Free Hit: An FPL (Fantasy Premier League) Podcast · Free Hit: An FPL Podcast

Ep. 31 - GW17 - Ait-Nouri Ain't It

·1 hr·3 clips

Ait-Nouri became a “boat anchor” after one yellow card and a string of blanks.

Chris and Jace open with Gameweek 16 and the familiar irritation of watching forwards waste chances. The mood is blunt from the start. They keep circling the same problem: mid-table strikers who look playable, get picked, and then do nothing useful. That annoyance drives the first stretch of the conversation. They move through a few frustrating names. Evan Nielsen comes up as a source of annoyance. Raul Jimenez gets folded into the wider mess of budget attackers who only look attractive until you actually need points. Joao Pedro is treated with a kind of tired resignation, with the hosts debating whether he even sprinted once. The whole exchange stays rooted in lived FPL annoyance rather than theory. From there, the episode shifts into the side and what their style means for fantasy. The hosts argue that the side looks rigid and a bit self-defeating. They compare it with possession-heavy teams that seem to value principle over adaptation. They also point out that this does not make for much fun to watch. That opens the door to the fantasy angle. If the side get a manager who changes the approach, there could still be cheap assets worth considering. Harwood-Bellis gets mentioned as a possible defensive option. Adam Armstrong is floated as a very cheap starting striker. The appeal is not that the team looks great. It is that a different manager could make those prices matter. The episode also looks at the future of the squad. Dibling draws strong attention. The hosts wonder whether he stays through the winter window or becomes the kind of player a struggling club cashes in on. That leads into the bigger question of how much fantasy value survives if the side keeps sinking. Later, the conversation widens back out to the next Gameweek. The hosts talk about Salah and Palmer sitting in the top tier. They weigh the discomfort of not owning a premium option that still looks close to essential. The tone stays practical rather than dramatic. Nobody pretends every move is obvious. Instead, they keep coming back to the same FPL problems: who is worth trusting, who is only cheap, and what changes when the fixtures tighten. The deadline reminder lands clearly. Gameweek 17 is coming that Saturday. They also look ahead to a show before the Gameweek 18 deadline on Boxing Day and then Gameweek 19 after that. Three league fixtures in eight days means rotation matters. The warning is aimed especially at the front seven. The episode ends like a proper FPL check-in. It is alert, a bit irritated, and still trying to make sense of the week before the deadline hits.

As heard by us

A sharp GW16 FPL debrief built around budget forwards, Southampton, and looming rotation.

Chris and Jace keep GW16 moving at a useful clip, returning to the usual mix of FPL frustration, budget-friendly punts, and the basic question of who is actually worth owning before the next deadline.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Need a blunt GW16 reset before the festive fixture pile-up?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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