Final Word Week 23 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

83 in a tough week was far from a disaster as you&#8217;ve heard on the podcast unless you&#8217;re on of those in the top 1%. 



The telling stat was that none of the Top 4 won, and only Liverpool managed to score in a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest. 



The peaks and troughs of a Premier League season.



The other telling stat is that the game&#8217;s highest owned player &#8211; Erling Haaland has only scored once in his last 5 matches&#8230; 



An improved Wolves side visits the Etihad this weekend &amp; the Norwegian has a ridiculous record of 10 goals and 2 hat-tricks in his career against them. 



An explosion should be incoming.



His midfield teammates are more of a worry &#8211; the Bolywood Bhoys jumped on Phil Foden at his peak value, and he&#8217;s done nothing but bleed cash since &#8211; he and Cherki should be close to last chance saloon for owners this weekend.



Conservatism is the name of the game in the 2nd Half of the season.



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Trade Plans</h3>



Several issues I&#8217;d like to immediately address &#8211; I&#8217;ll give you the reasons I&#8217;m not acting on each and every one of them.



The Bolywood Bhoys&#8217; biggest concern is still up front, where Jean-Phillipe Mateta is struggling to find consistent scoring opportunities, and Nick Woltemade is spending too much time on the pine.



Any gain from Mateta or Woltemade (granted&#8230; Unlikely) will give us the chance to make the move to Bryan Mbeumo with close to 2 mil in the bank and a fixture against the stingy Arsenal defence meeting the Cameroon international this weekend.



Back up &#8211; Bowen goes in a double trade next week and allows the upgrade to Mbeumo with a weaker 5th option in midfield.



The more immediate worry is Victor Lindelof, who, as my 5th defender, didn&#8217;t add as much value as I&#8217;d hoped, but with Marc Cucurella&#8216;s price sinking like a stone.



He&#8217;s a great option to slot in there with Chelsea&#8217;s run making their assets extremely attractive over the next run.



Trevor Chalobah is also a good option, but I&#8217;m investing every cent I have further upfield &#8211; I think that&#8217;s going to make the difference on the way home.



I&#8217;d love to move in Palmer as well, but the fact is, with trades at a premium, I can&#8217;t trust him long term with such consistent injury and form issues across the season.



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Captaincy Plans</h3>



I&#8217;ve given you the Haaland pitch already &#8211; he&#8217;s due, it&#8217;s Wolves VC.



Declan Rice takes the C on Monday Morning against United with the hope that Haaland has already done the business on Sunday morning.



I&#8217;ll disclose I think Arsenal are anything but sure things against United after their performance against City last weekend &#8211; that victory was one of a team full of confidence and looking as though they&#8217;re just getting started.



As such, I&#8217;m only starting one of my three Arsenal defenders and goalkeeper Raya this week.



Tread with caution.



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Trades



Cucurella IN Lindelof OUT



Captaincy



VC: Haaland



C: Rice

Final Word Week 23 | Supercoach EPL trades, captains, PODs

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