Fantasy Football: Liverpool duo dropped as Man City stars come in

Andrew Robertson TEAMtalk

Our man Dave Tindall takes on the Premier League’s Fantasy Football game and will give you some healthy tips each week on who could do the business to boost your points total.

Mo Salah and Sergio Aguero stepped it up in Gameweek 3, firing in two goals apiece to reward those who gave them the captain’s armband. What did Dave do? Yep, swapped out Salah for Sadio Mane ahead of the Arsenal game! Timing is everything. Anyway, he has a very clear plan of action this week which you’ll see below.

You can follow Dave’s journey throughout the season right here on TEAMtalk…


Gameweek 1 – 87pts

Gameweek 2 – 53pts

Gameweek 3 – 45pts

Yes, I’m getting worse by the week! Salah clearly cost me and I would have banked 30pts had I captained him. Instead, my skipper, Mane, managed just 6pts. It wasn’t all bad though. The decision to jump on the Teemu Pukki bandwagon paid immediate dividends as he bagged 11pts, Raheem Sterling grabbed 8pts and John McGinn had a late assist for Villa. Not a great week for everyone in my league really so I remain in second place somehow.


League position: 2nd

Week 2 breakdown (4-4-2)


Goalkeeper: 3pts

Defence: 9pts

Midfield: 22pts

Forwards: 13pts

Patricio is doing just great (No. 1 goalkeeper with 18pts in total) but Liverpool can’t keep a clean sheet at the moment so I’ll address that. The midfield is ticking along but I’m going to beef up the attack this week. Pukki needs some assistance!


Gameweek 4


Free transfers: 1


Fixtures

Southampton v Man Utd

Chelsea v Sheffield Utd
Crystal Palace v Aston Villa
Leicester v Bournemouth
Man City v Brighton
Newcastle v Watford
West Ham v Norwich
Burnley v Liverpool
Everton v Wolves
Arsenal v Spurs

Sadio Mane TEAMtalk


Plan of action

Two thoughts this week. One, I need to be less passive (or more active – that sounds better). Secondly, Manchester City’s fixture list over the next three weeks – home to Brighton, away to Norwich, home to Watford! They have no Cup distractions yet. Therefore, I’m going all in on City players! This needs some juggling and I’ll have to take a 12pt-hit (three extra transfers at -4pts per go). In come Sergio Aguero (likely to play all the next games given that Gabriel Jesus is injured) and Kevin De Bruyne to sit alongside Sterling. Out go Sadio Mane and Diego Jota. I’ll also get rid of Andy Robertson for now and bring in Gary Cahill (played full 90 in the win at Old Trafford and Palace keep lots of clean sheets). Finally, out goes the underperforming Youri Tielemens and welcome to Dani Ceballos of Arsenal. The Liverpool game passed him by but he can be a big points scorer for the Gunners and looks pretty cheap. That major shuffle still leaves £0.9m in the bank for my next rehaul!


Out: Andy Robertson – £6.9m, Sadio Mane – £11.5m, Youri Tielemans – £6.4m, Diego Jota – £6.4m

In: Gary Cahill – £4.5m, Kevin De Bruyne £9.7m, Dani Ceballos (£5.7m), Sergio Aguero (£12.0m)


Gameweek 3 team

Rui Patricio (Wolves) – Everton (A)

Ricardo Pereira (Leicester) – Bournemouth (H)
Lucas Digne (Everton) – Wolves (A)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) – Burnley (A)
Gary Cahill (Crystal Palace) – Aston Villa (H)
Dani Ceballos (Arsenal) – Tottenham (H)
John McGinn (Aston Villa) – Crystal Palace (A)
Raheem Sterling (Man City) – Brighton (H)
Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) – Brighton (H)
Teemu Pukki (Norwich) – West Ham (A)
Sergio Aguero (Man City) – Brighton (H)


Subs

Maarten Stekelenburg (Everton) – Wolves (H)

John Lundstram (Sheffield United) – Chelsea (A)

Josh King (Bournemouth) – Leicester (A)

Matteo Guendouzi (Arsenal) – Tottenham (H)


Captain: Sergio Aguero. Close between him and Sterling but hopefully he’ll reward my massive/reckless rejig with a big week.


Vice-captain: Raheem Sterling Five goals so far.


Final thoughts

As a Liverpool fan, it’s not easy to overload with Man City attackers because I clearly want them to lose. I don’t want that dirty feeling of being slightly happy when one of Aguero, Sterling or De Bruyne finds the net. However, that trio scoring/assisting and City losing aren’t mutually exclusive outcomes so let’s hope for a 6-5 Brighton win at the Etihad.