Here’s how setting up your FPL team for the week usually goes – a glance at the stats, looking over injury records, analyzing performances against particular teams, and even taking a gander at form charts.
Usually what follows this up is a roll of the dice, a bit of risk-taking be it minor or major, but always significant.
After this, you lock in your transfers, and confirm your captains, before finally earning the chance to recline and pray for the best.
Sounds pretty exhaustive, doesn’t it?
Well, what if things were a bit more simple?
What if there was a solid template for you to follow?
And what if there were players you can gladly rely on?
There’s an answer to all of these fellow managers, and it comes to us courtesy of a player who was ranked No.12 worldwide, despite not making a single alteration since GW1.
Also known as a ‘zombie team’, this manager’s side essentially has numerous players that rank high on the reliability scale, alongside names from newly-promoted Fulham who have massively proved their worth.
In defence, the manager has gone with 2 solid and relatively cheap options in Ivan Perisic and Reece James, both of whom will likely provide plenty of bonus points as the season progresses.
Alongside the pair is Joao Cancelo, who is comparatively costlier, but is certainly worth it considering his knack for grabbing goals and assists.
Further up the pitch, we have Mo Salah and Luis Diaz – pretty self-explanatory.
And they’re paired up with Gabriel Martinelli and Andreas Pereira, both of whom have had very lively starts to the season.
Pereira will only set you back a measly £4.5m, while the Brazilian costs just £6m, making them very solid options.
With the backline and midfield covered, we move on to the frontmen, and this is where the magic happens.
The guy who's currently #12 in the world, owns Pickford, Dalot, Firmino, Mitrovic since GW1. Andreas Pereira in his starting XI.
Erling Haaland has proved to be a cheat code, be it in the Prem on in FPL the Norwegian just cannot stop scoring.
After grabbing consecutive hat-tricks you can expect the Man City man to be everyone’s team, but this manager, in particular, saw the vision from the beginning.
They’ve had Haaland as Captain ever since GW 1 and the move has delivered in spades.
Alongside him is Aleksandr Mitrovic, who despite ripping apart the Championship last season faced doubts over his credentials as a Premier League striker. Needless to say, they’re all gone now.
With 5 goals in 5 games and plenty of game time, the Serbian is definitely worth the price of admission (£6.5m), especially right now as he is in red-hot form.
Their foresight has to be applauded, as the manager has stuck by the likes of Mitrovic, Dalot, Pereira, and Pickford ever since GW 1, all of whom have paid off so far.
It’s unclear whether the player has simply forgotten about his team, or whether this is some sort of experiment. Perhaps it’s a case of ‘If ain’t broke..’, or maybe they just don’t care.
While all that is speculation, what we do know is that the player has figured out the meta, at least thus far. And as far as squad templates go, this is as unfussy as it gets.
