We’ve had another mini-update of The Watchlist ahead of Double Gameweek 28.
In reality, there’s quite a small pool of players that many of us are thinking about right now. In many cases, medium-term plans have been temporarily shelved in favour of coping strategies for the next two Gameweeks.
For Gameweek 29 Free Hitters, there is the incentive to go big on Bournemouth and Luton Town this week.
And for those trying to navigate the big blank without a chip, there’ll be few players considered outside of the Cherries, the Hatters and the seven other clubs with an unaffected fixture in Gameweek 29.
The next big update of The Watchlist will come ahead of Gameweek 30.
By that point, we’ll likely know a lot more about the doubles in Gameweeks 34 and 37. There’ll also be few, if any, teams blanking in the run-in.
MORE ABOUT THE WATCHLIST
In this article series, we’re looking at the stand-out players over the medium term.
This is in contrast to the Scout Picks, which deals only in the upcoming Gameweek.
We rank players according to factors such as club injuries, form (last four Gameweeks), underlying numbers, forthcoming fixtures, Rate My Team’s points projections and whether or not the player in question is likely to be a bargain in FPL.
Arrows before the name indicate whether a player has increased in appeal or fallen in our reckoning since the previous Gameweek or if they are a new entry.
The key for the factors you’ll see in the below tables is as follows:
THE WATCHLIST: GOALKEEPERS
It’s oh so quiet on the goalkeeper front, as we’ve left things as they were.
The top six in our standings all have two fixtures in the next two Gameweeks, although both of Murara Neto‘s (£4.6m) matches fall in Double Gameweek 28.
Bournemouth are fresh from a clean sheet at Burnley and now have four home fixtures in a row, three of which (Sheffield United, Everton, Crystal Palace) are against teams ranked 17th or below for goals scored.
Positions two to five all have fixtures in Blank Gameweek 29, with Bernd Leno (£4.8m) leading the charge. Fulham’s clean sheets prospects in Gameweek 28 have been given a modest bump, with opponents Wolves without their two main striking options.
Leno is only two points behind Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) in the goalkeeper standings, and the West Ham man has benefitted from two penalty saves.
Jordan Pickford (£4.6m) is the odd man out and is low down the rankings as a result. Over the longer term, however, he faces all of the bottom four, Brentford and Bournemouth between Gameweeks 30-37.
Martin Dubravka (£4.2m) disappeared from our Watchlist last week as Nick Pope (£5.3m) isn’t too far away. We’d love a timeline on Alisson (£5.8m) before committing to a slot for Caoimhim Kelleher (£3.7m), too. It sounds very much like Kelleher will be between the sticks for a while but with Manchester City and blank up next, we can afford to wait for more information.
THE WATCHLIST: DEFENDERS
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