FPL GW8 Preview

With Gameweek 7 Postponed we now turn to a reduced Gameweek 8.

Three Fixtures have been postponed: Chelsea v Liverpool, Man Utd v Leeds and Brighton v Crystal Palace. This does cause issues for many of us, with many popular picks coming from these sides, so we have decisions to make.

The questions is, how many playing players do we need before considering a Wildcard or Free Hit? Unfortunately there is no set answer, but there are many things to consider. The main thing to remember is this is only one Gameweek. There is no need to sell all the players who Blank as they will be back next Gameweek and then have a Double Gameweek in the future. A Wildcard is drastic for one Gameweek and a Free Hit I prefer to utilise for Double Gameweeks. In short, on the basis of one Gameweek, I would not consider these options.

I would say if you have a minimum of 8 playing players I would play them and not take any Hits.

Some things to consider. Brighton manager Graham Potter and his backroom staff have left the club to go to Chelsea to replace departing manager Thomas Tuchel. Brighton are a good team because of Potter I would argue, and his departure seriously weakens their appeal. Their Blank seems like a good week to transfer them out. In return, Potter seems to have immediately reinstated James to wing back which heightens his appeal.

The midweek chaos kicked off with the European Cup competitions last week with the top 6 sides involved. Chelsea and Man City played Tuesday, Liverpool and Spurs played Wednesday and Arsenal and Man Utd played Thursday evening. There are midweek games every week from now until the World Cup. I have been saying for the last 3 weeks about Pep’s comments about Haaland not playing every game and so far he has. This is the problem with rotation, no one knows when and who it will involve.

We have three choices on rotation. Firstly, we can try and guess when and who will be rotated, but many of us thought Haaland would get rested last week and he didn’t and scored, the two weeks before that he got hat-tricks in both weeks. For me, Haaland will be in my team every week, even if he is benched he could come on. Secondly, we can do as I just mentioned and play them every week regardless and take it on the chin if and when they do get rested. Thirdly we can go without them completely and go for players with no European Fixtures. That means no Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd. Madness.

While I don’t recommend Wildcarding on the basis of one Gameweek with a few Postponements, I do think this is a great time to Wildcard if you haven’t already based on Fixture swings. Newcastle’s Fixtures turn for the better, with Pope, Trippier, Saint-Maximin and Isak looking good. Likewise Fulham, with Andreas and Mitrovic the standouts, Leicester with Maddison and West Ham with Bowen. It is always hard to ignore Alexander-Arnold, James, Cancelo, Salah and Haaland, and the alternatives in De Bruyne and Kane remain great options. On the Budget front Ward, Neco Williams, Emerson, Fofana, Bailey, Gordon, Paqueta and Solanke have good Fixtures coming up and have all good underlying qualities.

As for Captaincy, Haaland, whoever he plays, is a great option. Mitrovic away to Forest and Isak home to Bournemouth are good Differentials.

Gameweek 8 Deadline is Friday 16th September, 6:30pm.

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Denny Ledger

Twitter: denny_ledger