It was another one of those weeks where if you didn’t captain Erling Haaland, you were punished.
Owning him is simply not enough when the masses are captaining an 83% owned player, so despite clocking up 23 points for non-captainers, with every point he scores, you actually have a negative loss and you lose rank on the field.
But this isn’t a week to talk Haaland, because I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know. You simply have to own him and you simply have to captain him almost every time.
This is a week, however, for reflection. In last week’s column, I wrote that for the first time since I can remember, I wasn’t scared about not owning Liverpool assets and, with Arsenal and Manchester City up next, I’m still very comfortable with this strategy as I head into GW10 without Trent Alexander-Arnold (7.4) or Mohamed Salah (12.8).
I also said James Maddison (8.1) was on the top of my radar and my number one transfer target.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing
Regrettably, I didn’t make this move and lost out on the 18 points Maddison earned against Nottingham Forest. I’m known for being quite an aggressive manager but last week I stalled, and boy was I punished.
I was put off by the fact I needed to take a four-point hit to accommodate the Leicester playmaker but nine times out of 10 I know I pull the trigger on that move. The lesson here isn’t to be taking hits left, right and centre, but that if there is a week you feel really strongly about a player, move mountains to get him.
With Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Leeds and Wolves up next, Maddison is a player I’m definitely targeting ahead of GW10 but it’s also worth noting there are other midpriced midfielders who had unbelievable weekends.
Hauls from Miguel Almirón (5.1), Leandro Trossard (6.7) and Jarrod Bowen (8.1) all caught the eye and whilst we can sometimes be blinded by recency bias or kneejerk reacting to a player’s success, I feel like all these guys are worth consideration, given their upcoming fixtures and the teams they play for.
Eagles!
If you’re an FPL manager who enjoys the fixture difficulty rating, no team has a better run of games than Crystal Palace.
You could argue they have been a tad unfortunate this season and surely, it’s a matter of time until they start winning back-to-back games. We know from last season that with Patrick Vieira at the helm, they are a good team that can cause damage in FPL. After a tough start, they now don’t play any of last season’s top-six until GW19, so they’re firmly on my watchlist.
Marc Guéhi (4.3) gives you an almost guaranteed 90 minutes each week and is a great enabler at the back, whilst budget midfielders Eberechi Eze (5.5) and Michael Olise (5.4) can both be loads of fun to own.
However, it's Wilfried Zaha (7.3) who is the talisman for this team with four goals already this season. Surprisingly, he is yet to earn an assist but, I’m expecting his attacking returns to soar now his fixtures are green.
Conclusion
Ahead of GW10 I will likely be transferring in Maddison (finally) and might be shopping for a cheap defender too - Kurt Zouma (4.5) and Guéhi are leading that race at the moment.
Of course, I don’t even need to tell you who to captain this week. You know the drill.