In the sport of Premier League.com fantasy football, the Wildcard is the one-use golden ticket allowing unlimited transfers. Although it can be played any time, it is always enticing to make several transfers after the first gameweek. Seeing other players scoring 5, 6 or 7 points for the same price as players in your squad who scored 1 or 2 points makes it tempting to commit to wholesale changes very early on.
There are a few schools of thought when it comes to Wildcard theory:
* Play your card very early, jump on every bargain player from gameweeks 2 - 4, hope they increase in value quickly, and take the money and run.
* Play it during the first long International Week, Aug 30th - Sept 13th (after GW3). By then it will be clear who is in form and who is first choice. It also provides good scope to make the necessary tinkering that may be required to bring Ronaldo back into the squad if he is nearing a return.
* Tailor a new team to monopolise double gameweeks and max out the players playing 180 mins that week. A variation on this: in the weeks prior to an appealing double GW, use double transfers to gradually recruit players who will be playing in the GWx2. Then AFTER the GWx2, you can sort your squad out using the wild card.
* Hold on till the final run when there are often double, even triple gameweeks. One for the cagey conservative here.
To establish when the best time to use a wildcard, I reviewed the overall first 11 fantasy teams from the 07/08 season. Lets see how last year's winners did it - the data for the week of their wildcard use is formatted as Week Of Transfer (# of Transfers made):
3(8) 38(14) 14(8) 30(5) 28(2) 30(5) 26(4) 6(7) 8(15) 28(3) 28(3)
average: 21.7 (6.7)
This works out with an average of around GW 21-22 and a spread of more or less the whole season. With an average number of transfers per Wildcard of nearly 7, the top managers looked to make large changes to their squads.
Conclusion: the Top 11 managers from last season used their Wildcards more or less evenly across the whole season. Personal preference seems to be the best guide - although it would pay to wait at least two weeks to get a feel for consistent performances rather than one-shot flashes. That aside, any time is a good time for a wildcard!
When do you think you will be using your Wildcard? Give us your views in the Comments below.
Our Fantasy Picks for GW1Schmeichel Ivanovic Mertesacker Cedric Walcott Lallana Hazard Barkley Costa van-Wolfswinkel Rooney |
Leicester are a good shout to keep a clean sheet against Sunderland. Chelsea are the big guns and can't / shouldn't be overlooked. Lallana & Walcott are fantasticly good pre-season. S'hampton play the dreadful Newcastle, who will be booed off their home park in GW1. Everton are likely to put a few past Watford & Barkley is good value. van Wolfswinkel put a few away in preseason & knows where goal is. Man Utd have epic mids now, and Rooney is the sole forward. |
Wildcard Theories
Labels: Other
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
|
Recent Posts: |
Sites We Like Mens Football Kits Rubber Crumb Sports Pitch . . . . . . . . . . |
Join our reader's league using the code:
1555536-568293 . Premier Fantasy Attackers Premier Fantasy Defenders Premier Fantasy Goalkeepers Premier Fantasy Midfielders Premier Fantasy Others |
14 comments:
I'm most likely to use the wildcard when Ronaldo returns in October. I'll need to move a couple players around to fit him into my squad.
join my league on fantasy premier league the code is 712605-241645
i have had a bad start of fantasy this year, and if i don't make progress soon i will probably use my wildcard during the next couple of weeks. Last year, on the contrary, i used my wildcard after new year.
I am currently using my wildcard.
Got off to a bad start, and wanted to use it in GW3, but waited for the international break.
Want to comment on my new team? Here it is.
GK Cech
DF Bosingwa, Brown, Evra
MF Fabregas, Deco, SWP, Arteta
ST Berbatov, Defoe, Zaki
SUB Schwarzer, Paintsil, Figueroa, Delap
Wondering if it's too risky with only 3 major defenders, and if I'm loosing out on some of the big names.
Gazza -
a great team, but I think SWP is suspect... he had a great start but with M Petrov, Elano, Ireland, Jo, and now Robinho all fightinf for fantasy points too, he may get lost in the pack...
Yair: Cheers. Valid point. Have this itch that won't go away though. Flop or absolutely harvest those points. Any alternatives?
Bill Davidson: Wildcard coming up next week then?
Which would be the best out of these teams?
My current one..
Cech
Bale, Evra, Johnson, Laursen, Hunt
Bentley, Fabregas, Young, Nasri, Gera
Van Persie, Alves, Kitson..
Or play my wildcard to include Ronaldo.. changing it to..
Cech
Bale, Evra, Johnson, Laursen, Hunt
Ronaldo, Riera, Valencia, Nasri, Gera
Van Persie, Zaki, Kitson
Any thoughts welcome!
the first thing that comes to mind is, you dont need a wildcard for this.
you can change this over two weeks, and with a small point reduction.
Gazza -
Depending on the $ you have in the bank - maybe Bullard, A Young, or T Cahill instead of SWP.
Bullard and Young are assist machines from free kicks and corners, and Cahill (when healthy) is a goal scoring threat.
You may stay away from Cahill since you feature Everton and don't want to go too Everton heavy.
Good Luck!
Thanks again Yair.
The deadline has passed now, and I opted to keep SWP, for lack of better alternatives (Cahill was a surprise recovery).
GK Cech
DF Bosingwa, Brown, G Johnson
MF Fabregas, Deco, Arteta, SWP
FW Defoe, Zaki, Zamora
SUB Schwarzer, Paintsil, Figueroa, Delap
BANK 6M quid for upgrading Ronaldo over the weekend.
Reckon I change Deco and Cesc for Ronaldo and Lampard.
You say that I should avoid being Everton heavy. Care to elaborate on that Yair?
Cheers
re: Everton heavy.
With Arteta in the team, it's tough also playing Cahill, at the same price - if Everton create chances and score, both will benefit, but if Everton lose or play Top-5 teams, you will get double the futility. Just like in the stock market, diversification is nice in the long term... in the short term, Everton's fixture list is not too promising. Id advocate for Arteta over Cahill.
With CRon back, I have made changes and this is my team going forward:
GK Van der Sar
D Kompany, Alex, Bosingwa
M Ronaldo, Lampard, Bullard, Arteta, Denilson
F Zaki, Alfonso Alves
Subs: Paintsil, Figueroa, C Cole
What do you guys think?
We always have fantasy debates at www.nevercaptainnickybutt.blogspot.com
Just used my wildcard, and this is my team...
GK - Cech
DF - W.Brown, Evra, A.Cole, Bosingwa, R.Ferdinand
MF - Geovanni, Arteta
ST - Defoe, Adeybayor, Torres(C)
Good?
Does anyone know if you can use a wild card retrospectively?
I've made some changes but didn't quite understand the whole idea of wild cards!! FIRST TIME!!
Any help would be great!!
Doug
Post a Comment