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The defence was shocking...
Once again as normal I kept Mohamed Salah as my captain. Even though he blanked 2 weeks running; unexpectedly for his consistent from all season; you just never know when he's going to score 15+ points in any given game week. This week Salah got us a goal and bonus point. Along with his game time points, that's 8 points, taking his total to 16. It's not too bad.
However, he wasn't our highest scoring player. Alexander Isak was back on the scoresheet after a bad game week for Newcastle against Bournemouth. This time out; against Southampton (Away); the swede got himself a brace and definitely had chances in the game to get his hattrick. Being the top goal scorer in the game he got maximum bonus points, played 79 minutes resulting a score of 13.
Next game week Liverpool have two games because of their postponed game against Everton. We're making a transfer and bringing Cody Gakpo in for Joao Pedro. Joao Pedro keeps blanking for me and not really bringing anything to my team as I thought he would. Gakpo comes in for the reason on the double game week for Liverpool. I'm not sure how long I will keep the Dutchman for as his minutes are rotated with either Darwin Nunez or Luis Diaz. Gakpo is in good form at the moment so that's why he comes in. I'm not too sure he will play a full 90 minutes in either of Liverpool's game in game week 24, yet I am sure he gets me more points that Joao Pedro.
The defence was shocking. Not one clean sheet in 5 players. Matz Sels and Ola Aina's Nottingham Forest shipped in 5 goals in their defeat against Bournemouth (Away). Newcastle conceded and early goal against Southampton (Away) and Liverpool let one in late against Ipswich (Home), meaning Lewis Hall and Trent Alexander-Arnold didn't get me the magic 4 clean sheet points. The positive was that TAA got an assist so scored a reasonable 5 points. Antonee Robinson's Fulham also failed to keep a clean sheet. To rub salt into the wounds, Ipswich's goal against Liverpool was scored by defender Jacob Greaves who is unfortunately on my bench. Denied!
Anthony Gordon chipped in with an assist for one of Isak's goals and got me 5 points. Gordon is turning into the James Milner of the team. He is rarely the highest scorer in the team, yet most of the time comes home with a solid 5-8 points each week. If I was to rate Gordon's performance in my team it would be a solid 7-8 out of 10.
Meanwhile, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Chris Wood blanks. I'm not reading too much into Chris Wood blanking. Obviously with Forest getting beat 5-0 to Bournemouth, they had an off day and we'll see if this is the start of Forest's decline to their amazing start to the season or they bounce back next week. Personally, I think it will be the latter. Also, there are signs that Cole Palmer doesn't do too well against other big 6 teams. For the second week running Rogers only scored 1 point. I'm thinking of replacing him as he doesn't return often enough. I think the only things keeping him in the team is Aston Villa's next two games are Wolves (Away), and Ipswich (Home). Also, Liverpool have a double game week so I'm going to bring in a third Liverpool player. After that, he might be gone.
It was a strong bench this week too. Apart from Joao Pedro blanking with 1 point because of a yellow card, both Brian Mbeumo and Jacob Greaves scored goals.
Next week; game week 24; may be a strange week. There is a lot of expectation as Liverpool and Everton have two games. It may be the week to triple captain Salah. I have a feeling a lot of people will do this and then it cancels out me doing it as everyone/ a lot of people get the same advantage as me. On the other hand, if I triple captain just because there are two games for Salah and he doesn't score high, I feel like it's a waste. The dilemma.
A mediocre week. 50 points scored. In my leagues I am now 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 3rd. Not much movement this week. The other teams around me scored between 45 and 55 so I didn't gain or lose much ground in the leagues. In the Overall league I am just outside the top 1M. This isn't so bad as at Christmas I was only in the top 2.5M so I have over taken a lot of teams in the last month and scored above the average most weeks.
Next week could be very interesting.
To keep up to date with all things Across the Touchline, follow the blog on either:
Instagram @across_the_touchline or X (Twitter) @ATTouchline
So you never miss the next blog.
Blogs in the near future will be posted on Mondays and don't forget about Across the "Digital" Touchline blogs for all things Fantasy Premier League, posted on Fridays.
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