Picking Our FPL Team

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1:09Hello and welcome to The Rest is Football. You may suspect that something different going on. There's a lot of noise in the background. And that's because we're at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool for the Premier League's kick-off event. And what we're kicking off is our fantasy football team. Alongside me is Micah and producer Harry. Harry, finally. You made the cut. Finally. It's about time, isn't it? I've been waiting. I know, yeah. We've heard your voice, but not seen your face. Yeah, there we go. I've seen his face for years. For a lot of years. Right, we are also making our own league this year.

1:47The rest is fantasy football league in which people can take part. And we've got thousands already of subscribers. So tell us, you are fantasy football sort of experts. At least you think you are. We're passionate. Let's say we're passionate. Addicts. Addicts, addicts. You've got to be good to be an expert. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. Addicts. So how do you go about it? I know with basic rules you've got 100 million, you've got to buy a team plus a few substitutes. Correct. 11 outfills, four subs. I think the first question everybody seems to answer, and this seems to have been like this for a few years now, is it Salah or Haaland?

2:24Or both. Or both? Or both? Or both. Could you do both, though? You can do both, but then you've got to split your money around the team, so you might lose some balance. What are you thinking, though? What's your gut? My gut is Salah. My gut is Salah. So, I think what we've got to start with... Why? Because Haaland, prolific goal scorer as well. I know Salah won the goal last year, but Haaland had his injury, who still scored 22 goals, I believe. But Salah's a point scorer. Yeah, I think with Haaland as well, especially the way Man City play. Because teams sort of play that low block, it's more difficult for him to get the points, I would say.

2:59Against Liverpool, the games seem to be a little bit more open. So that's why I'm going to say Salah. You've got to remember as well, midfielders will get an extra point for a goal. They'll also get an extra point. So Salah counts as a midfield player, even though he's anything but a midfielder. Yes. And Bowen is a striker, by the way. Bowen should be a midfielder as well. But we're getting to that. He plays off the right, doesn't he? It's the same as Salah. Exact same as Salah. Yeah. What are we thinking? Salah, we put in. Straight away. We put him in. Points they both scored last season. Can you get that sort of information?

3:33How can I? Two sets, guys. Salah was the leader by miles last season. Yeah. Ristol. He's in. But he's going to cost us 14.5 million. And we've only got 100 million to spend. How much is Haaland? Haaland is 14 million. So that's only half a million. He's only half a million. Can I tell you the points scored last season? Yes. Mo Salah 344. Yeah. 344. And the next midfielder, let's go down. The next midfielder had 236. So over 100 points. 100 points. Over 100 points. Brian and Bumo is obviously now United. Brian and Bumo has gone to Manchester United. Erling Hall, and he did have his injuries, only 181 points.

4:12All right. But he was injured, sorry. And the team struggled a bit last season compared with what they've done previously. Correct. So what goes, the thinking here, I mean, I know I've just spent three hours, well, two and a half hours on the train with you, and you've spent the whole time talking, so we can't spend two and a half hours. So, right, if you go with Salah, does that mean you've got to have a proper striker, a nine? It doesn't work like that. It just forwards. It's just forwards. But forwards are strikers. And those of you listening to this and thinking, what a stupid question. Not everybody knows how fantasy football works.

4:47Correct. Although a lot of people do. The forwards are the nines. Yeah. They're your Watkins, your Matetas. Eketike's now a nine. Giao Pedro. Giao Pedro. You've got Jokarez. You've got Sesco, the new player. So you've got a few nines to pick from. So what are the forwards you're going to go with? So how much budget do you allow for your forwards? Do you have to have three forwards? Yeah, three forwards. But this is confusing because Salah counts as a midfielder. Because he counts as a midfielder, yeah. Which is weird, but anyway. I think we go as if we were going to play our formation. And formation we could go for is probably a 3-5-2 and then have a bench forward.

5:25Yeah. So we can pick two forwards now we definitely want to have. Who would be one that you're going to go, he's in my team, off the bat? Cole Palm. Who's midfielder? He's midfield. Well, he's sort of, you can understand that. Yeah, on the game, he's a midfielder. He's a yes from me and a yes from my family. So we'll just put him in for that. £10.5 million, I think it's an absolute steal. Isn't that one of the issues? If you go Salah and Haaland, it's very hard to also have someone like Cole Palmer and another expenser. Say like a Saka or Fernandez. It's why you can only have one of them. Because otherwise your team, you don't get your Palmers or your Saka or your Verts.

6:03You're going to pick Verts. Yeah. So we've got the two main boys in. Any other certs in your mind? Any other certs? Have you got a defender who's a cert? I've got one other cert and I'd have Oli Watkins up front. That's one I'd have. He's nine million. He's going to take penalties, which a lot of the other strikers might not do because you've got the Salas, Palmers, Bruno Fernandes takes pens. He's one of the strikers who actually just takes pens. Fixtures as well. Great fixtures. We can go on his fixtures actually here and we could read them out. Early fixtures, you mean? Because generally the fixtures, they'll all play the same teams.

6:36Yeah, early doors. Over the course of the season. Early doors. So fixtures, Newcastle, Brentford, Palace, Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Burnley. Yeah. Wow. Are his early fixtures. Takes pens. For me, I'm on. And what price is Ollie Watkins? Nine million. He's a consistent point. You know what you're getting there, right? And he makes goals as well. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. So we're saying Watkins? Can you go Watkins? Are you happy? I'm happy to go with Watkins. Giles, are you happy with Watkins? I love Oli Watkins. But you mean in terms of fantasy football? I think he's reliable. And I think you know he's going to play.

7:14And he's a consistent goal scorer. One other name I'll throw out there while we're doing strikers is João Pedro. João Pedro. 7.5 million. Classy in the Club World Cup. 5-5 for Chelsea, including the Club World Cup. He's got a couple of pre-seasons. 7.5 million. Is he going to play 90 minutes though? Minutes is the thing. They've got in Lee and the lap now as well haven't they? They've got Esteval as well who can play anywhere across the front. You've got me thinking about that as well. Or Jal Pedro can play differently as well. I've seen him on the left. Correct. Correct. The question is would you have him in your team for 70 minutes over other strikers having 90 for his price of 7.5 million?

7:56On current form yes. that's what I'd have at the start and then if he sees not you can always Can I ask just a couple of dopey probably questions here. Big number nine signing, Sesco obviously for Manchester United. I suspect people will be a little bit nervous because we're not sure how many United are going to do considering how poor they were that season. But Gorkas I was earwig which I can do quite easily with these big boys on the train up and it seems like quite a large percentage of Premier League fantasy football players are going with Giorcares 20 odd percent I think it was it was 27 % on Giorcares it was I think just over 20 for Watkins you thought Watkins was going to be picked more didn't you I did you were surprised when you saw that I think Giorcares is a hype vibe it's unknown and I bought into the hype of Giorcares in my other team but this is the rest

9:00How much is Giocares? Same as Watkins, nine million. Nine million. But Watkins is proven. Proven in the Premier League. But Arsenal, obviously, a team that you would think might create. And he's probably going to take penalties. Yeah, but... It's a swear for me. Because Giocares probably won't because Saka does. But you're a striker. Yes. And in them situations, how many times have we talked about Arsenal? Once they get into them areas, Havertz, brilliant. I think he's a fantastic player. But he's more of a number 10. I agree. Spiker's instinct in there, Jokeres could be the one to get you goals.

9:32So that's why... Yeah, Jokeres I've watched a lot of, although I saw his goal in pre-season, which was he did make a really good run into the bench. And the header. But a lot of the time he goes through, doesn't he? Yeah, agreed. He's a runner. He's a runner. And it's hard to do that with Arsenal because they tend to play against teams for the low block because of the way they play, a bit like Manchester City. So I think, I don't know, this is me. I'm not a fantasy football player until now. But I would guess I'd gamble on Watkins ahead of Jokeres at the moment because... You can also have a look at Jokeres while you have Watkins.

10:08I know what Jokeres is like as a player, but I mean, unknown in terms of Premier League. If you have a look at Watkins for the first three games, because he's done it, and Jokeres is playing, he's got a couple goals. Nine million, nine million. You can just swap them. You can swap them. You have one transfer a week, you can just swap them. but because he's unknown I would go with the Premier League known and they've got a decent run and they've got fixtures and Arsenal start with United and they've got some they've got some tough fixtures after I'm going to get their fixtures up

10:42they've got United then they've got Leeds but then they've got Liverpool Forest Man City so tough start eh so they've got a tough start that's probably why I'd lean to Watkins now I've obviously bore witness to to both of your two fantasy football teams for a couple of years now. And Saka's always been part of it. Is he going to make it? I'm not sure. Why? I would love to have him. Expensive? But he's 10 million quid. Or Palmer. And I think it's Saka or Palmer. It's the one or the other. If you've got Salah, you can't have all three. Yeah. Too much money. So if you've got... You could do, but you'd have a really low defence in terms of value.

11:26So I'd throw Verts in there. Do you think Saka Verts might get similar points? He's a million and a half cheaper. It means you have a difference between a 4.5 defender who might be a Van der Ven or you have a Gabriel. That's the difference in money. So if you don't have Saka, you have a Verts, then you can have a bit better at the back. It just balances it a bit more. I think with three of them, you'd lose the balance. Can you explain to guys a little bit about the value rise if someone's doing well? Because this is what he's a technician at in terms of the value of the players increase if they're doing well because a lot of people want to buy him, almost like a stock market.

12:07It's painful for a fantasy football player. If a player's doing well and you're looking at him, you want to bring him in, he's the same price as another player you've got. If he does well, an amount of people in fantasy football bring that player in he will go up by 0.1 million and then you look to bring him in and you go I can't I haven't got money in the bank anymore and then you cry it's awful you've seen me on a Saturdays I have seen you in the room that could be the problem with Jokras say Watkins has two games doesn't score Jokras gets two you look to change him to Jokras Jokras will be 9.1 million you can't get him but 0.1 million I know it's not there it's in 0.5 so then you can't bring a player in oh I see they round everything up Yeah, well, Watkins is nine and Jokeres is nine.

12:53If he goes to 9.1, you can't then take Watkins out for Jokeres. You'd have to make two subs to make the difference. So why Palmer over Saka? If that's the decision, if you think that's it. He takes free kicks, he takes penalties. Saka take... He scores a lot more goals. They both take corners. I think he's just a little bit more involved in the game, in attacking areas. Because he plays centrally, doesn't he? Yeah, centrally. And I think with Parma, he's allowed to go anywhere on the pitch, whereas Saka does a lot of defensive work. My thing here, though, is if Arsenal start really well, it'll probably be because Saka provides Giocares with no chances.

13:38And if you've got neither of them, you will be seriously, seriously depressed. So after two weeks, what you can do if that happens is you can change Palmer and Watkins you go Saka and Jokers you can do that because you have enough money for that you've got enough money correct you can do that I'm liking it so far guys I'm liking it I think we get our dead certs defender who we want defender we want one of the prime the one of the premium 6 million don't we so who are the premium 6 million I'm going to get them up now Gabriel must be one of them I imagine yes correct he scores goals so even though I know that so the premiums are Gabriel Saliba Kukurea, Frimpong, Kerkhez, Robertson, Virgil, Aitnori and Guardiol.

14:22So how many of those you got to choose, mate? Well, I would always pick Guardiol because he's playing left back. And he scores goals. But now because Aitnori's come, Guardiol might play centre back. So will you pick Aitnori? So Aitnori would be my thinking more than Guardiol just this season. I think we put him in for now. Aitnori. I hate Norrie. I mean, he's very forward. He's almost a wingman. Oh, he's amazing. He's absolutely amazing. His technical ability is brilliant. Overlapping. He's got absolutely everything for this team. But he does leave Man City exposed to a counter-attack. And we know that Man City's weakness is counter-attack.

15:01And then if you concede, you don't get the free clean sheet bonus. You don't get clean sheet bonus, correct. I think you put him in for the work he does that way. Offensively. and City are going to get their clean sheets aren't they but when you get both when you get an attack so how many 6 million defenders can you afford really realistically two I think we can put two in for now and then when we do the rest of the team if we've got to put one down to a 5.5 all we can makes sense but my other six would be I'd go with the goals Gabriel Gabriel is he fit again now I mean he played I think did he get a knock in pre-season yes he played the last game though and by all accounts He's fine.

15:41Clean sheets and is an asset from set pieces. So, Gabriel was good for me last season. So, I'd definitely go with Gabriel. Gabriel? Yeah. Okay, Gabriel's in. Gabriel. Gabriel, yeah. It's getting tasty now. I think we do another midfielder. Ooh. There's a lot of names on this sheet behind us there. We're putting ours in, obviously. This is ours. That would have been the former. Somebody else has been playing before. I just want to make that clear. of people sitting we're not dropping these people no no no they're not being dropped just so

16:18sorry one of the midfielder where are you going next since I opened the app and went in my team one of the first players I've pinned Florian Wals Florian Wals Liverpool's news sign what a football I mean I don't even remember but when we started the pod two years ago one of the first shows that we ever did on the rest of the football. We big ducked Lionbert. We did, yeah. Yeah, because we'd watched him and he's at Leverkusen. I think he's just an extraordinary talent, you know, in terms of getting on a half turn in the half space. He's playing the ball forward. And he can dribble. But since I've watched him in pre-season for Liverpool, it's more the cue passes around the box.

17:01You know, them little ones where another player might take two, three more seconds to control it and pass it. It's just instant with it. He lends it, gives it, he gets it. So, Verts for eight and a half million. I think he looks good value. I think the amount of points he gets this season. Who would be the other players if you were picking someone? Because midfield players. Bruno Fernandes is ninth. Bruno Fernandes. Bruno's half a million more. He's got Marmouche's eight and a half as well. Marmouche. Probably take Verts head and more. I thought Marmouche did okay last season. And I think also it's difficult coming in in January, isn't it?

17:35So, he needs a bit of time. I think he'll probably do well this season. But it looks like he's playing high and central. And he'll be dictating everything. I think he'll get a lot of goals and assists. A lot of points. And pre-season, he's made a few already. He's got one, he's scored. He's hit the bar. So he's in and around. Assist in the community shield. He looked really good in the community shield. He looked really, really good. Is there a TK? He's a striker in this. And he could build a left or front. He's 8.5 million. How much is Mateta? 7.5 million that's a good option the João Pedro the Mateta the Eketike 7.5 8.5 they're all viable options definitely but what do you what do you do though if you've got Salah do you want to hedge your bets because if you've got Salah and Eketike Eketike in the same team and Wurt then you can't have a defender that's mmm I would just wait for Eketike because we know Isak still might go and if Isak goes then Ekotiki either plays wide or gets less minutes I suppose at the moment because of the Isak situation everyone's leaving him alone a little bit or would he go more expensive if he went to Liverpool or not no it's the same he would be for me if he went to Liverpool I'm shooing him straight into my team Isak he's 10 million but at the minute he might not he might not play at all he might not so you can't possibly gamble on him can you yeah no we're away from with Ekati if Esak comes in then you can't have him shall I quickly call Alan Shearer see if he's got Esak in his team he's not speaking to us is he he's not seen him for two weeks it's his birthday today that's why he's not here happy birthday Alan happy birthday Alan shall we put Verts in may all your Esaks come true shall we put Verts in now yes go ahead let's do it Verts Verts flying Verts shall we put a spine now there's some good players there we've got 44.5 million pounds left with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 to pick you've got to remember we haven't picked a bench that's where we can put some lower costs what is the cheapest play?

19:504 million 4 million defenders and we'll definitely be having 1 or even 2 maybe do you do that at the end? you do that at the end, you sort of want to get your spine and then you can see where else you go But also, your spine might change. Correct. Might change as we go along here. This could be the longest stress this football ever has. People are looking. Ian there's carrying that camera.

20:18He could be struggling. Oh, it's lovely. It's great. No, it's fascinating. It's nice. Hey, you're doing a great job, eh? He's just... He replaced Alan, didn't he? Yeah, he's five hours a day, every day. My head, causing me headaches. Yeah. Brilliant. He's obsessed with this. He lives this. Should we do a keeper? Yes. Yes. Right. Do we want to go premium? Do we want to go just below? Or do we want to go 4.5? So last year I had cells at Forest. And he was only four and a half. He's five this year. He's gone up now. His stock's gone up. Yeah, well, Pickford need to be expensive as well. He's premium.

20:53What do you mean, 5.5? Premium is 5.5. Let's go to goalkeepers. They were correct here. But I'm pretty sure that Pickford, yeah, he's 5.5 premium. Right. Along with Edison, Allison and Rhea. Yeah. So this is where you kind of start having to save a bit of money. Yes, you tweak a little bit. Or you don't. Can we see the points from last year, H? Have you got that? Pickford is at the top. He comes top most seasons, Pickford. So if you look here, guys, this was all last year. This is what the points they got. And Sells was only 4.5. But now his stock's risen. He's 5 million. Yeah. Rea was a good shout last year.

21:35Yeah, but they're the expensive ones, so you'd expect that. Yeah. So, I think we're more in the middle range, aren't we? What about something like De Brogan or Aris Malaga? Aris Malaga. Kepa has gone to Arsenal, so you can't have Kepa because he's a number two now. And two options at 4.5. Yeah, but if you're a number two, you never concede. You never get no points. exactly oh yeah there's a couple of options at 4.5 there's Keller who's from Liverpool Keller I like yeah to Brentford that's a good option because he's a good keeper he'll make a lot of saves and the other option is for Bruggan because you get points saves not just clean sheets those are the two options I'd have at 4.5 and then if you wanted to go to 5 that's where you've got your Sanchez your Henderson Leno for Fulham I don't think there's that much difference between the 4.5 and the 5 a lot of people are going with Sanchez this year they've got lovely He was really good in the Club World Cup as well.

22:30It seems as though he's got his confidence back a little bit. I'm not against that, Sean. But I think you'd rather spend the money here than the goalkeeper. I'd go for Verbruggen or I'd go for Kelleher personally. That's what I'd do. But when we see our whole team and if we've got money left over, we could upgrade to the five-year-old. Do you want to go with Verbruggen? Should we do it for now? Yeah, just put him in and see where we go. They have lost some players. But that makes him busier, yeah? If they don't play as well, they make more saves, they get more points. Clean sheets is king. You're not going to get a clean sheet very often.

23:08Okay. So have you gone with Rogan? And then let's just put in, we know the other keeper now because there's only one option. So you have to have a reserve keeper, do you? Yep. And that is Martin Dubravka. He's gone to Burnley. He's 4 million because he was originally at Newcastle. he was a backup to Pope so they put him at 4 million which is the cheapest option now he might start so you've got a keeper who starts on the bench for the cheapest amount well hang on a minute why don't you start Dubravka over Verbruggan because if he's cheaper or you've got to spend the same amount of money you've got to spend the same amount of money you've got to pick you've got to always pick one but Burnley hardly conceded I never win the championship well in Burnley's second game of the season they play Sunderland so you might pick Dubravka for that game and Verbruggan for the bench you can pick Oh, okay.

23:55Got you. Understood. How much money have you got? 37 million. How many players? That's five players. No. Oh, no. You've got subs as well. Yeah, we've got subs. We've got subs. But we've picked the expensive ones already, so we've got enough money to play with it. What are you thinking now? Where are we going next? Now it gets a little bit sticky, guys. I think we do our second striker. And we go back to the conversation of Mateta, Joao, Pedro. how much are they they're both 7.5 you can go even cheaper you go 6.5 you get Raul Jimenez you get Strand Larsson a lot of people have gone with Beto and Beto's even cheaper 5.5 5.5 I can see why they're all cheap but you Everton just signed a new striker from Villarreal no offense Beto's minutes are limited they've just signed a striker from Villarreal so they might compete so you probably want to have a look first yeah I guess you want one that plays.

24:53When you start your team in fantasy football usually you want to go for absolute like nailed on starters. Agreed. That's why Joao Pedro he might not get enough minutes. You know Mateta's going to get minutes so Mateta's a good shot. Mateta's good but he's away at Chelsea in his first game so the chance of him scoring Yeah but they're good on the counter. They are good on the counter. I like going in the form. Joao Pedro's on the form he's a great shot seven and a half million. Seven and a half million. Chelsea number nine. Yeah. Seven and a half. And they will with the greater players they've got around.

25:26I think Palmer and Pedro in the final. Yeah, the link up was... If we had both of them in the team. Yeah, sensational. Is that right? Teta or Pedro? That's the question. Who would you have, Gaz? For the first game, I would have Pedro. You can change. Because we're at home. You can change. But you've got to think five games, six games. Six games, yeah. What are the fixtures? Chelsea fixtures are very, very, very good. Yeah. Yeah. I think we did the Chelsea fixtures. I mean, he's going to get more chances than Mateta, if he plays. Very nice fixtures for Chelsea. There you go. Crystal Palace, West Ham, Fulham, Brentford, United, Brighton.

26:05Really good fixtures. I'll take that. I think Gio Pedro. I think Gio Pedro. My gut says Gio Pedro. I know Mateta's a handful, and he does. If he gets on a run, he can go on game and game and game through scores. Who takes Poulos?

26:29is he in the equation at the moment but not i'd probably wait anyway no he's another one who's at what is 7.5 seven and a half seven it's expensive i think with 10.5 14.5 8.5 it's tough to have another. I think we'd have to go into the sixth. Do you know if the players worry about their value? Oh, 100%. Yeah. I did mine. I worry about my value all the time. Were you cheap? Four million? On bracket three and a half million? I got both assists. Yeah, I got a few assists to be pretty. I'm kidding, but I wonder if I'm playing, you're going... They play. They know about it. Right. Yeah, yeah. Mo Salah will love the fact he's down the most expensive fair.

27:18100%. Yeah, I think I saw him mention that actually in some of you. Yeah, he said in the interview, make sure you pick him. Yeah. He said, well, we better pick him. What more do you mean by score goals? We have picked him. Okay. So, Pedro's in, is he? If Eze goes and we need to change after a few weeks, Mateta's on penalties, he's going well. We can do as well. What's Palace's game like? Palace start quite tough. Chelsea away, Forest, Villa away. Palace is your first game. That's going to screw your head up. I know, yeah. If Pedro doesn't score and Mateta scores. Pedro doesn't play. Head loss, head loss.