Going into Gameweek 13, it’s finally time for me to solve my Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.8m) problem.
Gameweek 12 did not treat me kindly. I held onto the Chelsea winger on the theory that Mason Mount (£6.8m) was unlikely to be risked and allow his colleague back into the starting line-up.
How wrong I was.
On his return from injury in Gameweek 7, Hudson-Odoi went on a run of four, five and nine points and it seemed like he was destined to be a regular in Frank Lampard’s side.
However, the explosion of Christian Pulisic (£7.4m) in Gameweek 8, and his continuing form has locked the American into the team at the expense of Hudson-Odoi, who offers nothing more than cameos now.
It’s time for him to leave my FPL team.
I have 6.7million to spend on a replacement for Hudson-Odoi and there are a few different appealing options at this price point.
As has been widely reported in recent days, if you sort the Fantasy Football Scout Season Ticker for attacking potential over the next five Gameweeks then Leicester City sit pretty at the top.
I already own Jamie Vardy (£9.6m) and Çaglar Söyüncü but with the fixtures showing a sea of blue for the foreseeable future, it feels sensible to add another of their colleagues to my attacking assets.
James Maddison (£7.5m) and Youri Tielemans (£6.7m) are the two obvious candidates but, of course, they are separated by £0.8m.
Generally, I’m not put off by Maddison’s higher price considering that he can fall back on free-kicks and corners although right now I can’t afford him.
There are some looking at saving another £0.8m by undercutting Tielemans with his colleague Harvey Barnes (£5.9m), who has offered some potential of late but at this stage, I’d be more confident of the Belgian starting regularly.
However, I admit that sometimes it can be easy to get your blinkers on in FPL, especially when much of the community are talking about one team, such as Leicester.
So I decided to expand the Season Ticker by three more Gameweeks (to the end of 2019) to see if there was any club or player that I had previously overlooked.
Seeing Crystal Palace sitting top of the pile was a surprise and, not surprisinfly, I haven’t really considered owning any attacking of their assets so far this season.
However, after this weekends match against Livepool there is a dramatic improvement in the Palace fixtures and therefore this should hopefully result in a change of fortune for their players as FPL assets.
Both Luka Milivojevic (£6.7m) and Wilfried Zaha (£6.7m) are both an affordable price and have shown in the past that they can be viable assets.
That said, neither are hugely appealing based on their form so far this season, although we all know what Milivojevic can offer in the way of penalties.
With Zaha, we could see him start to show some potential as we creep ever close to the January transfer window. He has been linked with a move away from Selhurst Park for some time now and maybe he might try and put himself ‘in the shop window’, so to speak, over the Christmas period.
However, that’s still not enough of a guarantee to justify bringing him in and with Liverpool coming to south London in Gameweek 13, it does feel like the wrong time to sign Palace players. I will, however, be monitoring the Eagles carefully as if we see an improvement then they could prove to be amazing differential picks.
Another team that has an appealing run between now and the start of 2020 is Manchester United. Like Palace, they have been very hit and miss so far this season but the return of Marcus Rashford (£8.6m) and Anthony Martial (£7.8m) to form has made a huge difference.
That said, within my budget of £6.7m, it’s really only Daniel James (£6.2m) or the currently flagged Scott McTominay (£5.1m) that are realistic options for me. The problem is, the way that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are playing right now, I think you have to invest in one of Rashford or Martial or just not at all – the alternatives don’t quite cut it.
With two free transfers, I could downgrade Harry Kane (£10.8m) to Raúl Jiménez (£7.3m) and get some extra cash in which to spend on Martial. This was something I was strongly considering until news of Jose Mourinho’s arrival at Spurs was confirmed on Wednesday morning. Now I want to wait and see if new manager bounce happens because Kane himself could turn into a differential if he finds FPL form again. For now, Martial will have to remain on the list of players I want but can’t quite get to just yet.
After considering all the options, Tielemans seems the best replacement for Hudson-Odoi that I can get to in one transfer so I’ll be getting him in ahead of Leicester’s trip to Gameweek 13.
Nominated for ‘Best in Fantasy Football – Editorial’ at the Football Content Awards 2020
