FPL Best Picks: Writer’s Team of the Week for Gameweek 1 22/23

Having picked a team of 82.5 million in value, we have 17.5 million for 4 bench players, which is 0.5 million higher than the cheapest and most popular bench for GW1 teams on FPL.

We’ve gone with Ward (4.0) of Leicester City in goal

Kasper Schmeichel is on his way out and Leicester hasn’t made moves to replace him as their no1 goalkeeper yet. While Ward has competition from Iversen for the starting spot at Leicester, both keepers are priced at 4.0 million and we’d go with whichever sounds more likely to get the nod for the Brentford game, based on Brendan Rodger’s press conference before the game. We currently think Ward holds the edge.

Diogo Dalot (4.5) over Neco Williams (4.0)

While most benches will have the incredible value of Neco Williams as a starter for Nottingham Forest, we have the budget to go to Diogo Dalot of Manchester United as our fifth defender and first outfield player on the bench. He’s made the right-back spot his own and looks like he’s taking up good offensive positions for United under new manager Ten Hag.

He’s up against a Brighton team that plays good front-foot football but his potential for points at both ends of the pitch makes him the best option at this price for GW1 in our team. He also provides that bit of quality off the bench, given that we’ve taken a few risky punts in our team like Perisic and Bailey.

Second on the bench is Andreas Pereira (4.5) of Fulham

He’s got a very difficult fixture in Liverpool but is a basement-priced 4.5 million midfielder that’s starting in the number 10 position for Fulham and is on some set-pieces. He’s already bagged 2 assists from corners in pre-season and is far and away the best value midfield option in the 4.5m category at the moment.

We’ve opted to go with Cameron Archer (4.5)

There are no starting forwards at 4.5m, so we’ve opted to go with Cameron Archer (4.5) of Aston Villa. The talented youngster was retained with the Aston Villa team and not sent out on loan to be given minutes.

Both Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings haven’t impressed in pre-season, meaning there’s a chance Archer could see minutes off the bench against Bournemouth. given that there are now 5-substitutes. We’re not likely to have to need our third bench player but we give ourselves the best chance of points if we should.