After plenty of different Scout Squad submissions, it’s time to nail down the Scout Picks.
Six teams will be without a fixture in Gameweek 34 because of the FA Cup semi-finals: Manchester City, Brighton and Hove Albion, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Leeds United and Burnley.
As ever, we are limited by certain restrictions:
- An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
- An overall squad limit of £100.0m
- No more than three players per team
GAMEWEEK 34 SCOUT PICKS
GOALKEEPER
Mads Hermansen (£4.2m) is selected in between the sticks for West Ham United’s home encounter with Everton. The Hammers have been in very decent defensive form since the start of February, with five clean sheets in nine matches. Should Everton, who do tend to play better away from home, find the net, Hermansen could have save points to fall back on – he’s racked up 33 saves since reclaiming the number one jersey, the most of any goalkeeper.
DEFENDERS
Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.1m) returns to the Scout Picks, having been backed by all four of our Scout Squad panel. From a defensive perspective, Arsenal are one of the favourites for a clean sheet in Gameweek 34, when they host out-of-sorts Newcastle United. It’s hardly a surprise, given that they can’t be beaten for shut-outs, goals conceded or expected goals conceded (xGC) across the season. Gabriel is a clear threat from set plays, too.
Virgil van Dijk (£6.2m) is our Liverpool defender of choice for Saturday’s home encounter with Crystal Palace. The Dutchman has already found the net four times this season, underlining his points potential in the opposition box. Oliver Glasner’s men have failed to score in two of their last three matches.
After Roberto De Zerbi’s arrival in north London, Pedro Porro (£5.1m) is back on set-pieces. He also found the net against Brighton and Hove Albion last week, and could profit once more at Molineux, with already-relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers bottom, or at least near the bottom, in many underlying statistics.
Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m) is one of the most consistent defenders in home matches this season, ahead of his meeting with Nottingham Forest. He’s produced six attacking returns, five clean sheets, 12 defensive contribution (DefCon) points and eight bonus in only 14 run-outs at the Stadium of Light, with his total of 85 points on home turf the fourth-most of any player in his position.
In truth, we wanted a fourth midfielder in this ‘Free Hit XI’, but our meagre £83.0m starting budget limited us. Given extra cash, we’d have gone for Harry Wilson (£6.0m) instead of Mukiele in a 3-4-3. Wilson averages 6.4 points per start at Craven Cottage this season.
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