It’s always great seeing our FPL assets do well during an International break.
Starting matches, playing well and scoring goals all seem to help a player’s momentum when they return to club football. However, international breaks also come with worry.
Has my guy played too many minutes? Is his late return back from South America going to affect his chances of a start on Saturday and, most importantly, is my player injured?
FPL Injuries?
Over the last fortnight, we have seen popular FPL assets like Nathan Patterson (4.1), Lucas Digne (4.7), Alexander Isak (7.1) and Ivan Perisic (5.6) pick up injuries. Make sure you check out Friday’s press conferences to check their status for this weekend, but Isak is looking like he will miss a couple of weeks and Digne is expected to be out for a while.
The Mohamed Salah Dilemma
What to do with Mohamed Salah (12.9) is a big question for me this week. This isn’t about Salah scoring points in the next few weeks, it’s firstly, are there other players in the same price band that will outscore him and, secondly, is he a viable caption option over the next couple of weeks?
I don’t think Salah is a sell, but I’m not sure he’s an instant buy, either. Sure, Brighton is possibly a nice fixture at Anfield in GW9 but Arsenal and Manchester City after that are tough and for me, Kevin De Bruyne (12.3), Heung-minSon (11.7) and Raheem Sterling (10.0) are all worth consideration.
My loose plan is to sell De Bruyne and bring Salah in for GW12 when Man City don’t play but, if De Bruyne is firing, I might delay that move.
This is the first time for as long as I can remember that I’m not scared of not owning Salah. I should caveat this with the fact that I think Salah is an outstanding captain option this weekend, with Erling Haaland playing in a Manchester derby.
Salah also scored a brace against Niger last week and was given permission to miss Egypt’s second match in the international break, so travelled back to Liverpool early for a mini rest.
GW9 Wildcard?
Elsewhere, it looks like there are a lot of managers playing their wildcard this week and it feels like a really good time to pull the trigger.
It's worth remembering that, with no fixtures for Arsenal and Man City in GW12, if you still have your wildcard left you might want to use it in GW13 knowing you can dead-end your team in GW12 (selling Arsenal and City players), with a view of bringing them back for the final three game weeks before unlimited transfers kick in during the FIFA World Cup.
Maddison Magic?
One player I’m desperate to own this week is James Maddison (7.9) and frustratingly, I don’t think I can easily reach him.
While Leicester have been losing games, they’re still an attack I back to score two or more goals in most games and Maddison is central to that, with three Premier League goals already this season.
With yet another England snub, I believe in a World Cup year more than ever, he will be wanting to show Gareth Southgate what he’s missing out on and, if his early season form is anything to go by, this is a player who is playing at the very top of his game right now.
Leicester currently top the fixture ticker and have a sea of ‘green’ rated games in the fixture difficulty rating and, whilst I don't expect many clean sheets for The Foxes, I think we will see goals aplenty against the likes of Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, who are up next.
With four of the big teams playing each other this week, it’s hard to know if this will be a high or low scoring gameweek but one thing is for certain, it will be an enjoyable ride from Saturday's early kick-off all the way through to Monday night football.
Go well, FPL managers!
Got a question for Gianni about your FPL team? Get involved in his 'Countdown to GW9' show on GiveMeSport's official TikTok channel at 10am on Saturday 1st October