The Technical Area – Pogba and Mkhitaryan

Successive 4-0 routs of West Ham United and Swansea City suggests the spirit of attacking football looks to have finally returned to Old Trafford.

Bolstered by the summer acquisitions of Nemanja Matic and Romelu Lukaku, Manchester United’s attacking output has generated a huge amount of buzz within Fantasy circles.

Having written in the pre-season that the Red Devils were my top pick to improve their goalscoring numbers in 2017/18 (after underperforming their projected output by over 10 goals last term), my own projection system was bullish on their potential to produce early returns.

Yet even I didn’t expect the goals to flow so freely over the opening weeks. With the fixtures continuing to align in their favour (at least over the next five Gameweeks), the case for us to increase our investment in United’s attack is strong. Indeed, though many managers have coverage already in the form of Romelu Lukaku – FPL’s most selected player with 55% ownership – the prospect of doubling up is a significant temptation.

This week’s Technical Area will be digging into the performances of two in-vogue midfield assets – Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan – in an attempt to tease out the optimal Fantasy prospect.

Two Gameweeks in, Pogba and Mkhitaryan currently occupy first and second place respectively for FPL midfielders.

Pogba followed up an eight-point opener with an explosive 15-point performance in Gameweek 2, while Mkhitaryan has returned 10 and 11 points in impressively consistent fashion. Yet despite the similarity of their totals, the manner in which the pair have produced their points has been very different.