We’ve teamed up with Ryan Keaney and George Osborn from the 3 Bonus Points podcast to bring you three players to transfer in and three players to ship out of your FPL line-up. For more tips, follow the podcast here.
Who to bring in this week
Raheem Sterling, Manchester City, £8m
There are four main reasons to think of Raheem Sterling as a smart purchase for your FPL team:
1) He has scored five goals already this season, three in his last three games, and is starting to establish himself in Pep Guardiola’s system. With Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva adopting deeper positions, Sterling becomes one of the targets for them to feed – and that should mean plenty more chances.
2) He costs just £8 million. There are some pretty expensive, consistent scorers in FPL this season – Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and others have proved themselves to be worth the large outlay and that means cheaper options must be considered elsewhere. As things stand, Sterling will put less of a dent in your budget than Mohamed Salah (£9.2m), Phillippe Coutinho (£9.0m) and Dele Alli (£9.5m).
3) Manchester City’s fixtures between now and the Manchester derby on December 9th look favourable. Other than Arsenal at home, Guardiola’s side will be heavy favourites to win all of their games – and with that comes the chance for Sterling to return plenty of points.
4) His ownership is only 5.9% so if he scores well, it’s not a score that everyone is going to benefit from. (RK)
Chris Wood, Burnley, £6.6m
The effects of high FPL prices are finally starting to be felt by managers. Harry Kane’s super September and the return of Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard and Philippe Coutinho to first team action necessitates a bit of a bargain hunt.
That’s why Chris Wood could be a great addition to your team. At first glance, he’s gone three games without a return and that has kept his ownership under 3%. But when you take a step back, there are three compelling reasons to give him a chance.
First, he has two goals in five matches – a perfectly reasonable return considering that run included away trips to Everton and Liverpool. Second, Burnley have attractive home games in their next five against Newcastle, Swansea and West Ham. And finally, he comes in at just £6.6m to help you squeeze a bit of extra cash out of your forward line to invest elsewhere. (GO)
Harry Maguire, Leicester, £5.1m
Leicester might be teetering just above the bottom three, but they’ve had a horrible run of fixtures so far, travelling to Arsenal and Manchester United and hosting Liverpool and Chelsea in the first seven games.
That’s all about to change though, with matches against West Brom, Swansea, struggling Everton and Stoke in their next four outings.
Considering Maguire has already picked up 33 points thanks largely to a goal, two assists and two clean sheets, he could be set for a healthy return in the coming weeks after making his England debut during the international break. (TSP)
And who to ship out
Romelu Lukaku, Manchester United, £11.8m
In terms of the Premier League title race, the next month should tell everyone what they need to know about Manchester United’s credentials after a fairly soft beginning.
Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea are all on the menu, among Champions League and Carabao Cup adventures, and it could be a tough spell for Lukaku – especially if the Red Devils don’t play with the same attacking intent as they have shown so far.
Given the run of fixtures, I don’t expect to see Lukaku scoring with the same frequency as he has been, and for that reason, I’d recommend grabbing Harry Kane, Alvaro Morata or Gabriel Jesus instead, and then coming back for Romelu just before Christmas.
I’ll probably be proven wrong – but with £11.8 million of your budget committed to one player, I’d want to feel a lot more confident about his upcoming matches than I do. Call it a hunch (and call it a bad one when he gets a hat-trick against Liverpool this weekend). (RK)
Ben Foster, West Bromwich Albion, £4.5m
Ben Foster has a lot of FPL positives against his name. He has three clean sheets from seven games this season, he costs just £4.5m, and he will benefit over the course of the season from Tony Pulis’s disciplined defence.
But with plenty of managers playing their wildcards this week, you may benefit from switching Foster out of your team in the short term.
West Brom have the second hardest run in the next five, which means he’s unlikely to record too many clean sheets. And while he has a couple of save points this season, Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski – who costs only £0.1m more – has 7 save points already. (GO)
Marcos Alonso, Chelsea, £7m
Why is Alonso still the third most popular defender in FPL this season, selected by 17.3% of managers?
Yes, he scored that brace against Tottenham – but they’re the only strikes the Spaniard has registered while he hasn’t contributed any assists either.
At £7m he’s way too pricey to persist with – 17 defenders have picked up more points so far and, when he does have a good week, the benefit of his return will be tempered by so many rival managers also having the Chelsea man in their squads.
Swap him for Burnley’s Stephen Ward and save £2.4m. Seriously. (TSP)
