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Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo seems to be the must-have player going into gameweek 14 but, as we were discussing on this week’s Fantasy 606 podcast, it can sometimes be a case of signing someone just to protect yourself against everyone else having him – which isn’t a particularly exciting move.
Saying that, I brought him into my squad last week ready for a run of fixtures against Luton, Brighton, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, where you think Brentford could have some joy.
Mbeumo is the fourth highest-scoring midfielder in the game this season with nine attacking returns, he’s stepped up superbly to shoulder the responsibility in the absence of Ivan Toney and he’s taken Toney’s penalties as well.
He also costs just £7m, so I’d recommend you get him if you don’t have him and try to make your gains on your rivals elsewhere.
The template for the attacking spots in our teams is quite strong, with lots of managers owning Mohamed Salah, Bukayo Saka, Son Heung-Min, Bryan Mbeumo, Erling Haaland and Ollie Watkins, so it’s about deciding who you think you can go without and who you’ve got the best chance of backing against.
In terms of the players you might choose to do that I’d think about the likes of Anthony Gordon, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Martinelli, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Alexander Isak and Gabriel Jesus.
Captaincy
I think this is a straight shootout this week between Haaland and Salah if you own the pair of them.
Both have home fixtures – Haaland against Tottenham, Salah against Fulham – but I’m leaning towards Haaland because you just know Tottenham aren’t going to sit back and defend against Manchester City, which could offer Haaland plenty of opportunities to test the makeshift centre-back pairing of Emerson Royal and Ben Davies.
If you don’t own either Haaland or Salah then I would consider Nunez, Mbeumo or an Arsenal or Chelsea attacker for their home fixtures against Wolves and Brighton.
Fixtures to target
Liverpool are at home to Fulham on Sunday before games at Sheffield United and Crystal Palace next week and it looks like Caoimhin Kelleher will be the man between the sticks for all of them as Alisson recovers from a hamstring injury.
Kelleher only costs £3.9m so could be a good short-term move, particularly if you’ve lost patience with Alphonse Areola and the West Ham defence for only keeping one clean sheet in the Premier League this season.
Just remember if signing Kelleher takes you up to three Liverpool players in your squad then you would have to sell one of them if you wanted to bring a different Liverpool player in.
Plenty of managers will own Salah and Kostas Tsimikas at the moment, so if you add Kelleher but then decide you want to get Nunez in the next couple of weeks, you’re going to have to make two transfers to sort that out.
Nunez could be a good investment right now, particularly with the news that Diogo Jota is going to be out of action for a while. That also makes Luis Diaz an attractive proposition in the Liverpool midfield and he’s only owned by 7% of managers.
Differentials
Statman Dave has come up with a couple of excellent differential picks for our listeners on the Fantasy 606 podcast over the past couple of weeks – Dominic Solanke, who scored both goals in Bournemouth’s 2-0 win over Newcastle in gameweek 12, and then Anthony Elanga last week, who scored in Nottingham Forest’s 3-2 defeat at home by Brighton.
Both remain good options for the busy fixture schedule in December, although Solanke’s ownership has now climbed to 5.7%.
David Raya is still a differential and could be an ideal route into owning a double Arsenal defence as you can be pretty certain he’s going to start every game.
And it’s hard to find a spot in our congested midfields but Tomas Soucek has re-discovered the goalscoring touch for West Ham recently with late winners in their past three games, against Nottingham Forest and Burnley in the Premier League, and against Backa Topola this week in the Europa League.
He costs just £4.9 million and is only owned by 1.6% of managers.
Gamble of the week
There’s no need to gamble with the captaincy this week, I think it’s got to be Haaland or Salah, so I guess your gamble could be to not follow the crowd in signing Bryan Mbeumo but going for Raheem Sterling or Luis Diaz instead.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. You can find the podcast by searching for ‘Fantasy 606’ on the BBC Sounds app, then just click subscribe.
