We have chosen our best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players for Gameweek 37 ahead of Sunday’s deadline.
The final selection is partly based on the Scout Squad consensus picks but midweek minutes, budget and updates from the pre-match press conferences are all factored in, too.
Our ‘bus team’ featured the likes of Mohamed Salah (£13.3m), Andrew Robertson (£7.3m) and Ollie Watkins (£7.5m) – and suffice to say, none of that walking wounded are included here.
We line up in a 3-4-3 formation this week and, as ever, are limited to £83.5m for our first XI.
Our four substitutes, meanwhile, are always cherry-picked from the cheaper crop of players, not to serve as bench fodder or to make the budget up to £100m but rather to give some alternative, viable options who don’t cost as much as some of the names in our line-up.
GOALKEEPER
It always looked like a straight fight between Jordan Pickford (£4.8m) and Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) for a place between the posts in the Scout Picks. Schmeichel was the only shot-stopper who received unanimous backing in our preliminary Scout Squad discussion, with the Everton vote ‘split’ a la the Silly Party. The Foxes are now free of distraction from their European sideshows and whilst they do travel to Stamford Bridge in the second of their Double Gameweek 37 fixtures, a clash with Watford looks a great bet for a clean sheet: the Hornets are the division’s joint-lowest scorers since Roy Hodgson took charge and have an almost entire first team out injured or ill.
DEFENDERS
Despite Pickford’s omission, we aren’t going without representation from the Everton backline. The Toffees are on home soil twice in Gameweek 37, which is good news based on their form at Goodison Park under Frank Lampard: clean sheets have been banked in four of their seven home fixtures since the change in manager. The switch to a 3-4-3/5-4-1 in Gameweek 35 has served the dual purpose of beefing up the rear while allowing Vitalli Mykolenko (£4.9m) a bit more freedom to get forward and he has registered five shots in the last three games as a wing-back.
Aston Villa also have a brace of home fixtures in Gameweek 37, both of them against sides in the bottom half. Why is this relevant? Well, since Steven Gerrard took charge, Villa have kept clean sheets in eight of their 15 fixtures against sides ninth or below in the Premier League table – and none versus the top eight. We were on a double-up of Matty Cash (£5.3m) and Lucas Digne (£5.0m) at one point but we’ve opted for just the latter in our final selection: the chance-creating Digne has registered more than twice as many final-third touches than his fellow full-back over the last two Gameweeks. A possible sentimental run-out for Ashley Young (£4.7m) can’t be discounted over the next week, however, just as a caveat.
The sight of Marc Guehi (£4.5m) in training this morning was a reassuring one for owners of Palace defenders, as much of their success at the back has been predicated on their two centre-halves. We have however opted for the other stopper, Joachim Andersen (£4.6m), for our Scout Picks, to be on the safe side. With six clean sheets in their last 12 matches, Crystal Palace boast one of the division’s most in-form rearguards. The Eagles also rank third among Premier League teams for fewest expected goals conceded (xGC) from Gameweek 25 onwards.
MIDFIELDERS
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Vardy or Kane?