Richarlison,

Is he back to his old ways?

Aguero to Kane is something many are pondering, with Kun being subbed around 60th minute three GWs in a row.

Also, Gylfi Sigurdsson. Strong history pre-Everton, now playing as a no10 for a fairly attacking side. Does he warrant a place in my fpl team?

Aguero - coming off early, playing through pain barrier, congested fixtures.

Spurs - good fixtures, rotation in midfield, injury to Eriksen and it’s effect.

CL week so this is always high on agenda.

Salah - Benching on 60mins for such an important game... does not bode well at all! What do the scouters think?

A team to discuss could be Brighton,

With their fixtures turning in a major way, who should be the go to options ?

do we put too much emphasis on value? Salah clearly not justifying his price but man those fixtures from gw9

Vardy - time to pardy?

Brighton - which players for their dream run of fixtures?

How many Wolves is too many Wolves?

Player: Kane...worth getting in now? missed the boat? If you have him should you look to move out again for the hokey-cokey with Salah?

Team: Man City....who should we have in our fpl team? Aguero minutes problem; Mendy gone; Ederson safest bet?; Time for Sterling/De Bruyne etc

Talking point: Substitutions: Salah, Kun, Pogba

A decent bench ... with rotation and injuries biting hard, should we invest a bit more into our bench ?

Arnie - lots of interest for good reason. But ongoing knee thing and several don't seem to realise Noble's still on penalties when playing.

Newcastle - seldom mentioned but great fixture run ahead, and results haven't been that bad considering the opposition.

Which new manager do Manchester United deserve, just for a laugh

West Ham seem to be one the most visibly improved teams since their abysmal start to the season. Why?

Is their any other options to consider from their team or just go with their talisman? (Arnold of course).

Salah, Kane, Hazard, Aguero. Which 3 to own?

Player: Siggy. Will he hit the big time points again at attack minded Silva's Everton? Please say yes.

Team: Spurs. Are there any other attacking choices besides Kane, I want to keep Kun and not tear up my team for England's no 9. Also, Trippier a no brainer?

Talking point: Value. Mo Salah, Mo money, Mo problems. How managers tend to rate their teams on $$ rather than points potential....like I said Mo problems.

For those having their WC left ... when would be the best timing regarding fixture Swings?

Team: Burnley. Are they back? Does their stuff upcoming fixture run rule them out? Should we jump on Gudmundsson or settle for Hart at the back?

Discuss any player who hasn't performed yet and he will. We know the stats of those who did.

Sane, for example. With Mendy out indefinitely he's the only good option on the left wing so will get playing time. Is he the City mid to own right now?

With the fixtures turning, is it time to get Arnautovic? Great player and great value.

Robertson or TAA for the season? Or both for gameweeks 9-16? Great fixtures coming up...rotation risks?

Player: Has to be Kane. How important is it to have him this week? If you get him, do you keep or switch out?

Team: West Ham - starting to look good. Is it just Arnie and out? Or do Yarmolenko/Anderson, Fabianski or even one of the pleasantly priced defenders (Zabaleta/Diop/Balbuena) interest you? Also, a settled side now - huge bonus.

Talking point: Are Man Utd simply no longer a worthy FPL asset? Pogba and Shaw owner sadly 🙂

Is Az activating his wildcard this week, and if so, what would be his wildcard team? Is he finally getting Hazard, will he bring Kane?

My team is most similar to his, so I'd like to hear that, as I'm wildcarding this week.

Time to accept it's always Arnie-time?

Is Kane/Kun + Arnie + Mitro the new template front 3?

Is it worth losing an out of form Salah for a semi in form Kane? Would be for a hit as well.

What 3 big hitters should be in our teams?
Aguero, Kane, Sterling, Salah, Hazard but we can afford just 3.

also cool that its 9:00PM

Vardy Surly has now got everyone’s attention and can no longer be overlooked! Scored 57 goals last 3 seasons and is always consistent.

Also this talk of Aguero to Kane is nonsense. Aguero highest attacking points scorer with less minutes too than most.
Pep has lost faith with Jesus it seems so is very much In favour of avoiding the pep rotation.

Template should be

Kane - Kun - Vardy/Arnie/Mitro

My questions are mostly focussed around the team Manchester City and the player Aguero.

I think we can all agree that Manchester City are the best team in the league still, as they were last season. They are scoring the most goals (and expected goals), and conceding the least (and expected least goals against) - showing this is sustainable. However, their rotation policy is already in full swing, they have important players out injured (KdB, Mendy) who will change the balance of the side when they return, they have a congested fixture list and are already playing catch up in their CL group (possibly increasing the priority of CL games?), and their amazing fixture run has come to an end. Therefore, what do the panel make of their assets, is it essential to own any of them at this moment in time? Or can they be swerved completely for the time being? Especially if you are on a wildcard and with free reign to change your side.

Aguero is the most owned player and a safe captaincy choice at the moment. He's returned in each of his last 5 games. However he has been managing an injury, hasn't made it past 65 mins for 4 weeks, and hasn't scored over 8 points for 5 games. Is this the time to jump off him, or is it too risky?

A pack of wolves and a Fox.
James Maddison - risen 0.4m in the dream team and still only 14% owned. With his fixtures is he now becoming essential?
Wolves - how do we see them performing over the next 5 fixtures and beyond? Who are their must haves?
Talking point - the points gap to the top is opening up. How should players that have fallen behind attempt to catch up?
(Both those with wildcards, and without).

Player: Kane

Is Kane essential for Cardiff at home? And who out of Salah or Kun should make way for him?

Team: Man City

Can City assets be sold for the upcoming tough run of fixtures & maybe less mins for their attcakers?
Also is Sterling looking more safe for mins than Kun? And could he be the better option longer term?

Talking Point:

Should we be shifting premium assets based on fixtures as it is more likely they will get big hauls and be more consistent when they have good fixtures?

A note on forwards.

Priced just £18.4m for the pair of them, might it be worth looking at Lacazette and Vardy to address Aguero's fixtures and lack of game time and upgrade a mid-price striker, rather than going all in for Kane?

Both offer realistic captaincy options - Lacazette vs Fulham in particular this weekend rivals Kane's potential vs Huddersfield - and more importantly the move could be funded without necessarily having to lose Salah.

Player - Harry Kane. Can we really go without him this week?

Team - Wolves. Not having any Wolves players this week has almost ended my season. What is the optimum number of Wolves players going forward?

Talking point - Being Patient vs Being Aggressive. Andy uncharacteristically made a decisive and bold transfer this week and it paid off. Are patient managers in for a tough season?

Player: Kane - the fear factor for next week after his brace (even if it wasn't classic Kane) is going to cause a lot of restructure I'd wager.

Team: Arsenal - is anyone totally convinced on any of their assets yet?

Talking Point: Which big boys (10m plus) should be in your team...

Player: Harry Kane, worth getting him in for Aguero seems to be question of the week. Standout captaincy option, but is Hazard a good enough captain this week?

Team: Newcastle; awful fixtures so far, and two clean sheets from three games against bottom 14 (including Leicester this week). Great fixtures until christmas, worth getting in defensive assets? Is Dubravka a good option at 5.0 as set and forget?

Here's a hypothetical to answer for your talking point: If I were to guarantee you that at the end of this season, Mo Salah will 100% get the same points as last season (303), would you buy him now for 12.9?

Facts:
This season he is on 39 pts. After 7 games last season he had 43. There is no statistically significant difference between these numbers (I've checked).

Last season after 7 games, he had scored 4 goals and had 2 assists (1 actual, 1 FPL). This season, he has scored 3 goals with 2 assists (1 actual, 1 FPL). His Expected numbers are all better this season than at the same stage last season.

One caveat is that he's played 70 minutes more this season than at this point last year.

I'm a bit of a skeptic with regards to too much emphasis on stats in football, especially the blatant violation of basic statistical assumptions I see on this site. There's a reason there hasn't been a Billy Beane of football, NFL or other fluid sports (not a successful one anyway, I know lower league clubs have experimented as did Liverpool and Spurs for a bit). Looking at his heatmap, positioning also seems similar to last season but I think this is missing the fact that he does seem to cover the fullbacks more than last season - the heatmap simply records touches and just because he's running back to help TAA, doesn't mean he's touching the ball. Or it could be that I'm suffering a cognitive bias myself because I heard Klopp talk about the work Salah is doing in covering and I just notice it more whereas I didn't last season. Over the weekend though, this did put me off him and I planned to ditch him, despite the good games after MCY this weekend. Expected stats and the chances missed that could go in are one thing, but these only work out in the long term. Flipping a coin is 50-50 and if you throw it a million times, the ratio of heads to tails will basically be 1. But that doesn't mean heads can't come up 20 times in a row and I had no desire to hold Salah until after Christmas before he started achieving expected scores. There are too many missed points elsewhere at stake.

But looking at the other numbers, I've come to this conclusion. He is performing no real worse than last season, perhaps only in relation to our own raised expectations. Yes, there is a huge difference in price given that after 7 games last season he cost 9.2 and now costs 12.9, but unless we all expected him to significantly beat last years record score, he isn't underperforming, even taking different opposition into account (although not the changes in personnel, coaches, formations and everything that influences result). More than 54% of players had him in GW1 at a cost of 13 so, assuming they only expected a return similar to last season (which was a record), presumably they were happy with that price difference vs the season before. Nothing has changed. I didn't realize the points totals were so close so given I was happy to own him at 13 in GW1, I am going to stick, at least for the next three games, unless new information becomes available. (Caveat, I own Haz too, given form, it would be a harder choice not to switch out for this coming week).

Talking Point: With most teams only having room for 3 premium players, if you have Hazard and Kane, that means going without a premium from either City or Liverpool. Is this just crazy given they're the two best teams in the league? With Liverpool's fixtures from next week, surely Liverpool cannot be ignored, but which to go for? Do they share points too much, whilst Chelsea+Spurs have that 1 stand out option? There seems to be better value than Firmino upfront, and Salah and Mane just aren't quite cutting it right now. Likewise with City, their fixtures are up and down, Aguero keeps getting subbed off, and even though Sterling is looking like a player many are going to, surely he's going to be rotated at some point. With De Bruyne return looking sooner than expected, should we just wait for him?

Player: Sergio Aguero
How long can we continue with Aguero knowing he isn't going to play more than 60-65 minutes. Of course, he keeps returning points in that time but surely if he has an injury & with City chasing other teams in CL he will get benched somewhere along the line. Can Sterling be a better option going forward knowing there are a lot of Low & Mid priced forward options available (Arnie, Mitro, Vardy, Jimenez), or can we avoid Man City completely till their fixtures ease-up & CL group stages are done with.

Team: Leicester City
Their fixtures are good, they are clicking as a team now & offer players all across the pitch (Maguire, Chilwell, Maddison, Vardy). Are we not giving Leicester & Claude Puel enough credit for their performances & is it time to bring their other assets in besides Maddison or is it just a flash in the pan.

Talking Point : Is it time to jump off the Salah ship & book a seat on the Kane train???
I know there's an obvious caveat where people feel Salah is indispensable from GW9 but is he really, or does bringing Kane in for this week give managers an option to move away from Salah & bring Mane & Firmino in from next week who surely as a pair have more points potential than Salah alone

With the premium options doing better this year than last and Salah now costing 13, is he worth it?

Thoughts about playing freehit this week.
Reasons:Spurs,arsenal dont have great longterm fixtures but have best fixtures this week.City and liverpool have better long term fixtures so it will help kane.trippier for this gw and have salah aguero for the future without wasting transfers on it.Plus wolves and palace match is pretty difficult to predict so going with burnley and spurs defenders for this week could be bankers.Don't see this being discussed often here as everyone feels freehit is for blank gws but the reason many played it in gw35 than gw31 is bcoz of the fixtures and man city ,liverpool not reaching fa cup semis.Its very unlikely this year that top teams like city and liverpool dont reach fa cup semis .So,is using it this gw will lead to better gain of points on the chip and save usage of transfers.Would like it to be discussed on the scoutcast

Pereira (LEI) Great fixtures playing out of position already has 3 assists this season.

Leicester as above great fixtures and very attacking team, which players to pick?

Should we be targeting the talisman of the team who are playing Cardiff? Next 4 weeks Kane, Mitrovic, Salah, Vardy etc.

Another talking point is it time to go cheaper at the back to free up funds?
AWB, Doherty, TAA, plus 2 others from Newcastle, Brighton, Leicester due to fixtures?