This Much We Know – Gameweek 10

This season continues to perplex, with the perils of owning big-ticket strikers and just about any and all Manchester City assets at the top of our list of woes.

But every cloud has a cheap and cheerful lining, be it a Swansea City striker or Man United’s peerless points per million centre-half.

Here’s my take on another head-scratching Gameweek.

Points and playtime at a premium

It was a weekend washout for nearly two-thirds of Fantasy managers who were united in captaining one of the six most expensive forwards in the game and were rewarded with a combined two assists and a monumental three shots on target.

Granted, Sergio Aguero’s week off (21% captaincy), coupled with Harry Kane’s (6%) untimely hamstring twang, meant that two of the biggest guns kept their powder dry, but those who had trusted the captaincy to Gabriel Jesus (8%), Alvaro Morata (6%), Alexandre Lacazette (5%) and, to a lesser extent, Romelu Lukaku (18%) will have had higher expectations.

Rotation, injury and a lack of form are biting for this elite sextet.

They’ve managed just six goals between them in the last three Gameweeks, compared to 17 strikes in the preceding three.

The meek might inherit the earth

While big names have floundered during their recent fallow run, Glenn Murray (£5.7m) has notched three times, Mame Biram Diouf (£5.5m) twice and Tammy Abraham (£5.8m) also has two goals (plus one assist).

This budget trio have played all but five minutes, whereas only Lukaku (270 minutes) and Lacazette (226 minutes) have graced the pitch for more than 180 of the 270 available minutes available to the not-so-super six.

Abraham, in particular, is the most popular striking acquisition so far this week following back-to-back price rises and a surge up the overall FPL standings which leaves him mixing it headily with the likes of Jesus, Morata and Lacazette.

Only Kane and Murray (with five each) have had more shots on target than Abraham’s four over the last three Gameweeks, and the Chelsea loanee faces a generally favourable set of upcoming fixtures – starting with a visit from Brighton.

All of this may mean that high-end midfielders are back in vogue.

Financing the middle men

If anyone is to break the Manchester City midfield stranglehold, it could be Eden Hazard, who trails only various Sky Blues and Riyad Mahrez in the form table.

Granted, with eight chances created against Bournemouth, he lacks the selfishness of an Alexis Sanchez or a Mohamed Salah, but with 190+ points in all but one of his seasons so far – and with fantastic fixtures to follow United’s visit on Sunday – he is currently the form choice over his similarly priced team-mate Morata.

Speaking of the Etihad conundrum (as we seem to do on a daily basis), the one player who has recently sailed flawlessly through choppy rotational waters is Leroy Sane.

With four goals and five assists in the last five Gameweeks, both his price and his ownership have rocketed. But we’ve been here before. Raheem Sterling briefly seemed to be Pep’s go-to man, while most of us have lost the Aguero/Jesus yo-yo game at least once this season.

Sane is undeniably on form, in favour and, whisper it, perhaps even immune from rotation. But we all know what happens next.

Elsewhere, Mohamed Salah put his owners through the mill at the weekend, missing an early penalty, failing to convert any of his three efforts on target and providing the consolation of a solitary assist.

Although we learned that Jurgen Klopp was serious when he touted the Egyptian as his next spot-kick specialist, Salah’s fluffed lines could see that precious baton passed to the next Liverpudlian in line.

Last season, the Reds were awarded nine penalties – mainly dispatched by James Milner. Daniel Sturridge could be next, though Bobby Firmino may just get another turn and lead us into temptation once again.

Silver Foxes

There was very little room anywhere on the collective tether of Jamie Vardy’s owners before his early strike against Everton.

That brought a three-match goal drought to an end and, perhaps, a stay of execution for the England man – at least for the visit to a Stoke City side which had the worst defensive record in the league before the weekend.

Mahrez has been a shrewder acquisition at an equivalent price, and he duly collected attacking points for the third match running. Owned by only 4.3%, he is very much the differential among the top ten midfielders in the game.

The stand-out performer, though, was Demarai Gray.

He completed a full league match for only the second time this season and rewarded his manager’s faith with a sparkling display during which he found the net and did enough to suggest that he may make the right wing his own, in turn liberating Mahrez for a more central role.

Promising.

The boy done good

Having taught him briefly at school (and been “schooled” by him in staff vs student matches), I was delighted to see a far less high-profile defender, Ben Chilwell, start in an attacking role in Claude Puel’s first match in charge.

Although Chilwell’s attacking statistics were muted on Sunday, a typically poised performance, including a clean sheet and a solitary shot in the area, furnished the 4.3 Leicester-man with six points and, hopefully, the chance to nail down a left-wing berth in future matches.

Along with rotation threats James Tomkins and Ragnar Klavan and rudderless Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny, Chilwell was one of the cheapest starting defenders of Gameweek 10 and, like Gray, could be an early gift from former Fantasy miser Puel.

The more expensive, the shorter our patience

There seems a frenzied need to maximise every precious FPL pound right now, and as soon as an expensive asset shows a weakness, they face a ruthless exit. Particularly if they happen to use up funds in defence.

Nicolas Otamendi is the latest example. Man City’s concession of two goals at West Brom, coupled with the ignominy of a fourth booking, has prompted heavy sales, even though he remains joint fourth in the overall defensive standings after 15-points in Gameweek 9.

It seems that there’s just no room for loyalty, although, the decision may, in part, be prompted by the imminent return of Vincent Kompany. Pep’s recent reminder that “John [Stones] and Ota can’t play every game”, is somewhat chilling.

Guardiola’s backline tinkering may have far less frequent, but we’ve been bitten enough times by his attack to be somewhat shy.

The model of predictability

And so to Phil Jones.

If Jose Mourinho were to be believed, the Manchester United centre-half has suffered as many trials as Hercules this season and apparently faces an almost impossible battle to get on the pitch every week. Instead, his withdrawal early on in the Huddersfield match represents his only missed game time so far.

With clean sheets against Liverpool and Spurs either side of that match, Jones has marauded his way to fixture-proof and essential status; his 58 points bettered only by team-mate Antonio Valencia among defenders.

The fact that half the four goals United have conceded this season came after Jones’s withdrawal against Huddersfield surely only strengthens his claim to be indispensable – both in Jose’s eyes and in our squads.

And all this for the princely sum of 5.3. Even in today’s market, surely that deserves our loyalty?