Familiar Faces of FPL GW22: Robertson pays off Ian Irving’s eight-point hit

A round-up of how well-known FPL personalities have fared this week.

GW22 PROGRESS (SO FAR)

Heading into the midweek fixtures of Double Gameweek 22, two of our 22 have had particularly outstanding points totals. Fabio Borges and Magnus Carlsen both bought Bruno Fernandes, stuck their captain’s armbands on him and were delighted to see him score twice at Villa Park. Halfway through his two matches, Fernandes has already brought them 28 points.

It’s been a poor start for Sophy Ridge, who was constantly in the top 5k between Gameweeks 9 and 18 but is currently at 19,474th after having the second-worst week so far amongst the 22. Without the 11-point haul of Joao Cancelo, things were worsened when captain Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t in Man United’s matchday squad against Aston Villa.

TEAM FOCUS: Ian Irving

Set to debut on this week’s Official FPL podcast, presenter and reporter Ian Irving has an FPL history stretching all the way back to 2007/08. His best season saw him finish 3,541th in 2014/15 – one of two top 10k placements. This time has been difficult, although the exceptional circumstances have made even the greatest FPL managers stutter – Ian is currently just outside of the top 300k.

He took an eight-point hit for Gameweek 22, replacing Son Heung-min, Aaron Ramsdale and Diogo Dalot with the trio of David De Gea, Leandro Trossard and Andrew Robertson. Thanks to the clean sheet and assist of the Liverpool left-back, these eight points should be made up for once De Gea and Trossard take part in their midweek matches.

‘Harlow’s Heroes’ has squad depth, with all five defenders costing over £5m and all midfielders in excess of £5.5m. Unfortunately, this has left Raphinha’s six points stranded on his bench on this occasion and also brings up the question about what his route back to Mohamed Salah will be.

With £1.9m in the bank, it’s conceivable that Ian will simply trade Cristiano Ronaldo and a midfielder for Salah and a striker – possibly Ollie Watkins or Emmanuel Dennis. Another upcoming issue will be the blank games of Marcos Alonso when Chelsea travel to the Club World Cup, although it’ll provide that beautiful FPL feeling where you’ve downgraded a player (money-wise) but improved your team.

Both Free Hits and a Wildcard are still in Ian’s back pocket, so he’ll be confident of green arrowing most of the remaining Gameweeks.