EPL Supercoach Final Word | Gameweek 2 trades, fixtures, captains


<p>Let&#8217;s rewind to gameweek 1. I posted a team on the podcast sitting on 135 points, ranked in the low 300s. Amazing. </p>



<p>Then I opened the transfers screen and ruined it myself.</p>



<p>Wanted Calafiori in for Mosquera once Konsa moved to Arsenal, easy call. </p>



<p>Joao Pedro made way for Tzolis to fund it. Pedro scored 18, Tzolis scored 8. </p>



<p>Still 200k short, so I cut my boy Hinshelwood loose for Buendia. Buendia got an incredible role up front for Villa, gutted watching Brighton put four past them, and Hinshelwood scored twice for 29 points, the top score of the entire gameweek. </p>



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<p>Then I woke up at 4am to check Chelsea&#8217;s team sheet, mistake number one, and swapped Palestra (not even in the squad) for Colwill, who picked up a yellow card and a big fat zero.</p>



<p>Ended up on 109, ranked 3.1k. Not a disaster, but every single trade I made was the wrong one. </p>



<p>Tzolis could&#8217;ve had 20 on another day, Buendia should have scored, Calafiori was genuinely brilliant. The players weren&#8217;t bad. </p>



<p>I just traded out the guys who were about to go off. That&#8217;s Supercoach.</p>



<p>Gameweek 2 is about not repeating the mistake.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Fixtures</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Kickoff</td><td>Team</td><td>Expected Goals</td><td>Clean Sheet %</td><td></td><td>Team</td><td>xG</td><td>CS%</td></tr><tr><td>Sat 29/08, 5:00am</td><td>Crystal Palace</td><td>1.02</td><td>14%</td><td>vs</td><td>Man City</td><td>1.97</td><td>36%</td></tr><tr><td>Sat 29/08, 9:30pm</td><td>Liverpool</td><td>2.16</td><td>39%</td><td>vs</td><td>Nott&#8217;m Forest</td><td>0.94</td><td>12%</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Sun 30/08, 12:00am</td><td>Bournemouth</td><td>1.55</td><td>32%</td><td>vs</td><td>Everton</td><td>1.15</td><td>21%</td></tr><tr><td>Coventry</td><td>1.69</td><td>34%</td><td>vs</td><td>Hull</td><td>1.08</td><td>18%</td></tr><tr><td>Sun 30/08, 2:30am</td><td>Tottenham</td><td>1.62</td><td>25%</td><td>vs</td><td>Newcastle</td><td>1.38</td><td>20%</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Sun 30/08, 11:00pm</td><td>Chelsea</td><td>1.75</td><td>31%</td><td>vs</td><td>Brighton</td><td>1.18</td><td>17%</td></tr><tr><td>Leeds</td><td>1.35</td><td>27%</td><td>vs</td><td>Brentford</td><td>1.32</td><td>26%</td></tr><tr><td>Sunderland</td><td>1.32</td><td>31%</td><td>vs</td><td>Fulham</td><td>1.17</td><td>27%</td></tr><tr><td>Mon 31/08, 1:30am</td><td>Man United</td><td>2.19</td><td>42%</td><td>vs</td><td>Ipswich</td><td>0.87</td><td>11%</td></tr><tr><td>Tue 01/09, 5:00am</td><td>Aston Villa</td><td>0.86</td><td>14%</td><td>vs</td><td>Arsenal</td><td>1.96</td><td>42%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<p><strong>Arsenal</strong></p>



<p>That 4-0 over Villa was even worse than the score suggests. </p>



<p>Villa looked bad, genuinely bad, and that was before their red card. </p>



<p>The scoreline only stayed at four because Brighton took their foot off the gas to save legs for midweek. </p>



<p>Don&#8217;t hesitate to play your Arsenal assets this week, or to bring one in. Just know they&#8217;ve got Chelsea next round.</p>



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<p><strong>Chelsea</strong></p>



<p>Still leaky at the back, no argument there. </p>



<p>But that 3-4-2-1 with two wingbacks looks seriously attacking, and with Rogers, Palmer and Pedro up top, this is a side with goals in it all season.</p>



<p><strong>Man United</strong></p>



<p>The odds say bounce-back. The eye test says toothless; they needed Maguire up top just to look dangerous against Hull. </p>



<p>I&#8217;m still backing Bruno in. If they&#8217;re flat again this week, we&#8217;re exiting hard next round.</p>



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<p><strong>Liverpool</strong></p>



<p>Similar story to Chelsea. Goals in the team, defence looks shaky. </p>



<p>Forest were poor at home to Leeds and lost to them again overnight in the League Cup. Frimpong gets another go for me.</p>



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



<p>No overreacting required this week. </p>



<p>The moves on the table are low risk: Chelsea&#8217;s front two before the price hike, Brentford&#8217;s in-form midfielder, and Arsenal&#8217;s set-piece playmaker getting a run of minutes.</p>



<p><strong>Cole Palmer (£8.77m) </strong>and <strong>Joao Pedro (£8.98m)</strong> are the headline calls. Off the back of that performance, you want both in your squad. </p>



<p>Go now, or cop the price rise and wait until gameweek 4, because you won&#8217;t want to bring them in next week against Arsenal. </p>



<p>I&#8217;m not normally an advocate for a week 2 transfer, but these feel about as low risk as it gets.</p>



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<p><strong>Mamadou Sangare (£4.5m)</strong> is the value play. If you don&#8217;t own him, get him now. </p>



<p>Picked up an assist against Spurs and was unlucky not to score too, then came off the bench overnight in the League Cup for another assist. </p>



<p>He&#8217;s getting involved with set pieces, and Brentford look in top form, so jump on him now and keep flexibility for other risers next week.</p>



<p><strong>Martin Odegaard (£6.62m)</strong> looked elite against Coventry. </p>



<p>Worth remembering it was Coventry, and Arsenal heavily favoured the right side with him and Saka. Still, with Bruno Guimaraes sidelined for a short stretch, his minutes security looks great.</p>



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<p>Hold on the Brighton trio, <strong>Jack Hinshelwood (£6.48m)</strong>, <strong>Maxim De Cuyper (£6.38m)</strong> and <strong>Diego Gomez (£6.96m)</strong>. </p>



<p>Want to see them against a tougher opponent in Chelsea first. </p>



<p>Remember, gameweek 1 scores sit in the price rise calculation for less time than gameweek 2 scores, so bringing them in now banks less value than it looks on the surface, unless they keep dominating.</p>



<p>On the way out, <strong>Sandro Tonali (£5.8m)</strong> is the poster child for exiting Spurs. Has anything actually changed there? </p>



<p>Didn&#8217;t like the look of Kinsky either. If you own Tonali, that&#8217;s an easy move to Sangare or Odegaard.</p>



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<p><strong>Andrey Santos (£4.04m)</strong> only played 66 minutes and didn&#8217;t hit the base stats I expected. </p>



<p>Could wait a week on him, but I don&#8217;t mind pulling the trigger for Sangare now instead.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re sitting on a <strong>Leny Yoro (£3.9m)</strong> or <strong>Gabriel Martinelli (£3.9m)</strong> type player who isn&#8217;t even getting on the park, cut your losses. Bring in someone who&#8217;s actually playing.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>My planned moves</strong></h3>



<ul>
<li>No trades this week</li>
</ul>



<p>Want another week of data on Florian Wirtz (£6.97m), Emiliano Buendia (£5.58m) and Levi Colwill (£4.03m) before I move on any of them.</p>



<p>The real headache is the defensive line. </p>



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<p>Riccardo Calafiori (£8.56m) and Jeremie Frimpong (£4.17m) are locks, but Colwill versus Luka Vuskovic (£3.5m) versus Tino Muharemovic (£4.2m) is the tough one. </p>



<p>The odds favour Colwill; I like the upside on Muharemovic, but Brentford look in top form right now.</p>



<p>Likely backing the Chelsea defence again, with Robert Sanchez (£6.08m) hopefully turning into a genuine Premier League-level keeper this week.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Captains</strong></h3>



<p>It&#8217;s Erling Haaland (£13.15m) versus Bruno Fernandes (£14.23m) versus Palmer for me this week. </p>



<p>Comes down to whether you&#8217;re targeting form (Palmer) or fixture (Haaland or Bruno).</p>



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<p>With a Brighton goalkeeper on my books, the VC has to come from the Saturday morning or Saturday night/Sunday morning window. Haaland&#8217;s the obvious pick there.</p>



<p>I really want to go Palmer as captain, but that makes me question why I even own Bruno, at home to a promoted side. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s probably Bruno again this week, though it&#8217;s not as clear-cut as it might seem.</p>



<p>VC: Haaland</p>



<p>C: Bruno Fernandes</p>



<p>Other options:</p>



<ul>
<li>Palmer</li>



<li>Isak (£4.79m), if you went a no-Haaland draft</li>
</ul>


EPL Supercoach Final Word | Gameweek 2 trades, fixtures, captains

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