What to do with misfiring Haaland? FPL team of the week

2 hours ago 17

ByThomas Woods

BBC Sport Senior Journalist

What should FPL managers do with Erling Haaland?

The one-time perma-captain has just 14 points and one goal from his past five games.

In his 17 games before that, the Norwegian netted 19 times, and a closer look at his underlying data shows a bit of a decline too

A home fixture versus Wolves would normally be a prime time to captain Haaland and potentially play a Triple Captain chip.

But his form is worrying, and there's always the threat he gets a rest - the striker has played every league game for City and started on Tuesday in the Champions League too.

Egypt striker Omar Marmoush is back from the Africa Cup of Nations and could take Haaland's place.

There's no benefit from benching Haaland - more than three in four FPL manager own him - but this is definitely the time to consider handing the captain's armband to someone else.

And that's what I've done in this team of the week.

The team of the week is selected based on current FPL prices to fit within a £100m budget, as if you were playing a Free Hit.

Don't miss our FPL special Q&A with expert Holly Shand, live on the BBC Sport website on Friday, 23 January at 15:30 GMT.

How did last week's team do?

A low-scoring week for most managers but returns from Florian Wirtz (10 points), Gabriel (8), Nordi Mukiele (6) and Enzo Fernandez (6) led the team to 45 points, five higher than the average score.

BBC Sport's FPL team of the week for gameweek 23

Keeper and defence

Media caption,

Time to turn to Manchester United?

Jordan Pickford, Everton, keeper, £5.6m - Leeds (h)

Pickford is the top-scoring FPL keeper again, with 100 points already.

In the past five games, Everton have a league-high three clean sheets and, while they've struggled a bit at their new stadium, they face a Leeds side who are low scorers on the road, with just 11 goals in 11 games.

James Tarkowski, Everton, £5.6m - Leeds (h)

Another Everton asset worth the investment is Tarkowski, who has the second-most defensive contribution points (defcon) this season (32) and is fourth in the defender rankings with 108 points.

A decent pick in any Toffees home game.

Gabriel, Arsenal, £6.8m - Manchester United (h)

United's attacking performance in the Manchester derby last week doesn't exactly fill you with confidence of an Arsenal clean sheet - they were mighty impressive and could have scored five or six.

But Arsenal at home is a different matter, with just five goals conceded.

And Gabriel is probably the most reliable FPL asset right now, with goal threat and a chance of defcon.

Marc Guehi, Manchester City, £5.2m - Wolves (h)

New City defender Guehi is likely to be a popular choice, given his price and the attacking returns he has had so far this season.

Wolves have only scored five goals on the road - this is a huge clean sheet chance.

Nathan Collins, Brentford, £5m - Nottingham Forest (h)

Continuing a theme of centre-backs with high defcon and attacking return potential, Collins has been an FPL gem recently with 10-point and 13-point hauls in his past three games.

He is worth a shot in another nice home fixture.

Midfielders

Florian Wirtz, Liverpool, £8.3m - Bournemouth (a)

The German has three 10-point performances in his past five games and only Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes has more points (38) than his 36 in that time.

Bournemouth have only conceded 11 in 11 home games, so this isn't an easy game for Liverpool.

However, Wirtz leads all Liverpool players for xG (2.31) and expected assists (1.45) in those five games - he is bang on form.

Antoine Semenyo, Manchester City, £7.6m - Wolves (h)

City have just three points from their past four league games but at some point they are going to put that right and a team is going to be on the receiving end of a hiding.

If you were going to handpick an opponent to give City a "get-right" game, it would be bottom-of-the-table Wolves.

With doubts over whether Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki start, Semenyo is the safest City bet from midfield.

Harry Wilson, Fulham, £5.9m - Brighton (h)

Wilson has 10 FPL returns in his past 10 games and is probably the best-value pick in the game.

He's been very efficient, with five goals from 11 shots on target and five assists from three big chances created.

A bit like Chris Wood last season, he's in a category of players where you shouldn't even worry about looking at statistics.

Wilson is a fine pick for the rest of the season given the price.

Strikers

Erling Haaland, Manchester City, £15.1m - Wolves (h)

Haaland still makes the team but the fear of a benching, Wolves' improved form and his recent blanks put me off captaincy.

Will you make the same call?

Igor Thiago (captain), Brentford, £7.2m - Nottingham Forest (h)

Only Haaland (8.18) has more FPL points per home start among strikers than Thiago (6.09).

The Brazilian has has five double-digit hauls this season, with four of those coming at home.

And Sean Dyche is yet to turn Forest into a water-tight defence.

Yes, they have produced some fine performances, such as beating Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield and holding Arsenal to a 0-0 last week at home.

But they've also been whalloped by the likes of Aston Villa and Everton on the road and only the Gunners and Manchester City have scored more at home than Brentford.

Thierno Barry, Everton, £5.7m - Leeds (h)

He took a while to get going but the big Frenchman now has three goals in four games and is emerging as a solid budget forward choice, especially for those of you thinking of wildcarding.