Community: Gameweek 4 Talking Points
As the Gameweek 4 deadline nears, Brett from FPL Shake n Bake is here to discuss the main talking points of the FPL community.
Selling Trent Alexander-Arnold
With nearly 400k transfers out this week, selling Trent Alexander Arnold has been top of many people’s agendas. I get the frustration. Any player costing £7.5m who has only returned four points in three games should be on borrowed time. But we know Trent’s FPL potential.
This is a man who has averaged 190 points per season since becoming a Liverpool regular. Their defensive frailties – including Alexander Arnold’s own – have been highlighted so far and there needs to be some reinforcements at Anfield if they’re to get back amongst the league’s top defences but the 23-year-old is an attacking juggernaut.
Despite not yet getting the returns we’d hoped for, he is still second in FPL’s ICT threat for defenders (everyone’s favourite enabler Neco Williams (£4.1m) leads that particular metric). He is also top amongst defenders for chances created and big chances created, touches in the final third and non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI). Surely that’s a player you keep?
And that’s without looking at the fixtures. Liverpool have Bournemouth (H) up next. It seems the perfect match to bounce back from Monday’s performance and not one you’d look to sell ahead of.
Haaland to Kane
Pep Guardiola’s comments around rotating Erling Haaland (£11.7m) have set alarm bells ringing amongst his owners, including myself. We all knew that this time would come, as it was rumoured that part of the reason Haaland was so keen on the Man City move was that he would be rotated to save him from the risk of injury.
Meanwhile, Harry Kane (£11.4m) looks secure for minutes and has similar goal threat stats to Haaland over the last two gameweeks. There’s an added layer of creativity to his game too.
With Haaland potentially being rested in one of the next few gameweeks, I’m seriously considering switching him to the England skipper, especially as Man City struggled versus Crystal Palace last season. Kane will be taking on newly-promoted Nottingham Forest.
Do do do do do do do Saliba
What a start it’s been for the Arsenal man. Anyone who watched last Saturday’s game will likely have his chant stuck in their head.
French centre-back William Saliba looks nailed in an impressive defence and is a potential bargain at just £4.6m. At least until the fixture swing of Gameweek 9.
Is five-at-the-back dead?
I was an advocate of five-at-the-back last season but purposely avoided it this time as I went for three up front. The options in defence remain great though and I expect them to soon start getting bumper returns.
Having five hasn’t been the issue, as Saliba, Kieran Trippier (£5.1m), Ivan Perisic (£5.5m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) and the Brighton boys could have made it fruitful.
The problematic premiums have been amongst the big talking points. Liverpool blanks, alongside the Joao Cancelo (£7.1m) and Reece James (£6.1m) disappointments of Gameweek 3. If you’re set up for a five-man defence, I wouldn’t yet be in a rush to ditch it.
Have faith. Your boys will come good.
