Thread by @FplEye

🧵First Wildcard Strategy - Part 2 | Players to Target🏹| Thread (2/2)📝

Here I'll talk about which players to target for your first WC if you're playing it in GW7/GW8.

I'll cover the best defensive and attacking assets from different teams and provide some comparisons.

If you still haven't checked out the first part of my Wildcard Strategy thread please have a look here.👇

• When to play your Wildcard
• Benefits of playing WC in GW7/GW8/GW12
• Fixtures to target
• Fixture guide for Wildcarding in GW7, GW8, GW12

🏹Players to target:

🔘Chelsea
Chelsea have been one of the best defensive sides. As most of the managers are planning to bring in one or two CHE players in their WC in GW7/8, I’ll try to dig into the CHE team more than others.

A comparison of Chelsea defensive assets:

Antonio Rüdiger (£5.7m)

It seems he is one of the rarely nailed on players in Tuchel’s highly rotational CHE side. Rüdiger started all of the 6 games and played the highest amount of minutes. Defensively the German Center back is quite strong and also an aerial threat in the...

...set-pieces which offer some potential attacking returns as well once in a while. He also scored a late goal against Spurs in GW5.

• Nailed on
• Attacking threat: Low
• 14.7% TSB
• Price: Good value
• Safe pick

Marcos Alonso (£5.8m)

After last night's CL game, his starting position squad is somewhat questioned. He was subbed off after the first half and Chilwell came in. It's difficult to predict who'll get more minutes from now on. Personally, I think Alonso will play the easier...

...games in the league. However, attacking wise Alonso has been phenomenal as always. Only Lukaku had more shots and SoT than Alonso in the Chelsea squad.

• Not 100% nailed on
• Attacking threat: Very high
• 22.0% TSB
• Somewhat risky pick but higher ceiling

César Azpilicueta (£6.0m)

Veteran Chelsea defender who can play both as an RB and RCB. His utility makes it easier for Tuchel to use him in different ways. He doesn’t offer much attacking wise but he likes to put some crosses in the box from time to time...

..Now that James is injured, he’ll start most of the games I reckon.

• Nailed
• Attacking threat: Medium
• 4.0% TSB
• Safe pick
• High price

Andreas Christensen (£5.0m)

Christensen is an interesting take on this Chelsea side. He’s offering the managers to bank an extra £0.5m which can be vital for some. He started 5 out of 6 games this season and kept 3 CS. If you want to double up on Chelsea's defense...

then he can an option. He might not start every game but having a playing bench who can cover will make it worth getting those double CS points.

• Not 100% nailed
• Attacking threat: Low
• 3.3% TSB
• Price: Fair
• Good option only for doubling up CHE DEF

Thiago Silva (£5.4m)

• Rotational risk
• Attacking threat: Low
• 3.2% TSB
• Avoid

Reece James (£5.6m)

• Currently injured, avoid.

Edouard Mendy (£6.0m)

• Doubling up on one CHE defender and Mendy could be a strategy.

Odds of keeping CS via @drafthound

Attacking Assets

Romelu Lukaku (£11.7m)

Lukaku will be one of the most popular captaincy options for GW7-GW11. In Tuchel’s wingback system, Lukaku is the focal point of their attack and very likely to return points in this good run of fixtures.

He's the best attacking (perhaps the only?) asset to target in this CHE side.

• 3 goals in 5 starts
• xG 2.4, xA 1.4 (highest in the team)
• 34.4% TSB
• Highest shots (15) and SoT (5) in the team

Odds of scoring 2.5+ goals via @drafthound

🔵Manchester City

Defensive Assets:

João Cancelo (£6.1m)

• Highest pts among DEFs (44)
• 2nd highest touches in opp pen area among DEF
• 12.6% TSB
• Currently seem to be nailed (bold thing to say I KNOW)
• Started all 6 games
• Attacking threat: very high

Ruben Dias (£6.1m)

• 2nd highest pts among DEFs (39)
• Only nailed DEF, started all 6 games
• 27.2% TSB
• Bonus pts magnet
• Attacking threat: Only aerial

Given this top Defensive performance by City, doubling up on their defenders could be a strategy also.

CS Odds:

Attacking Assets

Jack Grealish (£8.0m)

•Started all 6 games
•1 goal, 1 assist
•xG 1.7(3rd best in team), xA 1.6(highest in team)
•18.4% TSB

Gabriel Jesus (£8.6m)

•5 starts
•2 goals 3 assists
•xG 1.9 (#2 in team), xA 1.3 (#3 in team)
•TSB 7%, good differential

Ferran Torres (£7.1m)

• Potential OOP (Out of position)
• xG 2.4 (1st in team)
• 2 goals, 1 assist
• Rotational risk (4 starts)
• 11.1% TSB
• Avoid if you don’t have good bench cover

KDB and Foden both are 'wait and see' for now.

Odds of scoring 2.5+ goals:

🟥Arsenal

Improvement in xG Conceded:
GW1-GW3 xGC per 90 mins 2.66
GW4-GW6 xGC per 90 mins 0.96

They've have turned things around defensively as it seems for now.

Defensive Assets:
• Ben White (£4.4m)
• Tomiyasu (£4.5m)
• Tierney (£4.9m)
• Ramsdale (£4.5m)

Odds of CS:

Attacking Assets:

The comparison below shows that Saka tends to take more shots than the other two. But his SoT% is 27.3% whereas ESR holds 62.5%. I'd suggest taking ESR or Saka if you want to pick ARS attacking assets.

⚖️Comparison Saka v ESR v Odegaard:

🟠WOLVES

Defensive assets

Semedo (£4.9m)
• 3.6% TSB
• Attacking threat: very high

Marcal (£4.6m)
• 6.9% TSB
• Currently nailed

Raul Jimenez (£7.5m)
• 4.9% TSB, good differential
• 2nd highest in creativity index among FWDs

Watchlist: Hee-Chan Hwang (£5.5m) [FWD].

🔴Southampton

• Livramento (£4.2m)
• Armstrong (£6.0m)

SOU offer some good budget options or to think about. Especially, Livramento’s been playing impressive so far and I think if you still don’t own him, you really should bring him into your WC team.

🧐Good Value Options:

While playing a WC, you’d probably need some good budget options for your team to shape up, especially in this season, there are so many good premiums. Here, I’ll try to suggest the best budget options.

• Raphinha (£6.5m) - LEE
• Benrahma (£6.6m) – WHU

• Gray (£5.8m) - EVE
• Gallagher (£5.7m) – CRY
• Saint-Maximin (£6.8m) – NEW
• Doucoure (£5.6m) – EVE

Another popular budget option is Watford's talisman Sarr (£6.3m). But he doesn't have the best fixture runs from GW8 onwards.

Thanks for reading.🙏

Data from: fbref.com and @drafthound

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