2021/2022 Wildcard thread.

1 hour to go. Too much time for messing. Might close the laptop. Here’s where I’ve landed.

Front three will start every week regardless of fixtures. Getting on Ronnie early before the price rises kick in.

Tried to go with a decent fifth mid for when Torres gets rotated. Odegaard in because of ESR illness. Let’s see how he gets on.

Two cheap defenders to be called on if needed but planning to go with Wolves and Leeds each week because of upcoming fixtures. Alonso is a placeholder for James.

Not happy with my keepers. Sanchez hasn’t impressed me and Raya’s fixtures take a nasty turn soon. Need to look at options there

I did the same. Might save me that dreaded red "-0.1m" someday

Very nearly did that but I’m always anxious about having a non-playing keeper. Ditched Sanchez for Bachmann in the end.

I need to take my own advice. I went with Sais in the end.

I did indeed. Delighted with that haul. Tbh if I could have afforded Semedo I’d have gone for him instead so proper lucky break there. Wish I’d gone for Sa and a 4.0 though. Last minute goal for Brighton destroyed my Brentford cleanie.

I have Raya too and also got 69 points, other than injury time for the 3pm games it was nearly a perfect wild card. I'm up to 995 now in the world with just Salah left. Played the bench boost already though as I wanted to get off to a good start as I hated last season.

Well done. To give some balance, I got 34 including a -2 from captain Antonio and a no show from Mount. A wasted wildcard since I took out Bruno and Pogba to fit in Ronaldo.

Technically, it is for one week. I can't play it again. (unless you are kev with infinite WCs). Once your team is confirmed, that's it. No point in looking back.

By next week, everyone will have Ronaldo so my initial hopes for a gain through him being somewhat of a differential are gone.

WC played. Captaining Bruno yesterday seemed to be a nice differential (prior to Salah playing) to make up for no Ronaldo.

Pulled trigger on it yesterday as had a number of issues. (Antonio, Mahrez, Chambers (don't ask), Perica. Wanted Ronaldo/Lukaku)

Sanchez/Steele: Given the fixtures, Brighton defence still seems alright for a 4.5

White/Shaw/Marcal/Ayling/Livramento: White is cheap and Arsenal's fixtures are decent for a run. Shaw showed off his attacking threat yday and United have a decent chance of CS's in the next few fixtures. Marcal I'm annoyed with as wanted before yesterday so looks like chasing points, that said Wolves fixtures upcoming look good. Ayling is a decent 4.5 choice and Livramento a starting 4.0

Salah/Jota/Greenwood/Raphinha/Gray: Salah is Salah. Jota is a slight risk but they've some nice fixtures coming up. Greenwood is also a risk but think Ole will continue to play him, keeps returning too although Jota or Greenwood could turn into Torres. Wanted Raphinha pre season and they've a nice run of fixtures where he could return at his price. Not sold on Gray tbh but not a lot of options at that price point that interest me.

Ronaldo/Lukaku/Dennis: Ronaldo is Ronaldo, him or Bruno and feel Ronaldo will return more. Lukaku I wanted from GW7 but with playing the WC, said I'd get him in. Might be fixture proof too and think he'll cause Spurs problems. Dennis is a cheap playing enabler.

Getting Ronaldo/Lukaku/Salah in was the plan and build around it without making the team weaker. Cheap defensively and would like TAA but he was sacrificed for the moment. Gone away from West Ham assets now with no Antonio, Benrahma is a weaker proposition, especially now they start Europe this week.

Would welcome any feedback!

Bruno and Pogba got 17 points between them and cost 19m, Ronaldo got 13 points and costs 12.5m, so you had 6.5m invested elsewhere that got you points. You chose to captain Antionio over say Ronaldo - who you state that you wanted an initial gain out of - if you thought he would at least get one goal - then why would you not captain him?

As others said a WC isn't based on 1 week, you should be getting players in who you feel will return decent haul over the coming weeks, if you were only concentrated on this GW you should have just played the Free Hit. I had a great GW, but equally next week i might have a crap week - and that's all because of the players picked from my WC. So you have to give it 3/5 GW's before you can call it a waste.

Decent team, but can I ask on some terminology, where did this "gone away from West Ham assets" come from? I've seen a lot of people use it on the forum recently, why not "west ham players". Is there some reference I'm missing?

Wildcard played. Anyone able to get TAA, Salah, Ronaldo and Lukaku into 1 team?

Great shout on Marcal, it doesnt get much better than 18 points from a 4.5m defender. I want a Wolves defender for this fixture run but was holding off till they actually won a game with a clean sheet which theyve done now. Going Ayling direct to Marcal for the same money is easy now given the mess that Leeds defence seems to be in.

Any idea/ comments on this selection ??:

SANCHEZ

TAA-SHAW-REGUILON

RAPHINA-GRAY-SALAH-FORNALS

LUKAKU-ASM-RONALDO

SUBS : STEER-BISSOUMA-LIVRAMENTO-WILLIAMS

or i could swap ASM and WILLIAMS for CANCELO/JAMES and a 4.5 forward

Cheers, yeah looking at this team now. Wanted some chelsea coverage in defence alright so it looks like Shaw will have to bite the bullet.

ESR a bit of a gamble but I'm 0.2 short for someone like odegaard, so might see if i can work the market a bit.

wolves and southampton have nice fixtures with marcal in one week livramento another works out well.

RAMSDALE

JAMES - TAA- MARCAL

ESR - POGBA - SALAH - GRAY

LUKAKU - ASM - RONALDO

SUBS : STEER - BISSOUMA - LIVRAMENTO - WILLIAMS