Marc Jobling: Gameweek 5 Team Reveal

Each Gameweek brings an FPL community team reveal. As a result, that person gives insight into their transfers, captaincy and future plans.

Ahead of Gameweek 5, it’s the turn of Marc Jobling to tell us what is happening to his team.

Hi Marc and thanks for the team reveal. How did Gameweek 4 go?

Miserably. When you’re four Gameweeks into a season and already know it’s going to be a below-par one, finding weekly motivation is tough.

This week felt like it was going well for a while thanks to success for Emile Smith Rowe and captain Erling Haaland. But one by one, the rest did nothing – several played a maximum of one half – and Sunday’s north London derby ruined me. A total of 45 points, down from 1.24 million to 1.97 million.

Pre-weekend nerves about not having Joao Pedro or Eberechi Eze were for nothing, yet it was still a bad one.

What does your defence look like?

It’s barely hanging on – the aim is to get three starters, never mind ones with clean sheet prospects. My only feasible name was Trent Alexander-Arnold and he was part of Liverpool’s shock home defeat.

Ben Johnson never plays for Ipswich, so Taylor Harwood-Bellis came on as an autosub – he himself was demoted to Southampton’s bench and only played nine minutes.

Hopefully, with fellow centre-back Jack Stephens being sent off, he gets back into the line-up for their home clash with Ipswich. There’s even a chance that Kieran McKenna brings in Johnson, seeing this as a winnable game.

Otherwise, it’s Micky van de Ven at home to Brentford. I expect Spurs to concede multiple times.

Meanwhile, what about your midfield and attack?

Over 900,000 bought Mohamed Salah for Gameweek 4 and, of course, he immediately blanked for the first time. No worries about him in general, though. He’s the league leader for touches in the box (42) and second for shots on target (eight).

The logic behind backing Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo at Man City was solid, as the Bees scored after 22 seconds. It wasn’t his goal but he went on to set up a few chances for more.

My current Fulham duo is likely to become a single, as my transfer likely replace Rodrigo Muniz. Not only dropped to the bench, his replacement did the one thing he can’t – score.

Morgan Rogers continues to disappoint and Alexander Isak’s eye injury forced a half-time removal.

So what are your transfer plans for Gameweek 5 and beyond?

Initially, I was going to Wildcard one week early because of my sheer unhappiness with this squad. Dean Henderson is a mistake in goal, whilst there mightn’t even be 11 starters considering the situations in defence and up front.

In the past, taking one-week pre-Wildcard punts felt lovely. However, now that transfers can be carried through our chip usage, it feels a bit silly to waste one on this when I can simply activate it early, have 11 starters and take that transfer forward.

Nevertheless, I am indeed going to do a one-week transfer. But it needs to be a good, justified one. How about Ollie Watkins versus Wolves, replacing Muniz? Although I have £3.5m in the bank, it could instead be an £8.0m midfielder for Harry Winks, going 3-5-2.

Assuming Watkins is fine, he feels like a smart move. Maybe Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Finally, what about captaincy?

Haaland was a struck post away from three consecutive hat-tricks, so going against him feels dangerous. Yet Arsenal may be the one opponent where this is ok, considering their resolute defence kept clean sheets in both of last season’s meetings. It’s an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

My other players only throw up one reasonable alternative – Salah at home to Bournemouth.