Sort Out Sunday

Yesterday was what my housemate and I labelled “Sort-out Sunday”. The lousy intermission between relentless feasting and starting working again for the rest of the year. A day when we should be getting our laundry, admin, taxes and facial hair into order. With no proper football matches this weekend (FA cup no longer counts) and having made my  FPL transfers early to avoid getting caught out by price changes, there was no justification for abstaining from Sortin’-out.

So I did what anybody would do in this situation, I began fantasising about my future fantasy fifteen. With no current exigencies in my squad the logic is to delay the wildcard until Game week 24 if possible. However, there’s no harm in planning ahead, so below is what I currently consider to be my “Target Team” (right) for gameweek 24, along with my current team (left). I will be interested in the disparity between this target team and my actual gameweek 24 team.

Disclaimer: My current team has a few players who have recently been drafted in specifically for the final weeks before the close of the wildcard. These include Benteke (fixtures) Terry (Form) Moreno (Fixtures) Sterling (Fixtures). Benteke’s time is almost up, he was introduced before his goal against United but otherwise has failed lived up to expectation, and he only has one decent fixture left. With my embarrassment of Fantasy cash I may introduce either Van Persie or Falcao for their matches against QPR and Leicester.

Target Team logic:

This is team built upon fixtures from gameweek 24.

Using the Fantasy Football Scout’s 10-fixture tracker as a base point, West Brom are shown to have the best fixtures. I will of course ignore them unless their Pulis-inspired defence begins to perk up. The 7-0 against Gateshead is fooling nobody.

Swansea: Second on the same fixture ticker. Plenty of clean sheets so far should be set to continue. Neil Taylor is the only player I have kept from the start, and I have no reason to remove him. Further up the field Siggurdson and Bony provide the obvious options, with “Siggy” still the best value for money out of the two.

The next bunch of teams (below) are all strong teams with exciting fixtures, before we get come down to Sunderland and Aston Villa, in 8^th and 9^th place respectively for fixtures.

Arsenal: some wonderfully calamitous defending of late lead me to sell Calum Chambers for a tidy profit. It was an amicable breakup; I was grateful particularly for his 18-point haul earlier in the season, but I don’t want to return to this defence. Instead, I would prefer to invest in their more capable attack, including talents such as Sanchez, Cazorla, Walcott and Giroud.  Cazorla is the man in form but could be a flash in the pan, Sanchez is over-priced as a winger (if he remains there). Giroud burned me only a few weeks ago, when I brought him in and captained him, so I will be monitoring Walcott (hard work for a Spurs fan) and likely shoving him into my starting lineup.

Chelsea: I have removed Costa twice this season, and he has scored consistently following both occasions. Until he starts getting more than his typical 5-pointers I will retain the more valuable Hazard (purchased at a mere 9.9) and bring in Azpilcueta, if only to make use of the anticipated Terry profit. I also worry that I might be unsettling my other teammates with Terry in the squad.

Man City: Clichy has served me well, but I simply can’t stomach any more of Pellegrino’s rotation antics, so I will pocket the 0.2 profit I have made on him and focus on their forwards. Aguero will obviously be brought in until his next injury and Silva will be dropped before he begins assisting the assister, as per normal.

Southampton: I successfully dumped Pelle for a tidy profit just before the Saints’ dire run of fixtures after gameweek 13. I also removed Bertrand who has somewhat proved me wrong with a goal in addition to some surprise clean sheets. With their fixtures improving, I will be looking to both of Southampton’s attacking full-backs, provided Clyne is back in shape. Pelle doesn’t seem to provide the same value anymore, and Tadic only once managed to reward those who studied his stats. Otherwise, the defence is the place to pick up Southampton players.

Spurs: My team; my weakness. I have something of a man-crush on Eriksen, despite the detriment Chadli has on his statistics. 

Kane is simple impossible to ignore at the moment, especially as the only main striker of a top six team worth under £6mil, but will be tricky to remove if his form takes a downturn. I will be monitoring Chadli - who currently provides better value than Eriksen - until the window close in case I require a pricier striker than Kane.

Keepers: Following the intriguing article by Ludo on Fantasy Football Scout, I have been convinced by the two-keeper-from-one-team strategy and am opting for the two keepers from Sunderland, in the hope that once, just once; my substitute keeper will come on to save a penalty and prove the ultimate differential. I expect to revert back to the two budget first-team keepers before long, probably as soon as Sunderland have a tough fixture.

Boyd. An obvious budgeteer, enabling these other wonderful purchases. He seems to have a knack of scoring in the weeks when first-teamers are unexpectedly dropped. I want some of that.

Hutton. Another cheepie (bought at 4.2) who I have a soft spot for after he saved a cup round of mine with a late goal. An attacking wingback in a team whose resilience is increasing with the return of Ron Vlaar, why not retain him as a budget 5^th defender?

Baines: He does still take penalties, right? And free kicks? Ok, so he's the current weak link and if he still does nothing in the next three weeks I could well be swapping for Clyne, and will have more money to splash around up front.

My laundry basket hasn’t been touched, and my online bank account remains locked, but at least my FPL business plan is flexible.