Geoff Dance – Gameweek 4 no Salah wildcard team reveal

Here we take a look into an experienced FPL managers mind as he provides us with his no salah wildcard team reveal. Geoff Dance has been the Chief Operating Officer of Fantasy Football Scout since 2021, has a top 50 FPL finish, nine top 30k finishes in 12 seasons, and has never finished outside the top 100k.

Geoff gives us detail on why he has decided to use one of the most popular chips in the game. In addition he also explains why he has selected the players he has. His wildcard team reveal could be highly beneficial to the FPL community and help bring clarity to some of our own decisions.

Introduction

The temptation to Wildcard early is always strong for me, and most seasons I play it ahead of Gameweek 3. This year I instead used my two Free Transfers ahead of Gameweek 3, with negligible returns.

Wildcarding wasn’t necessary as I didn’t have major injury concerns and am sitting at 1.4m in rank; however I wanted to refresh my side, buying into some teams with strong upcoming fixtures and hopefully pushing ahead of rivals before the fixture swings coming around Gameweek 8.

We can see how my team has done so far this year, and my previous history right here.

My Gameweek 3 team

My Wildcard team for GW4:

I have eight projected players staying from Gameweek 3, with seven changes coming. I will be keeping these players:

Ward
Alexander-Arnold
Cancelo
James
Martinelli
Andreas
Haaland
Jesus

This means that I will be selling:

Iversen
Dias
Cucurella
Salah
Kulusevski
Bailey
Archer

Goalkeepers

Danny Ward (£4.0m) is an easy hold, as he is clearly the current best pick of the budget Goalkeepers. I’ll be adding Nick Pope (£5.0m), whose has a history of double-digit returns, as well strong upcoming fixtures.

Defenders

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m), João Cancelo (£7.1m), and Reece James (£6.1m) are a stellar trio and I haven’t considered removing them. With fine prices, attacking returns, clean sheet potential, and good fixtures I believe they should be in almost every team.

I’ve added Ivan Perišić (£5.5m) to the mix on my Wildcard; though I’m worried about rotation, I think he will play enough to make good on his attacking upside. Kieran Trippier (£5.1m) is my final pick in a strong attacking back five.

Midfield

Midfield is where I’m likely making my riskiest bet, removing Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) for Kevin De Bruyne (£12.1m), despite three strong home games and a trip to Everton for Liverpool. Man City’s fixtures are strong too but this move is obviously a risk, and I will be nervous until Liverpool’s fixtures stiffen in Gameweek 8.

Salah has also, of course, shown he can be played successfully in any fixture. My bet is that Liverpool aren’t yet fully settled, with some significant injury issues, and Man City will rack up more high-scoring games.

Forwards

Up front, I can’t look past Erling Haaland (£11.7m). He has quickly become my favourite Premier League player to watch and, despite some rotation coming soon, I fancy his explosiveness, even if he comes on late in matches. Gabriel Jesus (£8.2m) is an even stronger lock ,I believe he’s far under-priced this season and is the easiest pick in my team.

Rounding out the forwards is Ivan Toney (£7.2m) with Brentford’s incredible fixture run. Toney already has shown form and I can only see his ownership rising with more points over the coming
weeks.

Will I lock in my no-Salah team?

I think so! Generally I’m a cautious manager, and I like to own the top players with my differentials picked in the mid-priced region. However every season is different and what I’ve seen from City and Liverpool make me want to go for the City double up.

De Bruyne over Salah also allows me Trippier in defence, giving me a strong team in case the midweek fixtures mean heavy rotation.