0:16

Welcome back to this week's Off the Bench podcast

0:18

from the Premier League. I'm Sam from FPL Family.

0:21

And I'm Andy, FPL Sonaldo. It

0:24

was another week Andy and another

0:26

Erling Harlan Hatrick. The man feels

0:29

completely unstoppable at the moment, doesn't he? And

0:31

managers who don't have him will likely spend

0:33

the rest of the international break now wondering

0:36

how they're going to afford to bring him

0:38

into their teams. But

0:40

of course then Sunday rolled around and Salah decided

0:42

what was good enough for Harlan was good enough

0:44

for him to have matched him point

0:46

for point. So I'm going to spend

0:48

my international break wondering how on earth

0:50

I afford to bring Salah into my

0:53

FPL team. Honestly,

0:55

it was one of those, wasn't it, where the two

0:57

most expensive players in the game absolutely

0:59

nailed it. Correct. I

1:01

mean, Sam, I think if we go back to

1:04

the start of the season, you know, a lot

1:06

of the narrative was it's too expensive to afford

1:08

both of them. But it looks like the true

1:11

winners right now are Salah and Harlan

1:13

owners. And you're right. We

1:16

have to really think about how to bring them

1:18

into our teams because Salah looked

1:20

quite unstoppable yesterday and two assists

1:22

and one goal doesn't really

1:24

do justice. He could have had way more from

1:26

the way I saw it. So it'll

1:28

be interesting how the international break goes, but

1:31

definitely both on my radar for sure. It's

1:33

really difficult because I had both of them for

1:35

90% of preseason. And

1:38

it was only that last week

1:40

when Salanky joined Spurs

1:42

where suddenly I was like, right, I need

1:44

to find some money in my forward line.

1:46

It meant I wanted to sell

1:48

Jalpedro to bring in Salanky. Had I

1:50

just stopped at that point and not

1:52

done anything and started the season with

1:54

Harlan and Salah and Jalpedro, I'd have

1:56

been flying right now as it is.

1:58

I'm still doing it. doing well, but

2:01

every week it just hurts a little bit more.

2:03

For me this week, on Saturday

2:05

evening, I was doing really, really well.

2:08

It was up about 500,000 places,

2:11

really brilliant green arrow. And I was thinking,

2:13

okay, this has been a really successful start

2:15

to the season. Saturday

2:18

finishes Sunday rolls in and the

2:21

Spurs Newcastle game, nothing

2:23

for Pedro Porro. We'll talk about him

2:25

later. Obviously, Usack returning his first points

2:28

of the season. But

2:30

then that Liverpool game, as a jotter

2:32

owner, watching Salah go mad, it just

2:34

really hurt my rank and it sent

2:36

me onto a tiny, tiny, tiny little

2:39

red arrow of a

2:41

few hundred thousand places. So it was

2:43

nothing really, but when you just think,

2:47

what could have been? And it is

2:49

difficult to not have Salah

2:52

on my team, but then equally, I think

2:54

this is the season where we just have to make

2:57

peace with the fact that you can't have everybody, because

2:59

if you do have a team that's

3:01

got Salah and Harlan in it, then you're

3:03

probably not having players like Saka

3:05

or Son or Trent or

3:09

those other sort of mid-price premium

3:11

assets. And it's a

3:13

compromise, regardless of which way you swing on it,

3:15

right? Yeah, I think we can't

3:17

be too harsh on ourselves, Sam, because

3:19

a lot of

3:22

the narratives at the start of

3:24

the season was there are very

3:26

decent seven million-price midfielders such as

3:28

Eze and Kunku, Gordon,

3:31

Jota, to name a few. And

3:34

then we also considered all these 5.5 category

3:37

players as well, right? There's

3:39

Emmitt Smith-Rowe, Rodgers, and

3:41

this and that. But in

3:43

the end, what's happened was you

3:46

had to get lucky with that price tier

3:48

of bracket of players. Some people got really

3:51

lucky, got brought in the right one. Some

3:53

people didn't. But what's been

3:55

proven is the premiums are premiums for

3:57

reason and the top two players in

3:59

the game. of the Fantasy Premier League is

4:01

Salah and Holland and they did not

4:04

let us down. So now the

4:07

attitude has to shift towards bringing them

4:09

both in because it's

4:11

also hard to go hokey-cokey here and

4:13

think that because Salah has bad fixtures,

4:15

we can get away with it when

4:17

they're delivering 15 plus points weekly. So

4:21

I think they're fixture proof certainly from

4:23

here on out. Yeah,

4:25

I agree with you and I'm looking at my team,

4:28

I got 69 points this week. So a decent enough

4:30

week, you know, not a terrible week, it was above

4:32

average. I think I lost 4% on rank this

4:35

week. So again, a reasonable,

4:37

a reasonable week. And I

4:39

think if you go without

4:41

Holland or if you go without Salah, you

4:44

go into each game week knowing that there

4:46

is a risk here and that

4:50

risk grows every week because the way

4:52

that they're performing, the way that live

4:54

started the season and it feels kind

4:57

of important that we start, I think with that

4:59

Liverpool game because the way that Liverpool started the

5:01

season under the new manager, I think

5:04

a surprise to a few people. I was

5:06

expecting him to be good. He was quite

5:08

heavily linked with Spurs a season or two

5:10

ago when we were looking for post-apoglio. And

5:13

at that point, I did

5:15

quite a lot of research on him. And

5:17

when he started getting with the Liverpool job,

5:19

I was like, oh, I think this might

5:21

be a really nice fit. Actually, it feels

5:23

like the sort of coach with the players

5:25

and the personnel that Liverpool have that could

5:27

gel together really nicely. And so far, that's

5:29

what we've seen. There's been an increase in

5:31

defensive solidity from Liverpool this season. They

5:34

were the only team in game week three to keep

5:36

a clean sheet across the rest of the league. And

5:39

I think when you look at

5:41

how they started the season, they are

5:44

full of fire. They're full of fighting.

5:46

They're full of running. The press is

5:48

immense. And particularly

5:50

with that front three with Jota and

5:52

Diaz and Salah together, they

5:55

look unstoppable. They look like they're going to score

5:57

at every given opportunity. So as a Jota owner

5:59

this week, I was

6:01

disappointed not to see him involved

6:03

in those attacking returns because obviously

6:06

Diaz with the brace this week,

6:09

Salah with the assistant and his

6:11

goal. It was

6:13

hard to watch that happen

6:15

as a Johto owner. I

6:18

agree. What we can say is

6:20

Johto was involved in the celebrations. Although

6:22

that doesn't mean anything in terms of

6:24

FPL points. I think

6:26

under slot there's a sense of

6:28

calmness within the build up of

6:30

Liverpool. When you think

6:32

about Klopp's era, it was really heavy metal football.

6:35

Press press press, attack attack attack.

6:38

But there seems to be a sense of calm

6:40

in the back line. Granted it's

6:42

only been three games. So let's not get

6:45

too ahead of ourselves. Liverpool has always been

6:47

strong against Manchester United, at

6:49

least in recent memory. So I

6:51

think this was a game where I knew Salah was going

6:53

to do well. I think he was going to do this

6:56

well. I don't think so. But

6:58

I would like to wait and watch a little

7:00

bit. However, what yesterday did tell me in the

7:02

first three game weeks is that regardless of a

7:04

new coach, regardless of a new philosophy

7:07

being implemented into the team, the

7:10

players themselves look informed,

7:12

rested, informed, look confident.

7:15

And as FPL managers, you want to

7:17

select the guys who look confident, are

7:19

selfish, want to get the points, want to get

7:21

wins, want to get goals. And

7:24

Jota, Salah, I mean, it could have been Jota's

7:26

day in any other given week. So I wouldn't

7:28

panic as a Jota owner. You know,

7:30

Diaz's two goals came for a good reason.

7:33

It could be Jota next week. So let's

7:35

not panic over there. But it was just

7:37

unfortunate that Diaz was the one that

7:39

got the returns and not Jota. Yeah,

7:41

it's difficult, though, I think, because you look

7:43

at Salah and he's had three double digit

7:45

halls to start the season. Fourteen points in

7:47

game week one, ten in game week two

7:50

and then seventeen this week. He's

7:52

got three attractive fixtures coming up

7:54

next against Forrest Bournemouth and

7:57

Wolves. Now, the next two are at home

7:59

and we've seen. over many

8:01

years how impressive Liverpool

8:04

are when they're playing at Anfield and how at home

8:06

Salah is when he's at Anfield in

8:09

more ways than one. So I'm

8:12

looking at Salah with his 75 attacking

8:15

returns against the Big Six, which is

8:17

more than anybody else has got, more

8:19

than the likes of Zola and Bale

8:21

and Suarez and Cantonara and all of

8:23

these like huge FPL

8:26

legends and PPL legends of the

8:28

past, knowing that Salah

8:30

has already beaten them and he hasn't

8:33

played his whole career yet. So we've still got plenty

8:36

of opportunity for him to add to those 75 attacking

8:38

returns that he's picked up so far. And

8:42

I am honestly worried about not having him,

8:44

but I think there are plenty of players

8:46

that are worried about not having him. When

8:49

you look at the XGI data, the expected goal

8:51

involvement data for Salah though, his

8:53

XGI so far this season has been 2.73, so

8:56

he's been expected to be involved in 2.73

9:00

goals in the opening three

9:02

game weeks of the season. Now his

9:04

actual goal involvement has been six. So

9:06

he's massively overperforming his XGI right now.

9:09

It's the same for Luis Diaz as

9:11

well. His XGI so far for the

9:13

opening three game weeks was 2.49. So

9:16

again, expected to be involved in basically

9:19

two and a half goals, but

9:21

his goal involvements has been four. So

9:23

we are seeing an overperforming of the

9:25

numbers from Liverpool. What

9:28

does that mean? Well, I guess you could look

9:30

at that in one of two ways. You could say, well, they're on four.

9:33

And when they start the season on form, it doesn't

9:35

really matter about the underlying stats. It's what you're seeing

9:37

with the eye test. And it's what

9:39

we're seeing with the points returns that we're getting. Or

9:42

other managers will say, well,

9:45

eventually they'll level out and they'll come

9:47

down to what they are expected to be

9:49

getting. Now, even if he'd have returned 2.73

9:51

goals over the

9:53

opening three games of the season, I'd have still

9:55

said that was a good return in three matches.

9:57

So how far do you look at

9:59

that XGI? data and think that

10:01

should lend us into a decision one

10:03

way or another. I

10:05

think there's a third perspective to that, Sam. A

10:08

third perspective would be, yes, they're over-performing,

10:10

but at the same time, that just

10:12

means their finishing is more clinical or

10:14

their assist ratio is

10:17

good because their finishers are more clinical.

10:19

I'm sure we'll talk about SPURs yesterday.

10:21

They had momentum in the second half

10:23

and not the best XG chances, but

10:26

they just couldn't convert. Then one counter

10:28

attack led to an ESAC goal. That's

10:31

what I mean by a team informer, a team

10:33

confident, a team that wants goals. Again,

10:36

they're clinical right now, which is why they're

10:38

getting these results. I

10:40

don't want to look too much into the

10:42

data. I really believe that you need about

10:45

10 game weeks of data to make a

10:47

fair assessment on these teams. There's new players

10:49

coming in, transfer market, new system,

10:52

new coach, a lot of factors at

10:54

play. Let's not read too

10:56

much into it. Maybe a little bit of

10:58

XGI plus ITest tells me that these assets

11:00

are fantastic. One thing I do

11:02

want to mention about Lewis Diaz, as we

11:05

were talking about Jota previously, is that tactically

11:08

speaking, Robertson is making a lot

11:10

of inverted runs, allowing

11:12

for Diaz to either pull

11:14

out wide or sometimes overlap

11:16

and come in. Basically,

11:19

what I'm trying to say is that there's a new

11:21

found role for Diaz where he's left

11:24

on an island at times to attack

11:26

one on one. I think we're going

11:28

to see a lot of involvement with

11:30

Diaz this year. It'll be interesting with

11:32

the Liverpool fixtures turning right

11:34

now. We're all so high up on

11:36

Salah, but who do you combine the

11:38

other two players with? If Trent is

11:40

the second pick at Liverpool, who is

11:42

that third pick going to be? Jota,

11:44

there's always the threat of Darwin. Is

11:47

it going to be Diaz? Do you want to go a little

11:49

differential or do you want to double up in the

11:51

defense and go Trent and Robertson

11:54

as well? I just like

11:56

Liverpool right now with their fixtures in the form

11:58

they're in as FPLS. It's

12:01

interesting what you just said there, isn't it?

12:03

Because I think for me, I'm looking as

12:05

a jotter owner and only a jotter owner

12:07

right now with Liverpool. Trent

12:09

feels like the natural next

12:12

step for me because how

12:14

he has not got an attacking return so far

12:16

this season, I honestly do not know. He should

12:18

have assisted jotter a number of times in the

12:20

opening two fixtures of the season against

12:23

Manchester United this week. Honestly, he

12:25

should have returned more. There were two opportunities where

12:27

he put the ball in for the Salah where

12:29

I don't know how it didn't end up in

12:31

a goal for them. The same

12:34

later on in the match with a

12:36

jotter attempt that he had. I think

12:39

having Trent would make me feel better

12:41

about not having Salah. Having jotter and

12:44

Trent combination would be good. But

12:46

I was saying yesterday watching them, it

12:49

reminds me of a couple of seasons ago when

12:51

we were all very heavy on the Liverpool

12:53

defence. We had Robertson and Trent in a combination

12:55

of the own both of them. Absolutely. This season,

12:57

I thought Big at the Back was going to

13:00

be dead again. I was like, no, last season

13:02

Big at the Back was dead. It was

13:04

really only Vardial and he wasn't really that expensive

13:06

either. Even Poirot wasn't that

13:08

expensive. You could afford to go budget

13:11

with your defence. This season with the

13:13

number of brilliant-looking 4.5s, a couple

13:15

of them we'll talk about later as we get into the other

13:17

games, I was thinking I

13:20

don't need to spend a lot of

13:22

money. However, I ended up starting the

13:24

season because I had it with Vardial

13:26

and Saliba and Poirot as a back

13:28

three. Now I'm looking at them thinking

13:30

I need to add Trent in there,

13:32

but I'm also thinking maybe adding

13:34

Trent and Robertson might be

13:36

a good combination because as you say,

13:39

Robertson is allowing brilliant stuff

13:41

to be going on down his side and looks

13:43

like getting returns. The clean sheets look likely to

13:45

stick every week as well. Trent

13:48

is so attacking. He's got the set piece

13:50

threat as well. Again, he

13:53

has got that natural ability to

13:55

get forward. What I'm

13:57

quite enjoying actually watching Liverpool

14:00

is that Saltplat has it. He seems

14:02

to have settled. This is my 11 that I

14:04

like. And then about 70

14:06

minutes, once they've won their game and they're

14:09

comfortable, you start to see players being removed.

14:11

Now, so far, we haven't seen that with

14:13

Salah because he hasn't had a natural like-for-like

14:16

replacement. We've seen Diaz coming off and Gackpo

14:18

coming on. We've seen Jota coming off and

14:20

Darwin coming on. We now

14:22

have Kiezer, who signed for Liverpool in

14:25

the transfer window, who plays in Salah's

14:27

position. So maybe with the Champions League

14:29

kicking in after the international break as

14:31

well, we might just see Salah coming

14:33

off with them in this kind of

14:35

70-minute swap of players. Same with

14:37

Trent and Bradley. You've got

14:39

this kind of second layer of

14:41

Liverpool players who are so good

14:44

and can come in and do the job when the game is

14:46

already pretty much won in most cases.

14:48

So I'm looking at Liverpool

14:51

thinking just having Jota is not enough.

14:53

I want to have Trent as well. And

14:55

if I could, I'd have Salah too. But troubling

14:57

up on Liverpool feels like a sensible thing to

15:00

be doing right now. Yeah,

15:02

I think you make some great points there. And

15:05

first on Trent, you're right. I can't

15:08

imagine myself not owning

15:11

Trent. And if I didn't own Trent,

15:13

I'd be real, real nervous because he

15:15

looks like a hall, a game or

15:17

two away from a massive hall. And

15:20

again, I go back to tactics a little

15:23

bit where it's really interesting as FPL managers,

15:25

we assume if they're closer to goal, they're

15:27

automatically a better asset. So what I mean

15:29

by this is last season, when

15:31

we were talking about Trent becoming an inverted center

15:33

mid type of thing, we thought he was

15:36

going to be an exceptional

15:38

option. Turns out we would

15:40

rather have him at right back, bombing down

15:42

the right wing, making some inverted runs here

15:44

and there, but crossing nonstop.

15:46

And that's what we're seeing this

15:49

season where he's playing the

15:51

position he's most comfortable in, playing the position he's

15:53

best in. I mean, you know,

15:56

we think about the Euros this season for England. No

15:58

offense, you guys. He struggled

16:00

a bit inside the middle, right? So

16:03

I really like where Trent's playing. If

16:05

I didn't have Trent, I would definitely

16:07

bring him first thing possible. So

16:10

that's where I'm at with Trent. Just a

16:12

quick word then before we move on on

16:14

Manchester United, because they are still fairly highly

16:17

owned in the game. Players like Garnacho, players

16:19

like Rashford. Garnacho,

16:21

I think, for me anyway, was

16:23

the best player on Manchester United pitch

16:25

on Sunday. Yet he

16:28

was the one taken off early. And Rashford, not

16:31

really for me worth the

16:33

money in FPL right now. The same with

16:35

Bruno Fernandez. I'm looking at the Manchester United

16:37

assets and I'm thinking, I'm

16:39

struggling to justify having

16:41

to pay the level of budget

16:43

that we do for the likes

16:45

of Bruno. At 8.4 now, because

16:47

he's obviously taken a price drop,

16:49

he still feels on

16:52

the expensive side for the returns that we are

16:54

seeing from him. I mean, so far he's got

16:56

three, two and two points. But

16:58

it would be quite a hard sell going into

17:00

game week four, given that they've paid Southampton in

17:03

that one. So I wasn't

17:05

particularly impressed by Manchester United. But I think

17:07

if I owned one of their assets, I'd

17:09

probably just hold them for now, see

17:12

how game week four pans out and then make

17:14

a decision on what to do with them after

17:16

that. Especially if I had Garnacho, because I actually

17:19

thought that he was probably their best

17:21

player this week. Yeah,

17:24

actually, one of my best friends in real

17:26

life is that I'm in a mini league

17:28

with, owns Garnacho as his differential. And, you

17:30

know, as you were saying, he was very

17:33

close to a couple of returns throughout the

17:35

season and was complaining yesterday because he

17:37

thought he was the best player on the pitch, as

17:39

you mentioned. So it's tough. I

17:41

don't, I do not think you should

17:43

let go of your United asset, especially

17:45

with Southampton next, because Southampton is

17:48

a team to target at this point in time

17:50

in terms of attacking assets. So you

17:52

don't want to let go of your assets. But

17:55

if you let go of Bruno in

17:57

order to enable someone like Asala. or

18:00

even a Palmer, it is

18:03

something to consider because what's the best case

18:05

scenario you can get with Bruno? I

18:07

can only imagine at this point in

18:09

time from what I'm seeing is maybe

18:12

one goal, one assist, maximum two attacking

18:14

returns plus bonus. Yes, you're getting

18:16

your 10 pointer, 12 pointer, but

18:20

that's about it. I just don't see United

18:22

scoring many goals is the point I'm trying

18:24

to make, especially with the clinical finishing lacking

18:26

right now. So it

18:29

is about who you're letting go in order

18:31

to fund for. So if you're letting Bruno

18:33

go to get Salah, that's

18:35

something to consider, but if not, it

18:38

is Southampton. So just stick with it

18:40

for one more game because what I'd

18:42

suggest. All right, well, let's

18:45

move on from one set of

18:47

title contended in Liverpool to another

18:49

in Manchester City because I think if you're

18:51

talking about Salah, it makes sense in the

18:53

next breath to have a conversation about Haaland.

18:56

Now, before we talk about

18:58

Erlen and his hat trick, he's back to back

19:00

hat trick. First away hat trick, by the way,

19:02

in the Premier League for him. So that was

19:04

interesting, I thought, at the weekend. I just want

19:06

to have a quick conversation about Kevin de Bruyne

19:08

because more chances created than

19:10

anyone else across the game week with six. He

19:13

had more touches in the opponent's half than

19:16

any other player with the exception of COVID-Titch,

19:18

who had slightly more than him, but again,

19:21

across the game. He had

19:23

more attempts on goal than any

19:25

other midfielder in game week three.

19:28

His six were more than Semenya of Brennan,

19:30

and D.S. and Tavernier who got five attempts

19:32

each. Is

19:36

outside of Haaland, KDB the

19:38

best pick right now in

19:40

that Manchester City team? Because

19:43

I'll be honest, I'm struggling. I'm

19:45

doubled up on Manchester City. I have

19:47

Haaland and currently I

19:49

have Vardial, who's very quickly about to

19:52

become Trent because I made a mistake

19:54

there in terms of the defensive solidity

19:56

of those two sides. But

19:58

I am looking at Manchester City. and

20:00

the constant goal scoring

20:02

that we are seeing from them regularly

20:05

returning huge goal holes each

20:08

week. I'm thinking I

20:11

would like to add to

20:13

Harlan, but it's really difficult to know where

20:15

you go because you've got Savio who last

20:17

week looked fantastic and I thought maybe he

20:19

was gonna be the way at like six

20:22

and a half million. Foden

20:24

is apparently still ill and missed

20:26

another game, so can't really go there.

20:29

But KDB's underlying stats for this one in particular

20:31

look really nice. So is he an option,

20:33

do you think? I

20:36

really like that you mentioned KDB, Sam,

20:38

but to be quite frank with

20:40

you, this is where you have to separate the football

20:42

from FPL. And in terms

20:44

of football, you could argue he was the best player

20:47

on the pitch, even though Holland had a hat trick.

20:49

He looked amazing. In

20:52

terms of FPL, there's a

20:54

lot of factors here at play.

20:56

Yes, Man City is maybe fixture proof,

20:58

but they do have Arsenal Newcastle coming

21:00

up. Maybe the Newcastle fixture is not

21:02

as bad as it

21:04

seems attacking wise, but it's

21:07

not really about who is the second Man

21:09

City option that's best after Holland.

21:12

It's about who are

21:14

the players you're comparing KDB to in

21:16

your FPL team and that tier of

21:18

players. So now you have to

21:20

compare KDB to the likes of Palmer, to

21:22

the likes of Saka, to the likes of

21:25

Sun when his fixtures get good. And

21:27

from there, maybe KDB is

21:29

the better footballer right now, but

21:31

Saka might be the better option in terms

21:33

of FPL on pens, onset

21:36

pieces, the focal point of

21:38

the goals. Sometimes Man City

21:40

can score five goals, but

21:42

KDB might not be involved. Sometimes

21:44

Arsenal might score five goals. There's

21:47

a very high likelihood that Saka is going to

21:49

be involved. So that's the only thing I

21:51

would like to say about why I hesitate to bring

21:53

in KDB into my team. It's

21:55

really interesting, isn't it? And I think you're right. And

21:57

I think when you're looking at that price point. the

22:01

ten and a half for pama the

22:03

ten bracket that you see for the lights of

22:06

sakura and and sun the nine and halves where

22:08

you got katie being you got phone. It's

22:11

hard they are very very hard

22:13

group of players to afford and

22:16

to be honest the opening three game weeks of the

22:18

season i watch katie being for. You

22:21

can brilliant like he has looked fantastic in

22:23

each and every one of those games. But

22:26

you write in what you say buying him

22:28

is really difficult as a harlan

22:31

owner i don't want to spend nine and

22:33

a half million on another man to city

22:35

player because. I want

22:38

to spread that around and like you say i've got

22:40

sakura in my team and he's so important we'll talk

22:42

about our song later to the way that arsenal play.

22:45

I wouldn't want to be without him which

22:47

is why i was thinking all at

22:49

the beginning of the season i'll go with

22:51

video alongside harlan because i expect to manage

22:54

to have a good season last

22:56

campaign body i was so important

22:58

to the back end of the

23:00

season to their attacking play and

23:02

he was going forward at will and

23:04

look like regular turning and attacking return

23:07

even when the clean sheet didn't stick.

23:10

This season is not

23:12

really the same with vardio it tends to

23:14

be the other side and rico lewis at

23:16

the moment who is going on that inverted.

23:19

role and going forward, which means that vardio

23:22

I mean did have three attempts on goal

23:24

in game week three but actually.

23:28

They want the level of

23:30

chance that i would be expecting from him

23:32

based on what we saw last season plus

23:35

we are still seeing this slightly

23:37

leaky manchester city defense and they

23:39

aren't keeping the clean sheets yet.

23:43

Is always a little mistaken them defensively

23:45

it feels and so for me.

23:48

I think what's likely to happen this week

23:50

is i'm gonna drop down to just having

23:52

one manchester city asset which feels madness with

23:54

the level of goals that they're scoring but

23:57

knowing whether to go for. Saturday.

24:00

or Agrilish or a Dokku or

24:03

Bernardo or anybody in that sort of cheaper

24:05

bracket, feels

24:07

really hard and until

24:09

Foden's back, I

24:12

don't feel like there's a

24:14

natural obvious second choice in

24:16

that midfield and even when

24:18

Foden is back, he fits

24:20

in alongside KDB in that

24:22

category of the cost. So

24:24

it's going to be tough I think

24:26

to own that second Manchester City asset without

24:28

taking some risk on security of starts. Gewardial

24:31

was great as that left wing role

24:34

that we so often saw last

24:36

year but that's what's amazing

24:38

about Pep, he continuously evolves,

24:41

changes, you know, brings in

24:43

players that's going to fit his new system this

24:45

year and you know right

24:47

off the top of the bat we can

24:49

see Rico Lewis playing a different role or

24:51

maybe like a Gewardial role from last year

24:53

where he's way more attacking. However,

24:55

we also have to think about the

24:58

return of Grewlish and Dokku on the

25:00

left as pure wingers.

25:02

They're playing pure wing on the left and

25:04

would you rather have Grewlish play on your

25:07

left wing or Gewardial play on the left

25:09

wing? I'm going to take Grewlish all day

25:11

every day, right? So I think

25:13

Gewardial is a wait and watch, it's been

25:15

three game weeks but he

25:18

is slowly becoming more of a defensive

25:20

FPL assets where you have to rely

25:22

on the clean sheets and

25:25

the bonus is going to get tougher for him because

25:27

he's not as attacking as he used to be. Finally,

25:30

we have Champions League football coming

25:32

back where this year there are so

25:34

many more group stage games,

25:36

right? So you're right,

25:38

we don't really know who the best second

25:41

asset is because unless Foden is nailed maybe

25:43

it turns out that Rico Lewis is actually

25:45

the best second asset and he continues to

25:48

start because Pep also does this too, right?

25:50

Like he'll bring a player in,

25:53

you know, make them have a little bit

25:55

more experience, a little bit more experience and then he'll

25:57

play him a lot. I think Foden is a good

25:59

player. case of it took him years before

26:01

he got all the starts last

26:04

year. So, Rico Lewis is certainly one

26:06

to watch, but it's very hard to

26:08

identify that second asset. Hmm. I

26:10

totally agree. And I think for me,

26:12

just a quick word on my stand

26:14

before we move on, Jarrah Bowen, that's

26:16

his second return in two game weeks.

26:18

Now, you might sit here and

26:20

go, well, it was lucky. It's an own goal. He just

26:22

gets the assist for it. But

26:24

equally, he's in the right place. He's putting the right

26:27

balls in. He's so integral. And I think if you

26:29

do want to invest in West Ham, then

26:31

Bowen feels like probably the option.

26:34

We're going to have to keep an eye

26:36

on the goalkeeper situation because

26:39

Ariola was a popular pick in

26:41

FPL with FPL managers. Obviously,

26:43

he goes off for halftime. Fabianski comes

26:45

on. Now, I, as a

26:47

Fabianski owner, because he is my second

26:50

goalkeeper, was kind of like, oh, hang

26:52

on a minute. Might we

26:54

just see a little bit more of an opportunity here

26:56

for Fabianski to get some game time? We don't know

26:59

yet. We'll have to wait and see. But it's definitely

27:01

something to keep an eye on because if we do

27:03

go, if Ariola is out for a

27:05

little bit and Fabianski does get some more game

27:07

starts, then we'd have a 4.0 starting goalkeeper,

27:10

which is what we all look for. And

27:12

if you're wild carding, that might be something

27:14

of interest. So keep a close eye on

27:16

West Ham over the international break. And when

27:19

we are about 10 into game week four for

27:21

a little bit of an update there. Let's

27:23

talk about Arsenal for a minute, because I think

27:26

after Liverpool and Man City, they're probably

27:28

the team that most FPL managers were

27:30

looking to invest in. And I would

27:33

say that Brighton had some opportunities in

27:35

this first half, but Arsenal

27:37

were comfortable. They were very, very comfortable

27:40

in this game until the Declan Rice

27:42

red card. He will now, obviously,

27:44

now miss game week four. So if you have Declan Rice

27:46

in your team, you're going to need to think about that,

27:48

whether you're happy to hold him beyond

27:51

that, or whether actually this is a

27:53

good opportunity to swap Declan Rice to

27:55

somebody else, because he hasn't really been

27:57

returning from an FPL perspective so far

27:59

this season. anyway in the way that we maybe

28:01

saw from him last campaign where

28:03

he was offering much better value

28:05

for your FPL pounds. But

28:08

actually when you look at Arsenal, Saka

28:10

was top this week for XG underachievers

28:12

across the game week so he was

28:14

very unlucky not to register

28:16

a goal this time

28:19

around. But what I'm really interested

28:21

in is his relationship with Kai Havertz. The two

28:23

of them have formed

28:25

a really nice bond up

28:28

there. They are linking up

28:30

really nicely, they regularly

28:32

are looking for each other and actually

28:34

in this one there were moments where

28:36

obviously Saka assisted Havertz for the Arsenal

28:38

goal but there were another couple of

28:40

moments in that game where they could

28:42

have happened in reverse. There was an

28:44

opportunity where Havertz put in a cross

28:46

and Saka just didn't quite get on

28:48

the end of it. There was another one

28:51

a few minutes before where Saka

28:53

was following up on a Havertz shot

28:55

and I just like the interconnectivity between

28:58

those two. And as a Saka owner,

29:01

Havertz is a player that I'm looking quite longingly at

29:03

and I'm thinking he feels

29:05

like a really nice option because I'm not

29:07

particularly happy with my front line right now.

29:10

Obviously Harlan aside he's doing

29:12

fantastically but Marthyr Two-Forwards,

29:15

East Saka's finally got a goal. We'll talk

29:17

about Spurs and Newcastle in a minute but

29:19

I've got Muniz as my other forward right

29:21

now. And there's a conversation as to

29:23

whether do I go up to Havertz

29:26

in that position or do I drop it

29:28

down to Jal Pedro, both of which were

29:30

playing in this game, both of which scored

29:32

goals in this game. I think

29:34

when you look at the underlying stats and I know

29:37

that we have to be careful with with underlying stats

29:39

this early on but when you look at the underlying

29:41

stats for this game the stats look like Brighton were

29:44

on fire, constantly having shots on the

29:47

Arsenal goal. They had 22 of

29:49

them with 15 of

29:51

them coming from inside the box. But of

29:53

those 15 goals, 15 attempts

29:55

on goal that came from inside the box, 13 of

29:57

them happened when Arsenal were down to 10 men. So And

38:00

then pre-thinking

38:02

that move that I was going to make

38:04

this week was Palmer to Salah.

38:08

Now it's a waste

38:10

of transfers because you're premium hopping over

38:12

here, but I was toying

38:14

with that idea. So I don't think I

38:17

would fault anybody for making that move because

38:20

I just trust the consistency that Salah is

38:22

about to show us in the next few

38:24

game weeks because his fixtures are also good.

38:27

But I also think you have to

38:29

really assess it, be patient. Don't make that

38:31

decision right now. There's still international breaks, so

38:33

anything can happen. And also

38:36

know that Palmer is capable of a

38:38

19-20 pointer. He

38:40

has it in his system. He has

38:42

it in his bag and he's got

38:44

Bournemouth, West Ham, Brighton, Forest next, which

38:46

is as good of a fixture run

38:48

that you're going to get this season.

38:52

So it's a tough one. I would wait and think

38:54

about it before I make the decision

38:56

on that. I think if

38:58

you bought in Madawake this week, you would definitely

39:01

hold him. I mean, he was the

39:03

most transferred in player this week after his hat trick

39:05

in Game Week 2. He

39:07

had nearly 1.1 million transfers in

39:09

this week, partly because of

39:11

this fixture, but also, as you've said about Palmer,

39:14

because of the longer term fixtures that Chelsea have

39:16

coming up. So if you

39:18

bought in Madawake this time, then I think

39:20

you can consider yourself a little bit unlucky

39:23

actually, because he had three attempts on goal.

39:25

Two of those were classified as big chances.

39:28

Probably could have and should have returned

39:30

some FPL points for you in this

39:32

one. But

39:35

I think you have to hold. If you bought him

39:37

and now you hold him, because we've seen what he

39:39

can do in Game Week 2. We

39:41

saw signs of the repetition of that

39:43

in Game Week 3 with

39:46

the fixtures that they're coming up in Game Week 4

39:48

and beyond. I think you have to hold. I

39:51

think the other player that was interesting this week

39:53

was Eze. He finally returned on

39:55

all of those chances that he's had in the

39:57

opening two game weeks of the season. game

40:00

week three, he and Semenya

40:02

would have more goal attempts than any other

40:04

midfielders in the game. We finally

40:06

saw him return this week as he's the

40:08

fourth most transferred out player ahead of the

40:11

game week. So, 778,000 managers

40:14

parting with him ahead of this goal that

40:16

he scored. I think if

40:18

you've got Ede in your team, I would

40:20

be keeping him. I think at seven million,

40:22

he still feels like decent

40:24

value for money. Yeah, just

40:27

on Maduiki first, I

40:29

don't think he's a buy, but he's

40:31

definitely a hold and certainly not a

40:33

sell. Maybe he is a

40:35

buy because you're right, he looked amazing yesterday

40:38

and it was so threatening down the right,

40:40

but we just don't know what the Chelsea

40:43

rotation is going to look like. So, that's

40:45

the only concern I have. I feel like

40:47

we have good confidence that Palma will continue

40:49

to start. Maybe Maduiki is locked up to

40:51

be a starter in the Premier League, who

40:53

knows? But I don't think you and

40:55

I can answer that question. So, I would just

40:57

wait a few more, maybe one or two more

40:59

game weeks if you really want him before you

41:01

bring him in, but I wouldn't fault anybody for

41:04

bringing him in this week. In

41:06

terms of Eze, last week, I could not

41:08

believe the amount of people that were selling

41:10

him. That just tells me,

41:12

Sam, that maybe people aren't

41:14

watching the games enough. He was so, so

41:17

brilliant the first two game weeks. He could

41:19

have gotten more attacking returns, absolutely

41:22

underperforming his XG, XGI.

41:25

And I was so happy to hold him. I

41:27

had no problem holding him. And

41:29

if anything, he's still a buy. He is

41:31

the talisman for the team, could

41:34

walk into any team in the Premier League,

41:36

maybe not start straight away for the likes

41:38

of Man City, but certainly we would be

41:41

fighting for that spot. So, just

41:43

a brilliant footballer, brilliant FPL asset on

41:45

everything. Selfish, maybe carries the ball too

41:47

long, but that's exactly what we want

41:50

in terms of FPL assets. So, Eze

41:53

for me is firmly in my team for

41:55

the foreseeable future. I

41:57

think now that the transfer window is closed as well, and

41:59

we start a

46:00

Saka in your team no matter what. I

46:02

mean, it's just an absolute, right? And

46:04

so how do you afford Sun? You

46:07

really can't unless you give up the likes

46:09

of Saka and you sacrifice

46:11

a lot in the

46:14

rest of your team, which is not possible

46:16

because we're going to want three Arsenal, three

46:18

Man City by that time. So

46:21

the answer is looking like Solanke

46:23

is going to be the more

46:25

popular and more often used Tottenham

46:27

asset throughout the rest of the

46:29

season. So this is

46:31

tough. It's tough for me because as a

46:33

fan, I want him in my team always.

46:35

And I'm probably one of the few that

46:37

have him over the likes of Saka and

46:39

Palmer, but I would

46:42

not advise to bring him in right now.

46:44

He's playing way too wide. He's playing multiple

46:46

different positions, sometimes up top, sometimes on the

46:48

left. And it feels like he's the

46:50

pass to assist to guy. Madison

46:52

is just ball hogging all the free kicks.

46:54

But I'm a Sun fan. That's why I'm

46:56

a little annoyed. Not

46:59

on set pieces. Poro's taking all

47:01

the set pieces. And it's

47:05

just tough to watch as a Sun fan and

47:08

an FPL manager as well, because I

47:10

am not convinced he's the best asset

47:12

right now. No, I agree. And

47:14

I think as a manager who went

47:16

into game with one with Solanke, I find

47:19

myself feeling quite

47:21

flat about that because

47:24

the last few game weeks, Spurs have

47:26

been very, very creative. So

47:28

many. And the second half against Newcastle was a prime

47:31

example of this. So many

47:33

chances created, no finishing.

47:36

And that's the problem, is that had Solanke

47:38

been fit for the last couple of weeks, we would

47:40

have had an actual finisher in that position. And you

47:42

would have expected that there would have been goals that

47:44

come on the back of it. We've seen

47:46

changes in the personnel up top. I didn't think

47:48

it worked without Brennan Johnson this week. If you're

47:50

a Brennan Johnson owner, you would have been disappointed

47:52

not to see him on the starting 11 this

47:54

week. I think he proved

47:56

a point in the second half when he came on and I'd

47:58

expect to see him back.