Final Word Week 12 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

Welcome back – hope you’ve enjoyed what was a wild and wonderful international break, and for those of you with Scottish heritage, jump right on that tartan bandwagon.

As for the Prem… Probably a few felt they needed a week off after what was a fairly low-scoring round.

A score of 69 for the Bolywood Bhoys and a drop of only 300 spots suggests as much.

A reminder of how much football can swing after 159 the week before!

The silver lining (if you can call it that) is there was a score for Nico Gonzalez, who was left on the bench, big watch on his spot in the City line-up with Rodri close to a return – a couple more weeks to add some more cash would be nice before we move him on.

Elsewhere, Arsenal copping 2 goals away at Sunderland didn’t help our Saliba return – and if you’re a Gabriel owner – he’s the only high-profile injury coming out of the International Break – we broke down how Matty Jurman is spreading his cash elsewhere on this week’s podcast – make sure you go and have a listen.

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International break recap

Here’s a quick wrap of all the international break performers before we get into our trade plans for this week…

Haaland – only been in Europe – double against Italy in Italy – double against Estonia in Norway – the scoring form is not going anywhere any time soon.

Van Dijk – Played two full 90s against Poland and Lithuania for the Netherlands – his price is as low as it will go heading into a clash with Nottingham Forest this weekend, even with a BE of 7.

5.2mil it’s time to jump in.

Van de Ven – Played the first game for the Netherlands against Poland (at left-back) – before getting a rest against Lithuania.

If you’ve got faith – best of luck – but as we’ve discussed on the podcast, I’m low on Spurs defence at the moment, and if you’re thinking about moving to a more consistent defensive option, now is the time with his price at the peak.

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Salah – been in the UAE playing friendlies against Uzbekistan & Cape Verde – didn’t play vs Cape Verde, meaning he’ll be good to go this weekend against Forest.

Fernandes – didn’t play against Ireland – scored a hat-trick against Armenia.

Probably the premium midfielder in the competition at the moment.

Cucurella – 2 full 90s against Georgia and Turkiye – assist in the 2nd game.

Has had a slightly longer trip than most in Europe to Tbilisi but a safer move for a defender than some around the same price at the moment in teammate Malo Gusto.

Saliba- played full 90 for France against Ukraine – rested for win over Azerbaijan – will start unless injured until the return of Gabriel.

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Rodri – didn’t travel with Spain – expected to be fit for the game against Newcastle, but with Gonzalez’s form unlikely to break straight back into the team.

If you’ve held as many have, there’s likely more pressing issues elsewhere currently, and you’re safe to let him ride out this wave of games on the bench because he’ll need to be used as we get into the busy December period.

The first mid-week round arrives in GW14 – so it’s worth holding until then at least.

Calafiori – didn’t feature for Italy’s World Cup Qualifiers with a hip problem – Gunners expect him to be available for the game against Newcastle.

I’m very keen to have him in my team at some stage over the next couple of weeks, but I want to see him fit and running out 90 minutes before making that move.

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Gabriel – As mentioned on the top and on the podcast – he was forced off in the first half of a friendly against Senegal and hasn’t been sighted since.

Expected to be out for 6-8 weeks.

Joao Pedro – travelled for Brazil’s two games in the UAE but only played 25 mins against Senegal… good to go for Chelsea at Turf Moor against Burnley.

Timber – injured by a bad tackle against Lithuania – has got a deep cut on his leg… 50/50 to play on Sunday Morning against Spurs.

Certainly not a buy this week.

Mbeumo – only played the 1 game because Cameroon were knocked out by DR Congo… will be well rested heading into United’s game with Everton on Tuesday Morning.

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English players –

Declan Rice was the only major name to start both friendlies against Albania and Serbia, but was substituted just after the hour mark in both games.

Expect him to be straight back into the Arsenal side to take on Tottenham this weekend – he’s a potential rotation risk as some Arsenal midfielders (think Odegaard) begin to work their way back to full fitness over the next few weeks.

Eze and Bowen played minutes against Albania but have a longer turnaround than most other European nations who played later in the week.

James, Rogers, and Saka all played vs Serbia – again, that was last week, so longer than usual rest for all of them.

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Trade Plans

I’ve toyed with the thought of using one of my 5 remaining boosts this week after 2 weeks of no trades – but I’ve settled on just holding for another week of information gathering heading into the first mid-week Round at the start of December.

So, it’s time to go for Quilindischy Hartman, who has been phenomenal, but I can’t see Burnley continuing their strong start to the season, and Van Dijk at 5.2mil is too good for me to turn up with Liverpool heading into a fairly soft run of fixtures.

In midfield – Mason Mount got on the pitch locking in his small rise – not as much cash gained as I was hoping for but we cut our losses and get a significant upgrade in the form of Dominik Szoboszlai who is locked into the centre of Liverpool’s midfield on that same good run and seemingly having escaped Arne Slot’s bright idea of playing him at right-back (where he was still performing strongly).

That sets our midfield up for the foreseeable future – with Guimaraes, Rice, and Szoboszlai.

From there, we can begin to focus on the forwards with Pedro running low on form and Salah set to depart for the African Cup of Nations before Christmas.

Hartmann OUT Van Dijk IN

Mount OUT Szobozslai IN

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Captaincy

Easy loop with Everton and Harry Tyrer playing on Tuesday Morning against Manchester United.

VC: Haaland (v Newcastle)

C: Rice (v Spurs)