Fantasy premier league team tips 23/24 – Teams Part 2 (2024)

Hi everyone !!

I hope you’re all having a relaxing and fun summer and enjoyed the break from FPL. I don’t know about you – I love my football, but I always enjoy the rest too, to zone out and turn my attention to family, holidays, cricket, golf and a few beers in the back garden on a summer evening !!

But the fixtures are out for the new season and the FPL game has been launched, so here we go again !!

The biggest question we all have right now is – will this be a “normal season” !! After a couple of Covid hit seasons, then a season interrupted by a Winter World Cup and the passing of our queen, can we finally expect a more conventional season ?

I am delighted to be asked to stay, as a Geek contributor, writing for one of the best FPL sites around, and amongst some esteemed fellow contributors who have some impressive rank histories. Congratulations to Rick Porter on being the Geek top dog last season.

As regular readers will know, I have a reputation for long articles !! And this one will probably be no exception, but once we get into the swing of the season, i am actually intending to reduce the size of my articles. But I’m sure it won’t be by much. I am also ditching my YouTube channel this season. It was a fun experience for a season but time consuming too. So I am claiming a bit of time back for “me” this season

I will still be active on my twitter account, so give me a follow there @fplwhitty.

I will be writing regular articles here every week. You also have the option to receive all my pre deadline teams and live transfers as they are made.

I know I don’t look a day over 35, but I have my 60th birthday coming up during the season. And another season of league one football with my beloved Barnsley, after an agonising last minute play off defeat at Wembley last season. With a new manager in from Tampa Bay Rowdies, and a controversial star spangled new kit, who knows how that will go !!

An overview of last season:

It was a rollercoaster of a season. I finished around 130k in the end, which means in my four years as a Geek contributor, I have finished outside the top 100k three times, but not by much. My best two seasons of 19k and 6k proceeded it. A top 50k finish is a realistic goal this season.

I tend to start well. Usually by sticking close to the so called “Twitter template”. I started with 9 green arrows in the first 11 weeks last season, including an early wildcard, to sit around 20k by GW12 !! I actually led the Geek contributors league for four weeks from GW9-12. But I didn’t capitalise on it.

Four red arrows had me disappointingly right back at 193k by the World Cup break. That was part of a poor run of just 3 green arrows in 14 weeks that had me at 350k by GW26. I did recover things with a nice little run of six green arrows to 120k at GW33, hovering around 120k-130k for the run in.

I captained Haaland 23 times, Salah 8 times, nobody else more than twice. I tend to play safe with the captain poll leader and had 29/38 captain returns, averaging 17 captain points.

I had a respectable 19 point bench boost, with my Haaland triple captain 24 pointer disappointingly bringing just one goal from his double gameweek ( 8 points ) and I lost out to a few popular Rashford triplers in particular.

I maintain I was a bit unlucky last season. A few managers picked up 2-3 penalty saves. I don’t think I’ve had one for three years !! I didn’t land a 15 pointer from Mings or Pinnock either. Maybe I still had my share, but it felt I lost a few too many 50-50 calls last season.

I tend to play my first wildcard during the second international break and I expect that could be the same again this season. My style is heavily influenced by sticking close to my own definition of the template, made up of the most popular players amongst a trusted core of elite managers that I stay close to.

So what about 2023/24 ??

The immediate observation is that we have no changes to the game itself. No rule changes, no chip changes, and after all last seasons team leaks controversy, no changes to the gameweek deadlines. So more of the same then, scrolling Twitter for those pre deadline, increasingly reliable, first game line ups, especially with Pep Roulette being such a joyous part of the game.

We were treated to an eagerly awaited and high suspense video to herald a selection of “price reveals”, followed by regular drip feeds of player prices, building up to a Wednesday evening game launch, as many hardcore FPL nuts sat for well over an hour with fingers on the trigger, refreshing the site, when the word came of an imminent live launch. The steps some people will go to for that cherished “low ID” eh. Guilty as charged.

We had Haaland offered to us at a sky high £14M. Perhaps a touch higher than expected, especially as Kane outscored him over the last 37 gameweeks and fell just nine points short, but came in 1.5M less. The fact that Haaland’s ownership is already well over 80% shows that his price is irrelevant. It’s 86M for our other 14 players then.

Trent was the other one that perhaps took many by surprise. Finally aligning to what’s probably a fair price, given his new found role and forays into midfield. It’s certainly not easy to squeeze in Haaland, Salah ( or Kane ) and Trent, three players we were perhaps banking on as locks in our team. Some tough choices lie ahead.

Pricing is tougher this year. During last season, I had a “Threemium” of Haaland, Kane and Salah, plus Rashford, Odegaard and Saka, with solid players around it. It’s going to be tough to even get Salah or Kane into a “twomium” with an uplift in the Arsenal boys and Rashy back at a more realistic price.

We also have a wide array of “semi premium” midfielders tempting us, in the 7-9M range. Plus a few decent 6-7M mids too. And a glaring lack of strikers that catch the eye. All of which lends itself to a 352 formation. I think if I could play a 181 formation this season, I probably would !!

All eyes will turn to pre season action soon, to gain those all important clues as to who is in the starting line ups, who strikes up a bit of form, and the all important golden nuggets that jump out as 4M defenders and 4.5M strikers who are likely to play and become our vital “budget enablers”.

My initial team draft: