FPL Early Thoughts with Mo and Sam 💭 | New Drafts!

Summary

Fantasy Football Scout – FPL Early Thoughts with Mo and Sam 💭 | New Drafts!

Date: August 8, 2026
Host: Mo (Fantasy Football Scout)
Guest Host: Sam
Episode Focus: Early thoughts on the new FPL season, breaking down new team drafts, chip strategy, and detailed positional debates.

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Episode Overview

This episode brings together Mo and guest host Sam for a detailed, spirited preview of the new FPL season. With regular host Tom away, Sam steps in, sharing her Tottenham optimism, reflecting on summer signings, and exchanging early draft strategies with Mo. Together, they break down their team selections, talk through chip usage plans, and offer expert insight into the nuances of player positions, value, and risk for the season ahead.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Summer Football Buzz and Tottenham Optimism

[02:00–06:13]

• Sam’s Excitement for Spurs: Sam highlights an unusual optimism among Spurs fans due to a busy, positive transfer window and new backing for manager De Zerbi.
  • Notable Quote [03:04]:
    "I can't remember another summer ever where we've done this... All these new managers that have come in and I've gone, they need to back them. Like you got to give them the money and they haven't done it. Whereas this time they genuinely have."
• Vander Ven Signing seen as a signal of new ambition and keeping the club’s pillars.
• Contrast With Liverpool: Mo shares Liverpool’s more reserved transfer approach, hinting at possible moves like Gakpo swap and the search for squad depth.

2. Transfer Talk: Gakpo, Spence, and Squad Dynamics

[06:13–08:56]

• Gakpo Rumors: Sam expresses mixed feelings about Spurs targeting Gakpo, preferring a left-sided player but acknowledging Gakpo’s need for a fresh start.
• Jed Spence: Both hosts discuss Spence as a valuable, versatile full-back with the right character for Spurs or Liverpool.

3. Tinkering, Draft Iterations, and Core Players

[08:56–11:10]

• Sam’s Drafts: She's on her 800+ tinkered version, but notes a consistent "core" has emerged:
  • “I’m on about 855 [drafts]. I can’t stop it... but I’ve noticed there’s become like a core that’s just not moved.” [09:26]
• Mo’s Approach: Mo is more settled, tweaking only 3–4 spots around his main group.

4. Mo’s Team Draft Breakdown

[11:28–14:07]

• Defensive Setup: Focused around Spurs, Luke Shaw, Mascara, and Gavardio.
• Midfield Core: Double United, Bumo, Bruno Fernandes, Sabozlai, Anderson.
• Strike Force: Jao Pedro and Haaland (the latter, universally selected).
• Bench Choices: Pascal Gross and budget options for flexibility.

5. Early Chip Strategy: Bench Boost Quandaries

[12:38–13:55]

• Bench Boost: Mo debates an early bench boost, with gameweek one slightly favored over two due to fixture reliability (e.g., Coventry vs. Hull clean sheet doubts).
• Wildcard Philosophy: Both hosts agree—if you're reaching deep into your bench, a wildcard is likely needed.

6. Arsenal Defense & Dealing With Preseason Uncertainty

[13:55–17:14]

• Sam’s Arsenal Concern: Questions effectiveness without Saliba, worrying about possible rotation or late defensive signings.
  • Notable Quote [15:10]:
    “Maybe I read too much into that... he’s an elite centre back, probably the best now since this after Van Dijk.”
• Preseason Watch: Both hosts emphasize using the Community Shield to analyze Arsenal’s defensive stability.

7. The Sabozlai vs. Verts (Szoboszlai vs. Wirtz) Debate

[17:14–20:44]

• Midfield Tightrope: Sam has stuck with Szoboszlai for set pieces, reliability, and value; Mo admits to being tempted by Verts’ more attacking positioning under a new manager.
• Learning From Past Trauma: Sam recalls being burned (“trauma” [19:43]) by Verts' underperformance last season.
• Upside vs. Steadiness: The debate ultimately comes down to upside potential (Verts) vs. defensive contribution points and set-pieces (Szoboszlai).

8. The Case for Anderson and Folden (Phil Foden)

[22:48–29:35]

• Anderson as DEFCON Machine: Both note his safety and consistent points from the #6 role at Man City under Maresca—a Pep disciple.
• Foden’s Streakiness: Tempting for his explosive returns, but minutes could be threatened by emerging players like Cherki, Doku, or rotation.
• Lessons From Last Year: Mo admits last year’s neglect of defensive mid returns versus chasing “flying fullbacks” was costly.
  • Notable Quote [27:05]:
    “Last season I got destroyed... I neglected [defensive mids] because I had flying fullbacks which didn’t do nothing.”

9. Bench Structure and Learning From Mistakes

[31:40–33:31]

• Striker Rotations: Both react to the pain of missing out on Jao Pedro last season—neither will risk starting without him.
• Bench Value: Mo keeps budget options, only using subs in emergencies, while Sam prefers more flexibility.

10. The “Rate My Team” Tool & Its Lessons

[33:31–35:45]

• Model Snubs and Surprises: Sam and Mo use Scout’s “Rate My Team” feature for objective feedback, noting its skepticism of young defenders or new signings until preseason minutes are clear.
• Patience vs. Reactivity: Mo plans to be less patient—if injuries/rotations hit, he’ll move quickly, not “waiting for things to get better” like last season.

11. Sam’s Draft Team Breakdown

[35:55–44:58]

• Goalkeepers: Kinski (main) with Rushworth for rotation.
• Defenders: Mascara, Gavardio, Van Heck, Mitchell, Thomas—all starting defenders. Sam wary of overcommitting to Spurs defenders.
• Midfield: Fernandez, Szoboszlai, Pascal Gross, Foden (risky but with upside), Grimes (budget enabler). Gross seen as a key difference-maker for his price and penalties.
• Forwards: Gabriel Jesus, DCL (Calvert-Lewin), Brobbey—debating the best value and fixtures.
• Bench Boost Temptation?: Her draft looks ready for bench boost, but she’s not planning to trigger it early, and notes the triple-Coventry content is “madness” if not bench boosting.

12. Detailed Position Debates and Money in the Bank

[44:58–49:52]

• Triple Coventry Conundrum: Mo presses Sam to drop a Coventry player and free up funds if not bench boosting.
• Defensive Double-Ups: Both criticize Sam’s “double Spurs defense” as too much risk.
• Midfield Five Value: Sam has kept cash in the bank for flexibility—often starting with 0.5 or more to react to early price rises.

13. Striker Rotations and Forward Bets

[50:01–56:11]

• DCL, Brobbey, Jesus: Sam is dubious of DCL repeating last year's numbers, sees Brobbey as short-term, and notes Gabriel Jesus’s strong preseason.
• Solanke, Spurs Attack: Sam likes Solanke but is wary of the regularity of Spurs’ attackers, preferring clarity as the season progresses.
• Patience and Risk Aversion: Sam wants to avoid chasing injuries this year by prioritizing nailed-on starters in her team.

14. Final Team Comparison and “Rate My Team” Scores

[59:09–61:06]

• Points Prediction: Mo’s team scores 87, Sam’s 84 on the model.
• Tweaks Suggested: Sam plans to shift funds to upgrade her midfield at the expense of a third forward, and reduce Coventry representation.

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Memorable Quotes and Moments

• Sam, on Transfer Backing [03:04]:
  “It’s the first time... where we've done this... Whereas this time they genuinely have gone and they've backed De Zerbi.”
• Mo, on Benching Problems [35:11]:
  “If I'm going to my third sub, that means I need a wildcard.”
• Sam, on Midfield Debates [19:43]:
  “Maybe I bought into Liverpool hype, but I definitely have some trauma from owning Verts early on last season...”
• Mo, on Foden’s Streakiness [26:23]:
  “Normally sell him. You normally sell him before he does that hat trick. That's the problem.”
• Sam, on Early Season Risks [57:22]: “...I just was like I can’t have another season where I can’t do the things I want to do because I'm always having to fix something. So I was like, let’s just pay for safety...”

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Notable Timestamps

• 02:00–06:13: Summer optimism and Spurs transfer chat
• 06:13–08:56: Player transfer rumors: Gakpo, Spence
• 08:56–11:10: Team tinkering habits and core player choices
• 11:28–14:07: Mo’s team breakdown — formation and rationale
• 12:38–13:55: Bench boost chip debate
• 13:55–17:14: Arsenal defense debate — Saliba’s importance
• 17:14–20:44: Midfield choices: Szoboszlai vs. Wirtz
• 22:48–29:35: Anderson vs. Foden analysis
• 31:40–33:31: Striker picks and avoidance of past errors
• 33:31–35:45: Using “Rate My Team” and managing bench depth
• 35:55–44:58: Sam’s draft revealed and explained
• 44:58–49:52: Coventry triple-up and defensive double-up concerns
• 59:09–61:06: Rate My Team comparison—Mo prevails, barely

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Practical Takeaways for Listeners

• Be Flexible, But Stick to a Core: Both hosts stress the importance of settling on a core group of players, limiting tweaks to the periphery.
• Avoid Overcommitting to Bench (Unless Bench Boosting): A playing bench is important but over-investing can hurt upside in your starting XI.
• Midfield Value is Key: Both see more value in midfielders and cheaper defenders with defensive contributions (DEFCON), rather than premium defenders.
• Nail Down Minutes: At season’s start, prioritize players who are almost certain to start—rotation, late returns from the World Cup, and new signings can create hidden risks.
• Chip Strategy Requires Foresight: Don’t commit to early chip use unless the fixtures and player pool support maximum upside.
• Patience If Necessary—But Don’t Wait Too Long: Have a plan for quick reactions if initial picks go wrong; don’t be overly “patient” and let problems compound.

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Closing Thoughts

This “early thoughts” episode provides a lively, tactical walkthrough of pre-season FPL planning. Mo and Sam weigh player risk, positional value, and the importance of learning from past mistakes—while keeping the chat engaging for beginners and veterans alike. It’s a goldmine for those seeking not just team templates, but the reasoning that should underpin draft decisions as gameweek one looms.

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Host sign-off:
“If you haven’t already done that, please like and subscribe, and we’ll see you next week. Bye bye!”

Transcript

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[Mo]

get your tickets now for the Dog Stars. It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear. Go out there, kill or be killed. Jacob Elordi There are people out there. They need our help. Josh Broland Shoot first and inquire afterwards.

[Sam]

Margaret Quali okay, tough guy.

[Mo]

And Guy Pierce.

[Commercial Narrator]

Arm up.

[Mo]

The Dog Star. Directed by Ridley Scott. In theaters August 28th. Get tickets now. Rated R. Under 17 out of mid without parents.

[Commercial Voice 2]

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[Mo]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Early Thoughts. And as you can see, Tom has already given up. He's not coming back. He's ended up with me already. Sad. One week.

[Sam]

Oh, what could you possibly have done to him one week in?

[Mo]

I really don't know. It took praz a couple years to get fed up with me. But Tom. No, I'm only joking. He's on holiday. He's having a lovely break and I'm so lucky. Look who I've got. Look who I've got.

[Sam]

He stuck with me.

[Mo]

Substitute Sam, how are you?

[Sam]

I'm really good, thanks, Mo. How are you doing?

[Mo]

I'm very well, thank you very much. I'm enjoying the summer. I'm enjoying FPO back, actually. I think I'm more enthusiastic than last season, actually. The start of it around the same period.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Mo]

I don't know if it was the World Cup. I don't know. I don't know about you, how you're feeling.

[Sam]

I think it's the World Cup. I think there's something about the World cup that keeps that, like, football momentum going. And you kind of like, oh, this has been a good summer. England were quite Good. The World cup was much better than I thought it was going to be. And then you came out of the World cup immediately into like, here's some FPL stuff coming. So I think it's kept the kind of hype. I don't know whether I might get some like mid season that first international break. I might get some like mid season. Itis like, because there's surely there's going to be a lull at some point. But right now I'm super excited for football to be back. And Mo, I think part of it is because spurs, surely we can't, we surely can't be bad this year. Surely moving.

[Mo]

I think it's only right. I actually ask you, you've had a very good summer. I think most clubs are very envious of you guys. How are you feeling? You must be, you must be excited.

[Sam]

Oh yeah, it's the first time. And it's funny because somebody was talking to me about this the other day and I was like, I can't remember another summer ever where we've done this. Like, even when we saw Kane, we didn't really go and do this. Like we didn't go and spend a lot of money and people are like, where's all the money coming from? And I'm like, you know that we have like Beyonce and Jay Z and all these like gigs and the NFL like all of that raises quite a chunk of money. Plus the club invested an extra 100mil this year for transfer spends and they've backed Deserby and like for years and years. All these new managers that have come in and I've gone, they need to back them. Like you've got, you got to give them the money and they haven't done it. Whereas this time they genuinely have gone and they've backed a Zerby. They've given him the players that he's asked for and apparently a couple more still to come. But not only that, like today it comes out that Mickey Vanderban's about to sign a five year deal. I mean from a player that thought he might leave at the beginning of the year when it was all going wrong, to now such an important player signing a five year deal that's almost more important than all the other signings that we've done. But the fact that he can see there's a, there's a, a growth going on there now, new players coming in, improving the squad. Spurs posting videos of Kulasevsky and Kuda's back in training again. And I'm like, finally finally there's a squad. Finally, everyone who's there seems to want to be. And if they don't want to be, there's a plan to move them on, which is what you need, really.

[Mo]

I can hear the excitement. This is quite nice because spurs have been in. They've been in a bad place for the last couple of season. Relegation.

[Sam]

Honestly, Mo, I go there every other week, Every home game I'm there and I have to. I. For two years I've sat through absolute dross, to be honest, for two years. Finishing 17th, not winning games, managers getting sacked, players getting booed. Like, it's just been really, really difficult. So this year I am genuine and it's bl and typical, isn't it? The first home game of the season. Where am I on holiday? So I'm going to miss the first home game of this season. So I've told my mum she's got to cheer extra loudly in my absence this time around, but I can't wait to get back there. We're actually, all of us going to the preseason friendly against Hoffenheim next Saturday, so that'll be a good opportunity to see the new boys and get a feel for how everyone's feeling.

[Mo]

Yeah, usually. I'm glad you're excited because I'm excited to see what Deser is going to do with this team, hopefully, because he's quite a volatile manager. Let's hope by Christmas he has another fight. He hasn't had a fight with the players or the board and. And somehow, somehow it's gone pear shaped.

[Sam]

I don't think maybe this is the way that he. This is the club he changes his ways at. Maybe, Mo.

[Mo]

Yeah, but he's a really good manager. Well.

[Sam]

Oh, he's so good.

[Mo]

I remember even Pep Guardiola talking about him saying that his Brighton team was one of the teams he looked at. Was like almost a new wave of what might be coming next in football. And let me two, just quickly, two transfers before we delve into to pl one of them. You might be taking one from my team. Gakpo. You've been hearing about that.

[Sam]

Yeah. It sounds like we might be doing a little bit swaps for different players in different positions. So it sounds as if you're playing a little bit of hard to get with the Gakpo thing. I think you need. You need a couple more to come in before you're happy to give Gakpo up. I'm not entirely sure that Gakpo is what we need. I think we have in Solanki a really decent number nine. Anyway if. And it's a big if if he can stay fit with us with a decent enough understudy in Richardson. Our weakest part of our team is that left hand side and I know Gakpo can play there and has played there for you guys before. I'm not sure whether that's actually his strongest position or not. And I think I would rather that we went after a left sided player and maybe we are with Savino apparently we're also trying to be in for Rashford so maybe we're also in for those guys and maybe if we get Gakpo that means that Richarlison maybe is moving on. I don't mind the gapo thing though. I always think that you know, maybe he needs a fresh start away from Liverpool because it's not gone that well for him. So maybe actually a new club, a new star might be a good thing for him. I think I'd rather keep Ted Spence though. And it appears that you want to tempt. Tempt him away from us.

[Mo]

Makes sense. It makes sense. He can cover both left and right back. We're very short the squad like you said. Unlike you who's been buying everyone. We've been buying no one. We've been.

[Sam]

You did this last summer, right though?

[Mo]

Yeah. And it didn't really work out that well actually. We spent big and unfortunately it didn't really materialize. I'm hoping those players.

[Sam]

I think that was the manager though. Yeah.

[Mo]

Yeah. I think he did lose the dressing room. I think that was quite adamant. But this new manager we've got, he's a lovely. We all seen his football at Bournemouth but if they don't help him over squad, it's pointless. So I'm really hoping we do a Tottenham and get stuck.

[Sam]

And the good thing about Spence, you know if you do end up getting him is that he. You're right he can play right and left back but he can also. He can also play in advanced positions. We. We played him a lot in midfield last season because we were. We were struggling for minutes and players were injured left, right and center and as we know. So yeah, I, I really like him. I also like his attitude. Like he brings. He brings a. An enthusiasm and. And I think sometimes you know like a bit like we took. When we took Andy Robertson from you. We did that because we needed the leadership. You've got some leaders. I think you need that like get up and go about you sometimes. I feel like Liverpool were a bit sluggish last year and they could have done with somebody who's a bit like, come on, let's, let's go. And Spence is definitely that.

[Mo]

Well, let's see if that. I think if that works, I think Liverpool fans and spurs fans will be happy. I think Gatpo is not as bad as people make him out to be. He's a good. No, he's a good player. He might not be elite player, but he's a very good player. And let me, let me, let me bring you back into fpl. Sam, how have you been? How's. We're going to look at your draft, obviously very soon, but how have you been to the start of the season? We spoke about the excitement. What about team. How many drafts are you in? Draft iteration 500 or draft iteration 2? Like where, where are you?

[Sam]

Oh, no, I'm a. I'm. I'm tinkering. And I said to myself that. So obviously, because I do the official podcast, we record the podcast in advance of the game going live so that it's ready for as soon as the game is live. So I had it a little bit ahead and I obviously get sworn to secrecy and not a top boy. So I don't, you know, don't tell anybody anything. Yeah. And I, I made my team. And then I, I said to myself that was going to be it. I was going to leave it alone and I wasn't going to look at it again for at least a couple of weeks. That didn't happen, did it? Like, it didn't happen because before you know it, I was like, you know, we're. Because I think because the season's an extra week out from launch. I was like, well, I got extra week. So much can happen with pre season with the transfer market. The players aren't back from the World cup yet. I can't stop myself tinkering. I think I'm on about 855 or something ridiculous. Like, I can't stop it and I'm not. What's interesting though, is I'm changing around the edges. What I've noticed is that there's become like a core that's just not moved.

[Mo]

Okay.

[Sam]

So I, I think I'm pretty set with a number of them. And then it's just gonna be like sometimes it's like, oh, there's like my third forward. I can't decide on that one. It's been about eight different players so far, but the other two have stayed pretty static the whole time. You can probably guess who they are.

[Mo]

I've got A feel I've got a good.

[Sam]

Yeah. And how about you? Are you on loads?

[Mo]

So I think this is a good contrast. I'm actually not. So I'm actually drafting you see very similar. A couple of changes from last week but I think I've got a nucleus of players that I'm quite happy with and I think there's maybe three or four players. Watch me say this now and then game before I change all 11. But. But at the moment I'll be honest with you and it's actually a good segue. We're going to go to my team. I'm going to show you on the screen. So it's my team first. Yeah, let's have a look. So I'm going to run through the team first and then. Then we're going to talk about my team. So Kingski. Yep. I've got spurs player. See I'm confident you know. Yeah you are about your boys.

[Sam]

So Kings Clearty.

[Mo]

Yes. And then I've got Luke Shaw, Mascara, Caly Vardo that's the back four and in midfield I've got Double United and Bumo Bruno Fernandez and then I've got SOS who seems to be in everyone's team and Anderson so he makes a new appearance that changed from last week. I had Phil Foden is. Is Anderson at the moment and then I've got Xiao Pedro and Harlan the two that everyone's got on the bench. I've got. Well Foster doesn't play but I've got Pascal Gross who is an interesting one. There's quite a lot of players in that. That bracket there. I've been thinking about whether it's Sangar. What about what's his name? Ampadu? Is it the least one? He's good as well at 5.5. So there's a couple of players that I've been thinking about and then after that I've got the Moroccan legend Diop and then my third sub. My third sub. He doesn't play anyway. So.

[Sam]

So two non playing guys there.

[Mo]

It well dealt please.

[Commercial Voice 2]

Doesn't he.

[Sam]

No, I mean the goalkeeper.

[Mo]

Oh you worried me for a minute. I was about to say

[Sam]

good.

[Mo]

The way I look at it. The way I look at it. Or Sam. So third playing sub. It's very rare I put money there because I mean if I need my first sub I'm better off. Wildcard. That means I'm really in trouble.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah. Unless you're planning an early bench boost which some people are. So you're obviously not.

[Mo]

So that's why I was going to come to chips, but I'm gonna. Your team's gonna be very good for chip talk. But we've mentioned it now so you can tell by this team, bench boost is not included obviously in this draft. I have played around with one version where I do bench boost whether it's in game week one and I've looked at game week two. Yeah, I like bench boost one more, if I'm honest with you. Game week two bench boost was reliant quite a lot on the Coventry Hull fixture.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Mo]

Which the whole fixture could be good. I would need a clean sheet potentially to come out of it as a real success which I'm not that confident in. So if I do bench boost early Salmon and I change my, my draft, it'll be for bench boost 1. If not, I'm gonna wait for the information and hope something materializes. Whether, you know, whether safe example Harlan gets injured then, then eventually becomes so easy. My subs would be 5.5 million pound players. We've got so much money, we'd be,

[Sam]

we'd be well off rolling in.

[Mo]

It would be exactly easy. So I'm gonna possibly wait or there could be a cancellation or something random could happen. That's the plan at the moment. I'll be honest with you. I might still tweak that. But what do you think of the team, sir?

[Sam]

Do you know what? I like this. There's so much about this I like the, the double Arsenal defense is fascinating to me because I, I go back and forwards constantly about Arsenal defense at the minute because obviously everyone wants Gabrielle But 8 million, it's just the impact it has on the rest of the team I don't love. And then I look at the others and I'm like, right, well is this Arsenal defense actually going to be good without Saliba? Because when Gabrielle and Saliba play together, that's when they're at their prime, their optimum.

[Mo]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Will they be without. Will we see rotation? Will Arsenal go and try and sign somebody else like they've been linking to and talking about during the, the pre season? And if they do go and get an another center back if you know, if one of them comes in a lot of rumor about cons or if that happens, what does that mean in terms of the, the center back situation and what does that in turn mean for the others? Like do we see a shifting in who's playing where? I'm definitely having one. I don't. That's the one thing I would say is I don't know how much I trust them. Even with the decent fixes at the beginning

[Mo]

because of the lack of Saliba. Yeah, I mean that's a.

[Sam]

Maybe I read too much into that. But that's no but you're right, but

[Mo]

it's a valid point. He's an elite center back, probably the best now since this after Van Dyke. But I still, I still think that the way Arteta sets up his team, I don't think they're going to be there. I mean I know they had a preseason. Was it yesterday? Was it Wednesday? They played and they conceded three chances. I mean that's a pre season game. I think when Arsenal, when, when it's the when when it starts, the Premier League starts, I think they'll be back

[Sam]

to like the good thing with Arsenal. Yeah and the good thing with them is that we get the community shield so we get a proper game heading in. That gives us a bit of insight as well. So we can kind of see what Arteta chooses to do with that back line and obviously hope that if he does decide to sign somebody for that position that he does it prior to the game week one deadline rather than waiting till transfer deadline day because obviously that puts us in a better position to know. I the Gavardi I'll pick and the Shore picks I really like. I think the the Gavardio pillar comments from Oreska changed a lot of people's opinions because there was lots of managers out there trying to fit in. Nico O'Reilly trying to fit in. Mark Gay he and suddenly you feel like oh okay, well I don't need to spend that extra million or 0.5 I can go in cheaper. And by going in cheaper it's enabled you to have an incredibly strong 11. So I like that Luke Shaw the Manchester United fixtures just look too good to not to not have lots of Manchester United players. And that's the one thing I hate about my current draft is that there's not enough Manchester United players in it. I don't think like just having Bruno isn't going to be enough, particularly for those opening two weeks. I don't think so. I do like the Shore pick. I quite like the Maguire pick but it's a bit more so you've got that to kind of consider the double up in midfield. I really like I'm interested in your opinion on the Sabozai versus Verts thing because I was set on Sabazlai and then the pre season fixtures have me looking lovingly back over at Verts but I was Burnt last year Mo and I'm worried I might be burnt again.

[Mo]

Yes. And I can, I can see why. With the manager talking about birds as well. Playing in the 10, he's going to be much closer to goal than. Than previously before under slot there was times he had to drop back and help build play. It sounds like at the moment the, the two pivots, they will be doing that and he's. He's gonna stay further up and basically be behind Isaac which is, which is good for us. And yeah, it's only 0.5 more. I, I have got that in my head. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm. It's. I'm. I'm a bit concerned because of. We still remember last season but then also it is so. And like he's so good. He's really good. Like he is. He's like.

[Sam]

And had the summer off. Like no World Cup.

[Mo]

Yep. Yep.

[Sam]

Set pieces.

[Mo]

He's going to be deeper though, Sam. He's going to be deeper. I'm not sure how what people think about that. He's definitely going to play in a double pivot. He'll probably. If Vers comes off he'll probably move into the 10 like we saw in the last game against Leeds. That will be quite common because we've got more people that can play in the double than. Than the 10. And he takes corners and set pieces and his act's not on the pitch. Probably penalties. So you can hear, you can see why he's a popular pick.

[Sam]

It almost feels like the Declan Rice bakayo saka conversation at Arsenal this one, doesn't it? It's like you've got one who naturally should be more attacking, should get more attacking returns in and particularly more goals in the kind of sack of verts position. And then you've got on the flip of that the Sabaur side Declan Rice position which is. Should really get less goals but is on a lot of set pieces. So should get a lot of assists. And he's playing in the slightly deeper role so should also pick up more defcon points. And Liverpool, he's traditionally quite good for that as well to be fair. And if he's playing in an eight, you would expect him to do more of that. So it's that kind of risk reward thing like so boss for me. So Bosnia's been in every single draft. I've not taken him out. He's been there constantly since day one. As soon as I opened the game and saw it was 7 million, I was like, well that's a absolute no brainer. He. That is super cheap. He's on set pieces like you say. If Isac isn't on the pitch for whatever reason, I would expect him to be on the penalties, Defcon corners, free kicks, you name it. Suppose I seems to have it all. Plus I think I was also buying into a little bit of the hype around Liverpool because obviously in my house with my husband, there's a lot of Liverpool watching that goes on and a

[Mo]

lot of Liverpool propaganda.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah. And my algorithm seems to be just as heavy with Liverpool as it is Spurs, I think because he talks about Liverpool around my phone, so it feeds me Liverpool stuff. So I'm seeing all these videos of Saboslai whipping free kicks in and. And he was in all of the preseason stuff now. All right. In part that's because he was the only one really left there because else is at the World cup and he was around. So you saw him doing all the kit launch and SAO in the stadium and Sasai here Sai there. So it was everything. And maybe I bought into the hype there, but I also have. I definitely have some trauma from owning Verts early on last season when he just wasn't the player that I thought he would be. And I do think it will be better under Iriola. I really do. And I think the position he's going to play next to Isac will make him really good. But I just can't decide whether spending 0.5 more on him is worth it given all of the routes to points that SAO has.

[Mo]

Agree. And I. I totally agree. Or everything you said there. I think he will perform better. Not just the new manager, just the second year in the Premier League. I think last season he was quiet, he was quite timid, very clean, very technical. He's lovely on the eye. But I'd watch him and I'd think have we done anything today? Like I was in the last. The most important part of someone in his position and when you cost that much money. Yeah, realistically you've got to impact the game because he's. We know, we know he can do everything else. So I'm hoping this season he gets that and you know, he gets a bit more confident and starts actually believing he's. Because realistically this team's going to be built around him and is actually the spine. So I hope so.

[Sam]

Talk to me about the Anderson versus phone.

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[Mo]

so this is actually what I was going to go to next so you spoke about soberslight and verse and that conundrum there. I've had it quite a lot around the whole team Anderson and folding is one of them. So I'm I'm back and forth of the folding pick. We we. Well I say we I I like folding as a player. I know last season I'm not quite sure what happened with him and Pep

[Sam]

because at one stage they must have fallen out.

[Mo]

Something must have happened because it's very strange. I know people always say no and whatnot but it just seemed like instant he just vanished. But I like Foden. I like the position behind Harlan the way Mariska plays. The two behind the forward are always going to be dangerous. They're going to be close to goal and they're going to pick up points. The only worry I had with Foden is Cherokee. Now I know he had a disappointing World cup so he stocks probably all remember the that version maybe but we saw last season and he's like he's ratio for the minutes he played last season was amazing. He was very very good. He impacted the games and I just can't help think oh his minutes gonna be an issue. What do you think? Do you think he's going to be one of the main guys?

[Sam]

Honestly, Mo, I'm. I am really struggling with this one because before the pillars comment was said, Lee and I had a whole conversation about the man city midfield on one of our Ohana podcasts and I said to him, I don't. He said, Anderson, yeah, he's gonna pick up there because he's going to play in the Roger world. Right. So he's going to pick up defcon. Roger was good for defcon last year. Elliot Anderson be good for defcon. You're pretty much guaranteed four, probably five most weeks if they keep a clean sheet as well. And then it's just. Is there any upside? Does he join the attack in the same way that we were starting to see him do or we saw him do at points of last season? But then you've got the Foden thing and the Cherokee thing and the Doku thing as well. I don't think Doku should go on commented on because obviously he has an existing relationship with Maresca. We know that, you know, they've played worked together before. He was good for him there. I can't decide whether the potential in those guys is worth the risk factor because there's going to be rotation because as always, Manchester City have too many players to play in too few positions. So you, you got lots of players there that Mareska's going to try and keep happy now some of them are going to leave. Sounds like Savino might come to spurs if we don't get Rapo. Maybe even if we do Po, who knows.

[Mo]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah. It's still.

[Mo]

My riders might be going as well. They've lost the Bernardo Rodri could still go as well potentially. Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah. So you, you've. But you've got Marmu still there. You've got, you know, there's plenty of players in, in and around that squad and, and I don't think we're yet to be certain who plays where. But what was really interesting for me was that preseason friendly where not only did Foden start, he was handed the captain's armband.

[Mo]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And he's had a summer off and I just thought, oh, that's interesting because whilst I think Elliot Anderson will turn the points really nicely unless you plan to hold him all season, I just think it will be a steady churn if you plan to hold him all season. I think in the end, like if you had earlier Anderson all the way through last season, he was been a phenomenal pick if you just picked him for four or five weeks here or there maybe was still a good pick. If you picked him in the moments where he also added the attacking returns. Whereas with Foden I think we'll see a load of two pointers but we'll also see some massive spikes because would it shock you for him to do like nothing for a couple of weeks and then hit a hat trick like that?

[Mo]

Normally sell him. You normally sell him before he does that hat trick. That's the problem.

[Sam]

You do. Yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

[Mo]

Because he done it last season. He done nothing. Nothing. And then he had four double digit returns in a row. Yeah, I mean no one's worked what happened. No one knows what happened there because that was. That's one of the FPO mysteries. Injuries. But it's really tough.

[Sam]

It's tough.

[Mo]

It is a tough one. It. Part of me starts thinking like this. So folder normally would be my player. An attacking player that could score from open play. Whether it's a set, anything he's capable of, anything he is on his day when, when he's playing to his ability. It's amazing. And I've always loved FPL my team to have attackers. But last season I got destroyed because

[Sam]

I probably deck on monsters. Yes.

[Mo]

I neglected them because I had flying fullbacks which didn't do nothing. I had attacking players and then I saw teams in my mini league destroying me and they've got five guys booting the stadium. And I said, you know what I said this season I must respect this season I must respect it a bit more. So maybe Anderson is my almost version and maybe gross and maybe if I had amped you in one other version as well, maybe I am thinking not, not to forget what happened last season that that could be the why I'm doing that.

[Sam]

I get that. I totally get that because like I last season, my big mistake, I mean the defcon thing is part of it but my big mistake last season was I did not start with Joe Pedro because I didn't did. I didn't fancy him same and I and the world and its wife had Joe Pedro and I just didn't get it. And I thought no, no, I want to start with Solanke I think. And I thought I'm just going to do that because like the spurs fixtures more and X, Y and Z and then I think I was just stubborn with it and it got to a point where I also had a lot of problems with my team. So there was a lot of injuries. So I Had to keep dealing with people, which meant that I never had the opportunity to deal with Dalpegu apart from to take a hit. And so then it was just problem after problem after problem and I waited too long to get him. And so I'm partly. I'm trying to learn my lessons from last season and a bit like you, the DEFCON thing is playing a part in my head now. There's two differences this year, I guess. The first one is the. The finances behind these guys, right? So the defenders who got DEFCON last year have gone through the roof in price. So you want to own them and you could think they're still going to get DEF CON again. Well, you're going to have to pay extra for it. So actually, does that make them less attractive in terms of the points that they might bring in per million? And is it therefore better to go back to the flying wing backs of previous years? Because all right, maybe they don't get the same number of points, but they certainly enable your team better.

[Mo]

A couple more bigger hitters.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But then Anderson is funny because he still sits at that really attractive price point. Like if he'd have come in at seven the same as Phil Foden, I think more people would have just got our risk on Foden. But because Elliot Anderson's that point five that there's an attractiveness there because it's a DEFCON guy, regular points. But I've also got an extra 0.5 I can spend everywhere else.

[Mo]

And we must remember Sam, Manchester City. I know it's Maresca, it's a new, new manager, but he's a pep student. And the point I'm getting at is Anderson. It's not like a traditional six. All he's gonna. He's gonna. When. When they're so dominant in certain matches he's going to be higher up as well where he could get involved. Like you said, make the past that creates the. Gets that assist or even, you know, have a shot himself, which he has shown he's capable of. So I don't think is a. When you make it sound like it's just the six I always think of as six is just like someone that just kicks people down all game, basically collecting yellow cards. I don't see him as that. I think he's. The amount of money he cost is clearly more than that. So I am hoping. But I am still playing around with that position. So you're right to say that he's one of the ones. Earlier on I said to you maybe say 60 of this team is locked, but there is. He's one of the ones. I'm not 100 knocks of his ability, but it's good that Temptations folding and like it really is. And just before we finish up on my team actually Sam, and go to your team. I wanna. I had that same with Luke Shaw and. And Harry Maguire. Luke Shaw's nice and cheap entry point into the Manchester United defense. Hopefully pick up a couple cleans especially for the first two fixtures. But then Harry Maguire is so good, you look at his stats in the air, how powerful he is. That's quite tempting.

[Sam]

Yeah. Because he could do really well, particularly in those opening two games against the newly promoted, couldn't he?

[Mo]

Yeah. Yeah. And am I right? Is he from. Was he bought from Hull? Is that. Is that correct? Oh my God. That wrong. Can you remember, Was it him and Robinson? Was it him and Robinson was there? Yeah, I'm sure. Let me have got that wrong. Double check that.

[Commercial Voice 2]

I'm sure.

[Sam]

I'm gonna check that. I think I do remember seeing him in it. Yeah. There are pictures of him in a whole show.

[Commercial Voice 2]

Yeah.

[Commercial Narrator]

Yeah.

[Mo]

Him and Robertson were both from Mahal. So I got this feeling it's written. You know what it's gonna happen, isn't it?

[Sam]

He's joined in 2014 for 2.5 million. Harry Maguire from home.

[Mo]

He's been. He's been incredible. Yeah. And Robertson and. And the other one is I've got the double Arsenal defense. Now first of all, could I somehow move that money around and do something better? And then if I do have to pick one. Mascara was the early like popular pick.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Mo]

Who would you pick if you had to just pick one of them.

[Sam]

I've got mascara. Yeah.

[Mo]

All right. So that tells you mascara as well. So you're. Yeah. Do you think he's more safer for minutes?

[Sam]

I think he's safer for minutes while Saliba's out. And I also think part of it feeds into the defcon thing. Center back, defcons easy.

[Mo]

I'm not sure if he's going to be kicking. I mean Arsenal are so dominant. I'll be surprised. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'll be surprised. Arsenal so, so strong. They're probably gonna have the ball for the majority of the matches, but yeah, I think that that's my other position. One more before we move on is Xiao Pedro position. We just spoke about the pain he caused me and you not starting with him. I did look around thinking could I get away with 6 million pound strikers. And then. I know, I know. I remember the pain hit straight away. I went, I went, nah, don't do it.

[Sam]

Just, just don't do it.

[Mo]

Just, just.

[Sam]

It's not worth it. It's not worth it.

[Mo]

It's not. It's not. Because this guy like you, because me and you had similar seasons. We were both in struggling. Yeah. Throughout the majority of it. But.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Mo]

So I think you're right. I'm gonna stop doing overthinking.

[Sam]

But I just think that it's one of those, isn't it? Where like I thought, oh, maybe I don't need him. First draft, maybe I don't need him. And then I'm like. And then he's. Bang. Comes off the bench in a friendly and bangs a hat trick. And I'm just like, oh, God, I can't. And then they sign Morgan Rogers and I'm thinking Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer feeding J. Pedro just. No, I can't. I can't risk that. Because if you remember last year, Morgan Rogers was putting balls in for fun at Aston Villa and just no one was finishing them. And so he didn't pick up any points. I mean, he certainly got someone to finish them. And we know what J. Pedro is like at going over in the box and winning a penalty that Cole Palmer then slots home. No, thanks. It's too risky for me. I'm going to start with him. Fair.

[Mo]

Fair. Okay. So anyway, I think that was a good assessment of my team before we move on to your team, though. So there's one thing I've been obsessed with recently and that's the rate my team feature on the scout site. I'm going to show you my team. We'll look at your team after. So you might have some reservations about my team, but look what's. Look what the.87 points. It's not bad.

[Sam]

It's not bad at all. It does not like your defense very much, does it? 67 for your defense.

[Mo]

Considering I've got Coventry first, Coventry against Arsenal at home. I mean, I'm not gonna jinx it, but that sounds like to me it's a clean sheet there.

[Sam]

I think it's because your defense for game week one looks good, but I think it worries about the long term or medium term implications of Califuria mascara, especially with the. Because you've got. All right, Diop is fine. You can, you can play him. But I think that's part of the issue is it's looking at those minutes. And even, even with Gavardio, we Didn't get like loads of minutes last season.

[Mo]

That's what it is. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's not favoring him because last seat because of last season. So naturally, the models are always going to be a bit wary.

[Sam]

Preseason goes on. I think we might see the models as if. As he plays more in pre season, we probably see the models reflect them a little bit kinder, shall we say. But it certainly doesn't mind. It. It's. Yeah, I don't mind. This team at almost. The bench is off putting. But the. As you said, you only really need a couple of subs in the opening weeks. Honestly, you're not taking risks.

[Mo]

Sam, if I'm going to my third sub, that means I need a wild card. That's the honest truth. If I reach there, if I'm getting week two and I'm going, oh, God, is that wallet that Wally? Is he gonna start today? Then I'm wild carded. I'm not season. Because last season I tried to do like you said. I was fighting fires. I was. I don't want to take a hit me. You know, I was super. Being. What's the word? Patient. This season, if I see that.

[Sam]

No patience. Mo.

[Mo]

I'm not going to be very extreme, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna try my best to just. Yeah, no, no, honestly, I'm gonna try my best just somewhere in between. Because last season I was too far the other way. Calm.

[Sam]

Don't worry.

[Mo]

Next week they'll be okay. Next week and it wasn't the case. Right, we're gonna go to your team now, Sam, and you can take us through your team, please.

[Sam]

So it's not actually hugely dissimilar to yours. There's a lot of. There's a lot of similarities in there, including the goalkeeper. We've both gone for Kinski. However, I trust my goalkeeper less than you do because you've got him as your set and forget goalkeeper. And you're just. You're just living your best life with Kinski. I have decided that I think I've watched first too, too often and I'm slightly wary, let's. Let's say wary of them because I do know we can be leaky. And so I've decided to pair him with Rushworth because there's a nice rotating pairing there with Coventry and Spurs. So in the weeks where I wouldn't necessarily want to play Kinski, then I can play Rushworth now. I had a lot of. I am with you, by the way, in that I don't like the early bench boosting.

[Commercial Voice 2]

Now.

[Sam]

I appreciate that that sounds a bit odd for somebody that's coming here with a lot of Coventry players sitting on my bench. Because in theory this could be a team that is bench boosted in game week two. The bench guys will talk about in a second. But Kinski and Rushworth I like as a pairing and they have been my pairing from day dot. Even before Rushworth moved to Coventry, I had the pair of them in the hope that he was going to do that.

[Mo]

Can I ask you something? Quickly, please, just before you continue. It's actually something that was in my mind I should have asked you before is should I put the prep is the pref card back up for Kinski so then I can have a guarantee, is it? So I've got to fix that instead of Foster. All right, I would.

[Sam]

Sorry. Because also you're unlikely to want to have three spurs assets straight away anyway. So you might do later on, if we suddenly become good, which you know might happen, then you might want three spurs. But for now, in the early weeks of the season, you could just go for Kinski and De Brafka as a pairing and know you've always got a goalkeeper. The back three, Mascara and Gavard obviously are in your team. I like both of them. I've currently got Van Heck there because I'm, I think, like you said before, when we're talking about yours, I'm trying to learn my lesson about the Defcon players and the. The center backs and all of that stuff. So I've gone for Van Heck. I don't. I don't know that I love it. I don't know that I love the spurs defensive double up either. I don't have a Manchester United defender at the moment, so the move from Van Heck to Harry Maguire or to Luke Shaw definitely could be a thing for sure.

[Mo]

Is he spotting Sam? Because you just said you've bought Senesi, you've got Van Hick and your site, you're keeping your prize. So what's the situation there?

[Sam]

I am expecting Van Heck and Van De Ven to be our starting center back pairing alongside in game week one. I'd expect it to be Robertson rather than New Doggy and then obviously Pedro Poros in the right back position. I do think that there might be some matches, possibly quite a few matches where we play a system that Desire Deserby doesn't normally play, where we play Van Heck, Van De Ven and Senesi at the back and allow Pedro Poro and you doggy. I thought it might be Pedro Poro and Spence but seems like it might not be now but Pedro pouring your doggy to bomb forwards because they really like that kind of freedom to go forwards and that would leave them three solids at the back. The other thing is is that Senesi's here. He's only just back with the squad. We were already away when he came back to from the World cup so he didn't do any of the pre season tour with them. I don't even think he's met Deserby yet until this week. So I'm. I'm expecting and I don't know if you read the interview Mo between the. The Deserby gave where he was talking about how when Brighton scored that last minute goal against spurs and there was all that concern about whether that might actually be the goal that sent spurs down deserves given an interview where he said so Van Heck supplied the assist for that goal and he said afterwards obviously he worked with him before he said he, he texted him and he said you trying to take us down, you'll have to come back and join us. And there's this whole. It's a really interesting interview and he basically told him you have to come and join us now. And since then he's not given up on it apparently until. Until he did the deal I didn't know that. So I think Van. Van Heck has very much been bought as first choice and Van De Vent is very much first choice like that. That is the pairing.

[Mo]

I think he wouldn't stay I don't think because a lot of clubs would have been after him. So I'd like. I think by just by him signing it's almost a guarantee I'm starting and,

[Sam]

and actually he's been the captain right for most of the games at the end of the season or all the games at the end of the season. So yeah Van Heck and Van De Ven is what I'm expecting. I've got Mitchell and Thomas both starting defenders as well. So a full strength back line. The Mitchell pick I like. Crystal Palace's fixtures are nice. I think he's an easy in and out whether I go for Thomas or whether I go for Diop I'm kind of here nor there with it. Like it's just a. It's just a cheap. It's just a cheap defender. I'm not, I'm not entirely sure which one I'll land on but I'll land on one of them. The midfield five Fernandez and supposedly I've been there since day one. I, I don't think I'll change out either of them. Pascal Gross for me was one of the difference makers in my season last year. Going for him early made such a difference in that second half of the season and during the double game weeks. So the minute that Welbeck left I was like right, well now I've got a midfielder who I trust because he's on set pieces and gets defcon a lot and is now likely on penalties. This just feels like Annie's five and a half million. Like this just feels like a bit of a no brainer and I'm happy to play him every week. There's not many five and a half millions that I'm not. I, I would be happy to play every week but with Gross I am. Phil, phone's a risk as we've talked about. It's risky. I don't know if I love it. I backwards and forwards on it constantly. But right now I think I'm prepared to take that risk unless something massively drastically changes in preseason. And then I've got Grimes who again has been there since day one and I, and I think that this is a little bit, maybe it's a little bit old school FPL of me to be honest. Mo this because I always think on my, my fifth midfielder should be the cheap one have if you're gonna have a cheap player in the eight forward line put it in the midfield because they can pick up the defcons and that stuff. And I was looking up defensive contribution points across the newly promoted teams like what did they get last season? And I was like Grimes feels like the one. There's some attacking threat there but there's also defensive contribution potential. And there's the game against Hull in game week two if I want to play him. But there's a million in the bank with this team and so Grimes has the potential to be a 6 million player if I want him to be. And if I take Van Heck down to Luke Shaw, he actually has the potential to be a seven million

[Commercial Voice 3]

or

[Sam]

six and a half. Yeah, six and a half. Seven million. Like I can move budget around. I would really like to get to a place where I've got the double Manchester United attack that requires Igor Jesus to be Ollie McBurney.

[Mo]

Yeah.

[Commercial Voice 2]

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[Mo]

Sam's Club isn't a store? It's actually a club with cool finds and like a whole community. It's a club.

[Sam]

Of course, Jason.

[Mo]

It's in the name.

[Commercial Voice 3]

Sam's Club.

[Mo]

Oh, yeah. Come join us. Sam's Club. You'd have to. That's why you'd have to find some money here.

[Sam]

And maybe I don't mind cheaper. Yeah, but maybe I don't mind the Eagle Jesus's Ollie McBurney thing because then I've got 1.5. That 1.5 goes quite a chunk of the way to getting Grimes up to embomo and Van heck take another 0.5 out of him and suddenly I'm almost there. So I need to consider it really carefully. You've burnt a slot. That is the other option. I get Wally a burn a slot and we're done and we move on. Or I take the 0.5 out of Rushworth and I do Kinski into Bravka. Like it's all doable. I'm for. For somebody who's absolutely adamant that she's not bench boosting in one and two. I don't know why I feel so set on having a fully playing bench because I know I won't bench boost. I'm planning.

[Mo]

Or more importantly Sam. More importantly Sam. That question is very important because this team, if I see this team here, I'd say first of all, triple like a promoted team.

[Sam]

Oh, it's madness.

[Commercial Narrator]

That is.

[Mo]

That is crazy. Especially you could justify if he was going to bench boost. But you're telling me you're not going to bench boost?

[Sam]

Nope.

[Mo]

So for me, immediately, straight away, Eva, you do the De Brevca and save that 0.5 because that goes a long way for your.

[Sam]

Oh, it does.

[Mo]

And. And maybe the first two subs. Because Mitchell, for example, good player. He's been. He's been so good quietly going about. He's a business since he's jumped into that team. But he could become Canva, which is a little bit more money. So that's a defcon machine there. Straight away you're getting. You're getting a player. It's only zero point. Yeah, it's 5 million, he's 4.5. So stuff like that, you could immediately get another Man United player potentially somewhere. Like you said, said you've got the money. So if you're not bench boosting, oh, I'm surprised you're investing that much.

[Sam]

Do you know, it's one of those things where I think that when I first obviously set this team up, Rushworth was still in a Brighton kit. So it wasn't quite so obviously Coventry. Do you know what I mean now? And. And the Thomas position is one that's changed repetitively. So I've repetitively moved across the 4.0s jot was in there for a while. I had had Giles from Hull for a little while. I've had like, I've just moved around with the 4.0s and I haven't really settled on one because there hasn't really been one. Like, hasn't really been one in pre season where that's really kind of gone. Yep, I'm the 4.0. And so I think because of that I've bounced around. So it isn't. Again, there's not been that many drafts where I've looked at it and gone, God, there's three commentary players in my team, like, because there hasn't been for large chunks of it, obviously Rushworth was at Brighton and then Grimes was my only Coventry player. And I think also with this, I always. I never start the season with zero in the bank. I always start with 0.5 because the 0.5 feels so valuable in terms of just being able to move after game week one. Because you know what, the, like, the whole FPL market is mad, isn't it, in the first weeks of the season and I like to have a bit of flex, so I always start with point 0.5. But having won there, I kind of look at my starting 11 and I'm like, I like that. There's. There's not a lot I don't like about that starting 11. Van Heck and Mitchell can switch in and out. Van Heck might not even keep you anyway. You might become a Manchester United defender for the first two weeks of the season anyway. And then I'd to have have 1.5 probably in the bank because I probably chopped her. Sure. So then I got another point five. So then I'm just like looking at it and thinking, well, where do I upgrade? And part of it has come. Part of the money in the bank has come because I've. I had a 6 million midfielder and I downgraded. I say with inverted commas to gross. I don't feel like that's a downgrade. But what I maybe should have done is upgraded Grimes rather than taking my 6 million midfielder down. Maybe that's the way. But I can't. The problem I had was when I did upgrade Grimes and I looked at this team I was like who on earth am I benching every week? And that's where I then went down a bit of a rabbit hole of feeling like I always thought I'm better to have somebody I'm happy to bench in the front eight.

[Mo]

I just. I just. I mean your team looks nice. I. I'll say that.

[Sam]

But it does look like a Bench Boost 2 team.

[Mo]

It does looks like. I mean if you show this in to anyone they're gonna say O sense you're bench boosting in game week two. Cuz that fixture is so good. You're getting it out of the way. So if you're not doing it I. I'm. I don't think anyone would have triple comment. Even though I just had a quick look. The fixtures. The fixtures are actually decent.

[Sam]

Like they're all right.

[Mo]

Arsenal, Man City. Yeah. Of Arsenal in. In one and Man City in three is not great. But then game week two four. There's a couple in there that's not too bad.

[Commercial Voice 3]

All right.

[Mo]

They've got some. Had a quick look then.

[Commercial Voice 2]

Wow.

[Mo]

The disrespect to Newcastle. Newcastle's a green fixture now.

[Sam]

Well yeah but Newcastle mo like.

[Mo]

I mean I know but I'm surprised. Green for them. Green for coverage. That's got to be a miscalculation. That's got to be.

[Sam]

They're awful at the minute. Yeah. Did you see them back into last season they went into 3 4. They've sold all their players.

[Mo]

Big problems for them time. But at Coventry. They're still not going to be in Newcastle. I don't think so. So. Okay. So that's one of the points of your team. Team Sam. The triple. Coventry I think is a bit. It's too much if you're not bench boosting. The second point I'm going to mention about your team is double spurs defense. Oh God. You couldn't help yourself could you? I think. I think one I think deserve. You've done a great job and you've.

[Sam]

I agree with you by the way.

[Mo]

But I think double spurs. Wow. It is. It's. I mean. Yeah. I think it's one too many.

[Sam]

I don't disagree.

[Mo]

The rest. Midfield is immaculate. But let's go to your striker. So you got eagle. Jesus.

[Sam]

But that's the spot that changes.

[Mo]

Brobie and dcl. Tell me why he's. He's in that slot. Why is he in the hot seat at the moment?

[Sam]

I don't trust dcr. I never have. I don't. And I don't believe that DCL can have the same season he did last year. I just don't. I think he had a phenomenal season last year. And again, maybe it was my stubbornness that I just sat there. Every time I watched him, I'd be like, nah, I can't continue this. Can't continue. There's absolutely no chance that Dominic Calvert Lewin can continue to do this stuff. Stuff. And then he did continue to do this stuff. And I. It made me look a bit of a fool, but I just don't trust him. I don't like the Sunderland fixtures particularly. There's some nice games in there and then there's some difficult games in there and I'm not sure that Brobie

[Mo]

for the first three, they're lovely. Ipswich, Fulham and Brentford. That's not bad at all. And he's. He's. He's a monster when he's on it.

[Sam]

He is unplayable.

[Mo]

He really is. I mean, people forget how rich the Premier League is. He's like the Dutch international striker and he plays for. For Sunderland, you know, But I think that.

[Sam]

But what you've just said is the important thing when he's on it and we didn't have much consistency from him last year is my.

[Mo]

That's all a 6 million. That's all the 6 million strikers or you're not going to get so even. Eagle J. Jesus. Who's flying in preseason? I know, but is he really gonna. Is he gonna. It's tight margins between him and Dco and Robbie.

[Sam]

That's not. But also you've got Solanke in there. Who I have.

[Mo]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Sam]

Like Solanki I've had for chunks because I really like the spurs fixes to start the season. Yeah, I think they're good. And I look at those fixtures and I think, okay, I'm a Spurs attacker for those. And then I look at the midfielders and I'm like, who do you pick? Who's gonna start? Who's gonna. Who. Who do you pick? Do you go for Madison? Do you wait and see if Kudas is fit? Because is. Does he start? But then he's surely going to ease him Back in gently. Kudasevsky is definitely going to be his back in general because only Owen Hargreaves has missed more Premier League games than Kudasevsky has for this length of time. It's like 450 odd days now that Kudasevsky has been out since he last kicked a Premier League ball. And it was a minor injury if you remember when Ange Poster Cogli told us all.

[Mo]

Minor, I remember, yeah. Yeah.

[Sam]

It's been 450 days. And on the other side you've got tell who he's having a phenomenal pre season but we're actively looking for somebody else to play in that position. You've got Xavi who's injured so obviously you can't go there. You've got Matthias Fernandez, you've got Tonali. There's so many players there. I think you've got to steer clear. So then you look at the forward line for spurs and I'm like right, well Solanke clearly is his favorite. It his comments on Solanke, all of that jazz great. Richarlison's obviously pigeoning around in the background saying he wants to stay. Coming off the bench and being the one that actually scores the goal.

[Mo]

Yeah. By the way though, isn't it? So if they don't renew they could sell him this summer. It's a weird one. If you get Gakpo he could be. He could go actually.

[Sam]

So he has said he wants to stay and fight for his place. However if we sign Gakpo he will leave.

[Mo]

Leave.

[Sam]

They will sell him.

[Mo]

I think they'll sell him. Yeah.

[Sam]

I think there's a chance that he'd get sold back to Everton so. And if he goes back to Everton because actually to be honest he's probably better than better and Barry then maybe he's not a terrible own to be honest but I just don't know enough about like if I was to start game week one with Solanke and then ahead of game week two Cody Gapo was to sign. I don't know how that would play out out in terms of the minutes in that forward line deserves. His comments on Solankia are excellent. He talks about him as his striker and all of this stuff but good stuff.

[Mo]

The best right back in the world. So he is.

[Sam]

Did you see him at the World Cup?

[Mo]

No. He was awesome. He was awesome to be fair but I think he's doing that thing and just getting the squad on. He's saying. He's saying loads of nice stuff. Watch them plays. Don't even play Come game week one be starting.

[Sam]

But my point is I think that I was looking at Solanke. I had him for a while. I don't really trust Robbie. I'm not convinced. I like Sunderland longer term and I want to be patient with my squad. I don't want to be hopping around and causing problems and all that jazz. I want to try where wherever possible to live. Be a little bit patient with them and just give them time. And I, I think Robbie, yeah for three weeks and you're a sell. So if you're going for the bench boost then early wildcard strategy great. But if you're not not I don't love it and I just don't trust Calvert Lewin. So then I'm like I'm looking at Jay Z. So I'm like okay. I don't mind the Nottingham Forest fixtures. He is in good form even if he starts up top with somebody like Chris Wood or with another strike companion. I quite like it if Morgan Morgan Rogers Morgan gives white skit was to get a move away which kind of always seems to be muted then I wouldn't fancy Igor Jesus as much. But I do as I mentioned before, I do actually quite. I don't mind the downgrade to Ollie McBurney to save 0.5. I don't mind that because I'd feel more happy to bench Ollie McBurney every week and that would mean that I'd feel much happier to upgrade Grimes and have a really big midfield five.

[Mo]

Yeah. But I'm surprised. I'm still amazed that actually when I saw your team, your343 I was still shocked to see DCL not in ahead of Jesus. I. I know you've got to think about him. You're thinking he overperformed last season. He won't repeat it. I don't know. I think Leeds fixtures are good. I think they finished the season very strong.

[Sam]

Oh they did.

[Mo]

They went into that formation. I know it's only pre season. I saw the second half against Liverpool which can't read too much into it. Liverpool made loads of changes but there is something there with that team. They've got much more heart. I think that system and players they, they, they look a good team. I don't think it's by accident, Sam. I think they're easier just just by them. But then again you could say the same thing for. For Eagle. Jesus. Glasner is going to have them well drilled and all that good stuff.

[Sam]

And you know we saw it with Mateta under Glasner right that that big striker can be a really, really powerful thing for him. The other thing to say about this team is that for a little while that Eagle Jesus position I did, I did toy with the idea of Sesko at Manchester United but we've not seen him yet. Yet. And that's the problem. So because of that you can't go there. But that at one point I was thinking well maybe that's an easy way to double United attack. But we, we haven't seen him back yet and so that's ruled that out.

[Mo]

And.

[Sam]

And because of that I'm now looking at the slightly cheaper forwards because I do not want to spend 8 million on an Ollie Watkins or any or Tiago because I think the value in. In the six and the six and and a half bracket is better.

[Mo]

Agree. And another thing about this team actually just before we finish up, I like you've gone for players almost without drinks in it. The majority of them look like they're solid for minutes which is important at the start of the season. Yeah, last thing you want. Like you said last season we both had it. We was chasing every week there's someone to fix whether it's an injury or they rotated or the only player here probably is. Is Phil Foden. Like yeah, and even him I think game week one and two, the early game weeks, I think he's going to be locked in because Cherokee will be behind I think.

[Sam]

And that was a deliberate choice because I. Because like honestly mo the constant injuries and issues last year and I just was like I can't have another season where I can't do the things I want to do because I'm always having to fix something. So I was like let's just play. Let's just pay for safety. Like let's. Let's get safety for game because I think there's going to be a hell of a lot of FPL managers out there that buy players that are risks that start the season with Morgan Rogers. I don't even know if Morgan Rogers is going to start game week one and two. He could easily be rotated in because he's not back with Chelsea yet. Yeah, like you've got so many players that are new to the league or went long in the World cup that haven't yet had pre season with their clubs wilderness and so many new managers who have spent pre season with a chunk of players who they will know now and then they'll have others that are still coming back but they won't know anything about them apart from what they've seen at the World cup or what they've watched from previous seasons. And I think there's a lot of players that are going to be really risky and that's why I don't like bench boots in one and two because I honestly think that they'll be like. It wouldn't shock me if Mareska didn't start Harlan in what in game week one and brought him off the bench. It wouldn't shock me to see Kunya not start for Manchester United in game week one against Hull. Like all of these things, I think we just have to be mindful. So I've tried as much as I can to pick players. Either the. The managers have already been speaking about them and how important they are, or they are like Bruno and everything to the team, or they haven't been to the World cup like SA and Al Pedro. Because that for me feels like the best thing to do.

[Mo]

Agree. And I really like your team Sandbirds, but does R rate my team like your team? Let's see. I got 87. Well, let me, let me. Let me look at. Let you look at the score first time and then I'll tell you. 84. I got 87. I thought I'd let you know. Sam.

[Sam]

Yeah, he likes yours a little bit more. Interestingly, it rates the goalkeepers the same despite the fact that you've got a non playing one and I've got two playing ones.

[Mo]

Then that total plays for commentary. We shouldn't be bad because they might do well, actually. They might do well.

[Sam]

You get save points.

[Mo]

Yeah, no, that's fair. Yeah.

[Sam]

I. And interestingly, rate, my team doesn't want me to play a front three. It wants me to play Grimes over Eagle Jesus, which I find very interesting. But it does like my forward line at 92. So I think there is something to be said about that. The balance isn't quite right in this squad yet. I think probably what I need to do is do Van Heck down to somebody like Luke Shaw. I think that will strengthen the back line and then that money would allow me to upgrade in the middle to give me a really solid from midfield, F5 and then possibly drop Igor. Jay Z's down to Ollie McBurney and then I've got Grimes up to a 7 million midfielder and suddenly that feels like a really strong team game and maybe I'll just get Diop instead of Thomas so I don't have free commentary.

[Mo]

I think you need the Moroccan legend in your team. I'm always gonna cheer him on. He done so well. In the World cup only 4 million. But even though your team didn't score as well as mine, Sam, I still think it done very, very well. I think 84 points compared to 87. It's all right, we'll change it when you're next back on here. You see, we'll see if you've.

[Sam]

Next time I'll win.

[Mo]

No chance, but thank you very. Actually, did you want to say something about this before?

[Sam]

I will do, yeah. So this is a. Our early bird offering. It's on for another couple of weeks but it will eventually have to come to an end and we will have to actually put the price up. So it is the best value that you are going to get this season. There's so many good things coming. We've already had the obviously the team racer and if you are a Chief scout member it will give you not just those ratings, it'll give you the whole ratings like Mo and I were talking about across every position in our team. Plus it give you recommended transfers as well. To help you do that, you can use the drafting tool to help you make players in and out. But we've got so much else coming. The apps already had an update, more widgets, more toolkits coming ahead of the new season. All of that great stuff is all part of the Chief Scout membership and of course you have all of the membership offering that we have in terms of editorial as well. So definitely think about going and signing up. You can scan the QR code or there's also a link in the description of this video. So go and sign up. Give it a go. I don't think you'll ever go without it, to be honest. Once you've had it for a year. That's, I mean that's how I've ended up working in mode to be honest.

[Mo]

Because once you play around. Yeah, it is. Once you play around with it. At first I was one of the ones that was reluctant like oh, you know, I'm just. But when once you use it it's, it's. It's amazing. I got to be honest with you. It's like, it's like a game even if it's not even just all FPL stuff just for football stats. Sometimes I go check something thing just because of Liverpool I want to see sack my players. It's. It's literally got everything you can think

[Sam]

of and well, if you like it now, Mo, you wait till a little bit later on in the season because there's some really, really exciting things coming this year that's all I'm gonna say.

[Mo]

Okay. I'm looking forward to that. It's already. It's already incredible. But time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Commercial Voice 2]

What?

[Mo]

What? What an unbelievable episode. Thank you for coming on, Sam.

[Sam]

Thanks for having me. I always enjoy coming on and standing in for you and it always seems to happen when spurs are doing something. Like I think last time I was here we just sa manager. Now I'm back, we've signed the whole world so gosh knows what spurs are going to do next time I'm here.

[Mo]

Probably maybe win the league Champions League getting let's, let's not get carried away, Sam. Win the league.

[Sam]

No, no, you're right. We can't win the league by Christmas. I'll probably be back on again at some stage, I'm sure. But you will you go back to have Although actually you have got another week without FPL Tom because he's on his Ollie Bobs.

[Mo]

Yes, he is.

[Sam]

So you will have another stand in next week. Not sure who that's going to be yet, but hopefully for your sake, it's not me. Again,

[Mo]

you're more than welcome. If it's you, Sam, I'll be more than it's been excellent having you on, honestly. So big. Thank you. And if it is you next week, that'll be lovely. If not, I will.

[Sam]

If it is me, I'll come back with a better rating on my team than yours.

[Mo]

Yeah, you're gonna. You got some work. Don't. Please don't come back on here. I won't.

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[Mo]

here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better.

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[Mo]

$15 a month, even unlimited.

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[Mo]

Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

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of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month Plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.

[Mo]

See terms you on here if it's free, Coventry. If I still see free commentary in your team without bench boost you're not going to allow that. And to have 1 million in the bank as. No, no. I think think. I think that can't work. I think that part there I'm not sure about. The rest of your team's solid, Sam.

[Sam]

Awesome.

[Mo]

All right, on that note, everyone listen. Take it easy, please like and subscribe if you haven't already done that. And we will see you next week. Bye Bye. Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hunger on her every word.

[Sam]

My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. Twas a lovely suv, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it.

[Mo]

Tonight we feast. An offer you can feast on.

[Sam]

Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.

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