We're a day out from the FPL 25/26 Gameweek 1 deadline, which means that in the next twenty-four hours our teams are going to be locked in and we're going to be watching Liverpool vs AFC Bournemouth and seeing whether the champions can deliver another season of success in a row. All of us are just about ready with our teams, and that includes myself!
My team has been an arduous process of picking draft after draft, and I think I've had at least 50 drafts of my team at this point just from trying out different strategies. So, now that we're close and my team is pretty much locked in, I wanted to go over my strategy and exactly how I feel going into the new season.
So, in this article, I'm going to go over my team and exactly how I've come to this conclusion, as well as some of the more interesting picks and issues that my team has compared to the 'template' and other teams. After all, no team is perfect, and the risks that I've taken definitely have downsides.
FPL Gameweek 1 Team Overview
This is my team going into Gameweek 1. It does just look like I tried to fit 381-msalah, 235-palmer, 382-wirtz, and 430-haaland into the same team, but Haaland is the latest inclusion in the team. There are a few risks that I've taken in this draft, that I did not take in earlier drafts:
- Bench: There's minimal cover on the bench. The two defenders are nailed in their respective first teams, but they're not great picks so to speak. My original drafts had an extra 4.5 in the rotation to cover 261-richards/603-diouf if need be, but I'm unsure how much that's going to be necessary with the picks I've made (Diouf is the main weakness, I really like how Richards looks).
- Premiums: I've picked a lot of premiums, and that's for the fact that downgrading premiums is easier than upgrading them. In the event that Haaland, for example, has an incredible game, I'd rather not have to tear my team apart to be able to fit him in. If necessary, in Gameweek 3, I'd be able to switch a premium to someone like 449-bfernandes or maybe 16-saka, and divest the funds, which I feel makes it a lot safer than on paper.
- Captaincy: I'll go over this more in my captaincy section, but I've picked Haaland instead of Salah. This is mainly because, while I think Mo Salah and Florian Wirtz are both incredible, the points are going to be distributed among the team rather than in Manchester City, where Haaland is generally the target man.
With this, I think that this draft is relying a lot on the premiums to perform, but it also gives me the option to easily downgrade a premium to divest the funds; the only real worry I have is if Liverpool underperforms against Bournemouth and the wave of transfers causes me to lose funds. However, I don't see that happening.
I've also come to the conclusion that I'm willing to emergency wildcard if necessary. With the extra five AFCON transfers, and the fact that the premiums are all nailed, I feel as though the wildcard chip is more of an emergency 'break glass' chip if things go wrong. If they go correctly though, I think that this could be a monstrous draft.
I don't really have any other chip strategy right now. I was tempted to do a GW2 Bench Boost, but Dubravka's possible injury has made that a doubt and I do think that there's a better opportunity for a bench boost with far more flexibility later on.
FPL GW1 Captaincy
| Rank | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | 430-haaland |
| 2 | 235-palmer |
| 3 | 382-wirtz |
| 4 | 381-msalah |
For captaincy, I decided to go for 430-haaland for a simple reason; I think that the opening matchup is really strong, and while I will probably captain Liverpool players on other weeks, I want to see how their new team works over multiple matches before making a decision to captain either 382-wirtz or 381-msalah.
235-palmer could be a decent option, but Crystal Palace have a lot of momentum coming off of their Community Shield and FA Cup wins, and so I feel as though Chelsea might have a tougher time. Whereas, Man City have one of the best GW1 matchups in the league when it comes to a Wolves team that may struggle without key players from last season, and so Haaland might truly shine.
I put Wirtz above Salah because I feel as though he'll be more central and therefore more impactful throughout the game, but I also need to see more of Liverpool's system in the Premier League specifically before I make any conclusions. Of course, I could see Salah score three goals tomorrow and cry into a pillow. That's a reality I'm willing to accept, but I wanted to go against the grain as I think Haaland will have at least a decent performance against Wolves.
Player Selections
Goalkeepers
Unsurprisingly, my goalkeeper choices are 502-sels at Nottingham Forest and 470-dubravka at Burnley. Nottingham Forest has a very good defensive strategy, and I feel as though with their fixtures they'll be able to keep clean sheets. Dubravka is a pretty template backup, a very obvious starter who played well for Newcastle last season.
Defenders
The main three defenders in my team are 568-pedro-porro, 261-richards, and 603-diouf.
I like the fact that Porro is on set pieces, and Spurs didn't look terrible against PSG this week. So, I feel like Porro is probably going to be okay versus Spurs. I also feel like Crystal Palace are dark horses this season, and so Richards is looking like a great pick. Diouf has already been discussed heavily this season, and I think he's going to do well with West Ham's fixtures.
The other two defenders, 191-esteve and 348-rodon, are generally just bench fodder that can start. It does feel weird not having the comfort of a rotation 4.5m, but I feel as though I've picked choices that I can rely on and that won't need much rotation or minutes cover.
If I have the spare transfers, if Spurs fail to perform I'll instantly be switching Porro to 506-murillo for the Defensive Contributions. I'm also looking at 370-frimpong, but I feel as though Liverpool will be keeping fewer clean sheets this season, and I do think that means fewer points for Frimpong all around (as great as he looks).
Midfielders
My three premium midfielders are 381-msalah, 235-palmer, and 382-wirtz. All three of these players are no real surprise, and 449-bfernandes was in this team for a while until today as well.
I think that the premium midfielders are going to be the cream of the crop, and that Salah and Wirtz are going to be absolutely incredible. But, I don't think we're going to see as many crazy yields like we would from Salah last season, due to the distribution of attacking talent in the Liverpool team. I could be wrong, but it feels as though they're both just going to rack up a ton of points, and both end up being the 2nd and 3rd spot (behind Palmer) in that sense.
Palmer is in the form of his career, and his performance at the Club World Cup was insane. He's the highest picked player in the whole game, and speaks for himself.
242-dewsbury-hall and 427-reijnders are my other two midfielders. I did a massive article on Midfielders and I really wanted to be able to fit another premium into the team, but I feel as though Reijnders is a great gamble. I also think that Dewsbury Hall will be a consistent enough performer with Everton's opening fixtures, and can easily be upgraded if one of my premiums underpeform.
Forwards
My forwards of choice are 430-haaland, 625-fullkrug, and 100-kroupijr. Haaland speaks for himself, even with an off season in 24/25 he's still one of the highest performers in the game, and I feel like people are overlooking him this season. Füllkrug has had an incredibly solid preseason, and is at a really solid price point as well.
My original frontline consisted of 64-watkins and 654-strand-larsen, and I do think that's also another choice. Half of me wants to add back 449-bfernandes, but I feel as though having Haaland for some of these early fixtures might work out incredibly well, especially in the off chance that Spurs underperform. I do also like 283-mateta a lot, and feel as though he's being overlooked by a lot of managers.
Kroupi Jr is just bench fodder. I decided not to go for 252-marc-guiu to avoid issues with him being sold by managers when they realise he's not going to be consistently starting at the beginning of the season, and I feel as though I can probably sweep him up later on. Otherwise, this is mainly just to make space for the other players.
Update: My Alternative Team
This is the alternative team I'll be switching to, if I decide not to opt for Haaland. It's pretty balanced, and removes a lot of the risks from earlier. There is a chance that I also start 625-fullkrug and upgrade one of the defenders, but I feel as though it's a minimal decision between the two.
There is a good chance that I do pick this team, just due to the lack of confidence in Haaland and wanting more defcon points all-around. I'm also not a massive fan of the Dewsbury-Hall pick, and this would be a safer start to the season if I do decide I want to be more risk averse.
Closing Time
We're almost at the start of the season, and so our teams are just about there too. Here's mine, and I could still change it before the deadline, as I'm just really unsure about a lot this season. I am very unsure about the 430-haaland pick, but I do want to take the risk just to see what happens. Who knows, I could definitely kick myself when the weekend is done, but isn't that the fun of FPL?
If you want to see more FPL content over the coming season, keep an eye out on FPLZone as we'll be here the whole way. We've got weekly updates, transfers, captaincy reviews, and so much more as we head through the FPL season. Don't miss out! And, if you want to keep up on social media, drop me a follow on Twitter to never miss a FPL discussion.
In any case, thank you for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow for Gameweek 1!
