Final Word Week 3 | SuperCoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

Absolute. Carnage.

Palmer injured, City shut down by Spurs again… Bruno Fernandes finding a way to blame the referee for his missed penalty at Fulham.

Fortunately, we resisted the opening week trade in of Dan Ballard as he went down, joining one of the most popular defender picks in Ait-Nouri.

Salah & Grealish owners are the winners of the weekend, as well as anyone who managed to start their Burnley defenders (a mistake which cost the Bolywood Bhoys 13 points from Quilindischy Hartmann).

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Thankfully, a Dorde Petrovic cleansheet (one of 6 goalkeepers and their defences to achieve that) saved us from a complete dumpster fire.

Again… to David Raya, Caoimhin Kelleher, Martin Dubravka, Maxime Esteve, Kyle Walker, Jordan Pickford, and James Tarkowski owners, well done.

Thankfully, William Saliba saved the Bhoys from a complete disaster. We pick up our triple bogey (49 total) and move on. It’s a long season!

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Gameweek 3 Trade Plans

I urge all not to panic… Particularly around City’s star duo of Haaland and Reijnders.

It’s Spurs – I wrote last week that I would captain Fernandes, but made the late switch to the City striker – it gained me a whole 4 points (if you don’t laugh you’ll cry).

I’ll back my reasoning though – City are still ball-dominant, they will be able to physically bully teams more and more often as the season wears on.

Spurs are a tough matchup because they can go with them on that front, and Thomas Frank (like Ange’s undoing of them last season) was happy to press the hell out of a relatively new squad in their second competitive game of the season.

City were off-colour, but it will come – I’ll tip 6 points from 6 against Brighton and Man Utd in the next two game-weeks before that crunch clash with Arsenal two weeks after the international break.

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I had concerns around Bruno Fernandes, and once the rage subsided, I still had them.

It wasn’t about the missed penalty (as frustrating as that was), I’m more worried about the way Ruben Amorim is setting his team to attack… So keen is he to get both his new signings and Mason Mount into the team – Fernandes is sitting alongside Casemiro in a deeper-lying role with fewer opportunities to get in creative areas.

To my eye – he and Mount want to occupy the same spaces, and once Ugarte took on Fernandes’s position so he could get further forward – suddenly the United skipper had no one to get him the ball higher up the pitch and Fulham nabbed an equaliser.

He’s not a sell yet but he’s getting close. Need a big points haul versus Burnley at home next week, or he’ll be on his way.

Palmer is an obvious worry – again, nothing much you can do when he’s pulled out in the warm up and his side goes on to win 5-1.

Watching injury news closely this week but unfortunately, there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed in my midfield & given he’ll have only played  2 games (even if he’s fit for Fulham) he won’t be costing me cash yet. A hold for now.

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The other concern is Martin Odegaard, who despite getting through more work than some injured stars, still had to substituted with what looked like an AC joint of all things! (Which sport are we playing here?).

I am edging towards him being one of my trades this week given the extremely tricky run of fixtures Arsenal have coming… Liverpool (A), Forest (H), City (H), Newcastle (A).

The others have more forgiving opposition and there’s the option of either going cheaper with Grealish to free up money at the back or hitting Reijnders at a similar (but slightly lower) price point.  

At the back, the equation centres around Maxim De Cuyper. I’m considering trading the Brighton man for Tino Livramento. 

With cash generation key and Brighton facing City this weekend, I’m happy to spend a trade on a guy I liked in pre-season and wish I’d backed myself to pick ahead of a perceived safer option.

What a player this young fella is – another outstanding performance against Liverpool and with Newcastle’s fixtures (Leeds A, Wolves H, B’mouth A) over the next 3 weeks he could be a quick cash builder or a longer term hold depending on how Newcastle (and his own) form looks.

Otherwise, patience will be key – the small solace from the weekend’s disaster is that we’re set to generate around £3 mil from the first 3 weeks, and that will rise even higher if I end up executing the Odegaard trade for either of his replacements.

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Frimpong we can afford to wait on until after the international break given his ceiling.

Saliba and Sarr have been outstanding, Igor Thiago has generated plenty of scoring opportunities and will be fattened up to sell in the next month or so without needing to set the world alight.

Josh King is my only other worry given his replacement Emil Smith-Rowe came off the bench to score for Fulham on the weekend.

We can only hope Marco Silva doesn’t think he’s ready for another couple of weeks for starting minutes. 

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Captaincy Strategy

One of the benefits of holding Frimpong is that it gives us a potential loop option, given he’s not fit to play on the weekend. Harry Tyrer can’t be the man this week because of Everton’s Saturday Night fixture.

Haaland wears the C again against a Brighton defence that hasn’t covered itself in glory in the early going.

Fernandes will get the VC for me this week with Burnley visiting in a bit of a last-chance saloon for him from my perspective.

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Watchlist

Riccardo Calafiori & Jurrien Timber – Both on fire for an Arsenal defence that has kept 2 clean sheets in 2.

Unless you’ve picked them up already, Liverpool away isn’t the time to strike, but with Saka out you feel both will get even more opportunity to shoulder some attacking load.

I won’t be doubling up yet, having Saliba back there, but 1-2 Arsenal defenders/goalkeepers are a must.

Calafiori particularly is a watch given an uncertain role… Timber is similar because of the uncertainty around Lewis-Skelly’s return.

Richarlison – Has started on fire for Spurs in a roaming role ahead of Dominic Solanke.

Jim Beglin said in commentary on Saturday Night that he feels Thomas Frank ‘has reminded him he’s a Brazilian Striker’, which I thought summed up his performance nicely.

At $4.5 mil before the price jumps, he’s a steal.

Ollie Watkins – Only because he’s going the other way… Villa’s start to the season has been nothing short of a nightmare, which means his price is due to drop barring a hat-trick against Palace.

At a low price could be a nice pickup down the road.

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POD Choices

Estevao – Daniel Garb is a big fan, and watching him on Saturday made you sit up and take notice.

Owned by 1% because of uncertainty about his starting position, but with Palmer in doubt and a strong performance last weekend, I think he’ll be in the lineup for a few weeks to come at the very least.

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Gameweek 3 Strategy

Trade

De Cuyper OUT Livramento IN

2nd (Pending Injury News)

Odegaard OUT Reijnders IN

Captains

VC: Fernandes

C: Haaland

Use Frimpong as a captaincy loop if need be, given he’s expected to be out until after the international break.