FANTASY FORECAST 2018/19: FPL Gameweek 23
Ahead of each Gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League, The Hype Train invites a special guest onto its Fantasy Forecast, where the three members of the Hype Team and its Special Guests will duel for FPL supremacy in predicting Premier League scores, as well as going head to head in picking a Scout Picks squad for the relevant Gameweek. In addition, we give our insight into who are the players to watch and those to drop, both for traditional FPL leagues and the Draft mode, as well as providing insight into captaincy picks, differentials for the week, and more. Welcome to the Forecast. All aboard.
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 23 Deadline
For the 2016/17 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. The Premier League website lists each FPL deadline, you can always ask on social media, and you can also view a real time countdown on our Weekly Hype page.
How does our Forecasting work?
We have taken to our Hype Team, and the FPL Community, to compete in a weekly head to head dual of wits. We ask the questions that dominate each week in the Fantasy Premier League: who to pick, who to avoid, who to captain, and who may surprise. The three members of the Hype Team, and a Guest, will provide weekly insight for the Gameweek ahead.
For the sake of respecting the rules of the Forecast, we have provided an example of what we're sending out to interested parties that will feature throughout the season.
Premier League Fixture Prediction: As pundits, we are testing our football acumen with PL predictions and will be providing regular updated tables and stats in each edition of the FPL Forecast. A perfect score is worth 3 points whilst a correct result is worth 1 point.
FPL Gameweek Forecasting: Answering the regular questions that come up every single week in the Fantasy Premier League community that helps with identifying captaincy picks, transfers, attacking options, clean sheet potential, teams to look our for and avoid, players to consider for the Draft game, the wildcard differential players, as well as general analysis and comments.
Scout Picks: Picking a squad of 15 for a single Gameweek, without any budget, using the rules of the FPL - formations, captains and vice captains, and the player limits of 3 per club (chips will not be feature of these weekly picks)
Each team must pick a Captain, labelled as (c) and a Vice Captain listed as (vc).
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 23
Wolves 1-1 Leicester
Bournemouth 2-1 West Ham
Liverpool 3-0 Crystal Palace
Man United 3-0 Brighton
Newcastle 1-0 Cardiff
Southampton 1-2 Everton
Watford 2-1 Burnley
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea
Huddersfield 0-4 Man City
Fulham 0-1 Spurs
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 23
Best GW Attacking Options:
Bournemouth (H) vs. West Ham
Liverpool (H) vs. Crystal Palace
Man United (H) vs. Brighton
Everton (A) vs. Southampton
Watford (H) vs. Burnley
Man City (A) vs. Huddersfield
Best GW Defensive / Clean Sheet Potential:
Liverpool (H) vs. Crystal Palace
Man United (H) vs. Brighton
Newcastle (H) vs. Cardiff
Man City (A) vs. Huddersfield
Spurs (A) vs. Fulham
Who are the teams to look out for?:
Liverpool: The Reds are now cheating their way to the top with the help of Mo Salah’s mischievous ways. According to everyone with an agenda the Reds are cheating their way to the title to end their title drought, acting desperate to get the job done. Cheating is winning apparently, so watch out Palace.
Newcastle: This is a sink or swim moment, and I think Rafa will see them through this storm. This is six pointer and Newcastle were unlucky not to walk away with the three points in the return fixture were it not for Kenedy missing a penalty.
Who are the teams to avoid?:
Chelsea: Both teams in this fixture can slip up in this one.
Arsenal: Both teams in this fixture can slip up in this one.
GW Differential Picks:
Salah and Robertson…according to the FPL Community.
‘OMG I can’t believe nobody is thinking about the Salah & Robbo combo! I’m a living fantasy genius!!’ – Basic FPL Accounts.
FPL Captaincy Picks:
(C): Mohamad Salah – The Egyptian King continues the trip on my captaincy hype train for the last dozen gameweeks, and with Palace at home the ‘serial diver’ is odds on the best player.
(VC): Marcus Rashford – Yeah, I know, I can’t believe it either. Rashford is decent now. Decent enough to be behind Salah this week for the captaincy.
FPL Hype Picks: Gameweek 23
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Martin Dubravka
DEF: John Stones
DEF: Luke Shaw
DEF: Andrew Robertson
MID: Christian Eriksen
MID: Paul Pogba
MID: Raheem Sterling
MID: Mohamad Divah (C)
FOR: Marcus Rashford (VC)
FOR: Roberto Firmino
FOR: Sergio Aguero
Substitutes
GK: David De Gea
MID: Leroy Sane
DEF: Fabian Schar
DEF: Nathaniel Clyne
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 23 Wolves 2-0 Leicester Bournemouth 2-1 West Ham Liverpool 4-2 Crystal Palace Man United 3-1 Brighton Newcastle 2-0 Cardiff Southampton 0-3 Everton Watford 1-0 Burnley Arsenal 1-3 Chelsea Huddersfield 0-5 Man City Fulham 2-1 Spurs
FPL Hype Picks: Gameweek 23 Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Martin Dubravka
DEF: Andrew Robertson DEF: Lucas Digne DEF: Matt Doherty
MID: Eden Hazard MID: Mohammed Salah (C) MID: Paul Pogba MID: Richarlison Andrade
FOR: Sergio Aguero (VC) FOR: Marcus Rashford FOR: Salomon Rondon
Substitutes
GK: Ben Foster MID: Raheem Sterling DEF: Marcos Alonso DEF: Jose Holebas
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 23
Wolves 2-1 Leicester
Bournemouth 2-2 West Ham
Liverpool 3-0 Crystal Palace
Man United 2-0 Brighton
Newcastle 1-0 Cardiff
Southampton 1-2 Everton
Watford 2-0 Burnley
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea
Huddersfield 0-3 Man City
Fulham 1-2 Spurs
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 23
Best GW Attacking Options:
Bournemouth and West Ham
Everton (a) vs. Southampton
Liverpool (H) vs. Crystal Palace
Watford (H) vs. Burnley
Man City (a) vs. Huddersfield
Best GW Defensive / Clean Sheet Potential:
Liverpool (H) vs. Crystal Palace
Watford (H) vs. Burnley
Man City (a) vs. Huddersfield
Who are your essential Gameweek player picks?:
Must have: Mohamed Salah
Mini-league differential: Roberto Pereyra
Silent killers: Roberto Firmino
‘I wish I hadn’t transferred him out’: Richarlison
Troll of the week: Trent Alexander-Arnold
‘My Head to Head opponent has him and I’m scared of his potential’: Ben Foster
Who are the players that might make the difference this Gameweek in the Draft?:
Nathaniel Clyne and Oumar Niasse – a couple of new transfers who might tighten up your squad, especially Niasse given how much of a luxury Forward’s are in the Draft game.
Who are the teams to look out for?:
Everton: Southampton’s form shows very little consistency, and neither does Everton’s in all fairness, so this could go one of two ways. One is a scrappy, tight affair with minimal goal threat, or a goal-laden affair with lots to shout about. Given Southampton fans typically don’t have a lot to shout about, the latter seems more likely with the hosts as the eventual losers.
Man City: Huddersfield just got rid of a very astute Manager in David Wagner and if that hasn’t circled the shark team at Man City, what will?
Newcastle: Our game against Cardiff is huge this weekend and after consulting with some fellow Toon fans, the only outcome looks to be a 1-0 swing either way. Fingers crossed Rafa’s men have something to shout about come the end of the weekend.
Watford: Good home fixture on paper against Burnley that surely Javi Gracia’s side will win.
Who are the teams to avoid?:
Arsenal and Chelsea: Both teams face an interesting game at The Emirates which makes predicting their FPL assets a hard task. We don’t expect clean sheets, and perhaps an Eden Hazard goal.
Leicester: I’ve got no idea what direction the board want to take the club and are given Claude Puel a really hard time to make things work at Leicester. Jamie Vardy can only bail them out so many times before a seemingly inevitable change occurs – which to me is absolutely crazy given his league finishes in recent years.
FPL Captaincy Picks:
(C) Mohamed Salah – It’s the right move, for the right player, at the right time.
(VC) Marcus Rashford – It’s the right move, for the right player, at the right time.
Other Gameweek Comments:
Next deadline is after a round of FA Cup game, so if possible, try to avoid making early transfers. You never know when news will change about players, especially after developments regarding Trent Alexander-Arnold surfaced earlier today.
FPL Hype Picks: Gameweek 23
Formation: 3-5-2
Starting 11
GK: Martin Dubravka
DEF: Andrew Robertson
DEF: Virgil van Dijk
DEF: Luke Shaw
MID: Mohamed Salah (C)
MID: Raheem Sterling
MID: Paul Pogba
MID: Dele Alli
MID: Roberto Pereyra
FOR: Marcus Rashford (VC)
FOR: Sergio Aguero
Substitutes
GK: Hugo Lloris
FOR: Salomon Rondon
DEF: Kieran Trippier
DEF: Kiko Femenia
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 23
Wolves 2-1 Leicester
Bournemouth 1-2 West Ham
Liverpool 3-0 Crystal Palace
Man United 3-1 Brighton
Newcastle 0-1 Cardiff
Southampton 1-2 Everton
Watford 2-1 Burnley
Arsenal 2-2 Chelsea
Huddersfield 0-3 Man City
Fulham 0-2 Spurs
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 23
Best GW Attacking Options:
Salah & Rashford stand out clearly as excellent prospects for GW23. Both could easily see double digit returns with two kind home fixtures.
In terms of a more differential pick in terms of ownership, Eriksen could have to step up if Spurs want to continue pushing on without Son & Kane. With a share of free kicks and a steady stream of goals recently and still only owned by 7%, he’d be our pick from the Spurs ranks
Best GW Defensive / Clean Sheet Potential:
Despite us giving Southampton a goal in our predictions, we’re keen to suggest Digne as one of the must own defenders for GW23. His attacking/set piece potential makes him a points magnet when things go right for Everton, as seen in GW22.
With TAA out for Liverpool, we see VVD/Robertson as our other picks. Both seem to be guaranteed bonus points each week, but of the two, we’d maybe side with VVD with him coming in slightly cheaper and often teasing with a goal threat.
If you’re looking for budget to spread your funds elsewhere, you could do much worse than go for Sol Bamba of Cardiff. At only 4.5m and only facing Arsenal from the Top 6 between now and GW32, he could be a good 3rd/4th defender.
Who are your essential Gameweek player picks?:
Must have this week for us is Mo Salah. With 5 double-digit returns in his last 7, it takes a brave person to go without him. He offers a set-and-forget captain option and with only 3 more Top 6 teams to play this season, he’s not likely to see his returns dry up just yet!
Others to consider alongside in our opinion would be Pogba, Rashford, Aubameyang, Eriksen & Sane. Owning 2/3 alongside Salah should be enough of a foundation to build your teams around!
Who are the players that might make the difference this Gameweek in the Draft?:
We have a sneaking suspicion that Jesus has won over Pep’s faith, and with Huddersfield there for the taking this weekend, we feel like he could be the one who’s gone under the radar and could be there to net you those extra points on your rivals!
Who are the teams to look out for?:
The obvious team at the moment is Manchester United. They’re finally offering a range of players worth owning, Pogba & Rashford being the clear go to players at the moment. Lindelof, Shaw & De Gea are also starting to look appealing as an alternative in defence too.
We’d suggest having at least one attacking player from City & Liverpool for this week too. Salah is almost essential but Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne & Jesus offer some differential potential for those looking to ascend those mini leagues!
Who are the teams to avoid?:
We’re still not convinced by Southampton. They may have started to look slightly improved under Hasenhuttl, but none of their players really stand out as "must have”, even Redmond as their bargain option. Possibly only Bednarek is worth having as a 90min player who will free up funds.
Other no-go’s are Newcastle & Burnley. They may look like they have bargains among their ranks, but we feel they’ll be problems in a matter of weeks that need to be fixed.
GW Differential Picks:
Etheridge (vs NEW), Eriksen (vs FUL) & Jesus (vs HUD)
FPL Captaincy Picks:
(C): Salah
(VC): Rashford
FPL Hype Picks: Gameweek 23
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Alisson
DEF: Van Dijk
DEF: Digne
DEF: Trippier
MID: Salah (C)
MID: Pogba
MID: Nasri
MID: Eriksen
FOR: Aubameyang
FOR: Rashford (VC)
FOR: Jesus
Substitutes
GK: Etheridge
MID: Richarlison
DEF: Shaw
DEF: Bamba
Want to know more about The Hype Train?
The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in the Fantasy Premier League (#FPL), providing beautiful graphics and weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb ranking tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review movies, live sport, and professional wrestling.
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The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog 2016' by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), with the final presentation held at Old Trafford in Manchester.
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All aboard.
