As we rest and enjoy this last International Break of 2021, there’s the need to restrategise in FPL after 11 Gameweeks (GWs) of the season. With Chelsea on top of the Premier League table and Mohammed Salah on the top of the FPL points table a few things have emerged for which we need to adapt to as FPL Managers.
1. Perma-Captain Mo Salah
With Mohammed Salah playing in the form of his life raking in the FPL points each week with only 1 blank GW over the first 11 GWs, it is so glaring that the captaincy armband in this year’s FPL is best left on Salah until the AFCON come January 2022. The Liverpool team has notched their attack to another level with raining shots on opponents at such a fast rate and Salah being a great contributor alongside fellow African Sadio Mane of Senegal.
At a record 71%+ ownership of managers in FPL, if you don’t captain Salah any gameweek and he hauls in FPL, it would surely affect your rank negatively since over 50% of managers would captain him. Managers who didn’t captain him for his 24 points against Manchester United in GW9 can surely attest to the risk of not captaining Salah. Someone would say that’s a dull move but for your information, Salah has even produced points against the two best defences in the land, Chelsea and Man City.
2. Chelsea Wingbacks along with Trent & Cancelo
With Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel quoted saying that the wingbacks in his 3-4-2-1 formation are more midfielders than defenders, the Chelsea wingbacks of Reece James and Chilwell are seriously worth our FPL pounds. They are worth every single bit of their £ 5.9 & 6.0 million price on the market especially as these Chelsea wingbacks (ie defenders) have the most goals for Chelsea this season in the Premier League along with their contribution via assists. Marcos Alonso is the sad casualty in the wingback system as after many managers bought him after a brilliant start to the season, Ben Chilwell has ousted him out from that LWB spot in Tuchel’s starting XI.
With the solidity of Chelsea’s defence and assurance of clean sheets, Reece James and Chilwell have reached the Trent Alexander-Arnold category of FPL defenders and must be considered alongside Joao Cancelo of Man City. With a high expected goal involvement for these four full-backs/wing-backs, FPL Managers need to start considering going big at the back with at least 2 of these defenders in their teams.
3. Conte’s Arrival at Spurs
With the splendid Spurs assets of last season disappointing most managers this season under Nuno Espirito Santo, most FPL managers leapt for joy at the announcement of Antonio Conte as the new Spurs boss. Because managers can vividly remember Conte’s exploits at Chelsea a few years ago with his 3-back system with his wingbacks like Marcos Alonso and upfront men of Hazard and Costa being a favourite of FPL Managers. Such is the excitement most managers are looking to from Conte with a rejuvenation of Harry Kane expected along with the already performing Heung Ming-Son.
Aside these top two, managers should monitor Spurs next game in GW12 against Leeds to scout for which of these two to buy alongside LB, Sergio Regullion or RW, Lucas Moura.
It’s just a matter time that the Spurs ship starts sailing again for the delight of FPL Managers. Don’t miss out.
4. Squad Depth via Bench
As FPL managers, we are often tempted to invest fully in our starting XI and leave the scraps of money for our bench since we rarely depend on it. But with some benchings happening to some key players across the season and with some restrictions on players especially after returning from International Break, managers have had to fall on their bench when they least expected. And those with strong benches were smiling at the right side of their mouth.
They are some very cheap players who regularly earn minutes in their teams that are worth considering for our benches as the season progresses and especially as we approach the Christmas fixtures with its usual benchings due to the quick turnaround of games. They include but are not limited to
1. 4.1 Ben Foster- GK
2. 3.9 Daniel Amartey- DF
3. 4.0 Manquillo- DF
4. 4.4 Josh Brownhill- MD
5. 4.4 Yves Bissouma- MD
6. 5.0 Broja- FWD
Worth noting: 4.5 Livramento is no longer a bench player. Play him in your starting XI. Don’t keep him on your bench.
5. Formation Switch & Fixture Swings
Finally, with most of our strikers disappointing us, it’s about time as FPL Managers we start considering playing on two strikers or even one striker as opposed to our traditional 3 striker system in the 3-4-3 formation.
Normally in FPL every team has a tough run and easy run of fixtures. So just as West Ham & United are facing quite tricky fixtures now in FPL, it’s worth noting that the fixtures turn round for them in GW15/16 onwards with Antonio and Ronaldo becoming must-haves again.
That is it for now. I sign out here as the FPL Ambassador. Catch me on YouTube for more weekly updates shared by a team of the best FPL Experts in Ghana.
Written by:
FPL Ambassador Raymond Nketsiah
-Top 1,000+ Worldwide Manager
-2020 GMABC, Joy FM & Citi FM FPL Champ
-2nd Best Manager in Ghana
(Twitter- @RayNkets YouTube- FPL Ambassadors Show)
KWEKU Writes Sports 
Yes, I considered Ben Foster as my GK and it really saved me a lot of money and gave me 7 points today. Thanks for the analysis put together.
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On captaining Salah perfect, but it may depend on the game and his individual records against a particular team under consideration, what about that one too.
I love your submissions.
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