Pras Offers Up His ‘Head’ and ‘Heart’ FPL GW9 Tips

I’m Pras and welcome to my weekly series for SportsCasting, where I will be providing my thoughts on my FPL GW9 tips.

For context, over the last 12 seasons of FPL I have achieved four top 10k finishes, including two top 5k finishes. My seasonal average over the last seven seasons is around 21k.

Every week, I’ll be talking about the Captaincy, and 2 picks per position. One the sensible pick, the head if you will. 

The other is the maverick pick, or the heart. The idea is to give you two options per position to either chance it and go different or be safe and sensible.

Pras’ FPL GW9 Tips

Captaincy

Head – There is going to be a Man City theme to today’s article, that’s simply because this one of the most lopsided match-ups we may get all season.

Despite form, Man City go into this fixture with well over 3 expected goals. Three blanks in a row now for Erling Haaland in the Premier League, but with a brace in the Champions League I am not only tempted to captain, but triple captain the Norwegian this week.

With Liverpool and Arsenal facing each other there are no strong alternatives anyway.

Heart – Bryan Mbeumo has scored in every home game this season, with five goals in four appearances already. Complementing his set pieces and penalty-taking duties, he also has the more key passes amongst his team mates.

Defender

Head – I am sticking with last week’s pick Josko Gvardiol who scored that sublime goal to reward my selection. That’s two goals now in the last 3 GWs, he is the upside pick this week for me. 

Southampton have scored just three away goals this season, the joint-fewest in the top flight – so it is also a good week for an elusive clean sheet.

Heart – Pedro Porro plays Crystal Palace who have been particularly poor in front of goal this season, with no side creating fewer big chances.

He even started taking a few corners, which further ups his appeal.

Midfielder

Head – See captaincy section on Mbeumo above.

Heart – Cole Palmer has 11 attacking returns and is averaging 8.6 points per match across his eight appearances so far this season. 

He also ranks second for expected goal involvement (xGI) across all players. With the Liverpool fixture out of the way, he’s going to feature a lot more on these articles going forward.

Forwards

Head – See captaincy section on Haaland above.

Heart – Chris Wood makes his debut on the article, and it’s frankly late. 

He’s scored three goals in his last four matches. This week he faces a Leicester defence that has allowed more shots in the box than any other side.

For a detailed review, I co-host a podcast called @theFPLWire, and you can follow Pras_FPL to find full analysis courtesy of one of the best FPL Twitter accounts.