Picks of the Week (3)

DISCLAIMER: I always refuse to identify myself as any sort of FPL 'guru' or 'mentor' or 'expert'. And I have previously on this blog expressed my reluctance to share many details of my own selections, or to make very specific player recommendations.

However, in addition to occasionally critiquing common 'sheep picks' of the moment (not all necessarily outright bad, but ridiculously over-popular selections), I thought I would start occasionally trying to highlight one or two players who seem not yet to be very widely owned but are starting to look very tempting prospects.

I will generally try to come up with at least 2 options per week - so that it doesn't look like I'm making a sole recommendation. And these suggestions are intended to be simply 'worth thinking about', not at all 'must-haves'   (And some weeks, I'll have nothing.....)

First up for Gameweek 16, we have.... Enzo Fernandez. Yes, I know, I am in danger of coming a little late to the party on this one, of making a fairly obvious and popular recommendation. Enzo started getting among the goals against Leicester three weeks ago, and his ownership has swelled by well over 400,000 since then - fully half of that increase just in the last few days! - boosting his price by 200k (though, at present, it's still only the very modest 5-million he started the season at - so, still a bit of a bargain!). Heck, he's looking set to be one of the most transferred-in players this week.... which might seem to make him a candidate for one of my 'Sheep Picks'. Why is he not?  Because people are right to be buying him in such huge numbers!  Suddenly he's got a regular start in the team again, and Maresca's found a way of fitting him in that gives him the freedom to get forward more and contribute in the attacking third alongside Palmer. And he's absolutely thriving on it: 3 goals and 2 assists in just 4 games; and his BPS numbers are through the roof - 150 in just those 4 games! In the space of just a few weeks, he has become clearly, unarguably, by far the most the most attractive pick in the budget midfielder category (in fact, he's been playing so well, he would probably still be one of the most attractive midfield picks even if he cost 8 or 9 million).

Why, then, have I been a little slow to acquire him? (And why do I still have slight reservations about doing so...?)  Well, there's a practical difficulty for many of us in fitting him into our squad. Palmer, of course, is indispensable at the moment; Jackson has shown much the best form of the higher-priced forwards this season; and Marc Cucurella has been in absolutely outstanding form over the last 5 matches; and some people like Sanchez (who's actually worked out quite well because of the kind fixture run, even though just about everybody now expects him to get axed next month) or Colwill (a bizarre choice, but a semi-popular one). So, we may already have our quota of Chelsea players, and be uncertain whether we want to sacrifice one of them; however good Enzo looks in isolation, he might still not be one of the three most valuable assets from Chelsea. (This is a problem with choosing players from Arsenal as well; for me, the decisive argument against Raya - great goalkeeper, but won't bring you as much of an edge over other goalkeepers as Timber and Gabriel or Saliba do over other defenders, or Saka and perhaps Odegaard do over other midfielders.) Also... I'm a little bit concerned that accommodating him with a regular starting place involves the 'convenient fiction' of starting Caicedo at right-back; and I think the Ecuadorian's distaste for this role - and/or the strong claims of Gusto and Reece James (well, if he ever gets fit again...) in that position - may mean that this is not a long-term or invariable formation. But we'll cross that bridge... if it gets built; for now, I'm joining 'the sheep' and rushing in for Enzo.

[Well, this recommendation proved a little disappointing at first. Enzo picked up an assist against Brentford in the first match after I published this, and a clean-sheet point in the following game against Everton. But he - and Chelsea - have been much more subdued over Gameweeks 16-18. As I'd feared, he hasn't been able to continue to play in such a free and advanced role - mainly because the absence of Romeo Lavia with an injury is requiring him to sit a bit deeper and help out Caicedo in the middle of the park. At least he's been continuing to start every game, and play the full 90 minutes; but no sign of any further goals - or any bonus points - in the last few games.]

No, I'm not just getting a rush of blood to the head because Bournemouth's teen prodigy Dean Huijsen scored a header in the midweek game against Spurs last week. He was bloody good at the defensive end of things too: absolutely outstanding, in fact - barely allowed Solanke a kick all game, won 'Man of the Match' in the BBC's online poll, and had the home fans singing his name at the final whistle. And again looked very, very solid in Sunday's game against Ipswich. With the Argentinian stalwart Marcos Senesi likely to be sidelined for several weeks with a serious thigh injury, the youngster is looking set for a good run of starts. I'm not suggesting anyone should immediately install him as one of their three preferred starting defenders; but his price has fallen to 4.3 million (from a rather ungenerous opening level of 4.5 at the start of the season, when, I suppose, it was imagined that perhaps he might be getting a regular start immediately; though I can't understand why anyone could have thought that when Senesi and Zabarnyi were so outstanding last season), which makes him a tempting budget pick for the rarely used fourth or fifth defender slots - particularly as Bournemouth now have a pretty kind fixture run through until mid-January.

[Young Huijsen has been one of the biggest successes in this series of recommendations so far. He didn't quite make an immediate hit, blanking in the turgid 1-1 draw against West Ham in GW16, but got a huge 14-poinr haul in the next game against Manchester United, scoring a header, keeping a clean sheet, and raking in maximum bonus points. As Bournemouth's defensive form steadily improved, he kept another clean sheet and again picked up maximum bonus points in the Boxing Day game against Palace - though he did also get booked in that one.]

And finally, as a slightly more left-field third suggestion this week, I propose Nottingham Forest's Jota Silva. The 25-year-old Portuguese attacking midfielder suddenly seems to have displaced Anthony Elanga in the pecking-order at the club, and has looked absolutely on fire in his three consecutive starts over the last couple of weeks (I find myself surprised that he hasn't yet registered a goal or an assist: he looks very, very likely to soon). Like Fernandez and Huijsen, his absence from the first team caused his opening price to drop a little; and at just 5.9 million, he's looking a very attractive prospect to me at the moment. Forest's little fixture-difficulty blip is pretty much behind them too: with the form they're in, they don't have to fear Brentford or Spurs; and while the New Year game against Liverpool is bound to be tough, at least it's at home - and they've already done them once this season! Apart from that, they don't really face anyone terribly formidable until City in mid-February. (Time to get back in on Sels and their defenders, I fancy... And, if you also have Wood up front - and why would you not? - that could again mean that your club quota is fully occupied. But if you do have space for one more Forest player, I think Silva is worth consideration.)

[Oh dear! Well, Jota Silva was more of a 'one to watch' than a strong recommendation. He had seemed to have become a nailed starter in the Forest lineup; but as soon as I mentioned him here, he lost his place to the resurgent Anthony Elanga. He's still getting regular minutes off the bench, and still looking pretty sharp - but he's obviously not an FPL prospect unless he gets a regular start again.]