More playing time key to Fantasy Premier League revival

A lack of game minutes has severely hampered our FPL progress over the last couple of rounds, with injuries, squad rotation and substitutions all taking their toll. Even though 3 clean sheets on Sunday prevented the latest gameweek from being a complete washout, a fifth caution of the season for Antonio Valencia has added to our concerns ahead of the upcoming midweek fixtures.

Assessing our squad overall, we find that İlkay Gündoğan, Kelechi Iheanacho, Chris Brunt and Andros Townsend all failed to complete the full ninety minutes in GW15, while Daley Blind was an unused substitute and Álvaro Negredo wasn’t fit enough to be involved.

Negredo is back in contention to start against Liverpool but even though Blind might feature in Valencia’s absence, the time now feels right to remove him and the disappointing Townsend.

There is no guarantee that Iheanacho will start after flopping against Leicester City but he deserves another chance.

Time for some West Ham United coverage

Bringing in a West Ham United defender might seem like a crazy move, bearing in mind that only Hull City have shipped more goals, however, the Hammers do have 3 clean sheets to show for their efforts, which is the same number as Liverpool and one more than pre-season title favorites Manchester City.

West Ham have home games against Burnley and Hull City, followed by an away fixture at Swansea City, so this looks as good a time as any for them to turn the corner.

Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini are drafted into our squad and both players go straight into our line-up for GW16.

Cresswell has had his injury problems but there aren’t many full-backs with as much attacking upside as him, especially when you consider that Slaven Bilić is showing a preference for a 3-man defence.

Lanzini is West Ham’s first choice penalty taker nowadays and the type of differential pick that could pay dividends.

Elsewhere, Yaya Touré has been hitting the headlines on and off the pitch but he’s increasing the pressure on Gündoğan for one of those coveted starting spots in Man City’s midfield, so the former Dortmund midfielder drops to the bench.

Harry Kane takes the FPL captain’s arm-band back and is expected to be firing on all cylinders against Hull City.