Fantasy Football Geek (FPL) - 4 FFGeek Contributors FPL GW1 Teams Part 3 - John and Harry's teams plus short versions of Andy and Joe's articles
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Here’s our Best FPL teams GW1 article where 4 FFGeek Contributors show their FPL GW1 teams Part 3. There's John and returning Contributor Harry's teams plus short versions of Andy and Joe's articles. Between them they finished in the top 1% of teams 11 out of 12 times in the last 3 ULTRA competitive seasons.
If you haven't joined the FFGeek Slack Channel here's the link
https://join.slack.com/t/fantasyfootballgeek/shared_invite/zt-3n72s5gzm-tid7IiwcDVtE7hkCVENf3g
Follow FFGeek on twitter and Blue Sky for article updates and news
Introduction
It’s worth noting that the teams shown may not necessarily end up being the final teams or the transfers may have been made in the days prior to the posting . It’s an informal situation to give you an idea of trends.
However the FFGeek team, the Transfer Planner Team and the Contributor Vote team Plus the Contributor teams of Rob, Rick, Andrew, Pete, Javier, Andy and Joe mentioned above on the FFGeek Patreon site all make notified transfers live as they are completed. So you’re always up to date and live for a maximum £4 PCM.
The 12 top FPL managers average refers to the 12 top FPL managers who finished in the top 10k Overall Rank the last 3 seasons. See my article analysing their teams
John Gerbson
Last 3 seasons 25k, 41k and 78k
Follow John on twitter here
Follow John on You Tube here
So I won't reiterate everything I said on my last article about strategy and approach to the playing FPL. I'll concentrate on the changes since the last article which was a couple of weeks ago
I've just made the 2 changes
Mosquera out for Calafiori and Tavernier out for Harvey Barnes in
Calafiori was really a reaction to his performance in the Community Shield where he was often in the forward line and a reaction to Arsenal on the verge of completing the signing of Konsa who when fit will surely start along side Gabriel instead of Mosquera. Calafiori isn't perfect either. He has competition from Hincapie and is a sub risk before 60 minutes but he's definitely the better of 2 imperfect options
Harvey Barnes looks like he's finally going to get his chance as a starter. On a per 90 basis he had a PPM of 4.9 and his underlying numbers are sensational to back that up. Being mainly a sub is very different to starting though and also it's unlikely he'll jump to 90 minutes straight away. He does have a nice little run of fixtures at GW3 onwards of Bou H, Lee A, Hull H and Ips A. I could have put him and Wissa in over Calvert-Lewin as you can make a similiar argument for him but that's a punt too far at the moment.
Everything else is the same although I have thought about Schade for Le Fee. Gross possibly losing penalties to new striker Promise David isn't helpful either. I don't like the £5.5m Mid market unless I'm going to hope for last season's Garner in either Ampadu or Brentford's Sangare.
That would come in a late you tube stream if I do that
Here's the team for now with the above transfers made
Harry Vernon
Harry's last 10 seasons are 45k, 7k, 853rd, 74k, 35k, 86k, 22k, 6k, an incredible 224th and 6k
Follow Harry on Twitter here
Welcome back Harry!
A short one with just the team screenshot. No Bench Boost GW1
Andy Jones
Andy Jones last 4 seasons overall ranks are 1k, 14k, 12k and 12k.
Introduction
We are nearly there and ready for a new season. I hope you all have squads you are happy with. Over the last few days I imagine we have all said ‘I just need another 0.5m’.
The Community Shield effect
In the run up to the Community Shield I was edging towards starting the season without Bruno Fernandes. That feeling only grew stronger when the teams were announced with Haaland, Semenyo and O’Reilly all starting. They all went straight into my draft. I thought they would beat an Arsenal side without Saliba and with Rice and Saka on the bench.
I will be at the Etihad on Sunday and was looking forward to watching all of them play and the team put three past Bournemouth. At the end of that match I had put Bruno back into my draft at the expense of Semenyo and O’Reilly. It was always going to be a risk starting the season without Bruno and I didn’t see enough on Sunday to make me feel that the risk was worth taking.
They could still thrash Bournemouth; a brace for Haaland, assist and a clean sheet for O’Reilly and a couple of assists for Semenyo but I don’t have the conviction to go there now especially with the way City played and the opening two fixtures for United.
I am, therefore, more template than I was expecting to be, although hopefully with a couple of nice differentials still in the squad.
The Team
You can see the full article, including LIVE transfers, lineup and captains by upgrading to the Wide Forward Tier of the FFGeek Patreon site for only an additional £0.50 pcm with loads of other content mentioned above. That includes following Andy's Team and 6 others with live notified transfers as they happen and the teams final lineup each gameweek
Joseph Crilley
Joe's last 10 overall ranks are 505k, 36k, 11k, 16k, 5k, 93k, 68k, 28k, 7k and 13k
Introduction
Hello FFGeek patrons, and welcome to my first write-up of the new season – a season that I am very much looking forward to. As many of you are aware, my primary footballing focus is Spurs and it is fair to say that last season was an utter disaster as we were unexpectedly dragged into the thick of a relegation battle; something I am sure that many of you other fans revelled in. For me, it was quite a draining experience; conversations around the office became tough, weekends were diminished and envy brewed watching our local rivals cruise to the title. Overall, it was pure relief when the season ended and we were confirmed as safe to participate in the upcoming Premier League season. Surely, things cannot go as badly as last year…..
The Spurs show certainly distracted me from the rest of the season as it became difficult to enjoy football more generally. Unfortunately, this also included FPL, where I seemed to suffer from some horrendous fortune to add to the ongoing pain. It wasn’t pleasant to flick through some old articles and remind myself of the Haaland triple captain debacle in the first half of the season, where I seemed to be the only manager to use the chip during a blank performance. However, I am feeling refreshed and ready for a bounceback FPL season, with a goal of pushing for another top 10k finish. The hope is that a good start can help towards this, and external circumstances mean that I feel ready to do exactly that.
A clear path for GW1 thinking
I have had some rather important life events in recent years and August is becoming a critical month in our household. August 2024 was the month of my wedding and it was subsequently followed by our honeymoon, while the following August saw us welcome our first child into the world. Naturally, these were both wonderful occasions and I would not change them in any way; however, it did mean that I was somewhat side tracked from GW1 planning during the last two seasons.
This year, I have no such excuse. In fact, I have recently returned to work following three months of paternity leave where I was able to spend some solid time refreshing my Transfer Planner. This tool has always been and remains a key element of my FPL planning, and there have been significant upgrades this summer. Furthermore, for the first time since 2023, I will have access to the Planner in the final days leading up to the season start. Therefore, I am feeling primed to select a strong GW1 squad which doesn’t leave me on the backfoot.
How to make a strong start – addressing flaws in my FPL strategy
I have found over several seasons of playing FPL that I am often a slow starter – to the extent that I no longer think this can be a coincidence and I should look to tweak my approach. As mentioned, I rely heavily on my Planner and will often lean towards the ‘optimal’ long-term GW1 team according to its projections. The problem is that this can leave very little margin for error. Budget is maximised within the starting XI, which can result in a 4.0mil goalkeeper, non-playing attackers and budget defenders filling the remaining squad positions.
That approach makes perfect sense if all of my initial assumptions prove correct, but history suggests that simply won’t happen. GW1 is probably the point of the season where we have the least information available and inevitably some players will exceed expectations, others will disappoint and new options will emerge. The Planner can identify the team that projects best based on the information available today, but it cannot remove that uncertainty.
Therefore, one change I want to make this season is selecting a more flexible squad that gives me greater margin for error and allows me to react quickly as the picture becomes clearer.
Goalkeeper is a simple example. I would often select one playing goalkeeper alongside a 4.0mil backup because that is the most efficient use of budget on paper. However, owning two viable options gives me two opportunities to land on a goalkeeper who emerges as a strong pick, while also providing cover for injuries or other unexpected issues. It could save me from needing to use an early transfer in a position where I would much rather avoid one.
There is naturally a trade-off to this approach. Spreading more money across the squad may mean sacrificing a small amount of projected points from my optimal starting XI, but I am increasingly comfortable accepting that cost in exchange for greater flexibility. The aim isn’t to build the perfect GW1 team – history suggests that is unrealistic – but to build a squad that can absorb a couple of incorrect decisions without immediately requiring transfers to fix them.
Building my GW1 squad
You can see the full article, including LIVE transfers, lineup and captains by upgrading to the Wide Forward Tier of the FFGeek Patreon site for only an additional £0.50 pcm with loads of other content mentioned above. That includes following Joe's Team and 6 others with live notified transfers as they happen and the teams final lineup each gameweek
Here’s our Best FPL teams GW1 article where 4 FFGeek Contributors show their FPL GW1 teams Part 3. There's John and returning Contributor Harry's teams plus short versions of Andy and Joe's articles. Between them they finished in the top 1% of teams 11 out of 12 times in the last 3 ULTRA competitive seasons.
If you haven't joined the FFGeek Slack Channel here's the link
https://join.slack.com/t/fantasyfootballgeek/shared_invite/zt-3n72s5gzm-tid7IiwcDVtE7hkCVENf3g
Follow FFGeek on twitter and Blue Sky for article updates and news
Introduction
It’s worth noting that the teams shown may not necessarily end up being the final teams or the transfers may have been made in the days prior to the posting . It’s an informal situation to give you an idea of trends.
However the FFGeek team, the Transfer Planner Team and the Contributor Vote team Plus the Contributor teams of Rob, Rick, Andrew, Pete, Javier, Andy and Joe mentioned above on the FFGeek Patreon site all make notified transfers live as they are completed. So you’re always up to date and live for a maximum £4 PCM.
The 12 top FPL managers average refers to the 12 top FPL managers who finished in the top 10k Overall Rank the last 3 seasons. See my article analysing their teams
John Gerbson
Last 3 seasons 25k, 41k and 78k
Follow John on twitter here
Follow John on You Tube here
So I won't reiterate everything I said on my last article about strategy and approach to the playing FPL. I'll concentrate on the changes since the last article which was a couple of weeks ago
I've just made the 2 changes
Mosquera out for Calafiori and Tavernier out for Harvey Barnes in
Calafiori was really a reaction to his performance in the Community Shield where he was often in the forward line and a reaction to Arsenal on the verge of completing the signing of Konsa who when fit will surely start along side Gabriel instead of Mosquera. Calafiori isn't perfect either. He has competition from Hincapie and is a sub risk before 60 minutes but he's definitely the better of 2 imperfect options
Harvey Barnes looks like he's finally going to get his chance as a starter. On a per 90 basis he had a PPM of 4.9 and his underlying numbers are sensational to back that up. Being mainly a sub is very different to starting though and also it's unlikely he'll jump to 90 minutes straight away. He does have a nice little run of fixtures at GW3 onwards of Bou H, Lee A, Hull H and Ips A. I could have put him and Wissa in over Calvert-Lewin as you can make a similiar argument for him but that's a punt too far at the moment.
Everything else is the same although I have thought about Schade for Le Fee. Gross possibly losing penalties to new striker Promise David isn't helpful either. I don't like the £5.5m Mid market unless I'm going to hope for last season's Garner in either Ampadu or Brentford's Sangare.
That would come in a late you tube stream if I do that
Here's the team for now with the above transfers made
Harry Vernon
Harry's last 10 seasons are 45k, 7k, 853rd, 74k, 35k, 86k, 22k, 6k, an incredible 224th and 6k
Follow Harry on Twitter here
Welcome back Harry!
A short one with just the team screenshot. No Bench Boost GW1
Andy Jones
Andy Jones last 4 seasons overall ranks are 1k, 14k, 12k and 12k.
Introduction
We are nearly there and ready for a new season. I hope you all have squads you are happy with. Over the last few days I imagine we have all said ‘I just need another 0.5m’.
The Community Shield effect
In the run up to the Community Shield I was edging towards starting the season without Bruno Fernandes. That feeling only grew stronger when the teams were announced with Haaland, Semenyo and O’Reilly all starting. They all went straight into my draft. I thought they would beat an Arsenal side without Saliba and with Rice and Saka on the bench.
I will be at the Etihad on Sunday and was looking forward to watching all of them play and the team put three past Bournemouth. At the end of that match I had put Bruno back into my draft at the expense of Semenyo and O’Reilly. It was always going to be a risk starting the season without Bruno and I didn’t see enough on Sunday to make me feel that the risk was worth taking.
They could still thrash Bournemouth; a brace for Haaland, assist and a clean sheet for O’Reilly and a couple of assists for Semenyo but I don’t have the conviction to go there now especially with the way City played and the opening two fixtures for United.
I am, therefore, more template than I was expecting to be, although hopefully with a couple of nice differentials still in the squad.
The Team
You can see the full article, including LIVE transfers, lineup and captains by upgrading to the Wide Forward Tier of the FFGeek Patreon site for only an additional £0.50 pcm with loads of other content mentioned above. That includes following Andy's Team and 6 others with live notified transfers as they happen and the teams final lineup each gameweek
Joseph Crilley
Joe's last 10 overall ranks are 505k, 36k, 11k, 16k, 5k, 93k, 68k, 28k, 7k and 13k
Introduction
Hello FFGeek patrons, and welcome to my first write-up of the new season – a season that I am very much looking forward to. As many of you are aware, my primary footballing focus is Spurs and it is fair to say that last season was an utter disaster as we were unexpectedly dragged into the thick of a relegation battle; something I am sure that many of you other fans revelled in. For me, it was quite a draining experience; conversations around the office became tough, weekends were diminished and envy brewed watching our local rivals cruise to the title. Overall, it was pure relief when the season ended and we were confirmed as safe to participate in the upcoming Premier League season. Surely, things cannot go as badly as last year…..
The Spurs show certainly distracted me from the rest of the season as it became difficult to enjoy football more generally. Unfortunately, this also included FPL, where I seemed to suffer from some horrendous fortune to add to the ongoing pain. It wasn’t pleasant to flick through some old articles and remind myself of the Haaland triple captain debacle in the first half of the season, where I seemed to be the only manager to use the chip during a blank performance. However, I am feeling refreshed and ready for a bounceback FPL season, with a goal of pushing for another top 10k finish. The hope is that a good start can help towards this, and external circumstances mean that I feel ready to do exactly that.
A clear path for GW1 thinking
I have had some rather important life events in recent years and August is becoming a critical month in our household. August 2024 was the month of my wedding and it was subsequently followed by our honeymoon, while the following August saw us welcome our first child into the world. Naturally, these were both wonderful occasions and I would not change them in any way; however, it did mean that I was somewhat side tracked from GW1 planning during the last two seasons.
This year, I have no such excuse. In fact, I have recently returned to work following three months of paternity leave where I was able to spend some solid time refreshing my Transfer Planner. This tool has always been and remains a key element of my FPL planning, and there have been significant upgrades this summer. Furthermore, for the first time since 2023, I will have access to the Planner in the final days leading up to the season start. Therefore, I am feeling primed to select a strong GW1 squad which doesn’t leave me on the backfoot.
How to make a strong start – addressing flaws in my FPL strategy
I have found over several seasons of playing FPL that I am often a slow starter – to the extent that I no longer think this can be a coincidence and I should look to tweak my approach. As mentioned, I rely heavily on my Planner and will often lean towards the ‘optimal’ long-term GW1 team according to its projections. The problem is that this can leave very little margin for error. Budget is maximised within the starting XI, which can result in a 4.0mil goalkeeper, non-playing attackers and budget defenders filling the remaining squad positions.
That approach makes perfect sense if all of my initial assumptions prove correct, but history suggests that simply won’t happen. GW1 is probably the point of the season where we have the least information available and inevitably some players will exceed expectations, others will disappoint and new options will emerge. The Planner can identify the team that projects best based on the information available today, but it cannot remove that uncertainty.
Therefore, one change I want to make this season is selecting a more flexible squad that gives me greater margin for error and allows me to react quickly as the picture becomes clearer.
Goalkeeper is a simple example. I would often select one playing goalkeeper alongside a 4.0mil backup because that is the most efficient use of budget on paper. However, owning two viable options gives me two opportunities to land on a goalkeeper who emerges as a strong pick, while also providing cover for injuries or other unexpected issues. It could save me from needing to use an early transfer in a position where I would much rather avoid one.
There is naturally a trade-off to this approach. Spreading more money across the squad may mean sacrificing a small amount of projected points from my optimal starting XI, but I am increasingly comfortable accepting that cost in exchange for greater flexibility. The aim isn’t to build the perfect GW1 team – history suggests that is unrealistic – but to build a squad that can absorb a couple of incorrect decisions without immediately requiring transfers to fix them.
Building my GW1 squad
You can see the full article, including LIVE transfers, lineup and captains by upgrading to the Wide Forward Tier of the FFGeek Patreon site for only an additional £0.50 pcm with loads of other content mentioned above. That includes following Joe's Team and 6 others with live notified transfers as they happen and the teams final lineup each gameweek
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