Final Word Gameweek 36 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

It has been a long, long season, but we have now arrived at Gameweek 36, with just 3 gameweeks to play.

The first season of EPL Supercoach has been full of learning, as many managers have learnt the hard way the importance of preserving trades.

Fortunately for me, I had an early-season realisation that I had to begin rationing my trades if I had any chance of them lasting me the marathon 38-week season.

Although it has not been easy, I still have two trades left to use over these last three weeks, so hopefully we can make them count!

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Trade Thoughts

It is definitely a case of personal choice when it comes to trading (and captain choices, which I will get to later) around this time of the season, as it depends on where you are ranked and where you want to finish.

If you are sitting at a rank you are happy with, maybe it is time to consolidate and preserve by following the crowd with the obvious picks.

However, if you are trying to gain as many ranks as you can in these last three weeks, then maybe some POD options are better.

I sit between these two camps.

I am currently ranked 86th overall, which I am definitely happy with, and although I want to stay in the top 100 come season’s end, a part of me wants to play it risky and see just how high we can get.

(I traded out Szoboszlai over Wilson last week, which ended up being a 20-point swing, which would have had me sitting in 63rd. If you can not tell, I am not very happy with my decision, but my point is that the gap can definitely be closed, and there aren’t many points in it!!!)

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Alright, so trades this week.

Manchester City and Crystal Palace play twice, in the last double gameweek of the season.

I think avoiding Palace players may be the play.

They are coming off a big win in the Conference League on Friday morning (Australian time), so who knows if they will rest some of their players in the league with nothing to play for.

Further, the fixtures aren’t great. A double of Everton (H), and City (A) away isn’t amazing, but to make it worse, they end the season with Brentford (A) and Arsenal (H).

So, as much as I want to take a different route, I think that if you are trading this week, it has to be for City players.

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Two home games, one vs Brentford, one vs Palace.

Despite their major hiccup vs Everton last week, City are still very much in the title hunt, and will be desperate to apply as much pressure as possible on Arsenal (because we all know how Arsenal have fared under pressure in recent history).

The question is, how many City assets are too many?

I currently have 3: Marc Guehi, Rayan Cherki, and Erling Haaland.

I think these are the 3 must-haves from City, and if you don’t have any of them, you should definitely bring them in this week.

A tier below that I have Antoine Semenyo, Jeremy Doku, and Nico O’Reilly (you could go a Donnarumma or Khusanov, but I want to target attackers at this stage of the season)

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Antoine Semenyo has been good for Supercoachers all season, boasting an incredible 9.2 average on the season, largely thanks to his immense form to start the season with Bournemouth.

Recently, though, his form has hit a slump, as he is now without a goal contribution for 5 league games straight.

What may be even more concerning is Pep hooking him early in the last two games, at the 65th and 74th minutes, respectively.

On the total other end of the form spectrum is Jeremy Doku, the alternative to Semenyo if searching for a FWD trade-in.

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Doku has the hot hand, coming into GW36 with 4 goals and 2 assists in his last five games (including one FA cup match).

He is clearly playing with confidence and appears to have improved his final product, which has always been his main flaw.

Still, I am struggling to make up my mind between Semenyo and Doku.

Then there is Nico O’Reilly, who is available in the midfield.

I am a big O’Reilly fan; he is so versatile, clearly talented, and keeps finding himself in good scoring positions in this City side.

From a Supercoach perspective, he also has a decent base, with a lowest score of 5 in his last 11 games (to be fair, he has not seen a single yellow card in this time, which definitely helps and could change).

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All in all, I probably haven’t helped much if you are trying to decide between the three, but I do think they are all very good options.

For me personally, I have two options:

I use one trade this week, going from Igor Thiago to Semenyo/Doku, then keep one trade up my sleeve for peace of mind and a bit of fun for one last swing next week, maybe.

I can’t afford O’Reilly unless I make two trades, so my second option is to attack this double gameweek hard by using my last two trades on going Igor Thiago and Declan Rice out for Doku/Semenyo and O’Reilly.

My only worry with option 2 is that it would leave me with 5 City players, so if City have a quiet game at any stage to end the season, my score is ruined.

A big risk and reward play.

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Captaincy thoughts

For those who are out of trades, don’t worry, you still have a chance to make a big play with your captaincy decision.

For reasons already discussed, the candidates are City players, and City players only.

We will start with the obvious in Sir Erling Braut Haaland.

The second-best player in Supercoach this season (to Bruno Fernandes), with a double gameweek consisting of two home games against two sides his team is heavily favoured to beat, it doesn’t get much better.

Add in that he has found some form with a goal in each of his last 3 league games, well, you can see why he is the most captained player this week by a country mile.

Haaland is the logical captaincy choice this round, and I recommend you put the armband on him, BUT, if you want to be risky and try to gain ranks, a POD captaincy play could be the go.

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If you wanted to go against Haaland, I think it has to be Rayan Cherki.

City’s midfield maestro has been at the helm of their attack, picking up a goal and 4 assists in his last 5 starts.

This has translated to some exceptional Supercoach scoring with his 5 most recent scores (when starting) of: 12, 10, 16, 21, and 13.

I honestly love the Cherki captaincy play, and if you are chasing ranks, I would be doing it.

Vice-captaincy-wise, there isn’t much to talk about because I won’t be looping unless they go 25+ most likely.

That being said, I will give Bruno Fernandes a shot at it vs Sunderland, just before City’s first game.

And captaincy, for now I am going with the crowd and have it on Haaland, but Cherki is tempting me…