We roll out the second set of Scout Picks of the 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season, as Friday’s Gameweek 2 deadline looms.
This week, we’ve doubled up on Liverpool and Nottingham Forest ahead of enticing home fixtures.
As ever, we are limited by certain restrictions in our selection:
- An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
- An overall squad limit of £100.0m
- No more than three players per team
GOALKEEPER
Priced at £4.0m, Matt Turner comes in for Nottingham Forest’s home clash with Sheffield United.
Steve Cooper’s side were far more reliable in defence at the City Ground in 2022/23, keeping six of their eight clean sheets on home turf, whilst the Blades are yet to net this term.
They also lacked any real goal threat throughout the match against Crystal Palace in Gameweek 1, underlining Turner’s points potential.
DEFENDERS
A home clash with Bournemouth offers Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) the chance of points at both ends of the pitch.
The Cherries are more attacking under new boss Andoni Iraola and could cause Liverpool a few problems on Saturday, but they conceded more chances from set plays than any other team last term, issues which carried over into pre-season.
Meanwhile, van Dijk’s 27 shots from such situations ranked third among all defenders in 2022/23.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) is, of course, another good option and his absence here is mostly down to budgetary constraints, yet his appeal has been slightly dented by Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m) muscling in on the corners at Liverpool.
Ben Chilwell was back to being a marauding wing-back in Gameweek 1, earning seven points, and has already climbed to £5.6m ahead of his trip to West Ham United.
There are no guarantees Mauricio Pochettino will stick with a back three in possession, but Chilwell’s attacking output will be vital regardless.
The attack-minded Pervis Estupinan (£5.1m) has also seen his price rise by £0.1m after a seven-point haul.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers looks tougher than initially thought after their opponents’ excellent showing at Old Trafford on Monday.
Still, they couldn’t put the ball in the net, a familiar problem – they were last season’s lowest scorers.
There are some wild rumours about Estupinan’s fitness circulating on social media but until we’ve seen a reputable source report it, we’re sticking with the Brighton left-back.
MIDFIELDERS
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COMMUNITY CHAMPION
Each week, a member of the Fantasy Football Scout community takes on the Scout Picks.
The community member who beats our team by the largest margin will win a £100 Amazon voucher and a place in our Moderators and Contributors League for the following season.
Our champion this week is FPL Ron Manager, who has gone for the following: Turner; Saliba, Estupinan, Chilwell; Martinelli, Saka, Eze, Salah (c), Maddison; Haaland, Joao Pedro
The Scout Picks are 1-0 up on the community this season.
FOLLOW THE SCOUT’S WEEKLY TRANSFER PLANS
We’re running a Scout community team in FPL this season, with regulars like TopMarx, Tom Freeman, Marc Jobling and more contributing to the weekly decisions.
And we’re not just looking one week ahead like we are with the Scout Picks but instead planning in advance for the weeks and months to come.
You can follow our team via the Premier Fantasy Tools Pro Planner, which you can learn more about here.
9 months, 17 days agoBrought James in to avoid price drop, now I'm leaning towards a hit for:
James -> Chillwel (for -4)
My alternative is to play Botman against MCI
What do you think, anyone else in the same boat?