Barclays Fantasy Football
FFsurgeryFantasy Premier League
Barclays Fantasy Football
FPL Fantasy Premier League 2019/20 First Picks
What’s up guys and welcome to FPL today. I’m the man in the know, JNO. Welcome to my first draft for FPL 2019-20. That’s right, the Fantasy Premier League game has dropped, so go to the website, build your team right now. Let’s start talking about Fantasy Premier League again, not that I ever stopped. Guys, today is a look at my initial first team, also with some stats from last year to back up some of my choices.
Now, there will be a lot of change over the next month or so, when I get to start seeing players during preseason, I get to figure out who’s going to be a starter, and also more transfers taking place. This is my first initial go at picking a team. Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments down below. Before we get to that, just a quick word from my sponsor, thank you so much to Fantasy Football Fix for partnering with this channel, helping me create more and more content, and better content for you guys.
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Anyway, let’s start with the video, and we start off with the goalkeepers, and I’m not going to go into too much detail here because, to be honest, I was looking for a 4.5 million goalkeeper and a four million backup because I wanted to spend as little in goal as possible. This year it seems that they price goalkeepers slightly higher than before. As most of the people that were 4.5 million last year are now 5 million, so it looks very difficult to go and get you that £4.5 million option with a good backup on the bench. There are some for the promoted sides, but the only one I could find from the teams that didn’t get promoted was Ryan and Button from Brighton.
Now, what I may be forced to do is to go for a £5 million goalkeeper with a £4 million bench option behind him, but at the moment we have started off with Ryan and Button to give me the most amount of funds to spend elsewhere. We then go to the defense, and we start off with the two big boys in defense. We got Lucas Digne and Trent Alexander-Arnold, six million for Digne, seven million for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
I believe that you’re going to have to spend some money in defense this year, and I’m committing to spending more in midfield than usual. This is the start of me spending more in defense than I usually do. Seven million option right off the bat, also with the six million pound option. I would like Laporte in there as well, but the problem with that is, he is also quite expensive. I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to three really heavy hitters in defense until I can at least figure out if there’s some four million pound options to go on the bench.
Trent Alexander-Arnold last year got 185 points, he didn’t outscore Van Dyke or Robertson, however, he got seven less clean sheets than Robertson, but had one more goal and one more assist than Robertson did from less games. If he does nail down that starting spot as the right back for Liverpool, I do think he can potentially outscore Robertson this season. I’ve gone with Trent Alexander Arnold, but of course, it would be very easy to move to Robertson if I do need to do so. Then with Lucas Digne, it’s six million, Everton’s defense looked a lot better in the second half or the late periods of last season.
I’m hoping that Everton continue to improve as a side and that Digne can get more clean sheets, he got 12 anyway, but if he can get more clean sheets, and potentially more goals and assists, he could have a stellar season this year. He actually underperformed on assists, he actually had expected assists of 7.2 for last season and only got five and got four goals when his expected goals was a 1.7. He’s definitely got an eye for goal, especially from distance, maybe on some set pieces, from the free kicks as well.
However, I will be looking into penalty takers, depending on how VAR affects the Premier League this season. If there are defenders that take penalties, they could come into the side, if they’re around the Digne budget area, they might come in for Digne. Then we have three 4.5 million defenders who I plan to rotate around the fixtures for the first four to six game weeks. We have Charlie Taylor, Joel Ward, and Mathieu Targett. Now, Joel Ward and Taylor literally are just so they can rotate with Targett, Targett is the one that I have some hope in. He only got 36 points last year, and no clean sheets.
However, he did get one goal and three assists, and there’s rumors that Bertrand could potentially be looking to leave Southampton, which would open the door for Targett to be more consistently in the first 11 at Southampton. I’m hoping for big things from Targett, but of course, I’ll be keeping an eye on other 4.5 million pound defender options. Now we move on to the big hitters as we bring in Mohamed Salah for 12.5 million, 0.5 million cheaper than he was last season at the start of game, and sterling now at 12 million. Now, these two were the highest point scorers from last season.
I believe that midfielders, especially midfielders that can score and get assists at the rate that these two do, unless I can find other options that will do similar, are must-haves for your side. Midfielders generally, last year and in season before, have outscored forwards which will explain to you why my forward line is a lot weaker than you’ve probably seen me pick before.
Mohamed Salah, 259 points last season, 22 goals, 12 assists, 136 shots on goal, 31 more than the next-highest midfielder, which was Paul Pogba, 95 shots from inside the box, 22 more than the next-highest midfielder, 64 shots on-target, 14 more than the next-highest midfielder, with 30 big chances which was 6 more than the next-highest midfielder. Expected goals of 23.7, so he underperformed his expected goals, and he created 68 chances with 45 of them resulting in a shot on target, with expected assist of 11.9 which means he just outperformed his expected assists. Salah, especially at 0.5 million cheaper, was coming straight into my side.
Then we have Sterling, 12 million, 234 points from 17 goals and 15 assists last year, 77 shots on goal, 62 from inside the box, 39 on target, 20 big chances with 64 chances created and 44 of those chances resulting in a shot on target. I needed these two boys in the side. Now, what I will say about the rest of my team is I do feel Man City light, which will be something I need to rectify as I look at this team, but at the moment Sterling and Salah had to come in. There is, of course, the option of bringing in Kevin de Bruyne who is cheaper, and if he has a season where he isn’t plagued by injuries, we know what kind of player he can be.
There’s a chance for me to bring in de Bruyne for Sterling, which would give me more money to spend elsewhere, but at the moment I’m going with Salah and Sterling. We then move on to Gylfi Sigurdsson at 8 million, he was the best scoring midfielder under 10 million pounds last year. That is why he’s come in with 180 points from 13 goals and six assists, and I also have high hopes for that Everton side to keep improving, so hopefully, Sigurdsson can keep getting those points for my FPL side.
Then we’ve also got Milivojevic, which I’m hoping he gets a lots of penalties thanks to VAR coming in this season, and with 166 points last year he was no slouch anyway. Of course, this could be changed if Zaha does leave Crystal Palace because he was the one winning a lot of the penalties that Milivojevic put away, so we’ll have to wait and see with Milivojevic. I could also change Milivojevic to Zaha, so that’s the wait and see with what is happening at Crystal Palace at the moment.
Then, as for Neves, again, someone on a set piece duty, takes penalties as well, so hopefully, at 5.5 million he can improve on what he did last season and get me some points, again, hopefully, thanks to the interference of VAR. Then finally we have the front three, we’ve got Callum Wilson at 8 million, Jota at 6.5 and Long at 5 million. Now, that looks a lot weaker from the forward lines I usually pick.
However, I’m believing that the value is in midfield and defense this year, so I’m going with that in my first draft. Now, Wilson at 8 million, there’s potential he could go, he could stay at Bournemouth, but Wilson was quite explosive last season. Now, Jimenez does come in at 0.5 million cheaper, I could potentially look at him, but having brought in Jota, I’ve gone with Wilson as the other man.
Now, if Wilson moves, depending on what is happening with that situation in the move, I could always downgrade to Joshua King in that Bournemouth side. Wilson got 168 points last year from 14 goals and 12 assists, 65 shots on goal, 62 of them are from inside the box, 30 on target, he had 29 big chances, so he definitely gets the chances, it’s just how many of them he can put away, his expected goals of 17.3 so he actually underperformed what he was expected to get.
Hopefully, Callum Wilson can have a good 19/20 season. Then we got Jota, 139 points from nine goals, eight assists. However, in the second half of the season, especially near the tail end, again, he seemed to be on form, and I’m hoping he can carry that form into this new season, so, hopefully, Jota will be an astute pick that is a million pounds cheaper than Jimenez. Then we got Shane long at five million now, only 66 points last year. Long it is pretty much bench fodder, but he does play, he can get goals at times, and, hopefully, when I do need him to come off of the bench, he can get the job done for me.
Of course, if I can find another cheap forward option I could be considering them instead. That is my team, so, at the moment, I’m not going to lie, I look at it and whilst I agree with some of my picks full-heartedly and believe that I’m picking players I need in my side, I look at that team and I’m not over the moon. It will have some tinkering, so what we’re going to do is once a week we will come back to this and revisit the side that I currently have as we get closer and closer to the start of the season. We will also cover transfers and such in these videos, so you know the reasons why I have made the moves I have made.
Feel free in the comments down below to have your say on my sight. With all that being said, thank you so much for tuning in to the official drop of the game and my first team draft. I hope you have enjoyed it, I hope you like the new graphics. If you want to support the channel in any way, check out the various links in the description down below including our sponsor Fantasy Football Fix where all the stats came from in this video. Also, please do subscribe and hit that like button to support the video and also hit that notification bell so you know when my videos go Live. I’ve been JNO, this has been FPL Today and remember it’s all about the game.