Target Liverpool, Brentford & Bournemouth – the FPL talking point

We are entering the business end of the season and Fantasy Premier Leagues are beginning to take shape.

A number of teams have healthy-looking schedules for the next few gameweeks and we are entering a period where certain sides can be looked at more intensely.

Is adding more Liverpool players to your team the way to catapult yourself up the league table?

Liverpool’s fixtures are favourable and they seem to have turned a bit of a corner following a good win away at Sunderland. Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) would be my defender of choice, but if money is tight then go for the cheaper Ibrahima Konate (£5.4m).

There are plenty of options in attacking positions with midfielders Mohamed Salah (£14m), Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.7m) and Florian Wirtz (£8.4m) all viable. They vary massively budget-wise, so depending on how much you have to spend will dictate who you can go for.

Striker Hugo Ekitike (£8.9m) has been disappointing of late, but I am still backing him to come good with this fixture run. He has 10 goals and two assists in 17 starts this season, and will be looking to build on those numbers in the coming weeks.

Former Everton midfielder Leon Osman, who was a guest on the podcast this week, has included Wirtz in his team.

“Liverpool are playing better now. Salah is playing better. I reluctantly have a Liverpool player in my team because they are playing better,” he said.

“It’s not allowed in my family mini-league. I’ve gone with Florian Wirtz. He’s been involved in goals and assists for Liverpool.

There is a really nice fixture turn now for Brentford. The obvious pick is Igor Thiago (£7m), who is on penalties and has 17 goals and one assist in 25 starts so far this season.

Outside of Thiago, a punt on Dango Ouattara (£5.8m) or Kevin Schade (£6.9m) could pay dividends, and at the other end they have the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is a solid pick for clean sheets.

Kelleher (£4.6m) has proven he is pretty decent at saving penalties too, having stopped three in the Premier League so far this season.

Statman Dave: “Schade is the one we’ve been pushing this season. Ouattara is another one. We could go with [Michael] Kayode. I would go Ouattara over Schade at the moment.

Bournemouth have an extremely favourable next four games and I have to start by talking about £4.0m defender James Hill, who has been getting assists, defensive contributions and bonus points too.

Eli Junior Kroupi (£4.7m) is another great budget pick, but if I was to go for a forward I would spend extra and get Evanilson (£7m) who seems more guaranteed for minutes.