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I was hoping to do an article on my thoughts for my final Gameweek 1 team but I am not there yet, so instead I will do one on my current dilemmas going into the deadline today.
Firstly, though, the players I’m sure of.
Goalkeepers
Matt Turner’s (£4.0m) move to Nottingham Forest is a game-changer for me. The rotation potential with both Sam Johnstone (£4.5m) and Jordan Pickford (£4.5m) means I am hesitant to spend more than £8.5m in those two slots. I feel that £0.5m saved could be needed into my other 10 outfield slots by Gameweek 3 or 4. But more on that later.
I am fairly set on the Pickford + Turner combo that gives me the following set of fixtures until Gameweek 10: FUL, SHU, WOL, shu, BUR, bre, LUT, BOU, LUT and whu.
Everton’s pre-season results also give me a nice confirmation bias that they will play Dyche-ball a bit better this year and not score too many. Therefore, more potential for Pickford bonus:
| Jul 14 | Stade Nyonnais 1-2 Everton (Colovray Sports Centre, Nyon) | Kouyate (Iwobi assist), Maupay (Okoronkwo assist) |
| Jul 22 | Wigan Athletic 0-1 Everton (DW Stadium, Wigan) | Young |
| Jul 25 | Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Everton (University of Bolton Stadium) |
| Jul 29 | Stoke City 0-1 Everton (bet365 Stadium, Stoke) | Onana |
| Aug 1 | Everton 2-2 Monza (Goodison Park) | Dobbin, Maupay |
| Aug 5 | Everton 1-0 Sporting Clube de Portugal (Goodison Park) | Calvert-Lewin pen (Doucoure assist) |
Defenders
With the Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) injury and lack of midfield slots, Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.0m) or William Saliba (£5.0m) feel like an automatic inclusion if one wanted to go for triple Arsenal. Similarly, Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m) with his excellent first three fixtures is also a no-brainer. I do have plans to move him on to a City defender or Reece James (£5.5m) in Gameweek 3 or 4.
I am also fairly sure on my fifth defender in Issa Kaboré (£4.0m), who I think is the most attacking and nailed of all the £4.0m options.
Midfielders
My midfield four of Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m), Marcus Rashford (£9.0m), Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) have not changed since day one. There is a lot of ‘FOMO’ relating to Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) in Gameweek 2 against Bournemouth but people forget that Manchester United play Wolves and Forest at home and Arsenal play Forest and Fulham at the Emirates in that same three-Gameweek window.
In fact, if you see the projected points, there is little to nothing to differentiate these players – notwithstanding the staggering gap in price between the Arsenal and Man Utd boys and Salah. I understand that captaincy changes things in Gameweek 2 but Erling Haaland’s (£14.0m) expected points are also closer to 6.0 in that round, so it’s not like there is no strong captaincy alternative already:
