Benefits of Wildcarding in #DGW19
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(All stats taken from @FFScout)
THREAD:

With the addition of #BGW18 fixture for Man Utd and #DGW19 fixture for Man City, original plans on transfers and chip usage may have strayed as a result. This thread simply looks at why wildcarding in #DGW19 may be beneficial.

Firstly, let’s look at the obvious, Man City assets are now going to be in much higher demand and rightfully so. They have arguably the best set of fixtures in the DGW with CRY (H) and AVL (H), the ceiling potential as a result for the likes of KDB and Sterling, will therefore...

be very high, and missing out could cause a lot of damage to your rank. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if one of them ended the DGW up with a 25-30-point haul.
However, the problem with these assets is their prices, KDB and Sterling are priced at 11.7m and 11.4m...

respectively, to attain them, most likely you would have to downgrade from Salah or Mane, or upgrade from Bruno, Son, Kane/Vardy (would cost 2 FTs for the strikers plus additional funds), which makes it very difficult to do using just FTs, whilst preserving a healthy state for...

the rest of your team.
Secondly, assets such as Salah, Bruno, Vardy all have DGWs, which make them less desirable to transfer out.
Man City defensive assets present the same FPL predicament, spots in FPL defences on average are likely to be taken up by players around the.....

4.5m to 5.5m price range (Dallas, KWP, Justin, James, Cresswell and Mings) who have a combined ownership of 90.5%, just to name a few. Other positions in the defence are likely to be occupied by premium assets such as Robertson, TAA, Chilwell, who all have brilliant potential...

to return every week and have a DGW in 19, making them even more desirable to keep. The reason in particular I talk about the importance of Man City assets, is not just for the DGW but the GW’s after that follow.

They have very favourable fixtures from GW20-22 and another ensured DGW, with the Everton game previously being postponed. The assets are only going to become more expensive over time, so I think it to be beneficiary to get them as early as possible, for as cheap as possible,....

where they can score so many points for your teams.

That alone would be a pretty strong argument for why to wildcard in #DGW19, however with a possible wildcard team I show below, I examine the other benefits of doing so.

Above is just one wildcard team I have built, and it’s what I am leaning towards, I am not telling you to buy this exact squad, just my reasoning behind it, as it may allow you to see a different perspective in future plans for your team.

The City assets; Dias and KDB have essentially been spoken about above, but Dias has come into the City side and tightened up their defence massively which the stats reflect, amassing 7 clean sheets, 0 errors leading to chances, an 80% tackle rate (small sample as he often has..

the positioning to ensure not many tackles are needed), and 67% aerial duel win rate. Further, he has an xG of 0.71 from set plays due to his aerial threat, to put in some perspective Kurt Zouma only has 0.21 more, and has 4 premier league goals this season. KDB, is arguably.....

the best player in the league, on penalties, has brilliant underlying numbers which shows he is currently underperforming with an xGI at 118.8 minutes, and with the upcoming DGW and fixture run, it makes him a no brainer. Both alongside Ederson are the only assets likely to.....

also be relatively free of Pep roulette.

The biggest differential; Antonio. Antonio is similar to players previously spoken about, he has a high ceiling potential demonstrated last year with his huge 26-point haul against Norwich, and is returning from injury slowly, to.....

minimalize the risk of another injury. He got some minutes against Southampton and I expect him to come off the bench tonight. He is quite simply a better player then Haller, and with the appealing DGW of BUR (H) and WBA (H), followed by a fairly decent fixture run between....

GW20-24, a cheap price, and playing upfront in a strong and creative West Ham side, he looks a very good option.

Bankers; Salah, Robertson, Bruno, Bamford. There isn’t much I need to tell you about these 4 players that you don’t already know, they are brilliant FPL assets,....

and to not own any of them, could cause your rank some serious damage. Salah and Bruno have the most amount of points this season and that speaks for itself. Bruno especially has an upcoming fixture run until GW25, which looks the most enticing of any side in the league.

Bamford is the best value forward this season returning 99 points at a price of 6.6m, but his performances and the stats to back it are an indicator this is set to increase if anything, he has a non-penalty xG of 9.37, which is 2.29 higher than Salah’s for some perspective.

He also plays in a very attacking Leeds side, where he will continue to receive many chances, and with experience, he will improve as a player and put away more of these chances. Robertson is the highest scoring defender this season, and if you are a non-owner you are probably...

lucky its only 79 points. There are simply too many underlying numbers and statistics too choose from to demonstrate this, looking at his heat map he his occupying such high positions on the pitch when attacking (997 touches in the opponents half this season), has brilliant....

attacking quality shown by his crossing delivery and regardless of the injuries, Liverpool still have one of the best defences in the league.

Value for money; Watkins, Coufal, Meslier. Coufal and Meslier both have very favourable DGWs with (BUR (H) and WBA (H)) and (BRI (H) ....

and SOU (H)) respectively. West Ham have a fairly decent run of fixtures until GW24, with this extending for Leeds to GW27. Coufal is a nailed starter, and has impressed this season demonstrating both attacking and defensive capabilities. At a price of 4.7m it is hard to go.....

wrong for what is being offered. Leeds have slightly tweaked their system following their thrashing of Man Utd, and are less open and prone to conceding big chances which the performances since have shown. Meslier clearly looks a good purchase for Leeds, given his age and.....

natural ability which has been seen through some brilliant saves this season. Leeds conceding a lot of shots in general, isn’t the worst thing from an FPL perspective as it allows Meslier to accumulate more saves which leads to more points and potentially hauling should they....

also keep a clean sheet. Watkins is the front man leading a very impressive Aston Villa side this season, he has a DGW in 19 and a fantastic fixture run which spans the length until GW30. Whilst in recent weeks the goals have dried up, due to some VAR interventions and some.....

finishing below his usual standards, his overall game has not. He is still providing assist for the team, constantly involved in the build up play, and with creativity and quality alongside him in the form of Grealish, Mcginn and El Ghazi, the goals will start to flow again soon.

This is signified by an xG of 7.58 for the season. At his price of 6.1m he presents excellent value, and will likely score a fair few points in the remainder of the season.

Coin Flip; Son/Rashford? Finally, the last spot on the team comes down to 2 brilliant players. As of....

late Rashford has been improving, whereas Son has been on the decline. This isn’t his fault entirely, the defensive system which Mourinho employs most definitely diminishes the number of chances he receives to return FPL points. Utd have looked brighter of lot, and with Bruno...

Fernandes helping to create so many chances, alongside Utd securing up defensively, they look set for a good run. Looking at some stats, Son massively overperformed earlier on in the season, he has 11 goals with an xG of only 4.23. I wouldn’t overthink this decision too much as..

between now and the end of the season I don’t imagine the point disparity between the two, will be particularly large. The only reason why I would go for Son over Rashford is because, with already owning Bruno, the lack of spurs cover could prove detrimental, further he’s a....

slight bit cheaper and has had a better season than Rashford to date. Rashford is also slightly more injury prone, and with the way the season has shaped up, FTs are like gold dust, and you don’t want to use them unnecessarily.

Finally, I am well aware there are many other viable options, I just wanted to present you what I thought could potentially be the best ones.

I hope this thread has shown that the wildcard may provide long term benefits rather than just for #DGW19 and potentially helped you clarify/change your plans for the upcoming GWs.

Any support on the thread would be appreciated, and am happy to answer any questions people may have on this thread.
JB