GW24 Team Reveal – FPL Shake n Bake
Each gameweek, a member of the FPL community will kindly reveal their immediate plans and give us some insight into their decision-making process.
Ahead of Gameweek 24, it’s the turn of Brett from FPL Shake n Bake to tell us what he intends to do with his team.
Hi, Brett. So how did your Gameweek 23 go?
Unsurprisingly, Gameweek 23 was a disaster. I doubled up on the Watford forwards and captained Emmanuel Dennis rather than Josh King to deepen the misery of that failed mistake. My only returns of the week were from Aaron Ramsdale and Kevin De Bruyne. Meanwhile the second-highest scorer in my squad, Vladimir Coufal, was rooted to the bench as third sub. In fact my back-up keeper, Robert Sanchez out-scored everyone in my starting XI apart from Ramsdale and KDB.
Are you pleased with your current squad? Who is a player you’d like to own but don’t?
I’ve been looking at my team during what has seemed like the longest gameweek ever and I really don’t like it anymore. Due to a few things out of my control recently, my planning has been a bit haphazard. The fact I currently own more Watford and more Brighton players than Liverpool players is a worry! As I said, the planning has been a bit more casual recently and I’ve followed the double gameweeks, which haven’t produced the returns I’d been hoping for.
Due to this, I’m looking at playing my Wildcard as I feel my team needs major surgery. And there’s a couple of players in particular who are making me want to do this – one of which is Harry Kane. In previous seasons, my FPL motto has been ‘just get Harry Kane’. I’ve avoided him until now this season but he’s suddenly looking a lot more threatening under Antonio Conte. In his last six games, his expected goals (xG) per game is at 0.8, compared to 0.4 per game throughout the whole season. He’s having more touches in the penalty area, more shots and is creating more chances.
What are your transfer plans for Gameweek 24 and beyond?
As I mentioned earlier, I’m hitting my Wildcard button, as I want to avoid taking the hits that would be required to get it to where I’d like it ahead of the upcoming fixtures.
In goal, I’m going for rotation – David De Gea and Nick Pope. Whilst I appreciate it’s a lot of money to tie up in two keepers, their fixtures dovetail nicely and Pope will have more double gameweeks to come. It’s likely that once United have doubled in Gameweek 25, De Gea will make way for a cheaper second option, allowing me to spread funds elsewhere.
In my defence I’m looking to bring in Andrew Robertson to double up with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has been just as good if not better in terms of FPL in recent weeks.
Sergio Reguilon comes back in after returning to the Spurs starting line up at the weekend, as does Diogo Dalot.
In midfield, my biggest question was whether to bring Mohamed Salah straight back in and I’ve decided against it. I think Thursday’s game against Leicester probably comes too soon for him after Egypt’s gruelling AFCON tournament, where he played more minutes than everyone else. Liverpool’s next game after Leicester is against Salah’s bogey team, Burnley, who he hasn’t scored past since 2018.
With Kevin De Bruyne performing admirably for me as Salah’s replacement and having such nice fixtures (Brentford and Norwich) in his next two, he remains as a placeholder ahead of Gameweek 26, when Salah will enter as a strong consideration for the Triple Captain chip.
Alongside KDB, Gabriel Martinelli remains, as I think he’s a great option at his price point. Incomings in midfield are Raphinha, Michael Olise and budget enabler Jakub Moder.
I was tempted to bring Conor Gallagher back into the fold but Olise is nearly £1m cheaper, has impressed me in recent weeks, and has the benefit of being eligible for both games in Palace’s Double Gameweek, whereas Gallagher will be ineligible to play against Chelsea.
Up front – somehow, against all odds, Dennis remains. Despite his nightmare in the last gameweek, I’ve kept him as Watford have another double on the horizon and I’m hoping he will be out to make amends.
Alongside him, in comes Kane and Burnley battering ram Wout Weghorst. As with Pope, Burnley have the most games remaining of any team and Weghorst has an impressive goalscoring record in Germany where only Robert Lewandowski has scored more Bundesliga goals than him since the start of the 2018/19 season. If Burnley can provide him with service, he will surely provide the goals.
This gives me the tools to navigate up to Gameweek 27, where one transfer will probably be to replace Martinelli as Arsenal blank. If Salah doesn’t impress, then another option could be to replace him with Bruno Fernandes when Man United host Watford.
And finally, what about captaincy?
This week, I’m going with Kane captain, De Bruyne vice captain. Kane’s record vs Southampton is excellent, with 11 goals and 6 assists against them in 13 Premier League games.
I also think the Liverpool full-backs could be a great shout. Leicester look all over the place defensively, so there’s an excellent chance for both of them to provide attacking returns.
Now I’ve got my squad ready, I just need to decide on my starting XI and order of substitutes.
