Final Word Week 7 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

Some big calls last week that paid off in the short term this weekend – but Salah’s form is a continued watch this space after back-to-back losses for Liverpool in the Premier League and then the Champions League against Galatasaray on Wednesday Morning.

I’m not smug enough to say the trade out of Fernandes was the right decision – but a 2nd missed penalty is building my argument… Trading out the brace-scoring Igor Thiago, I’m less confident in.

He was outstanding against Manchester United.

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I’ve held Frimpong for a long time, hoping the injury would disappear and a run of form would follow, but Slot’s comments after the loss to Crystal Palace directed at ‘One of our players [who] decided to run out because he wanted to play a counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up so it was only about defending. Not we, one player, was too offensively minded in that moment, which led to them scoring the winner, us losing the game,’ could only have been directed at his fullback, who lost Nketiah for Newcastle’s winner.

That comment, along with the fact he started him as a winger during the Champions League game, makes me think he’s likely to be left out of the squad to play Chelsea on Sunday Morning.

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I was a captainer of Haaland and my faith in the Norwegian has kept me from falling right out of the picture, I predicted at the start of the year he’d go to another level this season – a double against Burnley isn’t convincing anyone – but 8 goals in 6 games so far is rich reward – 103 appearances and 93 goals in the Premier League is close to the most reliable anyone has ever been in this competition.

Assists for Pape Sarr and Martin Odegaard, despite coming off the bench for Arsenal and Spurs, were helpful. 

Tijani Reijnders has still not sold me as a season-long hold just yet – but the Break Even is still too low to consider trading before the International Break.

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I’m not yet worried about Joao Pedro despite two straight misses because of the fact that they’ve had red cards in back-to-back weekends, which is a trend that can’t continue.

There are some concern about their team as a whole, and I can understand why, but their run of games after the clash with Liverpool this weekend eases considerably.

For owners of Marc Cucurella or Enzo Fernandez I’d be staying patient and holding for now.

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Maxim De Cuyper’s goal off the bench stung this week, given that I had him on the sidelines- but it should mean starting minutes for him from here on.

Brighton are continuing to impress me as a team, and I’ll continue to push Yankubah Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma to those looking for PODs in the middle of the park.

Josh King was on the bench this week for me as well and is picking up a nasty habit of bookings for diving, but he was an absolute livewire in the opening 30 minutes against Villa and looks no danger of losing his spot for Marco Silva, given the attacking threat he’s providing at the moment.

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Gameweek 7 Trade Plans

Frimpong’s run looks to be over – I think Bradley’s won that spot, and the fact that Slot chose to start

Szoboszlai in his position in the Champions League this week, is a further indication of that.

I’m holding for one more week just to confirm that – he did start on the wing against Galatasaray without any great effect, and I’m just keeping a check that doesn’t continue.

Otherwise – eyes on Joao Pedro and his run, but for the moment he’s a hold.

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Watchlist

Terrific article from Harry West this week, you can find here on the importance of base stats when building your team.

Like you reading this, I’m not one with my head in spreadsheets – watching 6-7 games a week is enough, but having an underlying understanding of the numbers is something that can elevate you.

Never ignore the numbers!

You don’t have to agree with the conclusions – in fact, you shouldn’t agree with all of them – but having a guide as to players that are going to produce week-in-week-out regardless of big scores is healthy.

It’s the basis of good SuperCoach play in sports like NRL and AFL, and while football has a bigger variance from week to week – consistency is consistency no matter the code.

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Matty Cash – Aston Villa were a team plenty jumped off given their slow start, and rightly so – particularly up front, but their defence has been far from disastrous, and Cash has held his spot as one of the first names on Unai Emery’s teamsheet as they began their European campaign.

Still sitting at 6.8mil, he’s one of the few consistent scorers at the back whose price hasn’t skyrocketed because it has been a steady rather than outstanding start.

Burnley this week at home could time nicely.

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Moises Caicedo – my midfield is set for now, but the Ecuadorian has been a favourite for some in FPL since the introduction of Defensive Contributions, and the base numbers back the fact that he is reliable.

A deep-lying player, but in Chelsea’s team, all are in with a chance of goals because of the way they rotate who pushes forward from midfield.

I was reluctant because of the early goals to jump straight on.

I’d wait for his number to drop, but around Christmas time, when Sarr goes to AFCON, he could be a handy replacement should his price drop a little.

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Elliot Anderson – Again, I’m not jumping yet, but Ange’s system was beginning to bear fruit over the weekend despite the defeat to Sunderland at home – Chris Wood missed two chances he’d usually bury, and the 2-2 draw against Betis last weekend did have touches of Ange-Ball.

He, along with Luiz and Gibbs-White, could explode soon if the goals begin to flow.

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Gameweek 7 Strategy

No trades this week… I’m having a thought around Frimpong, but unlikely I’ll move him this week.

Patrick Dorgu is waiting in the wings.

Haaland is the easy captaincy choice – playing in the late fixture on Monday morning against Brentford means a loop probably won’t be required.

I’ll be giving Salah the VC though, to see if he can explode against Chelsea.

VC: Salah

C: Haaland