Picks from Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Chelsea dominate the Gameweek 28 Scout Squad.

All three clubs are at home to relegation-threatened sides – the only question is which players to select to oppose the strugglers.

Our in-house panel of Marc, Sam, Neale and Tom explain their key nominations and omissions below.

ABOUT THE SCOUT SQUAD

In this article series, our team discuss who they think the best players are for the upcoming Gameweek in isolation. In other words, there’s no medium-term planning involved.

The players who get the most votes are likelier to make Friday’s Scout Picks.

Each of our writers must meet the following requirements for this feature:

• At least one sub-£5.0m goalkeeper
• At least one sub-£5.0m defender
• At least one sub-£6.0m midfielder
• At least one sub-£7.0m forward
• No more than three players from the same club

SCOUT SQUAD: GAMEWEEK 28 PICKS

Most popular picks: David Raya, Daniel Munoz, Marc Cucurella, Gabriel Magalhaes, Mohamed Salah, Cole Palmer (four), Dean Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Jarrod Bowen, Yoane Wissa, Erling Haaland, Eddie Nketiah, Darwin Nunez (three)

MARC SAID…

There are several matches between sides next to each other in the table but Liverpool, Chelsea and Crystal Palace are worthy of attention because they’re at home to the bottom three. With the Reds, there’s the lingering thought that Arne Slot could rotate his line-up between Paris Saint-Germain clashes. But he likes taking Trent Alexander-Arnold off between the 60th and 75th minute, while Mohamed Salah is chasing records. Sources tell me that Slot keeps FPL honours in mind when making decisions.

Darwin Nunez has the opposite certainty, though I’m punting on him because surely – surely – this is the occasion where he’s granted a first league start since Gameweek 18. Also, FPL was already a bit low on appealing forwards and this FA Cup break has worsened the situation. A Millwall goalkeeper’s attempted decapitation of Jean-Philippe Mateta likely keeps the Frenchman out of Crystal Palace’s clash with Ipswich, putting Eddie Nketiah up front. He scored during a tiny Gameweek 27 cameo and then netted in the cup.

As a Daniel Munoz owner, it’s been an absolute joy to possess this attacking wing-back. Four attacking returns and four clean sheets from his latest seven league outings, with a couple of FA Cup goals sprinkled in between. Colleague Ismaila Sarr had long been given up on by FPL managers but, typically, exploded with a brace versus Aston Villa to become the Gameweek’s joint-top scorer.

That was alongside Marc Cucurella. Southampton are so bad that they allowed Chelsea to keep just a third clean sheet in 22. Watch the Blues secure another here, as Leicester have scored a mere four times in 12 matches, including none in four.

It’s a match where Cole Palmer could feast – though we infamously all thought that last week. Seven shots and 1.30 expected goals (xG) ultimately brought nothing, making it no goals and one assist in six appearances. However, my article studied the numbers underneath this decline. It’s mostly been due to bad luck, poorer finishing and a lack of penalties – certainly not a shortage of chances.

Owning multiple parts of Arsenal’s defence has paid dividends in their most recent three away matches. David Raya and Gabriel Magalhaes now get to visit Manchester United, who have an underwhelming home record. The only times their hosts have not lost in seven Old Trafford runouts were comeback wins against promoted sides.

In fact, they could drop to 16th should Everton and West Ham win. The Toffees are rejuvenated under David Moyes and already had a strong defence, so Jordan Pickford should do well against a Cunha-less Wolves. That could easily be a goalless draw for both him and opposing stopper Jose Sa. Furthermore, I think the Hammers are nailed to beat Newcastle – a side that’s distracted by a cup final and losing players at a daily rate. Out-of-position Jarrod Bowen will be excited to punish their lacklustre centre-back pairing, while there’s even a chance of an Aaron Cresswell shut-out.

Alongside Raya in showing love to Brentford’s 2019/20 side is Ollie Watkins and Bryan Mbeumo, who face each other on Saturday evening. Watkins scored 25 Championship goals that season and hauled in December’s reverse fixture. Mbeumo netted 15 and is still at the club, ready to add to Aston Villa’s post-Champions League struggles.

One of only three to have more home goals than him is Erling Haaland, though the latter is away at one of his father’s former clubs, Nottingham Forest. It feels like the FPL community is ready to reunite with the Norwegian, considering Man City’s fixtures and his seven goals from eight. As for Danny Welbeck, he keeps proving his importance to Fabian Hurzeler.

SAM SAID…

I was really looking forward to Gameweek 28. I was set to roll my transfer and my team looked excellent. Dreams of another entry into the 100 club were in my mind. Instead, three red flags mean that I now need some major surgery! The Scout Squad picks this week have therefore been a nice distraction from the multiple red flags my actual team is bringing me.

Unsurprisingly, I have massively played the fixtures here. Three Palace, three Chelsea and three Liverpool, as well as two from Brentford, Arsenal and Wolves.

Jean-Philippe Mateta has been an incredible own for me over the last few weeks. No one has been investing in him due to the blank in Gameweek 29 but the points have rolled in for me week after week. Were it not for the horrible head injury and 25 stitches from the FA Cup clash with Millwall, I would absolutely have had him in these picks again. In his absence, I’ve gone with the defensive double-up with Dean Henderson and Daniel Munoz, as well as Eddie Nketiah as the stand-in for Mateta up top.

Nketiah was excellent when he came on for Mateta in the FA Cup at the weekend, scoring Palace’s third goal and picking up the Player of the Match award. Munoz has been one of the defenders of the season, averaging 4.1 points per start – an average that is closer to 6.0 over his last 14 run-outs. Palace face Ipswich at home and so adding to Munoz with Henderson seems a sensible play. The England international is the fourth-highest scoring goalkeeper in the game this season.

I have also tripled up on Liverpool. This is a no-brainer, I hear you all say. However, with the Champions League tie against PSG in the balance and the League Cup final against Newcastle looming into view, I am worried about rotation against Southampton on Sunday.

Mohamed Salah has to be in the picks, and will still wear my captain’s armband, even though I think there is a heightened chance that he is rested like in the FA Cup against Plymouth. If Liverpool find themselves leading, which they should, then he potentially gets no minutes, leaving him fresh for the big cup ties to come. Pick those vice-captains wisely just in case.

Alongside the Egyptian, Trent Alexander-Arnold. With Conor Bradley injured, Arne Slot likely doesn’t have the same ability to rest the right-back as he does with some of the more forward-thinking players. Trent is the most creative of the defenders in Fantasy this season, carving out 49 chances for his team-mates. Of those, 14 have been classified as big chances – which is again more than any other defender has registered.

Yes, maybe I have gone mad – but here’s Darwin Nunez. Darwin came on against PSG and it was his assist that led to Liverpool’s winning goal. With Diogo Jota still being treated with kid gloves after his injury and Luis Diaz playing on fumes likely due to the amount of minutes and miles logged in recent matches, I think it is likely that Darwin gets the start against Southampton at the weekend.

Triple Chelsea; yep that’s happening too!

Cole Palmer has gone a bit cold in FPL of late but he was so unlucky not to return against Southampton in Gameweek 27. The midfielder had more shots than any other player and his expected goals (xG) tally of 1.30 was more than double that of the next-highest placed player. Against the second-worst defence in the league, surely he registers returns in Gameweek 28.

I have doubled up on the attack with Pedro Neto, who is flying in the number nine spot that he used to play in his Lazio days. Since Gameweek 24, Neto has returned more points (25) than any other Chelsea player. He has also had the second-most shots (10) and created the joint-most big chances (two) and the second-most chances (six). He could do brilliantly against Leicester and is an interesting differential for those in the market.

Then it’s goalscoring hero Marc Cucurella, who my husband Lee brought into his FPL team last week. Another clean sheet definitely looks on the cards – but with his new-found offensive threat, another attacking return could see back-to-back double digits.

Double Arsenal defence against Man United. There was once a time when that would have sounded mad but in reality, the Gunners have found their defensive security as their attacking form has dipped – albeit not in the Champions League, where they ran riot! Gabriel Magalhaes offers the supplementary attacking threat but I also like Jurrien Timber for budget purposes. It’s a shame he scored that goal in the Champions League rather than for us in FPL.

I have also doubled up on Brentford with assist king Mikkel Damsgaard – I would have preferred Bryan Mbeumo were it not for the fact that I required a sub-£6.0m midfielder – and Yoane Wissa. Unai Emery’s side have failed to win any of their last seven Premier League fixtures that immediately followed a Champions League match and Villa have only won one of their last eight away matches in the league. I think both could return well this weekend.

Erling Haaland v Omar Marmoush was a toss-up. Maybe I have simply gone reassuringly expensive but Haaland has been low-key back in recent weeks. The Man City forward has attacking returns in all of his last five Premier League matches. In that time, he has registered 37 points. In just 26% of teams, he is basically a differential now!

TOM SAID…

There are some really great fixtures jumping off the page this week, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Crystal Palace all set to host promoted opposition.

Triple-ups on Chelsea and Palace were fairly easy to settle on. Pedro Neto – who has been directly involved in 10 shots in the last two Gameweeks, five of his own and five created for others – gets the nod as the third Blues asset alongside Marc Cucurella and Cole Palmer.

Dean Henderson and Daniel Munoz are my number one goalkeeper and defender picks this week. Palace have kept four clean sheets since the turn of the year, the joint-most of any side, while Munoz has scored or assisted in six of his last seven matches across all competitions. I’ve also settled on Eberechi Eze, who produced an assist against Ipswich in the reverse fixture and should be on penalties in the absence of Jean-Philippe Mateta.

As for Liverpool, the main question is over which players will actually start, given that this is the middle and easiest fixture of a tight Wednesday-Saturday-Tuesday turnaround. Trent Alexander-Arnold looks a bit risky for me at this early stage, so I’ve gone with Virgil van Dijk and Kostas Tsimikas against a Southampton attack that is second-bottom for xG since the appointment of Ivan Juric. I’ve opted for Mohamed Salah for obvious reasons, too.

With Aston Villa also in European action next week against Club Brugge and second-bottom for xGC since Gameweek 20, there should be chances aplenty for Yoane Wissa, who is among the top five FPL assets for NPxGI in the last six matches. Ollie Watkins could also prosper against a Brentford defence that is yet to keep a home clean sheet in 2024/25.

Elsewhere, Beto has shone in his outings under David Moyes so far, with eight big chances in his last five matches, while I probably don’t need to justify the inclusion of my other forwards, Erling Haaland and Chris Wood, who face off at the City Ground. As for Alexander Isak, I’m going to err on the side of caution and leave him out, with managed minutes a real possibility against West Ham on Monday even if he does start.

Finally, Antoine Semenyo is my token sub-£6.0m midfielder this week. The winger remains the best Bournemouth bet for 90 minutes in attack and I’ve got a feeling he will have a productive day on the counter at Spurs.

NEALE SAID…

Here we are again, targeting the sides doing a ‘Grampa Simpson’ back to the Championship. Rather than acclimatising to top-flight life, they’ve arguably got worse after a plucky opening third to 2024/25.

Other Chelsea, Palace and Liverpool players to the ones I’ve picked here were in the Scout Squad mix. The ‘out of position’ Pedro Neto, shot-happy Dominik Szoboszlai and set-piece-taking Eberechi Eze (who, as Tom says above, should also be on penalties in Gameweek 28) could easily have made the cut. The requirement for one sub-£6.0m midfielder was the main thing in Christopher Nkunku‘s favour, alongside Leicester’s regular concession of goals from their right flank (check out their chances created conceded map in the Members Area). Marc Cucurella, who like Aaron Wan-Bissaka is undergoing some Dylan-esque career shift from folksy, traditional full-back to bold electric upfield marauder, could also benefit from the same flank.

I’ve gone with Daniel Munoz and Eddie Nketiah as my main two Palace assets, with Dean Henderson thrown into the bargain given that the Eagles can’t be bettered for clean sheets (five) or goals conceded (seven) since Christmas. Munoz’s attacking threat has been well documented, while Nketiah is more of gut feel pick after the burden of a goalless spell was lifted in Gameweek 27. He looked like a man reborn in the FA Cup fifth round, full of confidence and getting on the scoresheet again.

The Liverpool triple-up was the trickiest call. Amid game-time concerns over others, Virgil van Dijk is typically rotation-proof. Southampton being the worst team for set-play attempts conceded could also be to his advantage. No amount of fretting about minutes was going to stop me selecting Mohamed Salah, so the big question was who the third Red was going to be. Let’s be honest: we’re all guessing about the scale of rotation here. Some are predicting wholesale changes, others point to comments recently made by Arne Slot in which he said his team could play “five games in a row at the highest possible level“. Nevertheless, with injury concerns over Cody Gakpo, I’ve gambled on Darwin Nunez. He made a big contribution against PSG on Wednesday, with his manager’s post-match words suggesting the recent beef is forgotten about.

The inclusion of Nketiah and Darwin is also partly to do with the paucity of appealing forwards this week. Messrs Cunha and Mateta are out, while Alexander Isak’s involvement against West Ham is also in question. Erling Haaland and Chris Wood square off in a hard-to-call match at the City Ground, while Chelsea, West Ham, Bournemouth, Spurs and Arsenal could all feasibly have midfielders playing up front again.

In the end, I’ve gone with Beto, Yoane Wissa and Joao Pedro to round off my forward selections. Pedro is in by virtue of Brighton being on a roll and Fulham being without key defensive midfielder Sasa Lukic, who will be a big miss.

The Everton, Brentford and West Ham double-ups are partly to do with opposition frailities. Wolves are devoid of the talismanic Cunha (I’m more confident now as a Jordan Pickford owner), Aston Villa have frequently been hungover after European exertions, and injury-and-suspension-hit Newcastle have Wembley on the mind. There’s a danger we’re over-egging the pudding when it comes to the Magpies’ EFL Cup final involvement (they certainly gave everything in their pre-final league games two years ago) but it’s still nevertheless a good time for Jarrod Bowen to be facing a flaky Newcastle defence without a clean sheet in six.

I’ll leave you with a Big Numbers-style stat: Rasmus Hojlund has a worse minutes-per-shot average (85) than Fulham right-back Kenny Tete (70) this season. At least one of Gabriel Magalhaes or David Raya should make the Scout Picks.

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