Who plays up front with Haaland in gameweek 16?

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Alistair Bruce-Ball

Gameweek 16 is the last one before the Premier League takes a break for the World Cup and that makes it a slightly unusual one.

We all get unlimited transfers during the tournament before gameweek 17, which starts on Boxing Day, so this week can be all about a short-term plan.

Have a look at the fixture list for this weekend, decide who you think could grab you a big score and get them in your team.

If you haven't played your first wildcard to this point, then this is absolutely the week to do it because otherwise you'll lose it and it means you can treat it like the Free Hit chip, picking an entirely different squad for just one week that is entirely tailored to the fixtures.

Do be aware of players' values though if you're selling someone you've had in your squad for quite a while - for example, if I were to sell Gabriel Martinelli this week I would get £6.5m for him, but if I then go to buy him back he will cost me £6.8m - his current price on the market.

It is also worth noting though that those player prices will be frozen after the deadline this week throughout the World Cup. So if Martinelli is still worth £6.8m after this week's deadline that is what it will cost you to buy him going into gameweek 17.

Bearing all that in mind, Chris Sutton, Statman Dave and I put a potential wildcard squad together in the latest Fantasy 606 podcast and, even if you're planning to only make one or two transfers this week, I think all of these players will be worth considering.

Firstly, you'd want three Manchester City players for their home fixture against Brentford - we went for Ederson, Joao Cancelo - who's available having served his suspension for his red card against Fulham in the Carabao Cup game against Chelsea - and Erling Haaland.

Phil Foden, Erling Haaland & Joao CanceloErling Haaland is the top goalscorer in the Premier League with 18 goals in 12 games

Dave and I both have Phil Foden, who was on the bench against Chelsea on Wednesday, in our own teams so that looks more promising for a potential start on Saturday, but once again you'll be spinning that wheel and playing Pep roulette.

Ben White and Bukayo Saka were our two Arsenal choices for their fixture away at Wolves and we had a bit of a debate about a strike partner for Haaland: Dave and I wanted Darwin Nunez for Liverpool's home game against Southampton, Chris was pushing for Harry Kane at home to Leeds.

Chris won the day - and so he should as a former Premier League Golden Boot winner, but there's probably enough money in the budget to accommodate all three of them if you wanted to go with a 3-4-3. Or you go for neither of them, save the money up front and put Mo Salah in your midfield.

We decided to leave Salah out of our team though and have gone for a couple of differential choices in the midfield, namely Dejan Kulusevski and Leon Bailey. Kulusevski has just returned from injury but Tottenham looked so much more potent against Liverpool last Sunday when he came off the bench. Meanwhile, Bailey was playing almost like a second striker in Aston Villa's 3-1 win against Manchester United and took his early goal superbly.

Villa's fixture away to Brighton looks a tricky one in gameweek 16 and there are definitely options in that Brighton midfield as well - Leandro Trossard is the obvious one but I also like the look of the Japanese winger Karou Mitoma, who started the last two games against Chelsea and Wolves, providing a goal and an assist. He's also an absolute bargain at just £4.9m!

Miguel Almiron had to get into our wildcard team after making it seven goals in seven games in Newcastle's 4-1 win at Southampton. They now host Chelsea in gameweek 16 and, just like Gareth Southgate this week, we went for another form man in James Maddison. He and Leicester were superb in their 2-0 win against Everton last Saturday and he looks a decent bet for another attacking return or two away at West Ham.

That left us with one more spot for a defender in our starting eleven and by leaving Darwin Nunez out and going for Dominic Solanke as our first substitute, we were just able to afford Kieran Trippier.

I think Ivan Perisic could be a good shout this week too and Dave also mentioned Leicester's Timothy Castagne as a good budget option at £4.7m.

The captain's armband goes to Erling Haaland unless Pep Guardiola tells us he won't be involved against Brentford or if we get wind of any early team news on Saturday ahead of that 12:30 kick-off.

My advice would be to get your transfers and team line-up done early as the leaking of the City team news caused the website and app to crash again last Saturday, leaving lots of FPL managers, including Sir Andy Murray no less, frustrated at being unable to make their changes.

Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave.

The latest episode previewing gameweek 16 will be available via the BBC Sounds app.

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