Another day and time again to build up my squad a little bit more. I've chosen my Premiums, Goalkeepers and selected the core of my squad which has provided me with the following players so far...

I still feel there's a lot up in the air and as I start to write this post (whilst Man City are playing Liverpool in the Carabao cup), a familiar sight has appeared...

...it doesn't make my decision to choose Salah over De Bruyne any easier!

It's time to focus back on my player ratings though and let my subconscious think about Salah v. De Bruyne with my next set of players. I've now removed all Man City players from my analysis so that I can do the De Bruyne switch either now or before Gameweek 20.

Player Ratings

I've got a cluster of players now who are all rated similarly and I'll repeat my approach from my previous post although I'll err on the side of brevity for those that I'm not including.

👎 Not Including

• Ivan Perišić - I'd love to include Perišić but his late return from the World Cup along with Conte's tendency to rotate him puts me off. He'll continue to tempt me though...

• Chelsea Defenders - With their Double Gameweek, it's tempting to double up on the Chelsea defence but I'm still considering Kepa and I certainly don't want a Chelsea defensive triple-up. Thiago Silva or Cucurella are the most attractive of the options but I'm not really sure that I want to go there.

• Fred - It's a mystery to me how Fred ended up on this list. He's only played 391 minutes and presumably had some easy chances in this time which has inflated his stats - which last season were pretty awful. I'm definitely not tempted.

• Taiwo Awoniyi - I think he's still settling into the Premier League and does have a few goals to his name already. His record at Union Berlin was decent but I don't feel that he's nailed down a starting spot yet so is an avoid for now.

• Kelechi Iheanacho - Another player who consistently outperforms his xG but he's behind both Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka in the pecking order so not really an option.

I'll get back to Martin Ødegaard and Leandro Trossard later.

👍 Including - Marcus Rashford & Anthony Martial

2 players who are priced the same, Man Utd's return to action has the perfect start. Nottingham Forest are up there with the weakest defences in the league and to make matters worse (for Forest), Dean Henderson's unavailable to play against his parent club so Wayne Hennesey will be playing in goal. Hennesey was preferred to Danny Ward at the World Cup so isn't a terrible Goalkeeper by any means but he's certainly no Dean Henderson.

When Rashford, Fernandes, Sancho and Martial have all played together, they've had the movement and fluidity in attack that could run rampant. With Cristiano Ronaldo's exit and Martial's return to fitness, there's no competition for the Frenchman other than his teammate Marcus Rashford.

In all likelihood, Martial will have his minutes managed (at least initially) which will likely see Rashford play at least some part of every game as the centre forward. Rashford's looking much improved this season and even if he's cutting-in from the left, he's a great prospect.

Stats wise, Rashford has 0.59 xGI per 90 minutes with that predominantly being goal threat (0.43 xG and 0.16 xA) - great for a Midfielder. Martial's limited minutes sees him at an impressive 1.27 xGI (0.72 xG and 0.55 xA) and it's possible that he'll have a say in penalties too having taken one against Man City whilst Bruno Fernandes was on the pitch.

Their price of £6.7m represents great value and gives me a nice price point in both Midfield and Forward line.

Aside

This has just happened so maybe I'll be sticking with Salah after all 😀

Price Points

I've not really spoken about price points in my decisions so far but by choosing a Premium in Midfield in Attack, along with a mid-high-priced asset and now another mid-priced asset, I've got plenty of flexibility to move to other players in future Gameweeks. I mentioned Rodrigo in my last post as somebody I'm interested in and Rashford is a possible transfer out to do this.

Formation

The selection of Martial also completes my Forward line and I have 3 Midfielders so I'll be playing either 3-4-3 or 4-3-3. This now means that I'll have at least 1 Midfielder on my bench every game week so this is an area that I can save some money and select a cheap option here. This is also the reason that I've neither included nor excluded Martin Ødegaard and Leandro Trossard yet - the final Midfield spot might be a position that I use to rotate with my budget Midfielder.

I hope this is making sense!

Budget Midfield Options

I'm not going to go into much detail here because I already have Andreas Pereira in my squad whom I paid £4.5m for. He's somebody that I can play in Fulham's Double Gameweek 19 and is the most guaranteed starter from this list. Leon Bailey is somebody that I've considered (and I've previously discussed Crysencio Summerville) and I've decided to stick with the man that I already own.

Midfielder Rotation with Andreas Perreira

I don't want to be playing Andreas Pereira very often and the best rotation options are listed above. I want a guaranteed starter and somebody who's reasonably cheap so it really comes down to a decision between Martin Ødegaard and Miguel Almirón.

Miguel Almirón has been something of a sensation this season and is the game's top scoring Midfielder.

Martin Ødegaard has gone somewhat under the radar with both Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka proving more popular but Ødegaard is Arsenal's joint top points scorer (with Martinelli) and boasts slightly better underlying stats.

Ødegaard or Almirón would play instead of Pereira every week apart from DGW19 (when Newcastle travel to Arsenal) which is exactly what I'm looking for.

For me, this is a tight decision. Almirón's £0.6m cheaper but I also know that Arsenal have a Double Gameweek 23 and I don't have any concerns over budget yet so for now, I'll go with Ødegaard knowing that Almirón's a viable alternative.

My Squad So Far

I'm nearly there now with just my defence left to complete. I like how things are shaping up and the flexibility that my selections provide.

Things that I'm considering are:

1. Salah → De Bruyne (keep Man City slot open)
2. Raya + Leno → Ward + De Gea / Kepa / Iversen
3. Rodrigo from GW19
4. Julián Álvarez's return to Man City
5. Martin Ødegaard → Miguel Almirón

I have £19.8m left for my remaining 4 Defenders.

🗨 What do you think?

Please share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Would you choose Ødegaard or Almirón?

Is Andreas Pereira the best £4.5m Midfield option?

Who am I missing?

Would you go for De Bruyne or Salah?

Imagery Information

_{All images have been created and edited with the intention of reaching a point of "fair use". To reach this point, I use multiple online tools (primarily Lunapic and removebg) as well as an old version of Adobe Photoshop, incorporating my own "branding" and imagery style. If you are of the opinion that any of the images used infringe on copyright, please highlight this in the comments and I will make best endeavours to alleviate any concerns.}