Wildcard Thread 2016/2017

Right.

After a week of chasing team value as much as I could, let's start to look at my team seriously.

GKs. Foster, Jaku. Paid price = £8.5m.
Ideally Jaku goes up tonight and I bank the £0.1m profit on him and get Pickford instead. If he doesn't, I may keep him and hopefully make the switch later when he'll have reached £4.2m if it seems necessary.

Defs. Valencia, Baines, McAuley, Amat, Friend. Paid price = £24m.
I may change Friend for a watford def.
I could save £1.1m by going gor Lovren, Williams as my big 2. 'Pool have the fixture list but United have Mourinho and he's better at CS than Klopp. Then Baines is a little favourite of mine. I owned him at least for a short period of times every single season since 2010/11. And he always delivered at some point. This year, he's cheaper, plays for a more attack-minded team (a team in good form currently), is on penalties. And well this lovely left foot. But Williams is a BPs whore and this game has to be head over heart. So I'm open to debate.
Finally McAuley, double Pulis. Fixtures will get tougher (GW8 to 11) but I could just get someone to rotate well with him in place of Friend.

£32.5m spent at the back. Now

Mids. Sanchez, Capoue, Antonio, KDB, Firmino. Paid price = £41.3m
Forwards. Agüero, Lukaku, Diomandé. Price paid = £26.7m.
I'm actually £0.3m short for this one (but that could be solved at the back).
Capoue & Diomandé could be rotated.
Main advantage is KDB whom I rate very high (similar to Sanchez). I haven't checked the stats but I kinda remember that he shined less last year with Agüero than he did without. But this year there is the Pep factor.
Main disadvantage is I don't really rate Diomandé. And he only playe d41min in his last game.
As long as Capoue is returning, it also saves me from weekly selection headache.

Mids. Sanchez, Capoue, Antonio, Sterling, Firmino. Paid price = £39.2m
Forwards. Agüero, Lukaku, Rondon/Deeney/Rashford. Price paid = £28.7-29.0m.
I'm actually £0.4m short for the most expensive option with Deeney. Again that could be solved in defense.
Capoue & Deeney sounds Watford overkill. So I may take a 1-week punt on Rondon and rashford next GW if it looks like he'll start alongside Ibra.
Main advantage. Better balance. Sterling looked way better under Guardiola. So if he keeps his current form he could well match KDB returns. Upfront I have a better 3rd striker.
Main disadvantage. Less flexibility to get a premium player if needed (e.g. Hazard or Ibra since I "lose" £2.2m resale in Sterling from KDB). More selection headaches.

Overall disadvantage. No Chelsea nor Spurs cover. Only Costa is appealing at the moment and to get him in I'd have to downgrade a lot in midfield (Antonio to bench fodder or Firmino/Sterling to Snodgrass) or to ditch Lukaku. And Spurs, tough to pick a mid and not sure about Janssen.

What do you guys think?

What price did you get McAuley at? He is 0.3 m more expensive than Evans, unless you had him from the start. Seems like that kind of amount would solve some problems for you.

iroced wrote: »

Right.

After a week of chasing team value as much as I could, let's start to look at my team seriously.

GKs. Foster, Jaku. Paid price = £8.5m.
Ideally Jaku goes up tonight and I bank the £0.1m profit on him and get Pickford instead. If he doesn't, I may keep him and hopefully make the switch later when he'll have reached £4.2m if it seems necessary.

Defs. Valencia, Baines, McAuley, Amat, Friend. Paid price = £24m.
I may change Friend for a watford def.
I could save £1.1m by going gor Lovren, Williams as my big 2. 'Pool have the fixture list but United have Mourinho and he's better at CS than Klopp. Then Baines is a little favourite of mine. I owned him at least for a short period of times every single season since 2010/11. And he always delivered at some point. This year, he's cheaper, plays for a more attack-minded team (a team in good form currently), is on penalties. And well this lovely left foot. But Williams is a BPs whore and this game has to be head over heart. So I'm open to debate.
Finally McAuley, double Pulis. Fixtures will get tougher (GW8 to 11) but I could just get someone to rotate well with him in place of Friend.

£32.5m spent at the back. Now

Option A

Mids. Sanchez, Capoue, Antonio, KDB, Firmino. Paid price = £41.3m
Forwards. Agüero, Lukaku, Diomandé. Price paid = £26.7m.
I'm actually £0.3m short for this one (but that could be solved at the back).
Capoue & Diomandé could be rotated.
Main advantage is KDB whom I rate very high (similar to Sanchez). I haven't checked the stats but I kinda remember that he shined less last year with Agüero than he did without. But this year there is the Pep factor.
Main disadvantage is I don't really rate Diomandé. And he only playe d41min in his last game.
As long as Capoue is returning, it also saves me from weekly selection headache.

Option B

Mids. Sanchez, Capoue, Antonio, Sterling, Firmino. Paid price = £39.2m
Forwards. Agüero, Lukaku, Rondon/Deeney/Rashford. Price paid = £28.7-29.0m.
I'm actually £0.4m short for the most expensive option with Deeney. Again that could be solved in defense.
Capoue & Deeney sounds Watford overkill. So I may take a 1-week punt on Rondon and rashford next GW if it looks like he'll start alongside Ibra.
Main advantage. Better balance. Sterling looked way better under Guardiola. So if he keeps his current form he could well match KDB returns. Upfront I have a better 3rd striker.
Main disadvantage. Less flexibility to get a premium player if needed (e.g. Hazard or Ibra since I "lose" £2.2m resale in Sterling from KDB). More selection headaches.

Overall disadvantage. No Chelsea nor Spurs cover. Only Costa is appealing at the moment and to get him in I'd have to downgrade a lot in midfield (Antonio to bench fodder or Firmino/Sterling to Snodgrass) or to ditch Lukaku. And Spurs, tough to pick a mid and not sure about Janssen.

What do you guys think?

Option B for me. Rotating Capoue and Diomande just doesn't feel right to me.

Out of interest, have you thought of going with KDB + Walcott over Sterling + Sanchez? 1.0m cheaper.

iroced wrote: »

Main disadvantage is I don't really rate Diomandé. And he only played 41min in his last game.
As long as Capoue is returning, it also saves me from weekly selection headache.

Diomanade only played 41mins because of the sending off, he was sacrificed for another defender. But as you say, you'd likely play Capoue anyway.

Have a look at your starting XI's.
Regardless of which option, you're going to play Sanchez/Antonio/Firmino/Lukaku/Aguero.
Option 1: KDB and Capoue
Option 2: Sterling and Deeney

For me it's stick with Option 1, it's an esy transfer to go to ditch Sanchez/KDB and Capoue and get a balanced 2 whenever Capoue dries up.

As an aside, very similar to my wildcard team. Front 8 currently.... Sanchez/Firmino/Antonio/Capoue
Aguero/Costa/Lukaku
(Fletcher for the 2pts on the bench)

Currently hoping that Jaku will go up tonight, so I can use the 0.1m to fix up my Gks and defence on my WC.

Currently have:

Foster, Jaku

Walker, Baines, Holebas, Kelly, Amat

If Jaku rises, he will be dumped for Pickford and Kelly up to Friend most likely.

If he doesnt (prob dump Jaku anyway for Pickford) and then do Foster>Valdes, Kelly>Evans.

Is Valdes nailed on? Anyone any other ideas for me?

Ziegler1988 wrote: »

I don't think the 0.3m/0.4m savings for De Roon or Fletcher is worth selling the highest points scorer in the game. Unless he totally flops the next few matches, he'll keep going up in price.

Indeed, but most owners have only got one of his hauls. (That's a guestimate)
I just feel Deeney/Ighalo with Capoue 5th mid makes him transferable especially if the profit enables a wanted upgrade and possibly saves a transfer down the line.

ElTel wrote: »

Indeed, but most owners have only got one of his hauls. (That's a guestimate)
I just feel Deeney/Ighalo with Capoue 5th mid makes him transferable especially if the profit enables a wanted upgrade and possibly saves a transfer down the line.

Problem is if he is actually the real deal and a viable 4th mid, then you have to pay 5m plus to get him back. I think he saves transfers in the short term, I had no problem having him ready as my 1st sub once I heard the Firmino news last week.

Adam1100 wrote: »

Lukaku and lallana or benteke and firmino??

Benteke and Firmino

ElTel wrote: »

Iroced (and the rest of WC gang)
Have you considered cashing in the 0.3M on Capoue after tonight?

Yeah, I've looked at it, especially with Feeney and Holebas pencilled in my current WC team, but as Ziegler says I'll probably see how his great run plays out. Even if he blanks the next two GWs he still probably rises 0.3 more due to sitting toward the top of the midfield points list.

That said, if he and Jaku rise tonight I could ship them to turn Williams into Baines. Speaking of which:

A) Lovren, Baines, Francis, Holebas, Amat
OR
Lovren, Williams, Stones, Holebas, Amat

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

Yeah, I've looked at it, especially with Feeney and Holebas pencilled in my current WC team, but as Ziegler says I'll probably see how his great run plays out. Even if he blanks the next two GWs he still probably rises 0.3 more due to sitting toward the top of the midfield points list.

That said, if he and Jaku rise tonight I could ship them to turn Williams into Baines. Speaking of which:

A) Lovren, Baines, Francis, Holebas, Amat
OR
Lovren, Williams, Stones, Holebas, Amat

Option B with Kompany injured.

km79 wrote: »

FFS podcast talking about a lad who wildcarded but didn't press button..........24 point hit for a half finished team
Hit the button at the start
Nobody will convince me otherwise

a previous winner no less, wasn't it?

manual_man wrote: »

a previous winner no less, wasn't it?

Tom Fenley did it last year I think yeah and they mentioned someone else who did it this season.

Karius starts for Liverpool this weekend. Shame they don't keep clean sheets.

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Jesus it's tough going having Sanchez, KDB, Aguero, Zlatan all in the same team while keeping a balance of decent'ish players around em'

Lots of rumours about that Jakupovic may be about to lose his place for Hull. Might be one to reconsider.