2 Review
It’s fair to say that GW2 was certainly a case of leaving it late. Our final score of 62pts was significantly higher than the average of 44pts and helped lift the team to 34,135 in the world. But for most of the weekend it looked like we were going to see a depressing red arrow as our defence disappointed as others around us made ground. Our skipper Diego Costa delivered his goal vs Leicester, though in all fairness we were hoping for at least a brace from him. So, 12pts from him, 6pts from Cesc Fabregas and 5pts from Gylfi Sigurdsson was a decent start, but Palace’s shocker at home to the Hammers saw Joel Ward gain just a single point. The evening match was mixed, Calum Chambers conceded two, picked up a yellow card and failed to trouble the scorers, though Aaron Ramsey rescued things somewhat with 9pts. So, we went into Sunday optimistic, but Erik Pieters, David de Gea and Wayne Rooney all scored just 2pts each, so we were relieved and delighted when Juan Mata followed up his goal with 3bps to leave us on 49pts with just Stevan Jovetic to play – while all around us we saw fellow managers with scores in the 60’s…. we feared the worst. All the talk before the City/Liverpool game was of Sergio Aguero and Mad Mario, so we were pleased to see Jovetic starting and he rewarded our patience with a brace, 3bps and a 13pt haul to take us to 62pts.
GW3 Transfer(s)
We have two transfers in our back pocket and while it’s always tempting to use them and make immediate changes, we have decided to play conservatively this week and use just the one. The main reason for this is that we are looking to get Sergio Aguero in a few weeks, but in the meantime it gives us a look at how we accommodate him and who we need to sell. It is likely, at this stage, that either Juan Mata or Wayne Rooney will need to be sacrificed and holding that extra transfer buys us time to look at how Angel Di Maria settles in, what formation United adopt to accommodate him and who suffers as a result. We have decided that we will probably sell Joel Ward and buy Newcastle’s Daryl Janmaat. However, with so many matches taking place this week, we have not yet pressed the button in case some injury news comes through. In the case of a downward price change for Ward, we would not be able to afford Janmaat, in which case we will get Fabricio Coloccini or Paul Dummett instead. Palace as we know struggled last week at home to West Ham and continue to be dogged by problems off the pitch. While we acknowledge that they haven’t become a bad unit overnight we feel that a Newcastle defender is a good investment (as per Bryan’s Fixture article) and Janmaat possesses the attacking qualities that other options (Coloccini and Dummett) don’t have. We wouldn’t rule out re-investing in Palace at some point and Martin Kelly at 4.5mln looks interesting.
We will announce when our transfer has been made.
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GW3 Team and Captain
We have decided to hand the armband to Jovetic this week. A home fixture vs Stoke will, we believe, hand the Montenegrin the chance to continue his good form, which saw him score twice against Liverpool on Monday night. Despite the slight risk of rotation, we feel that Edin Dzeko’s knock and Sergio Aguero being gradually eased back into the action minimises the risk of Jovetic not starting. We did consider other options. Diego Costa is of course in great form himself, but an away trip to Goodison is never easy and we feel Chelsea may keep it tight. Wayne Rooney away to Burnley is a great option on paper – but in reality, we felt United are not yet the force they were and after a pretty shocking week for them, confidence may be low and it’s clearly taking them time to kick start their season. Aaron Ramsey could do well at Leicester, but with the Giroud injury, Wenger saying Sanchez is “not quite there”, we just felt there was too much risk. Gylfi Sigurdsson was our other thought and he came very close to stealing the band from Jovetic, but we just felt City looked ominous without playing to their capacity vs Liverpool and if they can again reach those levels, then the goals should continue to flow.
Harry under pressure?
Oh dear…
If this is true, I’ll probably WC now, two major injury’s to a high priced forward line in one GW isn’t needed at all, I could handle one with a hit but two? Probably take a minus 12 to sort out
ANdy – who is your second?
I had Giroud and Costa
Andy,
Are you up for a trade in NFL? You have 3 QBs and look light elsewhere. I’m talking to Bry and Mito too, but if you’re up for it i’ll include you in my list of options for us all. Msg me on the nfl message board if interested. Cheers.
Word on the street is that Costa is injured, we will see if it turns out to be true.
If it’s true, that’s a major ballache, as I’d want Agüero as a direct replacement which will require some nasty downgrade. Hopefully it’s not.
dont think Ageuro is a must yet
Nope, but he soon will be, and replacing Costa with someone else will surely just be a one-two week fling and a wasted transfer…
sturridge?
Decent shout, but he’s also more expensive, so it would still require a hit and a downgrade elsewhere… so what did Carragher say?
Carragher – basically that their positional play was shite. Were not moving as a back four and some of this was basics that he questioned could be fixed. He and Neville laid into them good.
this nicely spices it up doesn’t it
I heard this too Mito, Anyone have a source other than The S*n to confirm? Seems like an odd time in the UK to break a story like this.
I have my doubts Red. It’s a bit late in the day for a training injury to be announced don’t we think? We’ll see in the morning, but in all honesty, I’m not expecting to wake up to any official confirmation..l
That’s what I was thinking too James, and with a story this big how is the S*n the only source that has it?
I hope Costa is OK, as a hamstring injury would definitely mess up my plans. But I’m being a good boy this season and playing for points and not money, so I haven’t done an early transfer. Whatever happens I’ll sort it out on Friday.
I love the censoring of The S*n there, and rightly so, they post so much crap and here seems another prime example.
I sold Mata for Fabregas which was partly motivated by money but not entirely, I’m still fairly happy with the decision, but not if Mata foes crazy against Burnley… however, no such nonsense this week, hoping to save my transfer if possible.
I nicked your censoring of The S*n for a tweet just now. Hope you don’t mind Red.
Olivier Giroud: Arsenal striker has surgery on broken leg
“Giroud had surgery today for a broken tibia and he will be out for three to four months on the competitive side.”
Panicking about price changes this week and considering a WC to get the team I want. If I play it, I make the following changes:
Team Now
Krul (Mannone)
Dier – Clyne – Van Aanholt (Baird, Chester)
Siggy – Sterling – Lamela – Fabregas – Ramsey
Rooney – Costa (Naismith)
WC Team
Krul (Elliot)
Taylor – Clyne – Coloccini/Van Ann (to rotate), (Wisdom)
Siggy – Sterling – Fabregas – Ramsey – di Maria
Rooney – Aguero (Vaz Te)
it looks like Aguero & di Maria will increase before this weekend’s matches – it they do i won’t be able to afford them. Thoughts???
lawdogg – see above re Costa?
dont see a reason to WC
Can’t see Costa being injured. It’s midnight and The Sun are reporting an injury, pretty strange!. Also… Isn’t anyone else reporting this.