Dilemmas of the Week - GW26

 

Very tight turnaround this week between the second legs of the European play-off games (and the rescheduled Villa v Liverpool game) in midweek; so, there might not be much up-to-date selection news available ahead of a Friday evening deadline.

And I'm going to try to streamline these weekly round-ups, as they have been getting dangerously over-long recently! Last week's was particularly bad: with a two-week gap between regular EPL games crammed with League Cup and FA Cup ties, European games and the postponed Merseyside derby.... there was a fair old avalanche of injury news to report. From now on, I'm going to confine myself to just the injuries to players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL. [I currently find the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information - go check that out for more comprehensive coverage.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 26?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Well, the big news of the week was that United's Amad Diallo, by far their best player in recent months, hurt his ankle in training (a fact which did not emerge until after last week's FPL deadline - oh, woe!): ligament damage, apparently, which will keep him out for the rest of the season. That's pretty huge for FPL, since his ownership had been up near 25%.

Cody Gakpo complained of a knock to his knee after the Everton derby just over a week ago. Originally it was said to be minor, and that he would have a good chance of appearing in at least one, if not both of Liverpool's GW25 fixtures - but he didn't. Alarming. I have to say, though, with the wealth of forwards available at Liverpool, he was always likely to be at some risk of sharing minutes, and thus not a very compelling forward pick beyond these last two double gameweeks. Trent Alexander-Arnold's understudy Conor Bradley had to come off in the Villa game two days ago with a thigh muscle strain, but is now only expected to be missing for a week or so.

Brentford centre-back Sepp Van den Berg had to come off against West Ham last weekend with a knee injury: no further news so far, it seems. He has been quite a popular cheap fifth defender pick in FPL.

Everton forward Illiman Ndiaye has been diagnosed with a medial ligament injury in his knee after the Merseyside derby (not as bad as a cruciate, but...), and seems likely to be out for several weeks.

Ipswich full-back Leif Davis missed last week's game against Villa with a training knock: supposedly 'minor', he should be back this week. However, his teammates Julio Enciso and Sam Morsy both picked up potentially quite serious injuries in that game and are now doubts.

Leicester's James Justin also suffered an apparently quite serious ankle injury against Arsenal.

Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte both missed the Spurs game last week with training injuries: no word on how serious those might be.

Rodrigo Betancur, Son Heung-min and new centre-back Kevin Danso had to come off against United with knocks - could be more woe for poor Ange!

And Erling Haaland hobbled off late in the game against Newcastle last Saturday with what looked like quite a serious knee injury. He and the club are so far putting a brave face on things and insisting it's nothing too bad: he was on the bench against Real in midweek, but was not risked on the pitch. He clearly jarred the knee badly when landing after a high jump for an aerial ball and was in immediate distress; a little while later, he broke down, suddenly unable to take any weight on the leg... after bending it at a certain angle in trying to accelerate towards the ball. I would bet a large amount of money that that is a cartilage tear. I've had that injury: and that is exactly how you get them, and exactly what they look like. If it's just a minor one, he might be able to play on with it; but that would be taking a big chance. I would imagine he'll need a keyhole surgery to rectify it before the end of the season - probably sooner rather than later.

Do we have any players who are dropped, or not looking likely to get the starts we hoped for?

Poor Axel Tuanzebe is having to serve a one-match ban after his ridiculously unjust sending-off for two supposedly yellow-card offences against Villa last week. But that's the only suspension this week!

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Um, can't think of any, no - no absolute stinkers this past week.

Did anyone play so well, you have to consider bringing them in immediately?

Well, many, of course, would say Omar Marmoush - who did come up with a stunning hattrick against Newcastle. But I'm still a little hesitant on him; partly because I don't see last week's comfortable win as any convincing evidence of a City revival (Newcastle just didn't show up for that one), and partly because there's such strong competition for forward slots in FPL at the moment. On form and fixtures, Wolves's Matheus Cunha looks a far more compelling choice.

I'm not getting over-excited about Ollie Watkins or Marcus Rashford just yet either. For me, Marco Asensio has looked Villa's most exciting player in their last few games.

Beto's form with Everton is looking very impressive; but I felt their new Argentinian midfielder Carlos Alcaraz was even more eye-catching in the last match.

Perhaps the biggest excitement of the week, though, is the emergence of Mikel Merino as Arsenal's potential goalscoring saviour; to me, he looks tailor-made for a central striking role - but I worry that Arteta may somehow not see things that way.

As for the dratted AssMan chip.... Thomas Frank looks the safest prospect of win points this week, with victory surely as near-certain as can be against currently dreadful Leicester (and a high chance of a big goal haul, and maybe a clean sheet too); however, I'd probably rather gamble on the possibility of table-bonus points for Oliver Glasner's Palace away to Fulham. (Backing Kieran McKenna's Ipswich against Spurs might also work, but is surely a much rasher gamble!)

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!

DON'T FORGET The Boycott; the dratted new 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now - and I am urging everyone to please consider quitting the game, or at least refusing to use this silly chip. 

And if you can't bring yourself to do either of those things, please do criticise the Assistant Manager chip as vigorously as possible on any relevant social media channels you use, raise objections to it with any football or media figures you know how to contact, and - if possible - try to find a way to protest about it directly to the FPL hierarchy (and let me know how, if you manage that!).

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip