Final Word Week 18 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

Merry Christmas all &#8211; hope you&#8217;ve enjoyed the glut of festive football and hopefully shared in a high GW17 score. 



What a round! 162 points for the Bolywood Bhoys &#8211; cracking a 66th placed finish for the round &#8211;  and bumping us back inside the top 6k Overall. 



Sticking with Woltemade has proved the right decision (for now&#8230;) should have had a hat-trick &amp; Haaland and Rogers completed a very strong attacking performance.



If you&#8217;ve been following me the whole way through the season &#8211; you&#8217;ll know my forwards are only one or two performances from dropping out of the side &#8211; and funnily enough it&#8217;s Rogers I expect to drop off more than Woltemade over the next few weeks. Hopefully that means a bit of cash growth.



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The big talking point this week though? Injuries.&nbsp;Bruno Fernandes&nbsp;owners have a big decision to make &#8211; as has been well noted &#8211; I&#8217;ve avoided that conundrum by moving to Foden last week but for a full walk through of potential move-ins for the Portuguese midfielder make sure you listen to this week&#8217;s podcast.



One thing I will offer not being an owner is that Gabriel is expected back over the festive period &#8211; hanging on to that cash for a couple of weeks could be beneficial even if you do decide to move on from Bruno &#8211; leave yourself open to 2 different options in the new year, whether that&#8217;s moving for the midfielder or the Arsenal leader once he&#8217;s back to fitness and form.



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



Some nerves around the injury concern to&nbsp;Szoboszlai&nbsp;&amp; Arne Slot&#8217;s continued insistence on using him as a swiss-army knife. The suspension this week could actually function as a blessing in diguise offering him the rest he clearly needs &#8211; although missing Wolves at home will sting a bit &#8211; Liverpool&#8217;s run over the next 3 games means he will be in and should post a significant score against one of Leeds or Fulham.



Viktor Lindelof&nbsp;has a tough run but his price rises should stay ahead of the curve for at least another week &#8211; and even then with&nbsp;Pau Torres&nbsp;not expected back until mid-way through January in a side that has won 10 straight games I&#8217;m inclined to see just how far I can ride my luck. Not a trade in now but if you followed me in last week hold on for now even if you&#8217;re not playing him.



I&#8217;ll re-iterate what I said regarding&nbsp;Ekitike&nbsp;last week &#8211; I&#8217;m not pushing anyone away from him and Alexander Isak&#8217;s injury will keep him in the team indefinitely &#8211; but it&#8217;s now or don&#8217;t bother with Wolves and Leeds at home followed by Fulham (A), Arsenal (A), Burnley (H), B&#8217;mouth (A). Make of that what you will &#8211; I think their will be other&#8217;s who fly up over that period.



As spoken about with Niko on this week&#8217;s podcast &#8211; the real midfield push is&nbsp;Keane Lewis-Potter&nbsp;&#8211; he&#8217;s an out and out Cashie but B&#8217;mouth (H), Spurs (H), could even bank you some points with Outtara out at AFCON. Could even ride him through Everton (A), Sunderland (H)&#8230;



On a personal level though &#8211; there&#8217;s nothing else glaring at me and with 20 trades and 18 Gameweeks remaining I&#8217;m enclined to hold.



First names on the chopping block next week &#8211; Senesi &amp; Smith Rowe &#8211; but for now they&#8217;ve been performing &#8211; they&#8217;re relative PODs &amp; so no rush to move them on&#8230;



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



With the Christmas fixture congestion in full swing, captaincy becomes even more critical. We&#8217;ve got multiple games across the week and loop opportunities galore &#8211; make sure you&#8217;re maximizing every chance you get.



The safe play is sticking with Erling Haaland &#8211; he&#8217;s made me look silly opposing him the last 3 weeks and he continues to be the most reliable captaincy option in the competition. City at Nottingham Forest. That&#8217;s about as straightforward as it gets.&nbsp;



Declan Rice will be the alternative in the late kick-offs against Brighton &#8211; Arsenal should dominate that game and Rice&#8217;s base stats provide a nice floor even if he doesn&#8217;t hit the scoresheet. As I mentioned on the pod &#8211; 5 goals without an Arsenal scorer from a set-piece &#8211; with or without Gabriel, they&#8217;re due.



Trades



None



Captaincy



VC: Haaland (v Forest &#8211; Away)



C: Rice (v Brighton &#8211; Home)

Final Word Week 18 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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