GW2 Preview | BigManBakar | OneFootball

The brilliant @BigManBakar shares his Gameweek 2 preview, answering 10 key questions, powered by Fantasy Football Hub data and his stellar FPL record.

You can find Bakar’s Gameweek 2 team reveal here. And see the team reveals of all our experts here.

Q1) Is it worth selling Kane to Haaland for a hit?

If you’re a Kane owner, I am all for making that move – if you haven’t already.

A lot of FPL managers jumped from Harry Kane (£11.4m) to Erling Haaland (£11.6m) on Sunday night to tackle the price changes, and rightly so – both changed price on Monday morning. This now crucially means that anyone who does not have money in the bank cannot make the Kane to Haaland transfer, unless they do so for a hit.

If you find yourself in the uncomfortable position where you’re not sure whether or not to take a hit for Haaland, I’d suggest you cut your losses and do so. I present my arguments below:

I don’t like using the term “essential” loosely, but I genuinely think it does justice to Erling Haaland’s FPL prospects at the moment.

Haaland was top among all players in the league for shots in the box, big chances, xG, expected goal involvement (xGi) and non penalty xGi in Gameweek 1.

I suspect these are statistics we will often see this season – given how Man City play, the majority of chances should fall to Haaland which will make him a talisman from a FPL point of view.

Man City create a silly amount of chances, and historically, Haaland has been an xG overperformer – which is exactly what you want from your premium FPL pick.

As if my confidence in him needed some further re-assurance, Pep Guardiola pretty much confirmed that Haaland will be on penalties this season:

“If someone is going to take his ball he will punch the faces of one of his mates. I’m pretty sure of that.”

Now this is fairly big news, especially when you factor in the number of penalties Man City are likely to get – they have been awarded nine or more penalties in each of the previous three seasons.

When you factor in that Haaland is owned by over 50% of FPL managers at the moment and the significant majority of them will captain him against newly promoted Bournemouth in Gameweek 2, I just think avoiding him is far too risky a call to be making at this stage of the season.

Erling Haaland. Picture by Getty Images

That ownership is only increasing – over 835,000 FPL managers have already bought Haaland this week and we’re still four days away from the deadline. To put it into context, the second most bought player, Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.1m) has 475,000 transfers in this week and is almost halfway off Haaland’s tally.

Looking ahead, Haaland faces Bournemouth, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in his next four fixtures – with three of them at home. Other than the Newcastle game, I think all the rest have the potential of ending up in cricket scores for Man City, and are hence fixtures you can afford to captain Haaland in.

Champions League won’t be a factor for the next few weeks either – so a fully rested, nailed and an in-form Erling Haaland with the fixtures in his favour is not a beast you would want to bet against.

Q2) Who to captain in GW2?

“He is adapting perfectly in the way we want to play. We are going to find him more and more and hopefully we can give him the opportunity to score as many goals as he can.”

It’s almost as if the Man City team has been briefed by Pep Guardiola to specifically look for the runs of Erling Haaland (£11.6m) every single time they attack.

Every single time I think of debating my captain, this quote from the Man City manager gets in the way and ensures that the armband stays on Haaland.

Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) is the only other realistic contender to take the armband.

The Egyptian does get an extra point for a goal and a clean sheet, and has a fantastic record against Palace – Salah has five double digit hauls in his previous seven appearances against them.

When I look at the anytime goalscorer odds, Haaland is far and away rated as the most probable anytime goalscorer this week.

I also rate the Crystal Palace defence much higher than Bournemouth’s – Bournemouth have plenty of injuries in defence, and I’m not going to let one good performance from them put me off my initial assessment of targeting them this season.

I would also like to use this week to assess how Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) will affect’s Salah’s positioning – will Salah be pushed wider due to the penalty box predator?

Q3) Are there any transfers worth making in GW2?

Assuming there are no injuries and you own the obvious players (Salah, Trent, Cancelo, Martinelli, Haaland), I don’t think there is a pressing enough transfer to make in most teams.

If you don’t own any of these five, I would definitely use one of my free transfers to get them in – because I see them as good long term holds.

Saving a transfer could prove to be very useful this week. I don’t think at this point we have learnt anything new to knee-jerk.

Trust your initial picks – you picked them for a reason.

Two free transfers in Gameweek 3 will be huge, as we’ll have an extra week of information available at our disposal. It allows us the flexibility to re-jig our squad, even if it is at the expense of a hit.

Gabriel Martinelli. Picture by Getty Images

Q4) DarwIN?

I really liked what I saw of Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) in his brief stint against Fulham. He looked like the ideal FPL player – one who would be central to Liverpool’s attack and hog the big chances left, right and centre. His tally of three big chances in just 44 minutes on the field was only behind Erling Haaland (£11.6m) in Gameweek 1.

I think if you’re on a Wildcard this week, Nunez has to come in – he’s a significant upgrade on Roberto Firmino (£8.0m) so I think Klopp will give him a regular run of starts from now on. Liverpool have one of the best attacks in the league with the fixture run firmly in their favour, so I have no doubts over Nunez’s ability to perform.

However, I don’t think this makes Andy Robertson (£7.0m) or Luis Diaz (£8.0m) poor picks overnight – they are solid picks in their own right, and I see no reason to switch them out just to shoe-horn Nunez into your teams right away. Wait and watch.

Q5) What to do with Perisic?

If you own Ivan Perisic (£5.5m) like myself, the plan should be to bench him this GW.

Spurs are playing in the early kick-off in GW3, so there is every chance we get early team news before the deadline.

If he’s starting, he’ll be gold for the fixtures Spurs have coming up. If not, he’s an easy sell. I suggest you take any potential price drops he incurs till then on the chin, because surely if you’ve started with him, you’d want to keep him if he is starting in GW3.

I don’t mind having to play Andreas Pereira (£4.5m) over Perisic this week if you own him – he is the one player who caught my eye the most this weekend. He had a higher advanced position than even Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.6m) and was on all set pieces.

In my opinion, he could be a playable option in the easier fixtures. I think Wolves looked fairly open in a back four last week – there is a decent chance that Andreas could do well against them. He is a £5.5m midfielder priced at £4.5m!

Q6) Leon Bailey – play or bench?

I’d be happy to give Leon Bailey (£5.0m) another chance if you have him in your squad. Aston Villa were really poor against Bournemouth but I thought Bailey was one of their better players, often the most advanced over 90 minutes.

The significant majority of Villa fans have him in their predicted line-ups on their forums – I’m hoping he comes good against Everton. Furthermore, this game is the early kick-off so there is every chance we might get early team news – keep an eye out for that.

Q7) What to do with the £8m mids – Kulusevski, Mount, Mahrez and Foden?

Kulusevski: Well done on starting with him! I would keep him from the fixtures coming up even if you had pre-planned a move to one of the City mids in GW2.

Mount:  I tweeted the other day to sell Mount for whichever Man City midfielder stood out v West Ham. The problem is no one did. Mount was really poor against City – registering no shots in the box and no chances created. Alarmingly, he was subbed early as well – I would stick with him though, simply because there is no obvious replacement.

Foden: The most likely of the Man City midfielders to start – hold.

Mahrez: If you had Mahrez in your GW1 squad, you wanted him for the GW2 fixture against Bournemouth despite the risk of rotation that he carries. Nothing new has happened – it would make little sense to sell before the money-ball fixture, even if he does carry a risk of rotation. Most Man City fans on their forums do have Mahrez in their predicted line-ups so I think he is worth keeping.

Q8) Is Rashford worth persisting with?

I would keep Marcus Rashford (£6.5m) despite the shenanigans at Manchester United. He was the most advanced player on the field, and had three shots inside the box, including a big chance.

Furthermore, there was also a point blank save that Robert Sanchez (£4.5m) made to deny Rashford, which wasn’t recorded in the statistics due to a marginal offside call.

Marcus Rashford. Picture by Getty Images

Q9) Is it too early to Wildcard in GW2?

I see quite a few people talking about potentially wildcarding in GW2, but I think we have such limited information available to build an optimal squad.

Historically, I love an early Wildcard myself but I don’t see enough opportunities available at this point in time.

However, if you do fancy a Wildcard, you can checkout our ideal GW2 Wildcard Draft here.

Q10) Worth moving De Bruyne to Haaland for a hit?

I think yes – the dynamic at City has changed, and it’s very apparent that Haaland is the focal point.

I don’t think this is a sideways transfer at all, even though it would require two moves to make it work.

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