What to do with Erling Haaland?

After three consecutive gaps, FPL Blackbox’s Az is here to give you tips on what to do with Erling Haaland ahead of FPL Gameweek 9.

FPL tips game week 9: What you can do with Erling Haaland

Oh, Erling. After scoring ten goals in his first five games, the unthinkable happened. Haaland pulled off a hat-trick full of gaps, leaving those who moved him in Gameweek 6 scratching their heads as to what all the hype was about.

Has the most expensive FPL player with 73.5% ownership and consistently being the player with the most captaincy become a liability? What should we do with him?

Below are the difficult situations FPL managers find themselves in and the options available to them.

What to do if you do NOT currently own Haaland?

If you’ve made it this far without Haaland, do you need to sign him this week? Especially when the plays cost you transfer points as you tear your team apart to get him?

The device suggests that you have to do it. Southampton have conceded 18 goals so far this season, with only Wolves (23) conceding more. They keep clean sheets and have been a mess defensively, with individual mistakes adding to the huge number of chances they give their opponents in games.

After this game week, however, the game plans tighten up. Two away games against south coast sides Bournemouth and Brighton could be quite a challenge given how they have started the season. Then the games against the expected top 6 opponents Spurs and Forest are on the program. Meanwhile, evergreen Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) has two home games before playing Southampton at St Marys. Is it unthinkable for him to surpass Haaland during this time? Certainly not. In fact, a certain one this week Cole Palmer (£10.8m) play at home against Newcastle, who are also struggling defensively. Palmer represents a strong captaincy alternative to Haaland if one bravely takes on the Norwegian. Get through this week and I don’t think Haaland is a ‘must have’ considering top-tier options like Palmer, Salah, Ollie Watkins (£9.1m), Heung-min Son (9.9m). .£) and Bukayo appear Saka (£10m; fitness dependent).

What to do if you currently own Haaland?

Haaland is certainly the first option for captaincy this week, despite good alternatives in Palmer, Son and perhaps even Salah due to Arsenal’s current injury/suspended list.

Selling him or benching him is obviously out of the question this week, but is there any reason to cut him in the next few weeks? That question is likely to be moot if he manages a hat-trick against Southampton, but another low-scoring game week will see many FPL managers lose patience with the big man.

There is never a “good time” to sell Haaland. We know what he’s capable of, but spreading the resources across your team can mitigate the risk, especially given we have good options elsewhere.

I’m not panicking yet and I still have a feeling that Haaland will score goals in the next four games and overcome this mistake. Gameweek 13, when he moves to Liverpool, could be a time to reassess the situation and see if funds can be reallocated, as both Chelsea and Arsenal are playing fantastic games during this time.

If you still don’t like that, I can’t imagine anyone parting ways with Haaland until Gameweek 23 at the earliest. After a difficult five-game run, many will be looking for another captaincy and perhaps the choice for Haaland is unnecessary. This is the most likely route for me and I will almost certainly take him out of my team at this point simply because £15m+ is too much for a player I won’t manage. But if Haaland rediscovers his golden instinct and scores goals again, he would be back in the running for goalkeeper of the season. Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks.