Marc Jobling: Gameweek 17 Team Reveal

Each Gameweek brings an FPL community team reveal. As a result, that person gives insight into their transfers, captaincy and future plans.

Ahead of Gameweek 17, it’s the turn of Marc Jobling to tell us what is happening to his team.

Hi Marc and thanks for the team reveal. How did Gameweek 16 go?

48 points took me down to 756k and was yet another example of a great-looking set of fixtures going badly.

Going into Sunday, it looked like a nailed-on green arrow and – despite Dominic Solanke only assisting in the 5-0 versus Southampton and captain Cole Palmer blanking – I was minutes away from it.

Then, suddenly, Levi Colwill not only lost his clean sheet but to highly-owned Bryan Mbeumo, who of course sat on my bench alongside Vitalii Mykolenko’s seven points. Lukasz Fabianski very nearly made it worse.

All I had was a Matheus Cunha goal and double Arsenal shut-outs, hurt massively by having neither Alexander Isak nor Nicolas Jackson. The lucky Pedro Porro owners made it worse, as did the stupid antics of Rayan Ait-Nouri.

What does your defence look like?

The backline seems better now that Colwill and Trent Alexander-Arnold are in. Perhaps Colwill should’ve been Daniel Munoz or Antonee Robinson but the latter is purely a hindsight call after his Anfield assists. He’ll be a popular buy this week but I think he costs too much.

Meanwhile, what about your midfield and attack?

I absolutely despise having Solanke and Antoine Semenyo and often find myself wondering who is the worst FPL asset. Solanke keeps fooling me, ahead of attractive fixtures in this high-scoring team, whereas Semenyo showed again on Monday that he’s just a constant cycle of high-quantity, low-quality shots.

Joao Pedro is on the naughty step, too. But there’s no time to worry when Cunha’s imminent suspension complicates things.

On Tuesday, I tweeted (what’s the X equivalent of this word?) recent examples of how quickly the FA tends to punish players after response dates. Let’s hope he’s able to face leaky Leicester, before selling.

So what are your transfer plans for Gameweek 17 and beyond?

I said last time that I felt almost invincible by having great fixtures and the probability of rolling into four free transfers. Well, that quickly changed – I need more!

The late pre-deadline call to buy Colwill is one I kind of regret, while predicted price changes meant I reacted quickly to Ait-Nouri’s red by selling him for Trent. That needed an Mbeumo downgrade, which I hated doing because I liked the prospect of him at home to Nottingham Forest.

So I made three transfers in one day and none of them satisfied me. Especially when my Morgan Rogers move should maybe have been Amad Diallo or Ismaila Sarr instead.

Even so, I still have one more for this week. Cunha might end up being Chris Wood but the original plan was Jackson for Solanke. However, buying the Chelsea forward seems silly when we know he’ll likely sit out one festive match for Christopher Nkunku.

Finally, what about captaincy?

I didn’t want to captain Palmer last week but was eventually manipulated into a late switch by the sheer number of other managers doing so. It felt like everybody.

It was a bad idea and I’d rather not give him the armband at Everton, preferring Mohamed Salah versus Tottenham. Those with Isak could be tempted for Newcastle’s trip to Ipswich.