FPL GW21

Patience pays

Before I start this one, I have to admit I was extremely lucky in GW20. Van den Berg and Minteh not getting minutes meant auto-subbing Enzo (11) and Thiago (17) into the XI, gaining me 28 points from the bench where as my 9 other players (10 including captain) gained me 25 points or 2.5 points per players. This is all history now, and whether you had a good or bad gameweek, you just have to look forward and not let the emotions from past events affect your future decision making.

The deadline is short this gameweek and to keep it short, patience is the key right now. Unless you are on 5 FTs or your team is in shambles, I would highly recommend you consider rolling all your transfers. There are seveal reasons for this:

To elaborate a bit on the information cliff, between GW21 and GW22 we have both FA Cup ties and the 1st leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals. Most interestingly, We may get indication of whether Arsenal are close to reaching the final, as they are by far the most likely of the teams to get a double gameweek proactively in GW26 with Wolves. We could get those news even before GW22 as a contingent double gameweek, and we will likely know before GW25 whether we will see doubles before the GW31 blank gameweek.

This would impact how we want to spend our transfers (and chips) in the future heavily. The FA Cup ties will also hint at how many doubles/blanks we can expect later on in the season and who will be involved.

We slowly have to start planning for how the we reach the dead end of the season and maximize all of our utility, and now is the time to arm up rather than use all the fire power, as the landscape will be less foggy over time.

GW24 is the next big horizon, where Bruno and Palmer should very likely be in our teams, where also Crystal Palace and Bournemouth assets become relevant again.

Team selection

I'm rolling my 3 FTs after a lot of consideration and mostly due to the information above. I could sell Minteh, which would likely be for Tavernier, and while that is for some immediate gain this GW, it doesn't improve my team in the long term necessarily. Minteh plays BOU (H) in GW22, and Bournemouth have conceded a very high amount of xG away from home, which could be a juicy fixture for Minteh.

My Liverpool players should ideally be benched as they play Arsenal away, but I may need to play Szoboszlai. I'll rather play him this week accepting a minor loss, as I am very likely able to make a larger gain down the road with my FTs.

Bruno could be back and transferring him in against Burnley would be great, but I doubt we can be certain and with City and Arsenal right after, I'll rather assess his minutes a few weeks. Also, I'm not spending an FT on getting Gabriel into the team.

Where I'm the most in doubt is whether to start Kroupi.Jr or Szoboszlai. Currently I'm leaning towards starting Kroupi, as I think he will start against Tottenham, which has been the clear trend when Bournemouth has a tight schedule. I'm slightly in doubt due to Enes Unal getting minutes recently too. If Semenyo is cleared to not play the game, I'll probably start Kroupi.
Van den Berg is a punt I'll take, Ajer has played a lot of minutes, so it could be time for Van den Berg to be back in the XI, and if not he is very likely to miss out completely. Brentford have only made one sub of a CB all season if we disregard Ethan Pinnock being subbed off in GW4 and GW5 after a long injury (eased back in).

Haaland captains the side.

Good luck everyone!

Update

Kluivert having surgery means that Tavernier now becomes so good that I shouldn't wait with bringing him in. Especially with continuous doubt over Minteh, where Hurzeler has history of not telling the truth. I'm a bit scared it may go on for long and is not "just" a dead leg.

Minteh to Tavernier will be my transfer and he will go into the starting XI over Kroupi. Deciding whether I put Kroupi or Szobo 1st bench, but currently it's Szoboszlai.