Wildcard draft for Gameweek 6 of former FPL winner Simon March

On the way to the 6th game week of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Former champion Simon March announces his current wildcard team.

I don’t usually go much further in my plan for when to play my first wildcard than “just hold on to it as long as possible,” but with some of my players either out of shape or out of the rotation over the past few weeks, there were signs that it was about to happen.

I’m currently at around 800k overall rank, so things aren’t fantastic or hopeless, but I’d really like to stop fighting fires and try to get back on the offensive, so I’m hoping my Gameweek 6 wildcard will help me do that.

I’m planning on a period of around six weeks and hope to maximise my points haul in that time. However, I haven’t made a single transfer this season and I can imagine that I’ll soon find myself in a situation where that could put me at a real disadvantage, so I’m hoping to rack up a few free transfers as well as points.

GOALKEEPER

There is something strange going on with Arsenal’s defence: on the one hand, it is arguably the best in the league, as proven by three games without conceding a goal this season. On the other hand, it has also conceded the second highest number of shots on goal (90) and the highest number of long-range shots (37) in the league.

Whatever the reason, maybe it’s tactical, maybe it’s the fact that they played two games with a player sent off, it was an FPL goldmine for the goalkeeper David Raya (£5.6m), who currently has the most FPL points of any goalkeeper (33), the third highest number of saves overall (23) and also the most bonus points (6).

Before this season, I was never a fan of top goalkeepers, but Raya single-handedly changes my mind and as things stand, he’s a no-brainer with this wildcard.

DEFENDER

Another stop is Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold (£7.1m). With four clean sheets and just one goal conceded, Liverpool’s defence looks as solid as it has in a long time. And although Alexander-Arnold has only gone into attack once in the league so far (an assist against Bournemouth in Gameweek 5), he has created four big chances, most along with Aston Villa’s Lucas Digne (£4.6m) among defenders this season.

Arsenal Gabriel Magalhães (£6.1m) is a new addition to my squad. As mentioned, Arsenal’s defence has largely held up in a series of difficult opening games and Gabriel’s two goals in his last two games are not only a testament to his own goal threat (Gabriel has the most big chances created of any defender this season with three), but also shows how dangerous Arsenal can be from set pieces in general.

The next new addition to the defence is Man City’s Rico Lewis (£4.7m), who, despite missing the draw with Arsenal in Gameweek 5, has started four times so far this season. Of course, no City defender is ever truly safe, but the prospect of a halfway reliable option for the City defence for £4.7m seems like a good deal. As the news breaks that midfielder Rodri (£6.4m) is injured and likely to be out for the rest of the season. Lewis’ chances of a starting place are likely to increase as he can also play the defensive midfielder role, either conventionally or as an inverted full-back.