Who should be in your wildcard squad? Should you captain Erling Haaland or Mohamed Salah in Gameweek 9? Is Heung-Min Son now worth owning? Follow Sky Sports for dedicated Fantasy coverage throughout the season, including tips, expert advice and the latest team news
Friday 30 September 2022 09:36, UK
Sky Sports continues its weekly column bringing you essential tips from the best Fantasy Premier League managers in the world.
In our latest column, Holly Shand and Wes Prickett (FPL Heisenberg) discuss which players should be in your wildcard squad, whether you should captain Erling Haaland or Mohamed Salah and if it is time to own Heung-Min Son.
The Gameweek 9 deadline is at 11am on Saturday and you can also join the official Sky Sports Fantasy League with code e7ft7m.
FPL Heisenberg: I would go for a 3-4-3 formation - Nick Pope (£5.2m); Joao Cancelo (£7.2m), Reece James (£6m), Kieran Trippier (£5.4m); Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m), Mohamed Salah (£12.9m), Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m), James Maddison (£8m); Erling Haaland (£12.1m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m), Ivan Toney (£7.3m).
Bench - Daniel Iversen (£3.9m); Andreas Pereira (£4.6m), Emerson Palmieri (£4m), Neco Williams (£4.1m).
Holly Shand: My perfect wildcard squad is also a 3-4-3 formation with one premium midfielder and forward -
Vicente Guaita (£4.5m); Joao Cancelo (£7.2m), Reece James (£6m), Kieran Trippier (£5.4m); Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m), Kevin De Bruyne (£12.3m), Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m), James Maddison (£8m); Erling Haaland (£12.1m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m), Ivan Toney (£7.3m).
Bench - Danny Ward (£4m); Andreas Pereira (£4.6m), James Justin (£4.3m), Neco Williams (£4.1m).
FPL Heisenberg: Keep Salah if you have him, he was in the goals in the international break which should do his confidence the world of good. He also returned to Liverpool earlier than most international players returned to their club, so he should be well rested ahead of Gameweek 9 at home to Brighton.
Holly Shand: There's merit to holding Salah for Brighton and I would probably do so if I owned him. I personally think that Kevin De Bruyne is the better option of the premium midfielders as he plays in a team who score more goals and alongside the best goalscorer in the league right now in Erling Haaland.
FPL Heisenberg: Haaland for me - his underlying stats (expected goals, shots in the box etc) are all excellent and we all know how well he's doing converting these chances into goals. Haaland faces Manchester United who have improved under Erik ten Hag, but that doesn't put me off making Haaland my captain.
Holly Shand: Haaland for me - we can ignore the perceived fixture difficulty in his case as he's been an absolute cheat code in FPL this season. He's the only player averaging over a goal a game and since it's a home fixture, the blue half of Manchester will likely have the upper hand.
FPL Heisenberg: Not yet, Son has two tricky away games against Arsenal and Brighton in Gameweeks 9 and 10. More importantly, there is still threat to his minutes from Richarlison (£8.5m) and Dejan Kulusevski (£8.1m). Another factor to consider is if you do go for Son, you'll have to sacrifice another premium player as you can't have all the big hitters. For me, Son is a classic example of don't sell if you have him, but also don't buy if you don't have him.
Holly Shand: Yes - any player who can score a hat-trick as a substitute [in Spurs' 6-2 win over Leicester] has got to be back on the fantasy radar. The problem is that he doesn't provide the same level of consistency as the other premium players, so I'll likely keep him on my watchlist for now.
FPL Heisenberg: He's a good budget enabler at only £5.7m and he has excellent fixtures. At that price point, he doesn't have to return every Gameweek but if he scores two or three goals over the next six Gameweeks then that'll be a decent return.
Holly Shand: He's a great enabler for his price point, with low ownership and good upcoming fixtures. We do need to remember that Bournemouth have struggled for goals though this season and there's plenty of forwards at a similar price who are delivering consistently.
FPL Heisenberg: Defensively none of their players appeal to me because they are leaking far too many goals. Their forwards are sharing game time and producing inconsistent returns so I'm not interested in any of them. I don't mind Harvey Barnes (£6.9m) as an option, but as I prefer Maddison and I wouldn't want to double up on Leicester, so I won't be going for Barnes any time soon.
Holly Shand: No, Leicester have been so disappointing at the start of this season so we can't consider their players until we see a significant improvement in their form. James Maddison is of course the exception to this rule.
