After sharing with managers essential tips on how to build championship winning squads for this season alongside the KEY STRATEGIES to be used in this season in our first two episodes, the FPL Champ reveals his 15-man squad in this episode.
GMABC FPL Champ’s Episode 3
The Thank You Lord Jesus team renamed as its original team name- THE BEAUTIFUL GAME XI is now ready and good to go. It’s ready for battle for FPL Season 2020/21 which commences on Saturday, 12th September, 2020 at exactly 10am GMT (90 minutes FPL teams’ deadline before kickoff of Fulham vrs Arsenal).
As I advised during my interviews on YFM & Happy FM Ghana in August, I have personally read all the 3 daily FPL Scout updates on the FPL app/website since last season ended and is still following all the late press conferences by club managers. That being said and all things being equal, not expecting any different information from the last set of club managers press conference, this is the FPL Champ’s team.
The 100 million budget is fully utilised and spread from defence to attack taking into consideration the first 5-7 fixtures of teams (Tip 1 in Episode 1) and with key MUST-HAVES (Tip 1 in Episode 2). I finally arrived with this team bearing into cognisance the fact that four teams (Manchester United, City, Aston Villa and Burnley) don’t have any fixture in GW1. As advised in Episode 1 Tip 5, my first two transfers to bring back my preferred United and City players is already planned on my FPL drawing board.
Here is the team…
GW 1 Captain- Harry Kane, vice-Salah
Let’s get interactive with this team.
- How would you rate the team on a scale of 1-10?
- Which similar players do you and the FPL Champ’s team have in common?
- Where do you think the Champ got it wrong and needs to improve?
Watch out for more FPL Episodes from GMABC FPL Champ, Raymond Nketsiah this season.
After sharing with managers essential tips on how to build championship winning squads for this season in episode, we move to KEY STRATEGIES to be used in this 38-gameweek season.
GMABC FPL Champ’s Episodes- Episode 2
Triumphing in FPL is not all about having a superb solid squad. It’s also about how you smartly play the game across the lengthy season. So let’s look at 5 proven key strategies to winning FPL leagues.
- MUST-HAVES
Some players are considered FPL Gold such that no matter their price in Fantasy Premier League, they excel. These players are set to be among the Top point scorers at the end of each season. They include 7.5 million Alexander-Arnold, 12.0m Salah/Mane, 11.5m De Bruyne/Sterling, 10.5m Bruno Fernandes and the newly reclassified midfielder- 12.0m Aubameyang.
At every point in time in the season we need to have at least a combination of 2 or 3 of these players no matter their price whilst watching out for new MUST-HAVES that might also pop up as the season goes along like how Danny Ings & Vardy were among the MUST-HAVES for last season.
- TRANSFER POLICY
Like real football managers, the players we buy into our squads should augment the ability of our teams to perform better each game. FPL gives each manager in the world ONE FREE TRANSFER each gameweek and thus managers need to carefully plan which player to transfer out to make room for a new player in a gameweek or even decide not to make any transfers at all.
As managers we are always tempted to make more than the one free transfer each week because we want all the currently performing players in our squads but this comes as a risk of a deduction of -4 points for each EXTRA transfer we make. Meaning -40 precious FPL points for every 10 extra transfers we make across the season.
Thus it’s recommended that we try as much as possible to make only one transfer a week or roll over the transfer to the next week so that we can make two straight transfers the next week with no points deduction.
- GAMEWEEK CAPTAINS
Captains are so important to Fantasy Premier League success that in Episode 1, I suggested we always have at least 2 captain potential players in our teams.
Don’t captain a goalkeeper or a defender for any week with the exception of Liverpool’s Alexander-Arnold. Captain a player based on his performance over the last few weeks and his current opponent such that he is very likely to bring in big points hauls via goals or assists.
Don’t forget to always select your vice-captain for each week since in the event of your captain missing that week’s match, your Vice-captain’s point will be doubled.
- CHIPS USE
FPL Chips are like boosters or special weapons we use in video games: they boost our performance anytime we use them. And thus it’s important how we plan and use them.
a) Wildcard- Each manager is given 2 wildcards to use across the season (one in each half of the season). A wildcard allows us to change our whole 15-man squad at any point in the season with no points deductions.
The top FPL managers recommend that our 1st wildcard be usually played around GW 4-9, when managers might want to reorganise their squads based on the performances of players in the first few weeks of the EPL season. So as a manager, kindly study players from all teams to know which players to bring into your team by the time you are wildcarding around GW 4-9. Some Top Managers also decide to delay their 1st wildcard and play it around the Christmas festive fixtures due to the unpredictability and rotation of team sheets.
b) Triple Captain- The triple captain chip when played triples our selected captain’s gameweek points instead of the normal doubling. Thus, it is used when we expect big hauls from our captains such as when a fully-fit Aguero is expected to meet a leaky Norwich defence of last season.
However, FPL Experts recommend that we play our Triple Captain chips in Double Gameweeks later in the season when some players/teams have two matches in the same game week.
c) Bench Boost- The Bench Boost chip just as the name says boosts our bench such that the points of our bench players are actually added to the total points in that gameweek. This gives us an added advantage in that week since we get points from all our 15-squad players rather the normal point-scoring from only our FIRST XI.
(Also recommended to be played during a Double Gameweek)
d) Free Hit- The Free Hit chip allows managers to change their whole squad for one gameweek (with no points deduction) and revert to their original squad the next game week.
The Free Hit chip is usually used in a week most of our players are injured or have blank game weeks so that we can field a team of players that are assured to play that gameweek.
NB: As the season proceeds, I would give further insight into how best to deploy our vital FPL chips for this season.
- ADAPTABILITY
Every FPL season is different so it’s important that as managers we adapt our selection choices as the season unfolds. As a Salah owner at the start of last season (Salah was the Overall Top Points scorer in the previous season 2018/19), I switched to Mane around GW 8-10 when I realised Mane was the go-to Liverpool midfielder. Around GW 20-25 when I realised Salah was rediscovering his form, I switched back from Mane to Salah. Decisions like these were so crucial to my FPL success last season and I believe if we all adapt to the season and don’t become adamant in some of our decisions as Managers, a victorious FPL season awaits us all.
Watch out for Episode 3 when the FPL Champ unveils his full team as most managers are anxious to see it and pick lessons from it.
Watch out for more FPL episodes from the GMABC FPL Champ, Raymond Nketsiah. ©️
