Final Word Week 4 | SuperCoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

After an absolute rollercoaster ride of a first three weeks, it was somewhat of a relief to sit back and enjoy Nestory Irankunda & Mo Toure nearly defeating New Zealand single-handedly, but the first international window does usually feel like a bit of a tease after waiting so long for the season to return.

In our time off, Big Ange has returned to the Premier League with Nottingham Forest, giving us all a second team to follow again (outside our SuperCoach one of course).

But here’s what happened in Gameweek 3 in case you’ve forgotten!

Also… If you haven’t already, I took apart Transfer Deadline Day with Daniel Garb last week, with no moves to make in our own teams until the international break was safe from costing us any more players through injury.

Go back and have a listen.

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In case you’ve forgotten…

It was the first week in 3 that Salah didn’t come through with a late goal, and that has caused his price to drop nearly £2m to £13.7m – and with a Break Even of 31 – it’ll be coming down further.

As a non-owner, a little dry spell would do just nicely to keep our ranking moving the right way after a bit of a horror show in GW2.

Fernandes’ late penalty against Burnley was just what the doctor ordered after an ordinary start to the season – but I’m confident even if United’s form doesn’t pick up, he’ll continue to score consistently as he did last season, given the set piece responsibilities & general attacking responsibility he carries.

With Mason Mount carrying an injury, I’m hopeful Amorim’s experiment with him in a double pivot with Casemiro has ended as well (who could have seen that ending poorly!).

City lost to a quickly improving Brighton side, but Haaland found the back of the net again, as did Igor Thiago in a losing Brentford team.

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Djordje Petrovic is ticking along nicely in goal & the much-maligned Bournemouth backline of pre-season now boasts two of the most traded in players of the gameweek in their defence.

A kind fixture list over the next 4 weeks is promising.

So why am I still outside the top 10k? Panic trades & injuries!

Rico Lewis looks set to become a victim of Pep-lotto (close watch on their starting lineup vs United with the Champions League kicking off in midweek) while Chris Wood barely saw the ball against supposedly the weakest defence in the competition in GW3.

William Saliba’s strong start has been quashed by the fact that he tried to play despite picking up an injury in the warm-up against Liverpool and now looks set to be missing until October.

Jeremie Frimpong’s hamstring is still a watch, and I need to see Martin Odegaard back in a starting lineup to fully convince me he’s over the shoulder issue he carried into the week off.

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Gameweek 4 Trade Plans

Saliba is the one that will have to go unless there is serious news that either 1. he is going to be fit in the next 3 weeks or 2. Jeremie Frimpong is out long term.

He’s built us cash already, and £8m sitting on the sidelines won’t propel us up the overalls. 

Tino Livramento is finally in this week.

Chris Wood was a panic trade that I should have kept in my back pocket – now Florian Wirtz is gone and it’s all unravelling.

A new promise to myself is that I will not be making trades unless I’ve published them in this forum first.

Wood straight back out for the in-form Joao Pedro, who currently has almost no competition for the forwards spot at Chelsea, thanks to the injury to Liam Delap.

Add to that a fairly iffy run of defences Chelsea are up against outside of Liverpool in the next 2 months, and there should be points for the Brazilian star.

All being well – without any injuries – we’re set for the next 3 weeks. Surely…

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Captaincy Strategy

Tough looping week given there’s only the two games on Sunday and 8 on Saturday Night.

For that reason, Haaland gets the captaincy for me against Man Utd.

Everton have late kick-offs 4 of the next 6 weeks, so no point wasting a trade on knocking Harry Tyrer out yet…

Knowing the VC probably won’t get a crack, I’m happy to stick it on Pape Sarr against West Ham – who despite looking improved against Forest, are likely to be completely overrun against this athletic Spurs side.

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Watchlist

Grealish is close to must-have, and if I had a midfielder I wasn’t happy with, he’d be an easy pick to come in – the problem is that’s the one part of my squad I’m comfortable with currently (Fernandes, Sarr, King, Reijnders, Odegaard). 

Dewsbury-Hall is the cash building option, which is probably now or never.

Another big score and he’ll be at a price you can’t justify.

Marcos Senesi and Adrian Truffert are the talk of FPL circles at the moment – I’m fortunate in having Petrovic, so I can sit and observe… Bournemouth aren’t good enough that I’m about to double down on their backline, but that’s not to say the temptation will never be there.

If you’re looking for value back there, I’m not going to dissuade you – I would encourage another look at the pair of them against Brighton and Newcastle in the next two weeks, though, before pulling the trigger.

I note as well that Lucas Paqueta is the most traded in midfielder for the Top 1% this week – I tipped him as a low/mid-range option in pre-season… I’ll warn that one performance and (one penalty) doesn’t make a summer for West Ham as impressive as they were against Forest.

Spurs this weekend is a terrific litmus test.

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PODs

The time is now for Pape Sarr if you’re not sold on either of Everton’s midfielders – West Ham, Brighton, Wolves – should be 9 points for Spurs, and big performances for the Senegal international, who has had a very strong start to life under Thomas Frank.

Still only at 13% ownership.

David Brooks was one Garby was touting earlier this year, and I’m more and more impressed by that shout week-on-week – a very cruisey run of fixtures – sitting at 5mil and under 2% ownership.

If you’ve failed to generate any cash in the first 3 weeks, he could be a nice way out of that hole.

Jean-Phillipe Mateta – If you’ve become impatient with Gyokores or Wirtz (as I have), Palace’s fixtures are starting to open up.

Still a watch for me, but someone I’m tracking with interest.

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Gameweek 4 Strategy

Trades

Wood OUT Joao Pedro IN

2nd (Pending Injury News)

Saliba OUT Livramento IN

Captains

VC: Sarr

C: Haaland