What to do with Watford FPL assets?
A win over Aston Villa halted Watford’s freefall. With a Double Gameweek on the horizon, what should FPL managers do with their players?
A goal from Emmanuel Dennis and a clean sheet from Ben Foster both brought much joy to FPL managers on Saturday. Combine that with Friday’s announcement of Double Gameweeks 28 and 29, suddenly the sale of Hornets assets isn’t as cut-and-dry.
WATFORD FPL FIXTURES
These are Watford’s next ten Gameweeks.
The trips to Man United, Liverpool and Man City definitely require enough squad depth to allow a benching, so managers devising a chip strategy need to bear this in mind when using a Wildcard. Yet those using a Free Hit in either of those weeks can avoid the problem entirely.
Things soon get much greener on the Fixture Difficulty Rating but there’s a chance that Gameweek 30’s match with Everton will be rearraged. If the Toffees beat Boreham Wood in the FA Cup.
Playing twice in Gameweek 28 isn’t a bad thing but Arsenal (H) and Wolves (a) are tough fixtures. Sixth and seventh in the league table, both defences have collected seven clean sheets from their last 13 matches. Therefore, although Dennis’ goal might have saved him from mass sales, there are still better striker options in Double Gameweek 28.
DENNIS VS KING
It feels like a long time since the FPL Twitter community were committing to Team Dennis or Team King. The weekend brought Dennis’ second goal since Gameweek 16, with Josh King only providing one assist in his last 11 matches.
Using data from the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area, the reasons why King was hyped still exist. Dennis is the game’s second highest-scoring forward, yet King has had more goal attempts, is on penalties and has a higher expected goal involvement (xGI).
During his 11-match goalless streak, King is still seemingly more threatening.
Indeed, his xGI in this period also wins (3.30 vs 2.92). The introduction of Ismaila Sarr into proceedings may help but it may spur some rotation, especially under the more defensively-minded Roy Hodgson.
Having lasted 20 matches without a clean sheet, now they have two from four attempts. Owners of Ben Foster were already unlikely to sell, considering he is FPL’s cheapest starting goalkeeper and a perfect bench option. Yet now he’s actually bringing in returns.
It may be best to keep Foster but replace Dennis or King with either Wout Weghorst, Armando Broja or Allan Saint-Maximin.
FPL COMMUNITY ON WATFORD
Fantasypaedia was impressed by the impact Sarr has on his team mates.
However, it might not be enough to win over those managers who had already seen enough of the Watford attackers.
FPL Elf even wants to make a game out of it!
