Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 5: Five mistakes the international break forced you to make

BySiddhant Lazar, SportsCafe Editor

09/13/2019

The international break was a serene fortnight, thanks in part to those sleep-filled nights without worrying about FPL. But a two-week period of FPL inactivity does funny things to your mind, making you believe that playing your wildcard or triple-captaining Tammy Abraham is the right move.

Playing your wildcard

The ultimate panic move before, after and even during the international break just happens to be the wildcard, especially when it comes to your FPL team. But this time around, you really cannot be blamed especially given the fact that you still had Marcus Rashford, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Anthony Martial and Ayoze Perez all sitting pretty in your team.

Replacing the deadwood in one go does make a lot of sense but this is a move that could have been stretched out over the next few weeks, depending on how much you like not taking a points hit. But panic mode activate once you learnt of a few injuries and it has now seen you change and re-change and then change your team some-more.

Just a warning though, less than one day left on the deadline if you want to panic a little bit more.

Dropping Raheem Sterling

Finally, England have a superstar, oh and I’m not talking about the myriad of players brought in for a lot of money. No this is the fact that England, the national team, finally have a bonafide superstar and one that has found a rich never-ending vein of form. He’s now scored seven goals in his last six games, and has three assists to add to that.

Yet, well over 120,000 FPL managers have decided to drop the fantasy gem, despite the fact that he will play Norwich City, Watford, Everton, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Southampton before a Big six team. And then there is the fact that he’s nailed down in the team, at least until Leroy Sane finds his way back from Munich. Of course, Pep Guardiola could always damage our hopes of finding the one nailed down Manchester City player by doing what he does best and rotate his team.

No Harry Kane

Harry Kane, the man, the myth and the legend. He’s a consistent FPL presence and that’s not down to the fact that he just happens to be Tottenham’s only superstar. No, it’s because of the fact that he scores goals at an absurdly consistent rate (a goal every 1.4 Premier League games) and has only missed out on double figures once in his career, and that was nearly six odd years ago.

Since then Kane has been a lethal albeit ankle injury suffering goal-scoring machine and his ankle injuries are his only issue. Well that and Tottenham’s form, but with Kane in a rich vein of form right now, (he does have five goals in three games) not even Tottenham can stop him. And then finally, there is the fact that Tottenham do not have back-up strikers, because Lucas Moura and Son Heung-Min do not count as strikers when it comes to your FPL team.

All it does point to is the fact that you’d be a fool not to have Kane, even when Sergio Aguero vs Norwich City does look like very easy pickings.

Questioning Teemu Pukki

There is a reason why Teemu Pukki scored so many goals last season, and Norwich City’s style of play has just a teeny-tiny part to play in that. It’s the Super Fin’s movement and clinical nature in front of goal that really helped him to the Championship golden boot. But it is the Championship, isn’t it? England’s lower tier, where anybody, even Fulham can win the league title?

Well yes, and then Pukki walked into the Premier League. He proved that he needed just one single chance to shatter defenses, one single chance to break Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle United with goals that any top striker would love. Eventually, his luck will run out but there haven’t been any signs of that happening right now.

So question the Finish wiz all you want, but then ask yourself, why does he have seven goals in his last six games?

Replacing Mohamed Salah after his spat with Sadio Mane

A lover’s quarrel between Mo Salah and Sadio Mane was perfect pickings for the media. They hopped on that news bit faster than a bullet train, with a few pundits even questioning if Jurgen Klopp could play the two together. Then that saw Mo Salah’s FPL ownership plummet, and by plummet, it does indeed mean a panic plummet. Since their last Premier League game, Egypt's goal-guzzling forward has dropped out of well over 70,000 teams.

It’s not much in the grand scheme of things but this is Mo Salah we are talking about. The man might be very very expensive but given the fact that he does have 562 points over the last two FPL seasons, it does mean that he knows how to score. And it also means that he’s a guaranteed source of points, through hell or high water, even though he is a yellow-card concern if you know what I mean.

Yet he's not exactly the man who should be dropped by anyone in the world, a mere four games into the season.