Will fortune favour the brave?

So the International Break has been and gone and many of us have been impatiently counting down the days.

During this time, I have lost count of how many FH teams I have come across on this site.  Though it’s quite clear there is a huge template team upon us.

Man City look destined for clean sheets with fruitful fixtures away to Fulham followed by the home encounter to Cardiff.

Though few dare to go without the Sterling/Aguero combo so left with a choice of Ederson or Laporte.

I pondered with the double defence for a few reasons.  “If”…. And it’s a big “IF”, one of Sterling or Aguero stole the show (meaning one of them blanks and I chose the correct option), I’d already have an advantage “if” Man City got the clean sheets as expected.

I have a 50 point gap in my large ML and I’m in a position where I feel like it’s a good time to gamble.

My personal opinion is Aguero will get more minutes than Sterling so that makes him an immediate captain choice out of the two.  That lead me to think hard about which would be best for me, Ederson/Laporte/Aguero or Sterling/Aguero/D Silva.

My conclusion was the latter option excited me most.  I touch on this further into the article.

Another conundrum which played havoc with my team was do I bring Kane in or not.  I’m a big fan.  He loves the business end of the season and he can score against anyone.  The new stadium was also a factor in his favour….. but he left my FH team today for a few reasons.  The main one being I think Liverpool are going to turn Tottenham over.  Hearing Klopp speak about his team, Salah especially made me come to this conclusion.  Both teams will see it as a must win game.  Salah got to have a holiday and chill out on the beach… a fresh Salah, an in form Mane and a hungry Liverpool could really put Tottenham to the sword and I fully expect it.

Those holding onto Liverpool assets this week could well prosper, especially those who also use the TC this week on a DGW player.

I do think for FH teams, triple Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea looks delicious on paper.  I just can’t see past it… but putting a great team out whilst trying to find an advantage over other great FH teams is where my head has been.

So part of my plan is to have two double-ups in defence, I appreciate this could go one way or the other but I’m happy to be bold and dependant on any press conference news to sway me otherwise, it looks as follows:

GK

• de Gea                WAT (H) WOL (A)

DEF

• Young                  (as above)

• Azpilicueta          CAR (A) BRI (H)

• David Luiz           (as above)

• Schlupp               HUD (H) TOT (A)

MID

• Sterling               FUL (A) CAR (H)

• David Silva         (as above)

• Hazard                CAR (A) BRI (H)

• Martial                 WAT (H) WOL (A)

ATT

• Aguero                FUL (A) CAR (H)
• Batshuayi            (HUD (H) TOT (A)

My bench reads Button, Neves, Simpson and Quaner.

I tend to use the phrase “differential” quite often, and it does bug me at times.  A template team is thrown out and options outside of this can be frowned upon.

I appreciate this team seems more reliant on clean sheets than most with the double-double-up, but that is definitely a risk I am willing to take.  I’m more than happy with Young.  His underlying stats are impressive enough for me to show faith.

With David Silva’s inclusion, it just excites me more.  I’m convinced he will add to his 6 goals and 6 assists this season.  There’s nothing more I’d love than a couple of attacking returns against Fulham, before being substituted in the final third of the game so he’s ready to do business again against Cardiff.  He ran the show in the reverse fixture as he does many times when Man City are allowed space to attack.

Moving onto Martial as my third Man Utd player.  It could be a golden move, it could fail.  It hasn’t quite gone as planned for him since OGS arrived due to niggling injuries, but there is no doubt he is pivotal to this Man Utd attacking team.  I believe he will now be fit after the recent break.  He signed a new luxurious contract at the end of January before putting in a very impressive performance in the 3-0 win against Fulham.  Also hearing the newly appointed OGS’s views on him as a player also made me take note.  He believes he can be the best in the world and that must do wonders for the 23 years olds confidence.  I’m quietly confident that he will be a big player this GW.

I’m still undecided on my captain though it is currently on Aguero and that may not change.  Not many attacking players will be safe from a bit of rotation this week.  Not due to fatigue, I think modern day footballers can handle these games without question.  I’ve no doubts that Sterling is fit enough to play 180 minutes this next week.  He didn’t need  to work that hard in the internationals, especially once the games where out of reach. I think the main reason will be to avoid any possible injuries with each game deemed as cup finals going forward, and of course, to feature other world class players who are knocking on the door for game time.

My advice to all this week is don’t be afraid to make a decision which you believe in.  We’re all in different positions with different targets.  I wish you all luck and hope all the hard work we’ve put in, in the lead-up to this week pays off.

Pep Pig