Pro Pundits

What Abraham must add to his game as I prepare to leave ‘Pukki Party’

My big dilemma this week was what to do with Teemu Pukki (£7.1m). Having shown up ‘fashionably late’ to the Norwich striker’s party in Gameweek 4, there was a sense that I’d already missed most of the good stuff and, now, it was a case of either waiting to see if there’d be a big Finnish finish or ‘remembering that I’d left the stove on’, and making a quick getaway.

I’m not fully convinced that the Pukki party is genuinely over but Norwich look worryingly out of form and it will always be a concern as to whether they can maintain their attacking output now the initial exuberance of their opening matches is out of the way, especially as their fixtures begin to get tougher.

Comparisons to Fulham and Aleksandar Mitrovic’s decline around this time last season are maybe a little lazy, but still fairly inescapable.

Pukki and Norwich have regressed in recent weeks

Meanwhile, over in west London, Tammy Abraham (£7.7m) is beginning to look like he could be a genuine mid-priced heavy hitter and, as we’ve seen in the past with the likes of Harry Kane (£10.9m) and Jamie Vardy (£9.0m), these types of players, when they emerge, can quickly become essential for their own points output, for the additional captaincy options that they provide and for the investment that they enable elsewhere.

I could, and probably should, have made the move for Abraham earlier but, despite eight goals in as many games, I still have some reservations.

You see, as a Chelsea fan, I love Abraham to the extent that I’d happily throw myself in front of a Julian Dicks penalty for him, but as a Fantasy Premier League asset, I’m not entirely convinced (yet).

At the risk of applying Love Island logic here, I typically have a handful of boxes that I want my FPL forwards to tick: 

1. Do they score goals? 

2. Do they play for a team who create enough chances? 

3. Do they contribute assists as well as goals? 

4. Do they take penalties or other set pieces? 

Jorginho’s role in penalties at Chelsea is a slight concern for Abraham’s prospects

On current evidence, Abraham only offers the first two and, normally, I’d want at least three.

Why does this matter if he’s scoring points from goals? Well, Abraham is currently averaging a goal a game and, even with some good fixtures to come, this output will inevitably regress, particularly without penalties to help inflate his numbers, meaning that blanks are on the horizon unless he can start to contribute assists as well as goals.

In his favour is also the fact that he’s an all-purpose sort of centre-forward, with the size, speed and variety of finishing to deliver against any sort of defence, meaning that, while he won’t score every game, I’ll always believe he stands a chance.

And there’s that price…

Ultimately these factors, plus the opportunity to avoid the sort of “Oh… yay….” instances of cognitive dissonance I’ve been experiencing every time he scores was enough to convince me to finally push the button on Pukki to Abraham.

Will I captain him? It’s tempting but I’m currently leaning towards Callum Wilson (£7.9m) both for the quality of Bournemouth’s fixture at home to Norwich and for his relative consistency this season. Though this particular decision may well go down to the wire.

My team for Gameweek 9

Simon March is a member of our Pro Pundits initiative, a team of Fantasy managers here to bring you regular advice and updates on their teams. Simon won the FPL title in 2014/15 and has become a fixture on the punditry circuit ever since.

1,468 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Over Midwicket
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Who to captain out of Wilson or Tammy?

    1. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      Both decent options. Flip a coin.

    2. gooner_112233445566
      • 4 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      Very tough. Would probably go wilson out of those myself

  2. Kaiser123
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Difficult benching for me this week. Digne, Lund and Rico. I’m thinking of Digne and Rico. All have home matches, but Lund playing Monday.

    1. Kaiser123
      • 4 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      I mean benching Lund. The back 4 this week will be TAA, Zinc, Digne and Rico

    2. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      If you still have Digne and you don't start him in a home game against West Ham, it's time to sell him.

      1. gooner_112233445566
        • 4 Years
        4 years, 5 months ago

        Agreed. Have to start digne

    3. gooner_112233445566
      • 4 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      I would bench either zinc or lund. A lot of people saying mendy might start...

  3. gooner_112233445566
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Sorry, Bottomed on last page

    Final decisions on wildcard

    A) perreira, king, Jimenez
    B) soy, king, vardy
    C) soy, Maddison, Wilson
    D) perreira, Maddison, king

    1) aguero (3 city attackers, no liv attack for next 3 games)
    2) salah (no aguero)

    Currently on 1d myself

    1. Ze_Austin
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      2C with Mane

  4. Big boy Bowen
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Start Cantwell or Connolly?

  5. primal33
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Who to start:

    A. Boly
    B. Rico

  6. Arctic_Orangutans
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    2 questions

    Ota owners worried about getting dropped for stones?

    Jesus to start over aguero?

    1. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      Fernandinho will move back up to midfield, shouldn’t be a worry.

      I think and hope that Aguero will start. He’s had a nice rest over this break, and Pep knows this is a must win game.

  7. Gassemannen
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Play 2 of:

    A: Rico
    B: Lundstram
    C: Cantwell
    D: Guilbert
    E: Dendoncker

    1. jjandellis
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      A & D

  8. Feed tha Sheep
    • 11 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    If MEN are predicting agureo bench should I capt sterling or stay with agureo?

    1. Crunchie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      With some concerns over Sergio Aguero's fitness, it would make sense to play Gabriel Jesus in attack, as there is no need to risk Aguero if he has any niggle.

      Pure speculation

  9. nolard
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    % chance for Aguero to start?

    1. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      90%

  10. dshv
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Good luck to all
    Come on Wilson!!!

  11. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Last decision - Captain KDB or Tammy?

    Good luck all!

    1. Tsparkes10
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      Join me on kev

      1. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 5 months ago

        I will. Let’s go!
        Good luck 🙂

        1. Tsparkes10
          • 5 Years
          4 years, 5 months ago

          Woooo 🙂

  12. La Roja
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Yarmolenko benched rumors

    1. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 5 months ago

      Are very correct indeed.

  13. ChickenTikkaMoSalah
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Sad to see yarmy benched, he’s such a great player.

  14. RealVirg
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Never ever not play Yarmo

    West ham deserve every goal they concede, genuine mugs for not playing yarmo

  15. Big boy Bowen
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Chuffed KANE STARTS

  16. fusen
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 5 months ago

    Alonso with a clean sheet and a goal is on less BPS than CHO

    o.o that's pretty impressive for Hudson-Odoi

    Very annoying that FPL hide the stats that make up the BPS this season