Gameweek 1 Fantasy Premier League 2019/20 Squad: First Draft
Preparations for Gameweek 1 of the Fantasy Premier League 2019/20 season are underway!
Accommodating Mohammed Salah, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane into the FPL Gameweek 1 squad is a challenge!
Before checking out the Gameweek 1 draft, make sure that you join the community in our Mini League. Prizes will be revealed within the next week!
To be a part of The FF Community Shield, with scoring from Gameweek 1, manually enter our league code: gim566.
Gameweek 1 YouTube
Earlier this week, I provided a preview of my potential Gameweek 1 squad over on YouTube. This is my debut video over on the Fantasy Football Community channel and any support you can give is welcomed – please subscribe, like, comment and share!
Defence
The Gameweek 1 squad focuses on the opening 4 gameweeks. Following tradition, it’s a budget set and forget keeper in the sticks: Mat Ryan (4.5) starts as our Gameweek 1 goalkeeper yet again, with a promising opening set of fixtures.
The budget saving, allows for a quadruple of premium defenders, as we aim for a 4-4-2 formation heading into Gameweek 1 of the 2019/20 Fantasy Premier League season, with the affectionately named L-A-R-D defence.
Doubling up on the Liverpool full-backs for another great season of clean sheets and assists seemed like a no brainier, with Andy Robertson (7.0) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (7.0) looking great value, despite a price increase.
Aymeric Laporte (6.5) is a safe entry into a solid Manchester City defence, keeping over 20 clean sheets last season, with some added goal threat from set pieces.
Lucas Digne (6.0) completes the quartet: the Everton defence finished last season strongly and the left-back is more than capable of attacking returns from set pieces.
Attack
Tapping into the Liverpool and Manchester City attacks for the opening weeks was important to me, providing excellent captaincy options for their initial games.
From Liverpool, it was a tough call between Mo Salah (12.5) and Sadio Mane (11.5). Given that they are closer in price this season, and the former could take some penalties, it’s the Egyptian that gets the nod at this point.
De Bruyne is a popular pick among the community, but Sergio Aguero (12.0) and Raheem Sterling (12.0) are more reliable, particularly when considering captaincy. Sterling gets the selection with Aguero busy at the Copa America.
With these premium options locked in, there’s little flexibility in the budget for England captain Harry Kane. His ownership may swing things in his favour closer to the Gameweek 1 deadline, as VAR ensues in the Premier League.
Speaking of VAR, a potential increase in penalties awarded, makes Gylfi Sigurdsson (8.0) and Luka Milivojevic (7.0) enticing options. They both posted excellent statistics last season and have great opening fixtures.
With premium and mid-priced forwards outside of budget, Josh King (6.5) looks great value at 1.5 million less than Callum Wilson. Glenn Murray is a left-field option, but he’s on penalties too and has a decent set of opening games.
There’s no room for our other watchlist options of Calvert-Lewis, Jota, Jimenez and Jorginho. The Chelsea midfielder could potentially be on penalties, now Eden Hazard has depart for Real Madrid.
Bench
It’s a bare bones bench, as we spend the minimum 4.0 on the defensive fillers and 4.5 on the attackers. The key issue here is that there are no likely starters at 4.5 million for forwards, meaning dead weight on the bench.
Button (4.0) is a sensible understudy to Mat Ryan, if Brighton’s No.1 picks up an injury I’ll be covered. With Wan-Bissaka off to Manchester United, Kelly (4.0) could nail down the right-back spot at Crystal Palace.
Dendoncker (4.5) looks to have the most promise of all the 4.5 million midfielders right now, but this may change in the coming weeks. Wickham (4.5) fills the final forward slot, to use the 100 million pound budget.
Gameweek 1 Team
Here’s an early look at how our 2019/20 Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 1 team could lineup. With an opening game against promoted Norwich, Mohammed Salah looks to be a firm favourite as captain on opening weekend.
Obviously lots can change between now and the Gameweek 1 deadline on August 9th. The transfer window is open, there’s plenty of pre-season action which could bring injuries, plus plenty of players still on international duty at the African Cup of Nations and the Copa America.
BEFORE YOU GO… Be sure to check out our series of pre-season Community XI, covering the Premier League fixture release and the Fantasy Premier League Game Launch.
? NEW #FPL POST ?
It’s FPL Launch Day and our Community XI have all the key headlines from the game release!
?Video: @FPL_Partridge
?Leagues: @FPL_Junior
?Rises: @FFScout
?Robertson: @fpl_tactician— Holly Shand (@FFCommunity_) June 27, 2019
