Final Word Week 16 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs


<p>Such a strong mid-week performance before the lack of Bruno Fernandes and Phil Foden cost the Bolywood Bhoys over the course of last weekend. </p>



<p>Overall, we&#8217;re up about 2k positions to 6.8k overall, even with those two misses, but our task now is to map our way to Foden, leaving us with a set-and-forget midfield for the remainder of the season.</p>



<p>As discussed with Matt Jurman on the podcast this week, up front is where we&#8217;re going to play form for the remainder of the season and utilise the majority of our trades &#8211; while a backline stocked with Arsenal assets, Virgil Van Dijk &amp; Marcos Senesi should pull us through the remainder of the year fairly safely. </p>



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<p>Catching the Top 2k looks achievable &#8211; for someone who is new to the &#8216;SuperCoach&#8217; family &#8211; I&#8217;d be pretty happy with that.</p>



<p>The game has been even more different than expected and knowledge of the systems is as important as watching as much as possible week-in-week-out. </p>



<p>Combine the two, and you get a Steve Nikolovski who has absolutely smashed it this season so far. </p>



<p>Still half of it to go!</p>



<p>To catch you up &#8211; because a little bit has happened since I last wrote &#8211; here&#8217;s the state of the Bolywood Bhoys XI.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&amp;ik=861251092f&amp;attid=0.1&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1851260747095418744&amp;th=19b0ffd7513f2778&amp;view=fimg&amp;fur=ip&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1851260747095418744&amp;sz=s0-l75-ft&amp;attbid=ANGjdJ89dx4-90HcxZKLQZBJnSuSyy_x6jPgizpIsEDyF4r04f-93Bv0KZvnb04ffRGbixNJhGdWESeLiSWOlWYDhGsnXjrVX3XpijSt91tpVz9elDCEXlQGx6t31WU&amp;disp=emb&amp;realattid=ii_mj24zika0&amp;zw" alt="image.png"/></figure>



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



<p>Three outstanding concerns. </p>



<p>Funnily enough, all based around Arsenal assets with an outstanding run of fixtures coming their way</p>



<p>1- When does&nbsp;<strong>Saliba</strong>&nbsp;get fit? </p>



<p>When he does &#8211; he&#8217;ll be scoring consistently for us &#8211; particularly with Gabriel set to return next to him shortly.</p>



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<p>2- Do the indifferent performances of<strong>&nbsp;Riccardo Calafiori</strong>&nbsp;continue? </p>



<p>This is a bit of a mind-bender &#8211; as I pointed out in the last article before the double gameweek &#8211; I was confident in his continuity, but he has hauled off at half-time against Chelsea a few weeks ago, and then put in a particularly indifferent display against Aston Villa. </p>



<p>Watch closely, more because of his form than because he won&#8217;t be picked.</p>



<p>3- How long does&nbsp;<strong>Mikel Merino</strong>&nbsp;keep his starting place? </p>



<p>Was always going to be a short-term play with the striking options that Arsenal have coming back &#8211; <strong>Gyokores</strong> is being used increasingly, and we saw <strong>Gabriel Jesus</strong> on the field for the first time since January against Club Brugge &#8211; but one more big score and he&#8217;s basically taken me from 6.9mil to <strong>Foden</strong>. </p>



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<p>Now that is a big if&#8230; But Wolves are terrible, and Merino has grabbed a goal or an assist in 4 of the last 5 Gameweeks. </p>



<p>I have to hold for one more week. </p>



<p>Even hitting the Break-even of 6 with some luck can likely get me to Foden with a Saliba or Calafiori downgrade.</p>



<p>We will hold on to all those this week, though&#8230; The plays made are more functional &#8211; setting up the team for the rest of the season &#8211; and still trying to build a bit of value at 122mil &#8211; slightly behind the big boys. </p>



<p>3.6mil in the bank &amp; 22 trades remaining after this week.</p>



<p>Those who&#8217;ve been following know I started with Petrovic before moving to <strong>Dean Henderson</strong> 4 weeks ago &#8211; perfectly timed to lock in <strong>David Raya</strong> for the rest of the year &#8211; happy to come out of the season using only 2 trades on GKs.</p>



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<p>The 2nd is long time favourite bench rotter&nbsp;<strong>Josh King</strong>&nbsp;moving to&nbsp;<strong>Emil Smith Rowe</strong>&nbsp;who has taken his position in the starting team at the same price and a better Break Even &#8211; the thought was to go&nbsp;<strong>Odegaard</strong>&nbsp;but I want one or two more weeks to see if he&#8217;s right back at his best &#8211; Smith-Rowe&#8217;s projected to at least follow him in terms of cash gain for the next two weeks so happy to move sideways if the time demands it. </p>



<p>With Arsenal&#8217;s little wobble against Villa, I just want an egg or two in other baskets.</p>



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



<p><strong>Hugo Ekitike &#8211; 4.7mil &#8211; -10 BE&nbsp;</strong>&#8211; As discussed on the pod with Matty &#8211; the spot is his up front now &#8211; Isak misfiring &#8211; Salah throwing the toys out of the cot and Arne Slot showing he&#8217;s willing to change to a system where the Frenchman is likely to start up front but can also play on the wing.</p>



<p>He&#8217;ll be up to 6mil in value before the clash next week against Tottenham &#8211; if you&#8217;re falling out of love with Mateta or Semenyo &#8211; he might be your move.</p>



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<p><strong>Dan Burn &#8211; 5.6mil&nbsp;</strong>&#8211; I wish I had the guts to move for him this week &#8211; but with De Cuyper still starting on the wing for Brighton and his break-even, my brain won&#8217;t give my heart what it desires. </p>



<p>With Daniel&nbsp;<strong>Munoz&nbsp;</strong>out for 4-6 weeks &#8211; this could be a move to disperse real value to your midfield and give you a Fernandes or a Foden.</p>



<p>Still owned by only 3%. </p>



<p>Starts as either a CB or a fullback. Baller.</p>



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



<p>Actually staying away from Haaland this week &#8211; which is a big swing.</p>



<p>Arsenal home against Wolves just stinks of big scores, though. Rice&#8217;s set pieces will be critical, so he takes the C.</p>



<p>Plenty of good swings to have around him &#8211; but for the loop, we need to go early with the potential that Saliba or Calafiori don&#8217;t see the pitch against Wolves, we may be able to use them as loop options.</p>



<p>I said on the podcast this week I was going to have a swing with De Cuyper in the VC slot, but actually going to take Szoboszlai &#8211; his form has been irresistible recently.</p>



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



<p>King OUT Smith Rowe IN</p>



<p>Henderson OUT Raya IN</p>



<p>Captaincy</p>



<p>C: Rice</p>



<p>VC: Szoboszlai&nbsp;</p>


Final Word Week 16 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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