Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 10

Welcome to Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 10

Haaland + 10 others…

We have been a bit slow getting any of our regular articles out this week, and for that we apologise, but we have been having a bit of a rethink on what content we provide on a weekly basis. The sole reason for this slight pause for thought is one Mr Erling Haaland. Essentially he has made our Captain Picks article pretty much redundant. There really is no point at this stage putting out an article that suggests you captain anyone else. That said, it is not as if that is your main weekly decision anymore and so we have decided to adapt our Tips article a little bit. What we are going to do for now is ask our writers to construct a ‘Best 11’, solely for the game-week ahead. In essence then this will be 10 + Erling, but the dual point is to almost fill that ‘Captain’ gap with the best of the rest plus giving pointers as to who we would pick all over the pitch, as different people will have different priorities and / or fires to put out.

A catch-all, if you like.

We have done this type of article a number of years ago, and it proved popular back then, but we have essentially forgotton how we structured it (that’s old age kicking in!), so this one will be adapted as we go along, once our muscle memory kicks back in! Please feel free as ever to suggest ideas in the comments below though but for now here is our new / old take on GW10 and the best players for it…

Goalkeeper

(Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Lukasz Fabianski (vs Fulham) gets my vote this week. Having picked up his second clean sheet of the season in the 2-0 victory over a less than threatening Wolves side, the shot stopper entertains the prospect of a clean sheet against Fulham this weekend. Looking into the history books, West Ham United are unbeaten in 11 home Premier League matches against Fulham, winning the past four.

Defenders

Kieran Trippier (vs Brentford) carries with him the great combination of clean sheet potential and a chance of some attacking returns too. The most transferred-in defender – and now owned by a whopping 49.6 per cent of FPL managers – he has a goal and an assist to his name so far. In addition, there are four clean sheets, with the most recent one thanks to him being subbed off before Fulham scored their consolatory goal. Brentford are the guests to St James’ Park this gameweek, who have failed to find the back of the net the last two gameweeks, having scored five back in Gameweek 6.

Reece James (vs Wolves) last scored in the Premier League back in Gameweek 2, however the fact he found the back of the net against Milan midweek shows there is always potential. That game also saw him set up the second and keep a clean sheet – something that the 37.7 per cent of managers who have him would surely embrace with open arms after a run of the last three games that have resulted in the same amount of points. The opposition, Wolves, have made a change in management after a lacklustre start to the season, of which three of the last four have seen them fail to find the back of the net. The last three times the Blues have faced the Midlanders have resulted in draws: 0-0, 0-0 and 2-2.

Ivan Perisic (vs Brighton) also joins Trippier and James when it comes to high ownership, as 25.7 per cent of FPL managers have him in their squad – though that figure is decreasing after collecting only five points in the last four. That did, however, follow 22 points from three fixtures and the away day to Brighton could well be the resurgence in the Croatian’s popularity should he repeat such antics. Whilst the Seagulls showed their attacking potential and were unlucky to not be victorious in Liverpool, you have to look back to Gameweek 4 for the last time they held a clean sheet. Perisic certainly offers that attacking threat, with three assists so far this campaign, even if De Zerbi’s men do manage to score.

Midfielders

(Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Maddison (vs Bournemouth)
GET HIM ON THE PLANE, GARETH! Seriously, why isn’t this man getting into the England squad? He is one of the best attacking and creative English players right now and has been for a while. People always think of Jamie Vardy as Leicester’s main man but really the biggest influence for the Foxes is James Maddison in midfield. With Leicester struggling big time this season and currently in the bottom three, the no.10 has still managed to score 5 goals and get 2 assists in seven games, he has had returns in five of those seven games only blanking against Man United and Brighton. Now, he is coming off a massive score of 18 points following 2 goals, an assist and a clean sheet. I’m not expecting that every match but coming up against Bournemouth who have conceded 19 goals this season, Maddy will be wanted to add to his tally, and I think he could. Brendan Rodgers is fighting for his job pretty much and the demolition of Forest will be a much-needed confidence boost for his players. Bournemouth have improved defensively since the sacking of Scott Parker and the replacement of Mark Travers with Neto in goals getting 2 clean sheets in four games, but they came against Wolves and Brentford where the goals have kind of dried up. I would still have Maddy in my side but unlike last week I won’t be captaining him!

Foden (vs Southampton)
Most people would say KdB is the one to have in midfield and he probably is. In fact, I was actually going to just go with the obvious until I saw the Man City Champions League lineup where both KdB and Phil Foden were rested from the start. This suggests to me that both get the nod to start at the weekend against Southampton. Foden has just come out of the Manchester derby with a hat-trick of goals, all very well taken. In fact, when watching MOTD, Foden was largely getting ignored on that right hand side by the United players, so he was sprinting into the box with late runs. This was happening on so many occasions that Ten Haag replaced Malacia at half time because Foden was having too much space on that side. Haaland is getting the majority of attention from opposing defenders, not that it’s of much use, so I feel the wingers might benefit from this. If I am right, then more goals could be on the way for Foden. The only thing I worry with Foden is that while Haaland assisted two of Foden’s goals I didn’t see a single pass the opposite way. Foden seemed to me that he had it in his mind that Haaland wasn’t going to get all the goals this season and was cutting inside, shooting and constantly looking for the ball. If you have space for a City player and looking for a bit of a budget saver compared to KdB then Foden should be your man.

Zaha (vs Leeds)
Now I’ll be perfectly honest, when I originally signed up for this week’s article I wasn’t going to write about this man as he is the obvious pick and already on most people’s radars. Instead, I was going to suggest a budget option in the Palace side like Eze or Ayew as a replacement for Bailey or whatever 5th mid you have. Alas, I decided to not make it seem like I’ve totally lost all my marbles and stuck with Zaha… I’ll keep it short though. He’s Palace’s best player, they are playing a side who have conceded 10 goals this season, have not won in four games and have the real-life Ted Lasso as a manager. Just get him in as if you don’t and he hauls you will be kicking yourself because a lot of other managers are getting him and I’m expecting his ownership to go higher than the current 17.7%.

Bowen (vs Fulham)
My final pick was tough. I was between three people, then two and finally settled on Jarrod Bowen. This isn’t for any other reason than the team he is playing against. West Ham have only scored five goals this season in eight games, but those five goals have come in the last five games with two in the GW9. This isn’t exactly earth-shattering stuff, but it does include goals against Spurs and Chelsea so hopefully West Ham are on the way up. West Ham also don’t have a stand-out option like Palace do in Zaha as Bowen has one goal and one assist which is the same as Antonio this season. All five goals have come from five different scorers. However, I still think Bowen is the best West Ham attacking option. He gets forward, looks for goals, looks for assists. Just seems to be the most likely to do something. I did say the reason for the Bowen pick was due to the opposition and that is Fulham. Looking at the defensive stats of teams, Fulham are one of the worst. They have an xGA of 1.95, and this shows with their 1.88 goals against per game. They haven’t had a single clean sheet since Leno went in goals so Bowen has a great opportunity to improve on his stats against one of the poorest defences in the league.

Forwards

Kane (vs Brighton)
I’ll be honest here, Kane wasn’t on my original list of forwards, I was toying with other (Jesus and Aubameyang specifically), but something happened today which makes me think that Spurs may just put on a show on against Brighton on Saturday evening.

The reason he wasn’t on said list is that Brighton have been pretty tight defensively so far this season. They have conceded the joint 2nd least goals overall with 8 in 7 against, and at home they are joint best with just 2 in their goal bag. Albeit from a very small sample of just 3 games!

Plus Kane himself has been basically playing for two of the most conservative teams in this country as of late, in Spurs and England.

What happened today was that Spurs unexpectantly and sadly lost their much loved fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone at the age of just 61. There has been an outpouring of grief from the Spurs players themselves and evidently he was an extremely popular, massively respected and important member of their team. He has a long history with Conte himself and so I rather suspect that the shackles may be off on Saturday and the players told demanded upon to go out and honour him with a performance befitting of his memory.

Plus Kane himself has actually got 7 goals and 2 assists in 9 games with a contribution in all of them other than that strange GW1 vs Saints when they scored 4 and he wasn’t involved in any. Pre-Haaland we would have all been drooling over those stats. How the goal-posts have moved eh!

(Callum) Wilson (vs Fulham)
He (Callum) has one of those names that just doesn’t feel right unless you say the entire thing. Like Dan Burn. Or more pertinently Ben Mee. Or is it just that we see so little of him these days that we all simply need reminding who ‘Wilson’ actually is?! He may sometimes feel like a castaway, long forgotten basketball on a desert island, but on the odd occasion that he does grace us with his presence in-between injuries, he’s actually FPL gold. His stats at Newcastle show 23 goals & 6 assists in just 41 appearances. For his price (7.2) that is pretty damn good value. Fulham are conceding goals at a rate of marginally less than 2 a game. Plus he will probably be on pens. It’s more just how long you can milk him for before a new part of his fragile body gives in.

Haaland (vs Southampton)
Obviously.

Nuff said…

Our ‘Best 11’ for GW10…

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 10. This article was written by Init, Matt & Swirly.

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