SuperFrankie FPL Gameweek 1 Review

The first week of the holy Premier League campaign ends with a number of realisations about the strength and depths of the many squads (which hopefully we will be going through one by one). Unfortunately for me, I underestimated and misplaced a number of key players in my FPL selection resulting in a rather disappointing start of the campaign.

The main problem, as I came to understand, is that I had done little research into the strengths of each squad (by looking into each squad's preseason) and instead, relied on my knowledge of following most of the PL squads last season. The majority of squads that arrived back from preseason are drastically different in terms of shape and squad depth than they were in the previous campaign and some players held different roles that might enable them to score more or less points than last season. Hence, below I'll highlight my flaws with my own analysis of some of the matches in Week 1 which I re-watched to be better informed for my GameWeek 2 selection.

SuperFrankie Points Earned: 56

Average Points: 64

Highest Points: 142

Rules of FPL:

The rules of the game can be found at https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/rules. Here is a summarised version of the rules.

1) You are given $100m to create your team. (Frankly speaking, in reality this would probably only get you 1 world-class player). You have to use this initial sum to select a team with 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 forwards.

2) After selecting your players, you have to choose a formation and pick the 11 players that would earn the points for the Gameweek. The remaining players will be put alongside Alexis Sanchez and their points are not counted towards your points.

3) After each Gameweek, you will be able to make strategic transfers in your squad. You are given one Free Transfer per week but if you want to make more transfers, you will have to pay for 4 valuable points per extra transfers.

4) You will then choose your Captain and Vice Captain from your starting 11. Captains will earn double points. Vice-Captains will earn double points only when the Captain does not play for the Gameweek.

5) There are also 4 Chips that you can use to obtain further advantages for your team. Chips are Power Cards, something like how Man City has a load of extra cash to spend over their rivals. They are Free Hit, Wild Card, Triple Captain and Bench Boost.

- Free Hit allows you to make unlimited transfers for one Gameweek, afterwhich your team will be reverted back to what it was before

- Wild Card allows you to make unlimited transfers for one Gameweek, afterwhich your team will not revert back to what it was before

- Triple Captains gives captains triple points (compared to double)

- Bench Boost allows your bench's points to be included in the tallying of points for that Gameweek

6) Scoring: The full list of points each player can earn is in the website. Basically, if your team players are scoring, assisting and keeping cleansheets, you are the goat.

GameWeek 1 Review

Forwards

King was a disappointing addition to the squad. My selection of him stemmed from the rationale that he will be facing Sheffield United who just got promoted to the Premier League and boy did I seriously underestimate this team. Sheffield United is not the push-over club I was expecting. They did not play like Cardiff or Fulham of last season, they played a respectably decent football even without well-known players and Bournemouth was not in their giant-killing form and seems to still be in their preseason mode.
Jota played a decent game. However, from this game it becomes apparent that from the style of play of the Wolves team that Jimenez is the likeliest to get the goal or assist while there are a host of potential other players that would tee him up to score, not only Jota. Hence, in terms of points to score for FPL, only Jimenez appear to be a wise choice for the long run for a Wolves attacking player.

Midfielders

Fraser's inclusion in the squad was the same for Kings. I am still feeling disappointed and sore about this selections of mine. I will be wary to put in a Bournemouth player from now on to be honest.

Pulisic actually played well and had a couple of chances in a hugely unlucky match against Manchester United. I am not being biased, but Chelsea played a lot better than Manchester United during the match and if not for striking the bar twice and not being clinical, Chelsea could have scored a couple of goals. Pulisic, however, came on late, which I felt was a mistake but Frank should know better now and might want to start him for the next match.

Salah delivered the goods once again, as expected. However, he was the only selection I truly got spot on. He scored, got an assist and was one of the best players for the match.

Mane however, only played around 20 minutes of football. I understood the risk of putting him on, and it did not pay off at all as unfortunately he did not get a goal nor assist. However, when he did come on, he shifted to a more central role, essentially playing like a striker. If he starts in that position once he is match fit, expect him to bang in the goals.

Lucas Moura did well in a tight match. He was a key provider in the match and important in Spurs attack. But in this match, it is Kane that converting the chances created. Luckily for me, Lucas Moura got an assist at the very least.

Defenders

Robertson put on a decent shift in the Liverpool defence. I saw that Robertson did not push up as high as Alexander Arnold on the opposite flank, hence he had less opportunities to assist or score. I would consider replacing him with Alexander Arnold.
Unfortunately I did not watch Everton's matches but I am glad that Everton got the cleansheet, earning Digne a credible 6 points.
Zinchenko was great at attacking and defending and has really grown into the squad this season. It was either him or Walker who would eventually get the assist but it turns out to be Kyle Walker.

Goalkeeper

Patricio did well in this match, having to make a couple of decent saves. He got the cleansheet and the 5 points, hence I am pleased with him. Next week however would be a lot more tougher week to choose from.

Verdict for the Week: Disappointing. My next course of action would be to use the WildCard option very early into the season to replace the players whom I think would make a great core of players that would score this season.