Will you make any changes to your Fantasy Football XI before the weekend?
Wednesday 30 October 2019 14:55, UK
Former Fantasy Football champion Dan Cox brings us his latest diary, documenting the highs and lows of his Fantasy Football season...
It was a third successive underwhelming weekend for my team. I started the Gameweek on Friday in 996th position after a drop in the previous two weeks.
Having only Caglar Soyuncu (£6.2m), I was hoping for a Leicester clean sheet from Friday Night Football and not much more. While it was a remarkable game, the hat-trick scored by Jamie Vardy inflicted severe damage to my rank - I dropped almost 1,000 places overnight. Vardy was a highly-owned captain and with 40 points, it was a disaster to not own the former England striker. Any other day and you would have been extremely pleased with 20 points from a defender as captain.
Saturday did not get off to a great start. With Sergio Aguero, I was pleased Manchester City were playing in the first game of the day. This meant I could ensure he was starting before confirming him as my captain. But the worst-case scenario ensued - he didn't start again. A nightmare.
To make matters worse, Nicolas Otamendi also didn't make the starting XI.
I finally lost the battle with Pep Guardiola and had to admit defeat with Aguero and Otamendi. Aguero will no doubt start his fair share of games and he will have matches where he hits a double or a hat-trick, but I cannot personally go through the anguish of having a player on the bench every so often, so he had to go.
Otamendi also had to go so I made the swift decision to take him out for Fikayo Tomori. With Chelsea away to Burnley and some good upcoming fixtures, he looked a worthy option, especially given his very reasonable price tag of £6.4m. I did look at Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold but Tomori's price swung it for me. I was just five minutes away from a clean sheet. He did earn tier-one passing bonus points so that was some consolation.
As Aguero did not start, Raheem Sterling was my second choice of captain. With a goal and the man-of-the-match award, it was a good captaincy.
Kevin de Bruyne grabbed an assist and was a David Silva touch away from a fantastic goal. Ederson kept a clean sheet once more and even earned tier two save bonus points.
John McGinn finished with four points, earning a tier-one shot bonus - the Aston Villa midfielder is capable of a variety of bonus points.
Looking at Liverpool, I decided that I should have one of their attacking three. It was the toss of a coin between Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. I opted for Mane, with Sergio Aguero making way. I was close to captaining Mane but made a last-minute switch back to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before the deadline.
I should have left Mane as captain as he grabbed an assist and man-of-the-match award, while Aubameyang had a very quiet day. Still, I was happy enough and I was looking at a decent haul for Aaron Wan-Bissaka as he had made tier two tackling bonus points, making an impressive seven against Norwich, who grabbed a late consolation to dash my hopes of a clean sheet on top of this.
I finished the Gameweek with 85 points and dropped from 996th to 1193rd. At the cost of two transfers, it was not how I intended the week to play out.
XI: Ederson; Wan-Bissaka, Otamendi, Soyuncu, Guilbert; de Bruyne, McGinn, Pepe; Mane, Aubameyang, Sterling
Overall position: 1193rd
Gameweek 12 points: 85
Overall points: 817
XI: Ederson, Wan-Bissaka, Tomori, Soyuncu, Guilbert; de Bruyne, McGinn, Pepe; Mane, Aubameyang, Sterling
Saturday: Raheem Sterling
As mentioned above, Sterling earned 20 points as my Saturday captain last weekend. Manchester City saw Southampton off 3-0 in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday and could run riot again at the Etihad on Saturday, especially with Southampton the recipients of a record-breaking 9-0 Leicester win on Friday Night Football.
Sunday: Caglar Soyuncu
Soyuncu also picked up 20 points as my captain and has 28 points from his last four fixtures with 64 for the campaign - the second-highest scoring defender in Fantasy Football. I am backing him to continue his hot streak at Selhurst Park on Renault Super Sunday.
