Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 28: Haaland & Bournemouth provide answers to Newcastle & Wolves absentees

Doing well in the Fantasy Premier League can be tough at the best of times – but it doesn’t get any easy when injuries and suspensions start to mount and you find your team short of players, a situation many FPL managers will find themselves in this week. Happily, our resident expert Matthew is here to help you work out what to do.

Before we hand over to him, it’s our duty to let you know that this week’s deadline is on Saturday morning, 11:00 GMT on 8 March, ahead of an intriguing early game between Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. Make sure you’ve made all your moves in good time. Now, over to our man with a plan…

Transfer tips as Hall, Cunha, Gordon and others raise red flags

There’s always that moment, in every FPL player’s season, when all those carefully-laid plans suddenly go to pot thanks to a string of injuries and suspensions – and my team is among many whose ‘Pick Team’ screen suddenly contains more red flags than a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party.

Lewis Hall (owned by 21% of players) is expected to miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Jean-Philippe Mateta (10%) got karate kicked in the head by an overenthusiastic Millwall goalkeeper. Matheus Cunha (16%) and Anthony Gordon (12%) both earned red cards for violent conduct and will miss a string of matches. Cody Gakpo (11%) and Kaoru Mitoma (10%) are doubts, too, although it does at least sound as though Alexander Isak (a massive 56%) should be fine.

In short, this week was a bit of a bloodbath for a lot of players, and it comes at a pretty inopportune time – while GW28 is a regular, ordinary gameweek, GW29 contains a handful of blanks and doubles are on the horizon. We are entering prime time for wildcards and free hits, and saving transfers should have been the order of the day.

The good news is that the many players who are struggling because of Newcastle and Crystal Palace assets being out should probably have been planning to ditch them anyway thanks to the Magpies’ blank next time around, but Cunha’s absence is a body blow given Wolves’ fixtures, and suddenly transfer decisions have become rather trickier. So how should we navigate everything?

People with wildcards handy and a number of injuries in their squad should probably start working on the assumption that they’re going to wildcard in GW30 or very shortly thereafter, which means that the priority is just making sure you have 11 players to your name next week.

Holding on to players who are injured or suspended may cost you some cash in the bank as their value drops, but unless your team value is very low, I think an extra transfer in the bank is probably worth more than the £0.2m you might keep hold of by selling Cunha, say, quickly. But if you do play your wildcard in GW30, play it early and ship Cunha, Gordon or whoever else quickly for financial reasons. Remember you can change your mind about who you sign in their stead later.

For those who don’t have a wildcard, it’s a little bit trickier, and you’ll need to think rather more long-term. The FA Cup quarter-finals means a big blank is also going to happen in GW34, so that’s the one you’ll need to save your free hit for, and you’re going to need to make moves which make sense both over the next couple of weeks and for the future, which means targeting players who won’t blank in GW29 but do have decent fixtures over the course of the coming weeks. So let’s take a look at some options…

Bournemouth players make great targets – and is it time to bring back Haaland?

What we’re looking for is players from teams who will play every week through to GW33 without too many tough fixtures, but we also want to pay special attention to sides who made the sixth round of the FA Cup – because while we’re waiting for the official announcement, it’s broadly expected that their double gameweek will come in GW33.

The teams with the highest ceiling over the coming weeks, with no blanks and a probably double, are Bournemouth and Manchester City, thanks to their relatively kind fixtures, followed by Brighton and Nottingham Forest.

The other teams in the FA Cup quarters, Fulham, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, have tougher fixtures and, in Palace and Villa’s case, a looming blank. Teams who won’t double but who do still face a temptingly gentle run of games include Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

So big hitters from Bournemouth and Manchester City, especially, look pretty tempting… yes, I’m saying that it genuinely might time to bring Erling Haaland back into the fold if you can figure out how to afford it. He’s registered a goal or assist in five of the last six gameweeks and while still short of his best, the upside is hard to ignore.

Bournemouth can help balance the budget if you are, for example, switching Gordon out for Justin Kluivert, and Milos Kerkez offers a tempting straight swap for Hall owners – Dean Huijsen is nailed-on for minutes if you need a slightly cheaper model. Don’t expect him to score, mind you.

If you still have Isak, I genuinely think trying to turn him into Haaland is a good move right now, but it’s pretty tough to make that one work if it’s Cunha or Mateta you’re getting rid of – Evanilson is my favourite alternative, followed by Chris Wood (thanks to his higher price and impending match against City) and João Pedro. Danny Welbeck just doesn’t get enough minutes.

If you need to move Gordon on and don’t fancy gambling on a Phil Foden or a Savinho (a potentially under-appreciated but deeply swingy budget target who will blank or haul seemingly on a whim), then I like Mitoma a lot if he’s proven fit and Kluivert as the next best option.

Before I wrap up, a final note on the captaincy this week – it’s almost certainly an easy Mohamed Salah, but do pay attention to Arne Slot’s press conference because with the Champions League second leg against PSG next week, it wouldn’t be a shock if a home game against Southampton was a place where Slot looked to rest his star man, or at least sub him off early. For that reason alone, I’m wary of any thoughts of triple captaining him, which would otherwise be a very worthy consideration.

So when should you use your triple captain? The GW33 doubles are an obvious point, but with so many big teams out of the FA Cup there are fewer big names likely to play two games that week. Well, there is one… it really might be Haaland time again. Even if it’s impossible to sign him with all the forced transfers this week, he’s right at the top of my list for a GW30 wildcard.