Winners & Losers | Gameweek 2

22/08/2019 Planet FPL

Winners

Pukki Party-

The Finnish striker caught the attention of managers after scoring the consolation goal in the first game of the season away at Liverpool. He took his goal well and showed good movement all game, leading him to get a price rise. So to those who put him in for this week I doth my cap to you as he only went and scored hat-trick against Newcastle. He took all of his goal extremely well and his performance was that of a complete forward, he got the best out of his team mates too. He had seven shots at goal with six on target which is something you want to see from a forward in FPL especially when they still cost under 7M for now! Norwich may have tough games coming up but it looks like Pukki might have what it takes to make an impact in these games. Chelsea at home is next for Norwich an with how leaky they are right now,  the party might not be over.

 

De Bruyne- 

There is not any doubts in my mind and others that when fully fit, Kevin De Bruyne is the best midfielder in the world. Pretty much every trait you would want in a midfielder he has it. Last season he endured an injury ridden campaign where he only managed to get three league assists, which to makes it even more incredible that City won the title without having De Bruyne most of the season. He has started this season flying on all cylinders as already matched last seasons tally for assists in two games. His performance against Spurs was world class, the quality of his crosses for both of Man City’s goals were out of this world. At the time of writing he is still only 9.5M on FPL and I think he represents tremendous value. With the players around him it is easy to see why De Bruyne will rake in assist points week after week, in the game on Saturday he made an incredible nine key passes. Not only that but he is on free-kicks too and possesses a fantastic strike on him. Fingers crossed he stays fit as he will easily be top of the assist charts.

 

Lundstram starters

We have our new chosen one….. the accolade of the playing 4M defender this year goes to Sheffield United’s John Lundstram. To make it even better this one is playing in midfield! To those who gave him a start in your teams I salute you, as Lundstram managed to score the only goal in his sides victory over Crystal Palace. A lot of talk was had on Twitter about whether or not he would start consistently as it was a surprise to United fans that he played in game week one as well. But it looks like it’s his spot to lose now. Not only did he score but he also created a big chance for David McGoldrick to score but he sadly fluffed his lines. Sadly he was on my bench so I have probably missed his haul but hopefully some good returns in the future will not be far away as I am most certainly going to be starting him.

Losers

Pogba 

Three times I have no seen Paul Pogba play live and there has never been a moment where I think well he is world class. The game unless Manchester United are well on top seems to pass him by and he does not do enough to stamp his authority on the game in my opinion. So when United had the chance to go 2-1 up away at Wolves from the penalty spot, Pogba stepped up and his kick saved from Rui Patricio. Credit must go to the Portuguese international as it was a good save, but it just put another mark against Pogba. I was surprised he took it though as since the start of last season he has missed the most penalties out of any player, plus Marcus Rashford had put one away last week against Chelsea. Pogba is only world class when he wants to be which is not often enough for a player of such reputation, players like De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva you can guarantee will turn up nearly every game. The same cannot be said for Pogba.

Palace

Crystal Palace really did have a shocker of a transfer window. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sold to Manchester United and was not replaced, they never got a replacement striker in after Michy Batshuayi went back to Chelsea after his loan spell and did not really add players who improve the quality within the squad apart from Gary Cahill. The biggest victory they had was keeping wantaway talisman Wilfried Zaha after he put in a transfer request. The performance away against Sheffield United was nothing short of a horror show, they could not pass or create chances at all. They could probably still be playing now and not have mustered anything meaningful. It looks already to be a long season ahead for the Londoners with unrest from the fans, thanks to the board not pushing to strengthen the side. If your main strikers apart from Zaha are Christian Benteke, Jordan Ayew and Connor Wickham in the Premier League you are in big trouble.

Newcastle 

Steve Bruce is pretty much a dead man walking at Newcastle, hated by the fans, poor squad which he cannot get the best out of and a team lacking identity. All the hallmarks are there for Newcastle to go down this season. It may only be two games in but it is hard to see things changing so dramatically for them. Rafa Benitez was getting the absolute maximum from the squad he had and now that squad is without Solomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez last seasons top scorers. They spent 40M on Joelinton a Brazilian striker from Hoffenheim but he is going to struggle in a team which cannot support him consistently. He is now injured which leaves Yoshinori Muto Newcastle’s only recognized striker and he is not prolific to say the least. In their defeat at Norwich, Newcastle were set up so defensive that Joelinton may as well have been a centre back. A trip to Spurs is up next and I imagine Harry Kane is a real danger.