Mohamed Salah has upped his ‘articles-about-me-per-day’ ratio once again with our latest Scout Picks.
The Liverpool man is our headline selection for the Gameweek 10 team.
This was easily the hardest line-up to pick so far this season with little unanimity from our panel of Paul, Joe, Az and Peter.
But we’ve still managed to turn out an XI under the £83m budget…
Goalkeeper
Alisson (£5.6m) is the first name on our team-sheet ahead of Cardiff’s visit to Anfield. All of our pundits apart from Paul picked the Brazilian for their Scout Squads, Joe, Az and Peter all choosing him as the best goalkeeper option. Liverpool are yet to concede at home this season while Cardiff have just one goal on their travels since promotion from the Championship.
Defenders
Andrew Robertson (£6.4m) is one of just two players to earn unanimous backing from our pundits this week. The Liverpool left-back was an easy choice for the top defensive pick considering his sureness of a start, the Reds strong record at the back and a penchant for attacking returns. The only Liverpool player to have completed more passes in the final third over the last four Gameweeks than Robertson is Salah.
Jose Holebas (£4.8m) was another easy pick this week as Watford host Huddersfield Town. The Terriers rank bottom of the league for shots on target and big chances since Gameweek 6. Meanwhile, no defender has created as many chances as Holebas this season, an impressive achievement considering he missed Gameweek 9 through suspension.
Marcos Alonso (£7.0m) sneaks into the Scout Picks because we had some money to spare. We knew that we wanted to buy into the Chelsea defence for their trip to Burnley. No team has registered fewer shots on target since Gameweek 6 than Sean Dyche’s Clarets. While attacking returns have dried up for Alonso, he remains on some direct free-kicks and did get into some advanced positions against Manchester United.
Midfielders
Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) is the second and final member of the latest Scout Picks to receive a unanimous selection from our panel. He has scored in every home match so far this season, with the exception of the visit of Manchester City in Gameweek 8. No Liverpool player has more than his 15 shots at Anfield this season, while Cardiff have just one clean sheet on the road in 2018/19. That was at Huddersfield back in Gameweek 3.
Raheem Sterling (£11.2m) is our Manchester City asset of choice for Gameweek 10. The fact that he was rested for Burnley’s visit to the Etihad last Saturday makes us less concerned by his 90-minute spell in the Champions League on Tuesday. Sterling has blanked in just two of his seven Premier League appearances in 2018/19 and his pace is expected to suit Man City’s playing style when they face Spurs at Wembley on Monday night.
Willian (£7.4m) occupies the spot within the team that we were planning on handing to Eden Hazard (£11.4m) if we had more information about his current injury problem. We are still confident that Willian can perform at Burnley this week. The fact that he was substituted after 57 minutes of Europa League action on Thursday night suggests he’ll start for the fifth match in a row in Gameweek 10. Over the last four league games, he has created the same number of chances as Hazard while Burnley have still allowed more shots on their goal than any other side this season.
James Maddison (£7.0m) is our Leicester man for the week with the backing of Paul, Joe and Peter. Amazingly, despite his love for him at the start of the season, Az was the only one not to pick him. Maddison has created more chances than any of his colleagues in recent weeks and has less of a fitness concern than the more expensive Jamie Vardy. The striker has declared himself ready for Gameweek 10 on Instagram but may not necessarily be at 100% following an illness.
Forwards
Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) can consider himself unlucky not to have registered attacking returns against Spurs last time out. He has recorded six shots on target in the last four Gameweeks, more than Salah and Hazard. The Liverpool talisman and Leroy Sané are also the only players to have touched the ball more often in opponent penalty boxes since Gameweek 6.
Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m) gets into the Scout Picks side thanks to a favourable fixture against Bournemouth. The Cherries have conceded seven goals in four away trips so far this season and we expect them to be breached once again. Mitrovic remains Fulham’s primary goal threat with more attempts from him than any of his colleagues since Gameweek 6.
Josh King (£6.4m) has been chosen as our Bournemouth option this week as he and his team-mates travel to face Fulham. No team has ever conceded as many goals as the Cottagers (25) in the first nine games of a Premier League season so we had name one of the Cherries options. King has had more penalty box touches than Callum Wilson or Ryan Fraser in the last four Gameweeks and has outperformed those colleagues for shots too.
Substitutes
Our spare defender is our differential man Shane Duffy (£4.5m). He looks a good option long-term with Brighton’s fixtures having picked up back-to-back clean sheets now.
In midfield, we are going with Ryan Fraser (£6.0m). Fulham have proven especially vulnerable down their right-flank this season which plays very much into Fraser’s positioning on Bournemouth’s left-flank.
Up front, our backup option is the aforementioned Jamie Vardy (£9.0m). We’d have loved to fit him into the side proper but ran out of cash and didn’t want to take a risk on his fitness.
Community Champion
Representing the community against the Scout Picks in Gameweek 10 is fclackless. He has opted for a 3-4-3 formation of Foster; Holebas, Lovren, Bertrand; Salah, Sterling, Martial, Mane; King, Lacazette, Wilson.
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 have won six and lost three so far, FPL Mountaineer defeated 50-39 in Gameweek 9.
Eden Wizard still leads the way, with his Gameweek 2 victory over the Scout Squad crew coming by a 77-68 scoreline.
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