Final Word Week 8 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs


<p>Phew&#8230; Nice to have a week off to reset after what was a disastrous gameweek for the Bolywood Bhoys, with only two scores of double figures through Erling Haaland and William Saliba, which is screaming re-jig after being endlessly patient over the start of the season. </p>



<p>I&#8217;m starting to think I&#8217;ve moved too late on several squaddies and too soon on Salah, who is growing an increasing worry week-on-week.</p>



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<p>My take on <strong>Salah </strong>early in the year was correct &#8211; that there was no way he&#8217;d be able to hang onto anything close to his early-season price tag &#8211; but having him sitting now at 9mil with the amount of added support he has upfront is difficult to fathom after just 7 games. </p>



<p>I&#8217;ve moved on him &#8211; so I&#8217;m inclined to stick for now with Liverpool&#8217;s draw soft until the next international break and a potential explosion when I only brought him in at just over the 10mil mark means the loss is not significant yet. </p>



<p>But the glut of big-scoring forwards means I&#8217;m slowly being cut adrift of the heavier hitters and needing to make up ground. </p>



<p>Antoine Semenyo is mocking me in the meantime as he continues to score heavily. </p>



<p>Oh, the joys of SuperCoach.</p>



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<p>Elsewhere, <strong>Martin Odegaard</strong>&#8216;s injury is a blessing in disguise, knowing he won&#8217;t be back until December, meaning the question this week is how I move the pieces to win back some cash and improve scoring at the same time. </p>



<p>So here are the options that are sitting there waiting to be taken &#8211; the only question is which one to pick up.</p>



<p>As you&#8217;ll quickly see, an upgrade here means a downgrade in my backline, but Joachim Andersen&#8217;s output means he&#8217;s likely on the chopping block for this week as well. </p>



<p>Like Wood earlier in the year, a rushed trade has unsurprisingly led to less than ideal results, although not quite as disastrous a decline as Wood&#8217;s earlier in the year.</p>



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



<p><strong>Declan Rice </strong>is the obvious pick-up at a slightly higher price through the middle of the park &#8211; on corners for a team who scores a lot of them &#8211; and capable of a free-kick or two as we saw last season, and is totting up key passes at 1/game as he takes on more attacking responsibility in Odegaard&#8217;s absence. </p>



<p>A break-even of -10 and a relatively soft fixture (which makes plenty of Arsenal assets attractive) means he&#8217;s the most traded in this week. </p>



<p>I&#8217;m tempted to follow suit.</p>



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<p><strong>Enzo Fernandez </strong>&#8211; Another midfielder with solid base statistics in a team that is coming into a softer run at a break-even of 5, you&#8217;re looking at one of the first names on the team sheet with a chance to take penalties and free-kicks in the absence of Cole Palmer. </p>



<p>Then, he went to Argentina&#8230; Brought off toward the end of their opening friendly with Venezuela and returning to Chelsea with swelling in his knee, which has cast doubt over whether he&#8217;ll be playing on Saturday Night at Nottingham Forest. </p>



<p>Suddenly, a risk.</p>



<p><strong>Eberechi Eze </strong>&#8211; most likely to take Odegaard&#8217;s spot moving forward in Arsenal&#8217;s lineup and should have a good run at things given his reputation and improving form since moving to the Gunners. </p>



<p>The question is just how he gels and if he&#8217;ll take the central position or be played out wide &#8211; if I&#8217;m trading for him, I&#8217;m hoping it&#8217;s the former. </p>



<p>He&#8217;s a slight cut price on Rice, but the Break-even of 13 is a worry even at home against Fulham. </p>



<p>Can&#8217;t quite have him ahead of his England teammate, but it means I&#8217;ll be taking a hit elsewhere to make this play work.</p>



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<p><strong>Defensive &#8216;Upgrades&#8217;</strong></p>



<p><strong>Marc Cucurella </strong>&#8211; the preferable option is that I had the budget for similar reasons I just listed surrounding Fernandez. </p>



<p>Chelsea&#8217;s disastrous couple of games with red cards mean that their defensive line has taken a tidy haircut for potential buyers before heading into a run of Forest (A), Sunderland (H), Spurs (A), Wolves (H), Burnley (A). </p>



<p>As such, 6.6mil is terrific value for the tireless, pesky fullback who is going to grab his fair share of attacking contributions over this run. </p>



<p>I don&#8217;t quite have the budget to make it work this week, though, and as such, I&#8217;ll have to look a little further down the bargain bin.</p>



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<p><strong>Hugo Bueno </strong>&#8211; The Wolves&#8217; fullback has been highly traded for this week, given his start last time out and impressive output in his couple of starting stints for the bottom-placed side. </p>



<p>Yes, you read that correctly. </p>



<p>Vitor Pereira looks to be putting his trust in the Spaniard across both a back 4 and in a wing-back role when playing in a back 3, which again is appealing enough. </p>



<p>I just wonder about the longevity, and at over 6mil, I think there are better value options at this point.</p>



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<p><strong>Maxim De Cuyper &amp; Jan Paul van Hecke </strong>&#8211; I group these two together because they&#8217;re Brighton teammates, but also because they&#8217;re the two I like best at this stage. </p>



<p>I also already own De Cuyper &#8211; and have stuck with him through the slight injury mishap after he became a little too familiar with the advertising hoarding against Bournemouth and missed the following game. </p>



<p>His form outside that in his first season in the Premier League has been solid enough, though &#8211; and a breakeven of -3 means he&#8217;s likely to start building us some cash over the next few weeks. </p>



<p>Can I be sold on the double-down? </p>



<p>I don&#8217;t have a heap of better options in all honesty, &amp; the -12 Breakeven for the dutchman with games against low-scoring Newcastle, Manchester United, Leeds and Palace in the next 4 weeks means I think I can afford the risk over the short-term.</p>



<p>None of this fills me with much confidence, but in Supercoach, we must play the hand we&#8217;re dealt, and so the changes will be rung and we will ask our big boys to deliver.</p>



<p>Three upfront this week with Haaland, Salah &amp; Pedro all in favourable matchups &#8211; it&#8217;s time for them to perform for us.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Gameweek 8 Strategy</strong></h3>



<p>Three upfront means rests for Josh King and Nico Gonzalez, who&#8217;s my third trade this week &#8211; a downgrade from Pape Sarr, but he&#8217;s built our cash and lost his starting spot in the Tottenham team (a bewildering move by Thomas Frank in my opinion).</p>



<p>Saliba, the two Brighton boys, and Hartman across the backline.</p>



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



<p>IN &#8211; Rice, van Hecke &amp; Nico Gonzalez</p>



<p>OUT &#8211; Odegaard, Sarr &amp; Frimpong</p>



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



<p>No Captaincy loop this week with Tyrer playing a Saturday fixture.</p>



<p>C: Haaland</p>



<p>VC: Salah</p>


Final Word Week 8 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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