With limited time between Gameweek 23 and 24 I wanted to offer my thoughts on my differential for this week.
I lined up at the weekend with Danny Ings (£6.9m), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) and Raúl Jiménez (£7.5m), and was more than happy with the outcome.
I’m feeling quite relaxed about the double Gameweek, I’ve been triple Liverpool for quite some time now with Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m), Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.4m). My intention all along has been to give Salah the triple captaincy and that certainly won’t be changed or doubted now.
Jiménez was removed from 184,908 teams before the Gameweek 23 deadline. Many I’m sure opting for the hot form of Ings. I get it and it made sense at the time.
Whilst I was fortunate to still own him, I am going to take him out of my team in place of Troy Deeney (£6.2m) today.
It may seem harsh to remove the Wolverhampton wonder, but the next three fixtures are potentially pretty tough with Liverpool (h), Manchested United (a), and Leicester (h). I quickly compare that to Deeney’s next three being Aston Villa (a), Everton (h) and Brighton (a).
It seems a no brainer, though it isn’t just the kinder fixtures that swayed me. Deeney is a beast and I think he’s thriving under Nigel Pearson. In fact, I can imagine Deeney will continue to thrive under “tough-nut” Pearson at Watford.
I’m a believer that certain players look forward to playing against certain teams in their careers. Villa fans don’t like Deeney, they have history. He’s played against them three times in recent years scoring five goals. Two of those goals came in the three nil victory in Gameweek 20.
Against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, he could easily have easily scored well. He had 15 penalty box touches which was seven more than Ismaïla Sarr (6.2m) who was next best. He had five attempts in the box, (two classed as big chances) hitting the target twice. Watford are creating chances left, right and centre. Whilst losing Sarr through injury for a week or two isn’t great news for the Hornets, they have Roberto Pereyra (£5.6m) and new Argentinian signing Ignacio Pussetto (£5.0m) who could step up in his absence.
Like Jamie Vardy (£10.1m), Deeney also missed a penalty at the weekend. It wasn’t his best and Paulo Gazzaniga (£4.6m) said thank you very much. One thing I can tell you confidently is that Deeney will take Watford’s next penalty. No man is brave enough to tell him any different! (Rodgers also confirmed Vardy obviously remains no.1 in the pecking order).
I brought in Calvert-Lewin in Gameweek 23 because I expected him to score, even more so in Richarlison’s (£8.1m) absence. I also brought in Heung-Min Son (£9.9m), and whilst he didn’t score, he looked lively at times and it makes great viewing seeing the Norwich at home fixture next to his name.
This week, the same applies to powerhouse Troy Deeney. I expect him to score and I hope he obliges.
Good luck to all in double Gameweek 24.
Pep Pig
4 years, 3 months ago
Liking the thinking with Troy Deeney.
After going Maupay last week I'm already getting cold feet - both Deeney and Calvert-Lewin looking better in the short term potentially.