Fantasy Premier League 2015/16 is open!

[Spite]

Costa La Vista!!

Cech (Guzan)
Mertesacker, Distin, Skrtel, Cedric (Bassong)
Hazard, Yaya, Cabaye, Milner (Richie)
Costa, Benteke (Agbonlahor)

Lets get this game going!!

You know what's up. Great team. Only suggestion is making Guzan a 4.0 (try Hennessy for now) and use the 0.5 to upgrade agbonlahor as villa will sign another striker

Guzan, (Speroni)
Clyne, Jagieka, Fonte, (Morgan, Ward)
Hazard, Henderson, Schneiderlin, Carzola (Wanyama)
Aguero, Rooney, Agbonlahor

thoughts?

You've chosen two keepers who may be second choice come game week 1. So keep an eye on them. The teams ok but villa will sign a striker so you may need to upgrade agbonlahor. Schneiderlin is a pretty defensive player so not sure he's a great FPL pick.

Cech ( speroni )
Clyne, Shawcross, o'shea, ( rose, cresswell )
Hazard, ozil, mane, Ritchie ( Ki Sung )
Costa, lukaku, Bojan

I'm fairly happy with my mids and forwards, maybe a question mark over Bojan, I just got a feeling if he's fit and ready that he might be good value.
I like to set and forget my keepers, would normally have 4.0 @ speroni but had .5 left over 10m on keepers
And gone 3 x 5.5 1 x 5 and 1 x 4.5 on defenders with no Chelsea, arsenal or Manchester players

Cech is an arsenal keeper so you've got the cover there anyway.
I don't mind the bojan punt, it's a punt after all. Other than that it looks strong, would just consider a different defender instead of shawcross.
Take the 0.5m from your second keeper and get azpi at 6.0 from chelsea in defence.

[T Dog]

Mignolet; (Speroni)
Jagielka; Clyne; Fonte; (Francis; Prodl)
Hazard; Mane; Yaya; Payet; (Redmond)
Giroud; Kane; Deeney

Speroni and Giroud to risky?

[Chelskiman]

@chelskiman

It's a good team you've got for value for money but the lack of flexibility up front will cause you issues. How do you get in a giroud, lukaku, benteke or pele if they start hot? How will you work in Kun when he's back?

That's the thing, I'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Do I weaken my strong mids purely to get Aguero in or go in with the stronger mids but weaker forward line?

I'll have another play around at some point though and see what I can come up with.

[Spite]

Mignolet; (Speroni)
Jagielka; Clyne; Fonte; (Francis; Prodl)
Hazard; Mane; Yaya; Payet; (Redmond)
Giroud; Kane; Deeney

Speroni and Giroud to risky?

Yep your own comments nailed it. Giroud even isnt a sure starter at this point, will have to wait to see how they play the Community Shield. Walcott could be the striker this season. Benteke a good option at the same price, lukaku a little cheaper, also good option. Very balanced team, nice.

@chelskiman

It's a good team you've got for value for money but the lack of flexibility up front will cause you issues. How do you get in a giroud, lukaku, benteke or pele if they start hot? How will you work in Kun when he's back?

That's the thing, I'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Do I weaken my strong mids purely to get Aguero in or go in with the stronger mids but weaker forward line?

I'll have another play around at some point though and see what I can come up with.

I know it's ok to start the season that way but have a contingency plan. If your scenario is Aguero or no Aguero, always choose Aguero! Have a look at Man City fixtures from Gw4 to Gw10. Ageuro will be captain for 50% of teams in GW4. Chances are he will score, and maybe more than one. Then you're chasing!

[T Dog]

Mignolet; (Speroni)
Jagielka; Clyne; Fonte; (Francis; Prodl)
Hazard; Mane; Yaya; Payet; (Redmond)
Giroud; Kane; Deeney

Speroni and Giroud to risky?

Yep your own comments nailed it. Giroud even isnt a sure starter at this point, will have to wait to see how they play the Community Shield. Walcott could be the striker this season. Benteke a good option at the same price, lukaku a little cheaper, also good option. Very balanced team, nice.

Thanks Spite, will have another look.

[Chelskiman]

I know it's ok to start the season that way but have a contingency plan. If your scenario is Aguero or no Aguero, always choose Aguero! Have a look at Man City fixtures from Gw4 to Gw10. Ageuro will be captain for 50% of teams in GW4. Chances are he will score, and maybe more than one. Then you're chasing!

Had a bit of a play around.  Not sure if the team is stronger over all or not.  Also not especially happy with my bench, but not a great deal I can do if I want a strong first 11.  I have 0.5 in the bank, so not much room to move there either.  Anyway, thoughts?

[Rusty00]

I'm thinking of starting Costa for Week 1 and keeping 2 million in the bank so I can trade him out for Aguero in Week 2 or 3.

Crazy idea?

[Chelskiman]

I'm thinking of starting Costa for Week 1 and keeping 2 million in the bank so I can trade him out for Aguero in Week 2 or 3.

Crazy idea?

Not at all, especially if Aguero does miss the first game.  If both stay fit for the year they'll be 1 and 2 for points scored as a striker, easily.

[Spite]

I'm thinking of starting Costa for Week 1 and keeping 2 million in the bank so I can trade him out for Aguero in Week 2 or 3.

Crazy idea?

Not at all, especially if Aguero does miss the first game.  If both stay fit for the year they'll be 1 and 2 for points scored as a striker, easily.

Agreed, I kind of like this idea too.

@Chelskiman

Team looks pretty good. Would downgrade second keeper to Hennessy at 4.0 and use the extra cash to upgrade graham or Ki to Ritchie and Cabaye to Hendo/Chadli/Tadic.

Consider the Costa/Rooney to Aguero trick above too

[Luigi197]

Hate to be THAT guy, but in all seriousness, what's all the hype about Aguero? I mean yeah sure he's been a proven scorer; but why base your team around him or come up with contingency plans from now? It's a fair chunk of money. Others can score such as well, and there's no saying he's gonna be the god that everyone expects.

[Spite]

Hate to be THAT guy, but in all seriousness, what's all the hype about Aguero? I mean yeah sure he's been a proven scorer; but why base your team around him or come up with contingency plans from now? It's a fair chunk of money. Others can score such as well, and there's no saying he's gonna be the god that everyone expects.

No problem, you can ask!

He's scored more than 200 points in 2 of the last 4 seasons, not including 156 in 2013/14 where he played only two thirds of the season. Basically, his points per minute/game is far far far superior than any other players in the game, including Hazard. Hazard plays all the games and scores ~200. Aguero always gets injured/misses games and still cracks 200. In FPL, captain choice is vital. You can lose so much ground by picking the wrong captain choices. If you have Aguero, you have that captain option that pretty much never lets you down. You pay the premium knowing you can whack your C on him and he's going to net you at least 12 points.
If you don't have him, you have no one as reliable as him to make your C and you end up chasing points. Not only that, because he is so expensive, he becomes relatively unique each season. This always separates the casuals from the real players. There was a stage last year that the top 100 all had Aguero and 99 had Kane. If you didn't have Aguero, you didn't do well, it was as simple as that!

EDIT*
From last season:
Haz points per minute is 0.069
Kun points per minute is 0.085

That's just crazy considering they are clear 1 and 2 point scorers from last season.

Note: Kane just edged out Hazard on PPM, but he is relatively unproven so obviously high risk high reward

[PowerMan]

The Real Dream Team Draft game launched yesterday...

http://epldreamteamdraft.virtualsports.com.au/

[Luigi197]

Hmmm. I just really don't like our fwd options this year.

Its always tough to pick a player that only recently signed during the summer. (Benteke)
We don't like injury clouds. (Aguero)
And we usually don't like uncertainty over JS. i.e. competitions for spots/goals/points. (Giroud)
Overall team form, firepower and goal-scoring ability through quality playmakers in support is also an issue. (Berahino, Lukaku)

Order it by Price: Aguero, Costa, Sturridge, Rooney, Kane, Giroud.
by Points: Aguero, Kane, Costa, Pelle, Berhaino, Ings, Lukaku
by Selections: Costa, Kane, Benteke, Rooney, Berahino, Lukaku, Aguero, Giroud.
And then there are your more unique ones too.

Anyone else agreeing with me? Any ideas on how to overcome the uncertainties, and which are the best factors to focus on or ignore?

[Chelskiman]

I think with Aguero, if you do start him and he gets injured you can simply trade to any other striker you want.  It's easier to trade down than to trade up.  If he starts on fire and you miss his points you will want to bring him in, and that could take a couple of weeks of trading if you don't have the coin in the bank to get him in right away.  If he does get injured, you can trade down, bank the coin and then when he comes back just bring him back in.

I do somewhat agree with you Luigi as it's a huge amount to pay, and it can weaken other areas, but I guess you have to weigh up whether it's worth having him as he's pretty much odds on to be a top 3 forward or if it's worth having a bit of extra money to strengthen other areas of your team.

I've had like 4 teams so far which have included Aguero, included both Aguero AND Costa and then one without Aguero.  I think I will be personally starting with him though at this stage.

[Spite]

I think with Aguero, if you do start him and he gets injured you can simply trade to any other striker you want.  It's easier to trade down than to trade up.  If he starts on fire and you miss his points you will want to bring him in, and that could take a couple of weeks of trading if you don't have the coin in the bank to get him in right away.  If he does get injured, you can trade down, bank the coin and then when he comes back just bring him back in.

I do somewhat agree with you Luigi as it's a huge amount to pay, and it can weaken other areas, but I guess you have to weigh up whether it's worth having him as he's pretty much odds on to be a top 3 forward or if it's worth having a bit of extra money to strengthen other areas of your team.

I've had like 4 teams so far which have included Aguero, included both Aguero AND Costa and then one without Aguero.  I think I will be personally starting with him though at this stage.

Agreed. Except he will not just be a top 3 forward, he will be a top 3 player overall, most likely. And if he doesn't last the whole season, his points you gain when you have him will be immense.

I'll certainly be trading up to him via rooney or benteke.

@Luigi

Yes, you are kind of forced into picking Rooney, Costa, Benteke, Lukaku, Pelle as the "premo" forwards and then sakho, defoe, wilson, deeney etc as the cheap ones.
You can't safely pick all 3 from the cheap basket and picking 2 from the premo basket gives the flixibility to get in Aguero sooner.