FPL Banger Select a Mix of Usual Suspects and Juicy Differentials in Their FPL Gameweek 5 Tips

Welcome to a new series for the 2024/25 season, provided by Siva & Sam, the twisted minds behind the weekly FPL Banger Podcast.   Below we take you through our FPL Gameweek 5 tips in time for the fifth round of the campaign.

FPL Gameweek 5 Tips – FPL Banger

BEST CAPTAIN – Mo Salah (£12.7m)

• Fixture: Bournemouth, Home

Liverpool’s defeat at home to Forest in GW4 was the classic post-international break result. In fact, most of the so-called big teams struggled in GW4, which was to be expected after their star players spent the previous week flying all over the world.

Liverpool bounced back though with a 3-1 win over Milan midweek, and Salah comes into GW5 as the only guaranteed 90-minute Liverpool attacker playing a Bournemouth side that has not kept a clean sheet this season. 

Mo is an easy captaincy pick for me, especially with Haaland playing an Arsenal team that did not concede a single goal across 2 games against Man City last season.

TOP PICKS 

Alisson Becker (£5.5m)

• Fixture: Bournemouth, Home

Calling it now, Liverpool full-backs (who have been solid FPL picks up to now) are going to become FPL problems soon. 

Arne Slot has shown that he loves making substitutions on or around the 60 minute mark, and as a Diogo Jota owner I was absolutely robbed when Jota scored 2 points less than Luis Diaz in GW4 just because Jota ran off the pitch a few seconds earlier. 

It is only a matter of time before Slot takes one or both of Trent and Robertson before the 60 minute mark. However Alisson is safe from any such risks, and still the most affordable, nailed route into the Liverpool defence. 

And while they did lose to Forest last week, it took a Callum Hudson-Odoi golazo to beat this Liverpool defence. Normal service should resume this week and if you need a keeper for this week, Alisson is the one.

Yukinari Sugawara (£4.5m)

• Fixture: Ipswich, Home

I could be boring and just go with another Liverpool player for my defender pick, but we love our spicy picks and a 0.3% owned attacking fullback who returned 4 goals and 7 assists in 30 games for AZ Alkmaar last season (and scored in GW3) is right up our alley. 

Southampton’s insistence on playing possession football has hurt them against the top teams who have the attacking talent to pressure them and force mistakes, but against an Ipswich team who have recorded the least xG of any team in the division, Saints actually have a decent shot at a clean sheet this week. 

And of course, with Sugawara playing on the right he will be able to exploit the space left behind by Leif Davis. Watch this space (if he hauls).

Cole Palmer (£10.6m)

• Fixture: West Ham, Away

Anyone who had Palmer on their GW4 wildcard might be forgiven for thinking they made a huge mistake. Cole was anonymous against Bournemouth, failing to take a shot and recording just 0.03 xA.

Things should improve at the Olympic Stadium, where West Ham have managed to lose both their home games so far conceding 5 goals in the process. 

Only an injury time goal from Danny Ings (who is for some reason, still a Premier League player in the year 2024) spared West Ham from defeat at Fulham last week, where they still conceded a frankly ridiculous 21 shots. 

Cole Palmer just needs 1 to score though.

Ollie Watkins (£8.9m)

• Fixture: Wolves, Home

After 3 games of coming oh so close but failing to score, Ollie Watkins broke his duck in style last week scoring a brace as Villa came from behind to defeat Everton 3-2. 

Watkins followed that up with a strong display in Villa’s 3-0 win midweek in the Champions League, where Ollie once again put the ball in the back of the net only for VAR to intervene due to a handball in the buildup.

Next up is Wolves who have conceded 11 goals in just 4 games, the 2 nd worst record in the division after Everton. If you don’t own Watkins this week, just accept that red arrow and look ahead to GW6.

Thanks for reading the article in this new series for Sportscasting. Be sure to follow @FPL_Banger for more FPL tips.