A veteran of the game, Tim Walpole is one of the newest members for the Elite XI team – he joined at the same time as Andrew Neave, who shared his draft with us last week. Tim’s best finish was in the 2019/20 season when he finished in the Top 500. On top of this, Tim has a truly unbelievable 7 x Top 5k finishes.
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In terms of his playing style, Tim describes himself as a ‘steady opportunist’. He likes to keep his squad and decision-making simple and straightforward, but will immediately take a new course should an opportunity present itself.
The Olympics may be behind us, but Tim cannot help but draw some comparisons from the cycling events to reflect on strategy for the 2024/25 season. He believes the start of the season is not the best time to deviate. Sticking with the safety of the group is often the better option, while keeping an eye on opportunities when the risk/reward ratio is better later on.
“This can be thought of like track cycling. The cyclists get opportunities within the larger race to earn points with mini sprints. In FPL terms, this can be thought of as the chips, Wildcards, and – newly for this season – the ability to save up to 5 free transfers, which, if a manager is able to accumulate, could allow for a mini-Wildcard to be played.”
In a season with no standout goalkeeping options (further evidence of FPL’s good pricing) Tim has elected to go with Nick Pope (£5.0m) between the sticks. Newcastle’s defensive record from last season was all over the place, with the Magpies very much in the middle of the road for underlying data.
According to Opta Stats Sandbox, Newcastle were ranked 9th for Expected Goals Conceded (xGC), 10th for shots conceded, yet somehow joint-third for clean sheets.
Tim has gone for a back three of Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.5m), Jarell Quansah (£4.5m), and Gabriel (£6.0m). The former and the latter are perhaps not a surprise. According to Live Insight, each one is owned by over 10% of FPL managers, but Quansah could be an interesting shout. At just 2.3% owned, the Liverpool centre-back looks like he could be the first-choice partner for Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m), meaning FPL managers could own a Liverpool defensive asset for just £4.5m.
✅ Quansah
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✅ Diogo J.
❌ Saliba
❌ Rogers
Our Elite #FPL Manager, who has finished in the top 10k eight times, has completely reshuffled his latest draft, making five (5) changes.
CHECK OUT TEAM REVEAL 👉 https://t.co/rfUpvzHaCm pic.twitter.com/OI10dB9MSN
It is in midfield where things get really interesting. Tim has been flip-flopping all pre-season on the inclusion of Mohamed Salah (£12.5m). On the one hand, you can do a lot with the extra money a downgrade allows. On the other, well, it’s Mo Salah. This current iteration has no Salah and it cannot be denied that there are clear benefits to leaving the Egyptian King out.
Here Salah is covered by a combination of Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) and Diogo Jota (£7.5m). This is a powerful combination. Saka provides the points coverage (Saka earned 6.93 points per 90, to Salah’s 7.49 last season), whereas Jota covers the Liverpool attack element, which means Tim can avail of Liverpool’s great opening fixtures.
Looking at the Opta Player Heatmaps tool, we can see that Salah beats Jota across all metrics per 90 apart from goals, in which Jota is the better of the two.
"Jota has always impressed FPL wise and has scored me some good points in the past, but minutes have been somewhat lacking. This should be less of an issue under Slot by the looks of things, at least to start with. Eventually age catches up with all of us and Salah is no exception, will this be the season his output starts to slow slightly? It could be argued we’ve already seen some signs of it. Liverpool will need goals from somewhere if so and Jota always has great stats. But it is Salah and there is always risk to going without!"
Tim’s attack consists of two of the most owned forwards in the game, Alexander Isak (£8.5m) and Erling Haaland (£15.0m), who are selected by 56.1% and 45.1% of FPL managers, respectively. Like many, Tim feels Isak is one of the few nailed starters in his squad, a sign perhaps that FPL underpriced him.
In third spot is Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood (£6.0m) who, at 4.8% owned, is something of a differential. Wood scored 6.53 FPL points per 90 minutes last season, making him the third-best forward whilst on the pitch. Forest also have great opening fixtures. According to the Fixture Planner, they are ranked second, only behind Liverpool.
“I still like Muniz, but including Smith-Rowe makes Wood a better pick perhaps. Again, that cheaper striker slot could be someone else. Joao Pedro is another one who has always looked decent but minutes have been an issue up until now, this is potentially looking less likely and at 5.5m could be invaluable. Another option that I’ll be monitoring closely is Solanke after moving to Spurs. Could be a great option for £7.5m.”
Tim believes taking time to fully digest the rule changes is better than trying to build a strategy based around predicting what will happen, and that managers should focus on preparing for multiple eventualities, allowing the season to play out.
“Due to the rule changes, I think flexibility is key to start with as we don’t really know how the changes will affect things until the season is well under way. Not committing to an early Wildcard (although it’s always a possibility), keeping something in the bank, and being open to jumping on any decent early bandwagons that emerge all help.”
This, of course, is merely an early draft and will be subject to change. Our Elite XI managers will be tweaking and refining their squads as new information presents itself.
If you want to keep up-to-date with Tim’s (or any other Elite XI managers’) moves, then head over to the Elite XI: Team Reveal area and be sure to turn on notifications and alerts to find out when our managers have updated their squads.
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