FPL Scout: Hints, tips and advice for Gameweek 9

Brentford have teamed up with Fantasy Football Scout to bring you hints, tips and advice during the 2024/25 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season.

Scout will use his expertise to provide information, advice and Gameweek tips that can prove useful in ensuring you stay at the top of your mini-leagues.

The best of bees

Brentford were beaten 2-1 by Manchester United at Old Trafford but there were plenty of positives for the FPL managers in the eighth match weekend.

Central defender Ethan Pinnock (£4.5m) scored in first-half injury time to mark his second attacking success of the season.

In fact, though Mark Flekken (£4.5m) didn’t keep a clean sheet but made nine saves for the 1.27 million managers who own him in the FPL.

At times it felt like he was in a personal duel with him Alejandro Garnacho (£6.2 million), who fired eight shots – five of which hit. Flekken’s nine saves earned the shot stopper three save points.

Haggle forward when there is encouraging news Yoane Wissa (£5.9m) was back in action with a 24-minute cameo. Before his injury in Gameweek 4, Wissa had scored three goals in three and a half games.

The spotlight

The focus last week was on the creative midfielder Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.0m) after winning both Pinnock and Nathan Collins (£4.5m) in a 5-3 win over Wolves.

The Dane quickly justified this by taking advantage of the corner that Pinnock headed home on Saturday, meaning the latter scored in consecutive games.

No defender has scored more goals than him and is the leader in shots on goal at his position (six). He also consistently ranked high in the underlying statistics for the 2022/23 season, confirming that the 31-year-old’s deployment is as much about attacking threat as clean sheet potential.

It’s also worth mentioning that he made a fantastic goal-saving tackle Rasmus Hojlund (£6.9m). Pinnock’s four tackles in Gameweek 8 were the most ever made by a Bees player. In the FPL, this will help his ranking in the bonus points system.

Next up is an Ipswich opponent who will be without a team Jacob Greaves (£4.1m) or Axel Tuanzebe (£4.0m) rear.

The best of the rest

Everton defender Michael Keane (£4.1m), scored a goal and conceded a goal against Tractor Boys and took 14 points in Gameweek 8.

The third best-selling player of Gameweek 8 Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) fell in price but responded to doubters with another double-digit profit. It is his fifth out of eight games this season.

Asked

FPL managers must note that Gameweek 9 will have an unusual deadline of 6.30pm GMT on Friday due to the clash between Leicester and Nottingham Forest that evening.

Spurs’ Son Heung-min (£9.8m) returned from injury in Gameweek 8 and scored straight away. His performance against West Ham has made him one of the most bought players this week.

In the meantime, Joško Gvardiol‘s (£6.0m) second goal in three games has made him a natural replacement for the suspended player William Saliba (£6.0m).

Elsewhere, Raul Jiménez (£5.7m) is attracting interest from FPL managers with four goals and an assist in five starts. However, a different one Luis Diaz(£8.0m) The benching probably marks the end of his popularity at the start of the season.

captain

Erling Haaland (£15.4m) has been the overwhelming choice for the captain’s armband over the last three weeks. However, he never returned in any of them.

Many FPL managers will be thinking about using their triple captain chip against Haaland in the upcoming home game against Southampton. However, the lack of returns and the fact that he didn’t take a single shot against Wolves in Gameweek 8 could put managers off.

Harried managers looking elsewhere will not like Salah and Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) to compete in the Emirates, so maybe Cole Palmer (£10.8m) against Newcastle is the alternative.