Fantasy Premier League 2022/23: Gameweek 5 tips and advice from experts | Football News

With the Premier League now moving into midweek action, Sky Sports continues its weekly column bringing you essential tips from the best Fantasy Premier League managers in the world.

In our latest column, Holly Shand, FPL Heisenberg and FPL Family – who between them have 10 top-10k finishes and more than 30 years of fantasy experience – discuss whether this is the start of ‘Pep Roulette’ at Manchester City and who out of Pascal Groß, Pedro Neto and Rodrigo are the best of their cheap picks.

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Are you still keeping the faith with Mo Salah at £13m?

Holly Shand: Yes, absolutely! Liverpool’s fixtures remain exciting and Salah was desperately unlucky to not deliver in the 9-0 against Bournemouth. He played 90 minutes, had two big chances and created two chances: on another day it would have been a great score for him. I’m considering him as a key captain option for Gameweek 5.

FPL Family: Salah’s been the best FPL asset in the game for many years now, so I’m not panicking after the Bournemouth game. He was also top in GW4 for xG Underachievers, meaning that no one else in the game this week was as unlucky to not get any FPL points. He could and probably should have had some returns.

FPL Heisenberg: Yeah, I’m personally sticking by Mo Salah. However, there’s definitely an argument to go without him. You can get a goalscoring Liverpool midfielder in Luis Diaz (£8.1m), save £4.9m and redistribute the funds to improve other areas of your team. Salah will always do well of course – and some Gameweeks he will hurt you – but Luis Diaz plus the improvements with the money saved could pay off.

What Man City assets are worth targeting this week? And is this the start of ‘Pep roulette’?

Holly Shand: Pep Guardiola is famous for rotating his squad, and as the fixture schedule begins to get busier, this could be a key game to rotate his squad given the trickier upcoming schedule for Manchester City. Ederson (£5.5m) is a lock in, with Joao Cancelo (£7.1m) the most likely starter among the defenders and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.2m) most likely for minutes in the attack.

FPL family: My advice is to tread carefully around the City assets. On paper, Nottingham Forest at home is a fixture in which you’d ordinarily triple-up on City, yet experienced FPL managers will tell you it can be a bit of a minefield.

My bet for the Pep Roulette this week is Ilkay Gundogan (£7.6m). He didn’t get the start in GW4 against Palace and City looked more assured in midfield when he came on at 2-1 down to play his part in that superb comeback.

FPL Heisenberg: The likes of Phil Foden (£8.0m), Riyad Mahrez (£7.8m), Julian Alvarez (£6.2m) and Jack Grealish (£6.9m) are all players you should avoid as they will rotate too much. Their defensive options should rotate less, so keep the faith with Cancelo as attacking returns and clean sheets are still likely despite Man City conceding five goals in their last two matches.

I like Gundogan as a good value pick. He’s only £7.6m and he’s getting into the box scoring goals as well as creating chances too. He’s just had a partial rest in Gameweek 4 too, where he only played 29 minutes so he should start the next few matches for Man City.

De Bruyne and Haaland are the premium options and I love them both as FPL options. However, it’s always hard to swallow when an expensive player has their minutes managed, which could happen to these two during this busy period.

Assuming Erling Haaland (£11.8m) is auto-captain this week, who is the best vice in case he gets rested?

Holly Shand: Haaland isn’t an auto-captain for me, since he could easily get minutes from the bench if he isn’t in the starting line-up: the probability of a 1-point performance puts me off. Harry Kane (£11.4m), Salah and Gabriel Jesus (£8.2m) are all credible options this week if you own them. I’m leaning towards Jesus given his home form and the lack of consistency from his opponents Aston Villa.

FPL Family: I’ll go with Gabriel Jesus. I’d back him to start and for Arsenal to win against a lacklustre looking Aston Villa, who have struggled for results so far this season. Jesus is in fine form, despite the blank on GW4 and has a myriad of creative players around him to create the chances he needs to put Steven Gerrard’s boys to the sword. He also ranks first for Threat among forwards in FPL’s ICT index, so the underlying stats are supporting what we’re seeing on the pitch.

FPL Heisenberg: I’m currently thinking Haaland captain with Salah as my vice-captain. This decision will go to the wire though as it’s a close call. Salah will almost certainly get more minutes, but has a tougher opponent. Haaland off the back of a hat-trick vs a newly-promoted side seems too good to resist despite the concerns about his game time.

Who do you prefer Pascal Gross (£5.8m) or Rodrigo (£6.5m)?

Holly Shand: I think that Pascal Gross has the better long-term potential when you take into account the wider fixture schedule and the threat of rotation with other players. He is consistently playing 90 minutes and has a key part to play in Brighton’s set-pieces too.

FPL Family: Both are excellent picks right now and are the stars of the show in their respective teams. I’d likely lean slightly towards Rodrigo this week thanks to his tasty-looking fixture at home to Everton. However, Gross could do equally well against Fulham and then subsequently comes up against two of the league’s worst defences in Leicester and Bournemouth in GWs 6-7, so although Rodrigo’s my pick from these two this week, Gross would get the nod for me in the medium-term.

FPL Heisenberg: Really tough question, I have both in my team so luckily for me I don’t have to decide between them. Both have really nice fixtures over the next five Gameweeks and both of them are in great form. If I had to pick one it would be Gross. He’s excellent on the bonus points system, he saves you £0.7m over Rodrigo and he takes corners too. Ideally, try and squeeze both into your team if possible!

Is this last chance saloon for Pedro Neto (£5.3m)?

Holly Shand: Pedro Neto has been a frustrating hold but I’m loathed to make big changes ahead of the unpredictable midweek fixtures. He’s had six shots including one big chance and would have had an assist in Gameweek 4 if it wasn’t for a tight VAR call. I’ll give him one last chance against Bournemouth!

FPL Family: I think it is yes. Bournemouth have conceded 16 goals in the last three matches and Neto has his key partner in crime back up top in Raul Jimenez (£6.9m). Another blank in FPL for the Portuguese and managers could look to switch to other reasonably priced assets in that bracket, such as Ebere Eze (£5.5m) from Palace, Brendan Aaronson (£5.5m) from Leeds or the aforementioned Gross.

FPL Heisenberg: Neto was one of my two free transfers out this Gameweek, which is not ideal considering he faces Bournemouth in Gameweek 5. However, I wanted Rodrigo ahead of Leeds’ favourable run of fixtures, starting with a home match vs Everton this Gameweek.

Neto has Bournemouth and Southampton in Gameweek 5 and 6. If you keep him for those tasty fixtures you can then move him on before Gameweek 7 and 8 as he faces Liverpool and Man City then.