Dilemmas of the Week - GW 28 (25/26)

 

Not too many major new injuries this week, it seems, but.... a fair few minor 'niggles' and uncertainties.

And of course, press conferences on Friday morning (in the UK) won't get widely reported (or at least not written up on the main FPL reference sites like Fantasy Football Scout) until mid- or late afternoon,... which is the middle of the night for folks like me, in East Asia. And dammit, Wolves v Villa is a Friday evening kick-off, so people in my timezone will be struggling to get fully up-to-date... before the extremely inconvenient FPL deadline. If I catch any late-breaking news this evening, I'll endeavour to update here (but, to be honest, I'm more likely to be down the pub!).

I am trying to streamline these weekly round-ups a bit from last year, restricting myself for the most part to just the injuries etc. affecting players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL; and also, of course, only to new injuries - I figure everyone should be aware of players who've already been ruled out for some time!  

[For some years, I have found the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information; although this site, Premier League Injuries, is a very good alternative (often a little quicker to update, I think - though it did go through a bit of a glitchy period for a while last year).  Go check these out for more comprehensive coverage. 

I see the Fantasy Premier League site has added an improved 'Player Availability' page this year (though hidden under 'The Scout' tab?!). That also seems to be reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date, but god knows how it's supposed to be 'organised' - maybe by 'date of injury'? Obviously, arranging it by club and alphabetical order would be more sensible; but the denizens of FPL Towers seem to have a deep aversion to the sensible.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 28?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Bukayo Saka is one of the biggest worries this week, having come off early with a 'knock' in the trouncing of Spurs last week. At least his absence would make room for the impressive Madueke to get more gametime. (And Kai Havertz and Max Dowman are thought to be nearly ready to rejoin the action too. They might also get a look-in on the right side of the forward trio.) Ben White missed last weekend's game owing to an unspecified niggling injury - but he seems to have fallen out of favour as a starter anyway.

Bournemouth's midfield stalwart Lewis Cook felt a problem in his hamstring in trainiing the day before last weekend's game; Iraola hopes it isn't too serious, but it's likely to keep him out this week as well.

Brentford appear to have lost two of their full-back options in quick succession: Michael Kayode missed last week's game with a late training injury, and Aaron HIckey had to come off with a knock in the first-half against Brighton. This might mean that Keane Lewis-Potter, lately more dangerous as an attacker, might have to go back to being a wing-back/full-back.

Carlos Alcaraz was unavailable to face Manchester United on Monday because of a training injury.

Fulham's young Brazilian winger Kevin had to come off with a knock in last week's game against Sunderland, and might be missing for a little while. Antonee Robinson was also a surprise absentee in that game, having apparently suffered an ankle injury late in the previous week's training.

The biggest uncertainty of the week is Florian Wirtz, who's really come into form over the past couple of months or so, and is now owned by 8.5% of managers. He missed last Sunday's game against Forest after straining his back in the warm-up, and remains a doubt; nearly 130,000 have already offloaded him this week.

Lisandro Martinez missed the Monday night trip to Everton with a calf issue, and is expected to be out for at least a couple of weeks. Bryan Mbeumo limped off near the end in that match, but it appears to have been just some cramp, and he's apparently been training again this week.

Jacob Ramsey dropped out of the squad to play Qarabag on Tuesday with a tight hamstring, but apparently scans have revealed nothing seriously amiss, so he might be available again for this weekend.

Sunderland are really in the wars: Nordi Mukiele limped off after just 10 minutes against Fulham last week with a calf-strain, and forwards Romaine Mundle (hamstring) and Brian Brobbey (groin strain) had to withdraw before the end. The little used Dennis Cirkin had also been unavailable because of an injury just before that match.

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

Wesley Fofana is serving a one-match ban for a second yellow card last week (and is lucky it wasn't more, as his clumsy lunge on James Ward-Prowse was worthy of a straight red).

Ladislav Krejci is also facing a one-match ban for picking up two yellow cards last week (he's rather unlucky, since he appeared to be just clearing the ball upfield because he hadn't heard the referee's whistle, when he earned his second). 

Cristian Romero is now serving the third instalment of a four-game ban (he's had an extra game added on automatically, because his clogging of Casemiro a couple of weeks back was his second red card of the season).

And West Ham's Freddie Potts is serving the second part of a three-game ban.

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Pep's midfield rotations are getting more and more worrying: last week, Cherki, Foden, and Reijnders were all left on the bench. It makes you wonder how 'safe' any City picks are. Even Semenyo, I fear, might find himself in a three-way rotation with Cherki and Doku, once the latter is fully fit again.

And I'm afraid all Spurs players are avoid-like-the-plague options at the moment, as any 'new manager bounce' with Igor Tudor seems unliekly to be able to slow their death-spiral into the relegation zone.

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

Bournemouth's 19-year-old Brazilian winger, Rayan, is in sensational form at the moment; but, given his tender years, I doubt if he'll continue to start every week, now that Marcus Tavernier appears to be fit again.

Although he hasn't come up with a return in the last two games, Dango Ouattara is relishing finally getting a regular start at Brentford, and has come into some useful form in the past month or so (although I'd still probably incline towards Kevin Schade, if taking a second attacking asset from Brentford).

And Benjamin Sesko and Martin Gyokeres finally seem to have found their scoring boots - although neither can be relied upon as an invariable starter (Gyokeres, perhaps, is very nearly so; although he might face some competition once Havertz is fully fit again; but, unfortunately, Arsenal are notoriously creating very few open-play chances this year, so even their most promising attacking players aren't as attractive for FPL as all that - if people are still sceptical of Saka, Gyokeres shouldn't be getting anywhere near consideration).

And young Nico O'Reilly, of course, produced the performance of the week last time with a fine brace of goals against Newcastle, and now bears the curse of being the gameweek's most transferred-in player (well, nearly - he is, somehow, being narrowly beaten by Virgil Van Dijk at the moment; they're both closing in on half a million new owners). But, as I just noted above, you really can't trust Pep to field any of his midfielders every week, no matter how well they play.

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!