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.....)
And in fact I have had NOTHING for a full month now (December is a terrible time to be making predictions - with so many rotations amid the crowded schedule, mounting fatigue, and a landslide of injuries and totting-up suspensions). So, I'm feeling under a bit of pressure to come up with something again now. But I will preface these thoughts with a bigger caveat than usual: these are are very much players I think I are worth keeping an eye on - but not at all ones you should be buying immediately (well, not the second two, anyway).
So, first up we have Amad Diallo - who was nearly-but-not-quite a 'pick' in this series four weeks ago. I'm probably a bit 'late to the party' on this one, since the young United star has certainly been an intriguing property in FPL for several weeks, and his ownership is now well over 15%. But so fickle are the FPL 'sheep' that there was a massive sell-off under way at the end of December, after he'd 'blanked' a mere two or three times (to be fair, the disillusion might have been more reasonably based on the general direness of Manchester United's performances in those matches, rather than those of Diallo himself, who, I thought, was still putting up a good show... in impossible circumstances). And despite a 9-pt haul against Liverpool the other week, and another impressive showing as a sub in the FA Cup victory over Arsenal on Sunday, his ownership seems to be continuing to dwindle (ever so slightly), rather than grow; the tide of 'public opinion' has, inexplicably, turned against the young man. Now, I still have doubts about how decisively Manchester United have turned the corner under Amorim's leadership, how robust their recent impressive renaissance may prove to be. But there's no questioning that something remarkable has happened at the club in the past couple of weeks: in the last two games, against 'better' opposition, they showed more passion, more cohesion, and were tactically smarter than their opponents - and you can feel the confidence in the team swelling after these two excellent results. They have Southampton up next. And their difficult fixture-run over the holiday period is now behind them; it's all looking much less challenging for them for a good way ahead now. I brought Diallo in a few weeks ago; I didn't lose patience with him over a short run of blanks (when he was still playing well); and I'm seriously thinking of making him captain this gameweek!
The near-simultaneous long-term injuries to Bournemouth's two central attackers last week could lead to a much more regular, important, and dangerous role for Dango Ouattara. I confess, this one is pretty speculative: there's a chance that the club will try to bring in a new striker during the current transfer window. And Antoine Semenyo is another prime candidate to take over at centre-forward, if they don't. But I think Ouattara's superior pace and muscularity probably make him a better fit for this position than Semenyo; and he did just produce a very impressive try-out for the role in this weekend's FA Cup tie. He only costs 5 million, and he's classified as a midfielder. However, I proffer this thought more as a wait-and-see, since Bournemouth have a rough run of fixtures until the middle of February. Moreover, there's a lot of competition for attention in the budget midfielder category, with the likes of Kevin Schade, Anthony Elanga, Harry Wilson, Omari Hutchinson, and Lucas Bergvall making some waves in recent weeks - as well as the aforementioned Amad Diallo, of course; and yes, even Morgan Rogers! [I have been fairly consistently 'sceptical' of Rogers's claims as the budget midfield pick since the very start of the season; but I have also always maintained that this is not because of any lack of admiration for his talent. I've simply felt that Villa's League form this season has been too fragile, and that the way he's mostly been played is not conducive to him getting regular attacking contributions. If you look at his heat-maps, he's often getting on the ball deep in his own half, and the great majority of his touches seem to be usually in and around the centre circle; he's very good at carrying the ball forward, but he's usually been releasing it to an attacking teammate long before he gets all that near the opposing penalty area. However, I think the gradual return of Boubacar Kamara to the Villa set-up since the tail-end of November may have been transformative: they now look much more secure in midfield, much less vulnerable to counter-attack, and that seems to be giving the other midfielders much more confidence to press further forward, without the constant fear of immediately having to sprint back to try to cover if there's a change in possession. And Rogers, in particular, seems to have been blossoming in this new environment, with 2 goals and 2 assists in the last four games (and another one in the Cup on Friday evening!); what's more, these have looked to me like replicable goals, like the sort of thing we could easily imagine him repeating on a frequent basis if he continues to play like this - whereas the few he'd got earlier in the season all looked like out-of-the-blue one-offs, untypical of his general play. Villa as a whole still look pretty flakey to me; but I think Rogers is - finally - worth consideration for that fifth midfielder slot.]
And DON'T FORGET The Boycott:
#QuitFPLinGW23 #DownWithTheNewChip
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