Guest Article: The Double Gameweek Scenario

Another guest article yay. VanTheMan talks about wildcard choices, his personal 15 and the talk of the town on the winter wildcard. 

Background

All the FPL managers had a heads up when the Chelsea-Southampton game(which was earlier postponed due to Chelsea’s involvement in the Club World Cup 2012) was included in the GW22.  

There has been considerable amount of buying involving the DGW players by the FPL managers with some(like me!) even using their January Wildcard to make the most of the two back-to-back double gameweeks. Budget options like Puncheon, Lambert and Azpilicueta and ‘Value for their money’ players like Ba and Luiz(although I don’t consider him under the same category!) have already had their FPL price rises.

Having said that, Benitez likes rotating his players(Rafatation as our Totalfpl mates call it!) and Ba could actually share gametime with Rafa’s favorite son, Torres(in spite of his scoring form!  ). Although I personally expect Ba to start the game against Stoke especially after Torres’ poor showing in the defeat to Swansea.

Picks of the week                       

Here’s the list of players who I think, could do well this weekend. 

Mignolet

Vertonghen       Clark      Luiz

Puncheon     Mata    Walcott     Fellaini

VanPersie      Berbatov      Lambert

Clyne      Taraabt       Ba

As formerly mentioned, this team has been more-so dominated by the DGWers. Lambert and Ba (with much more quality around him now than at Newcastle!) could do some damage in front of goal and also the fact that both teams play one man upfront makes them viable choices. Ba’s gametime, however would always be a concern whereas Lambert’s record against the bigger teams has been nothing short of astonishing so far this season!

                               

I have gone with Walcott and Fellaini in midfield and the undeniable Robin Van Persie in the striker’s role(in spite of their difficult fixtures) for obvious reasons of course!  The last striker role is taken by the good old Berbatov, who faces a Wigan side who’ve just got 3 points in their last 5 away fixtures and the former United forward is expected score aplenty against a defence who have conceded 10 in their last 5 appearances.

When it comes to the defence, we have Mignolet at goal which seemed a decent option as West Ham aren’t the most attacking side on their away trips. Although, new acquisitions like Joe Cole and Marouane Chamakh will be hoping to make an early impression!(hence, hoping for the best in this aspect to be honest!)

Vertonghen made this team, more for his attacking prowess than the chances of his team keeping a clean sheet(which is debatable anyway!).  He might not be playing down the flank but provides quality and is one of the most attacking defenders in the league! Talking of Tottenham, they face the bottom placed QPR side who’re just coming off a victory against neighbours Chelsea. And my punt of the week, Adel Taarabt, who almost seems an OoP and is mostly likely to be involved in whatever chances QPR create, seemed a decent choice to me!(And yes, I do think QPR could give a tough game to Tottenham!)

After all the summary and the justification(which I hope is satisfactory!), this game involves the luck factor too. In fact, a lot of it. So wishing you all luck and a great FPL weekend.

                Thanks to Berbacat for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts!