Attacking full-backs are the order of the day once again in the latest instalment of our Scout Picks.
We’ve been deliberating over the selection chosen from the options put forward by our four-man panel of Paul, Joe, Az and Peter this week. Finally, we have come to some tough decisions about who gets a place in our 11-man team, with a budget of £83 million (using Fantasy Premier League).
Hopefully, some of these names will help you pick your final team for the next Gameweek, especially those in defence where, as Thom Yorke of Radiohead famously once sang, we’ve got the Bens.
Goalkeeper
Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) was our most popular goalkeeper pick this weekend as Everton host Southampton. Of the sides who survived the drop last season, only two of them scored fewer goals than the Saints. Pickford, meanwhile, will play in front of a backline which should contain either Mason Holgate (£4.5m) or Kurt Zouma (£5.0m), who both performed better than the suspended Phil Jagielka (£4.5m) for tackles and Clearances, Blocks and Interceptions last season.
Defenders
After he put up two assists and kept a clean sheet at Arsenal in Gameweek 1, we couldn’t look past Benjamin Mendy (£6.1m) as the first defender on the Scout Picks team-sheet this week. Reigning champions Manchester City host last season’s joint-lowest scorers in Huddersfield (28 goals), who managed just one shot on target against Chelsea last week. This is a fixture that simply demands defensive coverage. The Frenchman’s advanced positioning and two assists against Arsenal show his ability for multiple points avenues, which is why all four of our panellists selected Mendy as their top defensive pick.
Another marauding left-back who gets a place in the Gameweek 2 is Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) who comes in for his second successive appearance of the season. No defender had more touches in the opposition penalty area than the former Hull City man in Gameweek 1, hence how he was able to pull in an assist for Mohamed Salah’s (£13.0m) opening goal. Robertson also registered an assist at Crystal Palace last season, also for Salah, so there’s no reason to believe we won’t see another impressive performance from him this time around.
Ben Davies (£6.0m) has made it into the Gameweek 2 Scout Picks for several reasons. The first is that he acts as our Spurs defensive cover for an appealing home fixture against Fulham, with other selected options such as Kieran Trippier (£6.0m) and Davinson Sánchez (£6.0m) not quite as assured of a start as him. Secondly, Davies has been brought in on account of his attacking potential. Christian Eriksen (£9.5m) and his league-high of five chances created were initially selected but we had to downgrade to make room in the squad for every possible angle.
Ben Mee (£5.0m) completes our trio of defensive Bens as Burnley host Watford on Sunday. Sean Dyche’s men are on a run of three matches without conceding and only Manchester United kept more clean sheets than them in the first half of last season (nine). Meanwhile, the Hornets have scored just one away league goal so far in 2018 and had the division’s second-lowest goal conversion rate between January and May (6.7 percent). There was plenty of interest in Joe Hart (£4.5m) from our pundits but he lost out to the aforementioned Pickford. Given we had requests for Mee and Stephen Ward (£5.0m), we went with the former given he played no part in the Clarets’ European exploits on Thursday night and his threat from set-pieces.
Midfielders
We said last week and we’ll say it again, there is very little we can add to why we’ve picked Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) once again. After netting Liverpool’s first goal of the season against West Ham last week, the Egyptian turns his attention to a visit to Crystal Palace on Monday night. As we’ve already mentioned, he scored on his last trip to Selhurst Park back in March and is, on account of his reliability, a captain candidate for Gameweek 2.
Bernardo Silva (£7.5m) has been bumped up our list since the news broke that Kevin De Bruyne (£9.9m) is facing three months out with a knee ligament injury. Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) was a very popular selection among our pundits earning two top picks and three in total. However, in the interest of saving some money in this season of expensive midfielders, we’ve gone for his cheaper team-mate. We suspect that our writers may well have given more thought to Silva had they been writing with De Bruyne’s lay-off in mind. It is a factor which solidifies the Portuguese international’s place in the side for some time and based on his pre-season performances and goal-scoring display against Arsenal he should continue to do well. However, we have given due coverage to Sterling who has the potential to be a powerful differential.
Richarlison’s (£6.6m) strong start to the season made him an easy inclusion in the Scout Picks selection. He was chosen by all four of our pundits after scoring twice at Molineux in Gameweek 1. Last season only Eriksen (97) and Salah (144) had more shots on goal from the midfielders department and this week Richarlison goes up against a Southampton side that so far has shipped seven goals in five away league matches under Mark Hughes.
Forwards
Sergio Aguero (£11.0m) is the second Manchester City player to earn a clean sweep of top picks from the pundits this week. The striker currently leads our captain poll in what we have already highlighted is an appealing fixture, at both ends. While Huddersfield were a goal-shy side in 2017/18, they were also very leaky in defence. Just four sides were breached more times than them on the road last season (33), with their 0-0 draw at the Etihad coming after their illustrious hosts had already wrapped up the Premier League title. As for those worried about Aguero’s rotation, he started all 14 home matches he was declared fit for last term, so we’re backing him even in the face of speculation that he could be dropped this week.
Jamie Vardy’s (£9.0m) short appearance at the end of a Gameweek 1 trip to Manchester United proved fruitful enough to earn a place in the Picks this week. He managed two penalty box shots in 27 minutes at Old Trafford, one of which ended up in the back of the net. The England international is much more assured of a start this weekend and faces a Wolves side that was breached twice by ten-man Everton at home.
After facing a mean Liverpool defence in Gameweek 1, Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) looks set to enter the FPL stage this weekend with a plum home meeting against Bournemouth. The Cherries ranked 14th for shots conceded away from home last season while Arnautovic comes into this weekend on the back of a productive pre-season campaign as a centre-forward. The Austrian found the net five times and assisted once in six friendly matches.
Substitutes
As already mentioned, Joe Hart came close to an inclusion in this squad, but was pipped to it by Pickford. He has kept three clean sheets in a row now for Burnley and seems to have the number one spot nailed down with Tom Heaton (£5.0m) and Nick Pope (£5.0m) still out. Crucially, he has brought back a £4.5m route into the Clarets’ defence for Fantasy managers.
Luke Shaw’s (£5.1m) goal-scoring Gameweek 1 performance saw him receive two picks for our pundits this week, with Joe keen to include him for the second week running. Ashley Young (£6.0m) does not appear to be able to trouble the former Southampton man for a place in the team just yet, allowing Fantasy managers another opportunity to capitalise on Shaw’s price and goal threat.
N’Golo Kante (£5.0m) was another of Joe’s picks to creep into the final selection, even after Az strongly disagreed with his talking-up of the Frenchman on the Scoutcast! Suggestions of a new advanced role at Chelsea look set to continue this week with Maurizio Sarri set to use the same midfield trio against Arsenal as he did against Huddersfield.
Chris Wood’s (£6.5m) limited minutes on Thursday suggest he’s line for another start when Watford visit Turf Moor on Sunday. The New Zealand striker has already been identified as Burnley’s chief goal threat for 2018/19 after he finished the most recent campaign as their top option for shots in the box per game, penalty area touches and goal conversion.
COMMUNITY CHAMPION
Representing the community against the Scout Picks in Gameweek 2 is Eden Wizard who has opted for a 3-4-3 line-up of: De Gea; Mendy, Robertson, Shaw; Mané, B Silva, Richarlison, Kenedy; Kane, Aguero, Arnautovic.
The community member who beats our picks by the biggest margin over the campaign will win a £100 Amazon Voucher and a place in our Contributors and Moderators League for the following season.
The Scouts are currently undefeated (although it’s early days!) after holding off the brave effort of LosBlancos in Gameweek 1. Our score of 81 points was just enough to hold off the Community Champion’s 75-point haul.
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