‘Pep roulette’ feels at its riskiest in gameweek 35 with the first leg of Manchester City’s Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid coming up next Tuesday.
Erling Haaland would be an obvious choice as captain for a home game against Leeds but how much game time is he going to get after completing 90 minutes against Arsenal, Fulham and West Ham in the space of eight days?
The same question goes for the likes of John Stones, Ruben Dias and Jack Grealish, but City’s form and run-in – including a double gameweek 37 – means we want to hold on to their main men in our FPL squads so sit tight and hope you’ve got a strong enough bench to see you through.
If you do have room in your squad for another City asset though it may be worth considering Julian Alvarez as a bargain differential forward at just £6m.
He’s the man Guardiola turned to with Kevin de Bruyne missing both matches in gameweek 34 and is also the player to fill the goal-scoring boots of Haaland when the Norwegian gets a rest.
Alvarez would be a great captaincy option if we were certain he was going to start against Leeds but I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to get that information from the manager before the deadline!
Phil Foden would be a brave choice to get the armband and may well start this weekend with others rested for the Real Madrid game on Tuesday, while I would consider Riyad Mahrez’s captaincy claims as well if you own him.
There are plenty of non-City candidates this week though if you decide you don’t want to take your chances with Pep roulette.
I like the look of a Brighton attacker at home to Everton and would still go for Kaoru Mitoma or Solly March despite the brilliant form of Julio Enciso and the double-digit returns of Pascal Gross, Danny Welbeck and Deniz Undav in the 6-0 thrashing of Wolves last weekend.
Marcus Rashford or Bruno Fernandes would both be decent shouts for Manchester United’s trip to West Ham, as would Mohamed Salah for Liverpool’s home game against Brentford – with the Egyptian having scored in both fixtures in gameweek 34 to make it 11 attacking returns in his past 10 appearances.
Cody Gakpo or Darwin Nunez could also be worth your consideration in that game given the fact Diogo Jota has been hampered by injury and Luis Diaz, who is only just back from a long-term injury himself, may be due a rest having started both of Liverpool’s gameweek 34 fixtures.
So how do you make a late charge up your mini-leagues and the overall rankings with only four gameweeks to go? We asked Statman Dave in this week’s Fantasy 606 podcast to try to guide us towards those precious differentials, the players with relatively low ownership who are showing the form that might bring in the points to edge you ahead of your rivals.
All the players Dave chose have a double gameweek in either 36 or 37 – Diogo Dalot and Victor Lindelof in the Manchester United defence, Christian Eriksen in their midfield, Brighton’s goalkeeper Jason Steele along with team-mates Lewis Dunk and Pascal Gross, Manchester City defender Dias and any one of the Newcastle midfield trio of Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy or Joelinton.
Dave also mentioned the idea of going for both Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak as a differential strategy rather than trying to make the choice between them.
Both are providing attacking returns whether they start or come off the bench and next up for them in gameweek 35 is a vulnerable Arsenal defence at St James’ Park. Then there is a double gameweek 36 with fixtures against Leeds and Brighton followed by a home match against Leicester in gameweek 37.
You may feel you do have to choose between them because you already own two Newcastle defenders, or Nick Pope and a defender, in which case I would suggest Isak is the safer bet for more minutes – but Wilson is certainly the more explosive at the moment and he’s also been playing through the middle when they have both been on the field.
Don’t feel you have to make a transfer this week though if you think your team is looking in reasonable shape for gameweek 35. It will be an advantage to set yourself up with two free transfers for either of the double gameweeks in 36 or 37.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. The latest episode previewing gameweek 35 is available on the BBC Sounds App.
