Final Word | SuperCoach EPL trades, captains, PODs


<p>A tricky little start to the week for the Bolywood Bhoys who were affected by the two big moments from the opening game &#8211; Salah&#8217;s late goal which probably dropped our ranking 2k-2.5k given he&#8217;s been an early zag for us and Jeremie Frimpong&#8217;s disastrous substitution 20 seconds away from a clean sheet. Alas, we must keep our heads, particularly with only 44 trades to use across our 38 game weeks.</p>



<p>We&#8217;re sitting at 5.1k after Week 1 &#8211; winner in all but 1 of our h2h leagues&#8230; Far from a disaster and we&#8217;ll be looking to generate as much cash as we can before the international break.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Gameweek 1 Trade Plans</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Jeremie Frimpong</strong>&nbsp;is the big question mark &#8211; all indications seem to be that the substitution was precautionary and given the strong wrap on him I had in pre-season I can&#8217;t see myself executing the change with Liverpool&#8217;s 10-day turnaround. Even if he doesn&#8217;t start against Newcastle &#8211; a trade out to trade back in down the road looks too costly at this stage.</p>



<p>I took the punt on&nbsp;<strong>Malo Gusto&nbsp;</strong>so he&#8217;ll have to be my trade this week &#8211; I won&#8217;t be able to make a straight switch for Reece James but I think that could be a blessing in disguise given the value on offer&#8230; And if you are set on trading out Frimpong then there are plenty of cash building options.</p>



<p><strong>Rico Lewis&nbsp;</strong>was superb for City against Wolves but has a tricky little run of fixtures, he&#8217;s still my favoured pick given the quality of City&#8217;s performance.</p>



<p><strong>Daniel Ballard&nbsp;</strong>was brilliant &amp; is sure to increase in value if you&#8217;re looking for a quick trade in to gauge Frimpong&#8217;s recovery.</p>



<p><strong>Leny Yoro&nbsp;</strong>landed in United&#8217;s starting lineup and played well which is promising &#8211; not sure I&#8217;m quite willing to commit on United&#8217;s backline just yet though.</p>



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<p>The other temptation is obviously <strong>Reijnders </strong>given his superb display for City and the fact that when Rodri returns to the starting line-up he&#8217;ll be given even more licence to attack. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m over-stating the quality of his display when I say he has the potential to fill the boots of Kevin De Bruyne (I&#8217;m not saying he&#8217;s filled his boots quite yet).</p>



<p>My qualm on that trade is City&#8217;s next four games &#8211; Spurs (H), Brighton (A), Man Utd (H), Arsenal (A). If you gamble &amp; win it could set you up for the season. Those who had him in from the start&#8230; I can only tip my cap.</p>



<p>As someone who started the season without Salah &#8211; I&#8217;m not making room for him just yet particularly given&nbsp;<strong>Haaland&#8217;s</strong>&nbsp;hot start &#8211; there&#8217;s every chance we could make the straight swap if need be down the road.</p>



<p>There is a sneaking thought to bring in&nbsp;<strong>James Trafford</strong>&nbsp;but I was set on Dorde Petrovic and his season won&#8217;t get any tougher. There&#8217;s still time before the price changes to make the switch if Bournemouth&#8217;s defence implodes over the next few weeks.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Captaincy Strategy</strong></h2>



<p>If you&#8217;re not already captaincy looping &#8211; make sure you read up on SCPlaybook&#8217;s rundown of the loophole that exists&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://scplaybook.com.au/blog/2022/12/12/how-to-use-the-auto-emergency-vice-captain-loophole">here</a>.</p>



<p>Even better news&#8230; As EPL players we don&#8217;t even suffer the points hit of having to play an auto-emergency &#8211; we get done of the pain and all the gain.</p>



<p>This weekend Chelsea have the early kick-off travelling to face West Ham and despite a slow start against Palace&nbsp;<strong>Palmer</strong>&nbsp;set as your vice-captain seems a safe bet for a player with the highest ceiling.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m split on captaincy between&nbsp;<strong>Haaland</strong>&nbsp;after his outstanding first up performance and&nbsp;<strong>Bruno Fernandes</strong>&nbsp;&#8211; edging toward the Portuguese star. I wasn&#8217;t particularly impressed with Fulham&#8217;s defensive display against Brighton and thinking United showed enough against Arsenal to suggest they&#8217;ll be a more consistent attacking unit this season, in addition to the fact City&#8217;s record against Spurs famously isn&#8217;t the best.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Watchlist</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Patrick Dorgu &#8211;</strong>&nbsp;very strong for United at a good price &#8211; would have been in my trade thoughts if not for the slightly higher price than Yoro &amp; Ballard.</p>



<p><strong>Tino Livramento&nbsp;</strong>&#8211; mentioned him in pre-season previews and he performed well in the opening game. Not the time to bring him in with Liverpool coming to visit but he&#8217;ll continue to start.</p>



<p><strong>Jack Grealish&nbsp;</strong>came off the bench in the opening game against Leeds and although I&#8217;m not sure Everton lack cutting edge &#8211; they are definitely still lacking a striker. Need to see him start before considering a move for him.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>POD Choices</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Josh King&nbsp;</strong>&nbsp;&#8211; Going to build you value early in the season because there&#8217;s no one to take his place at Fulham other than Smith-Rowe who&#8217;s pre-season photos tell the story about whether he&#8217;s ready to play 90 minutes or not&#8230; Fulham will improve.</p>



<p><strong>Jean Phillipe-Mateta&nbsp;</strong>&#8211; owned by less than 2% and Palace are looking strong &#8211; if you have room to be patient (and it this stage of the season you should) wait and see if they look more fluid against Forest. Their fixture is fairly kind after that until December (with the exception of a visit from City).</p>



<p><strong>Gameweek 2 Strategy</strong></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Trade</strong></h2>



<p>Gusto OUT Rico Lewis IN</p>



<p>Captains (for VC Loop)</p>



<p>VC: Palmer</p>



<p>C: Fernandes</p>



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Final Word | SuperCoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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