Final Word Week 6 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs


<p>Five game-weeks down &#8211; and we&#8217;re at a point where we&#8217;ve formed some solid opinions on players that were popular at the start of the season, while getting to a rosy 5 game block for Arsenal and Manchester City, with the Gunners particularly getting through some tough early-season fixtures relatively unscathed.</p>



<p>On a low-scoring weekend, 90 points put the Bolywood Bhoys in the Top 9% of coaches &#8211; mostly due to the solid score of <strong>Erling Haaland</strong>,<strong> </strong>who might have had another against Arsenal as well. </p>



<p>Probably the best of my captaincy shouts so far this season.</p>



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<p>Down the board, Hartman &amp; Petrovic scored solidly to keep our defence ticking along &#8211; while in midfield the assist for <strong>Tijani Reijnders</strong> and more heroics from <strong>Bruno Fernandes</strong> (helped by the early red card to Robert Sanchez) meant the score rose higher than some who had moved early on the pair.</p>



<p>While he was overlooked for Connor Bradley on the weekend against Everton &#8211; <strong>Jeremie Frimpong</strong> did manage to get through 90 minutes in Liverpool&#8217;s mid-week League Cup win over Southampton, but if he&#8217;s not starting this weekend against Palace, we&#8217;re going to have to cop the loss and move him on. </p>



<p>I&#8217;m of the mind that I probably should have made that move earlier, as I sit here writing this on Wednesday.</p>



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<p><strong>Maxim De Cuyper </strong>didn&#8217;t play against Spurs after his early substitution versus Bournemouth the week before, when he got a little too familiar with the advertising hoardings. </p>



<p>He&#8217;s still clearly their number 1 option at left-back, and Fabian Hürzeler said the injury wasn&#8217;t serious when asked about it last week, so I&#8217;m hopeful he&#8217;ll have recovered for the clash with Chelsea this weekend. </p>



<p>Regardless, I&#8217;ll likely be lining up with 3 defenders this weekend just in case. </p>



<p>Brighton&#8217;s fixtures are particularly soft after their clash with the boys from Stamford Bridge this weekend, so a like-for-like play could be the move if he&#8217;s out again with Van Hecke &amp; Lewis Dunk still very cheap.</p>



<p>I decided against the mooted trade of <strong>Martin Odegaard </strong>last weekend, and in notes for Arsenal&#8217;s matchday program, the Norwegian confirmed it was another knock to the same shoulder he&#8217;d injured against Leeds earlier in the year, which **should** mean a fairly quick recovery. </p>



<p>As mentioned, Arsenal&#8217;s run of fixtures is particularly appealing, so we&#8217;d like their creative maestro to pull through, and fortunately, with 4 other nailed on starters in midfield at the moment, I can afford to take the gamble.</p>



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<p><strong>Pape Sarr </strong>was rested against Brighton after a busy opening month of the season, which, while disappointing for GW5, I don&#8217;t think will be a sign of things to come, given his strong form to start the year. </p>



<p>With a Break Even of 0 at the moment, a trade at this point isn&#8217;t on the cards whatsoever, but we&#8217;ll continue to keep a close eye on the Spurs rotation of their squad. </p>



<p>Particularly as a trade out could leave us with more space to make the Salah trade when it&#8217;s needed &#8211; although at the moment I&#8217;m leaning more toward Bruno Fernandes and Igor Thiago being the ones to make way for the star Egyptian.</p>



<p><strong>Josh King </strong>is also at a point (along with Thiago) where he&#8217;s going to have to perform above himself to continue making us cash, and he&#8217;ll be on the block for me shortly.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Gameweek 6 Trade Plans</strong></h3>



<p>We&#8217;re getting toward crunch time with <strong>Mohammed Salah </strong>as a non-owner,  and I think this is the week to pull the trigger. </p>



<p>After a big score, it&#8217;s a nice time to take Bruno Fernandes out on a high &#8211; I can&#8217;t stick with him as one of my biggest investments playing in the role he is for Ruben Amorim in a team that won&#8217;t provide as many opportunities as Salah&#8217;s team will for him. </p>



<p>Even with all their off-season signings, he&#8217;s their talisman.</p>



<p>I understand the qualms people have about his disappearance to AFCON, but that&#8217;s all the more reason to pick him up with 11 league games still to play between now and his departure to join up with Egypt for a month.</p>



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<p>Bringing in Salah means the end for <strong>Igor Thiago </strong>as well &#8211; <strong>Xavi Simons</strong> takes Fernandes&#8217; midfield spot to pick up his price rise. </p>



<p>Depending on rotations at Spurs, either he or Sarr will probably drop out over the next month or so, but I like having both in for this little run, which should play heavily into Spurs&#8217; hands &#8211; and I&#8217;m anticipating both to see plenty of the field in a high scoring team.</p>



<p>Odegaard, Frimpong, and De Cuyper are next on the chopping block, pending their injury concerns and their ability to win back their first team positions over the next couple of weeks.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Watchlist</strong></h3>



<p><strong>Myles Lewis-Skelly </strong></p>



<p>With Arsenal&#8217;s injury worries beginning to stack up &#8211; the 18-year old is expected to get his first start of the season against Port Vale in the League Cup on Thursday Morning (Aus Time) &#8211; if he impresses there, there&#8217;s a road back into the first team this season. </p>



<p>It might not be just yet &#8211; but he&#8217;s one I&#8217;ll be keeping an eye on for the busy period over Christmas when fixture congestion starts to become a factor &#8211; particularly for the clubs playing European football like Arsenal. </p>



<p>At 3.5mil you&#8217;ll have a game or two to move in on him as well.</p>



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<p><strong>Viktor Gyokores </strong></p>



<p>One I was keen on in pre-season and a little filthy on not picking up while he was at such a low price &#8211; instead I&#8217;ve attacked the big boys upfront and I&#8217;ll have to live with that. </p>



<p>Pedro has my confidence at the moment alongside Haaland &amp; Salah, but if Arsenal can find a way out of their shell a little and give him more service, then he looks a high-return goal-scorer. </p>



<p>3 goals in your first 5 Premier League games is no small feat.</p>



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<p><strong>Patrick Dorgu </strong></p>



<p>Another &#8211; like Lewis-Skelly I&#8217;m just monitoring &#8211; don&#8217;t jump all over me for liking the look of a Man Utd player before you&#8217;ve read my explanation why. </p>



<p>The guy is a workaholic &#8211; playing as a wing-back as Munoz and Robinson did as the top defenders in the competition last year (in terms of SuperCoach return) &#8211; if he can tidy up his final ball, he is in creative positions so often that he is bound to start scoring more consistently. </p>



<p>Amorim is not changing his system, so as long as he&#8217;s in charge, I think Dorgu is someone who could burst through and surprise us all.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Gameweek 6 Strategy</strong></h3>



<p>Harry Tyrer welcome back to the captaincy! A more straightforward loop will be in effect with Everton having the Tuesday Morning kick-off this week.</p>



<p>Haaland against Burnley looks a recipe for another big score &#8211; he&#8217;ll take the vice-captaincy (with full expectation he&#8217;ll be the player who brings in double points).</p>



<p>Saliba will take the armband with Arsenal having a high chance of a clean sheet against Newcastle on Sunday Night (Aus Time), but I&#8217;ll expect Harry Tyrer to actually be holding the C by the time the game is played.</p>



<p><strong>Trades</strong>: Xavi Simons &amp; Salah IN Fernandes &amp; Igor Thiago OUT</p>



<p><strong>VC:</strong> Haaland</p>



<p><strong>C:</strong> Saliba</p>


Final Word Week 6 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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