Let’s step away from the Gareth Southgate culture war for a moment and refocus on Dream Team.
As you probably already know, lowly-owned players often have the greatest impact.
Erling Haaland (£8.7m) is plundering points for fun but since he appears in the vast majority of teams it’s highly likely that the two rivals either side of you in your mini-league will also benefit from his hat-tricks.
With that in mind, these are the seven forwards with the most points among assets that currently have an ownership below 2%.
Julian Alvarez (£3.9m)
- 18 points
- 1.7% ownership
There’s a good reason the Argentine forward features in so few teams, he’s understudy to Man City’s prolific No9.
Pep Guardiola likes to rotate his squad but let’s be honest, Haaland will start every meaningful game for the foreseeable future and Alvarez will have to make do with substitute appearances an occasional starts on the right flank.
The 22-year-old has looked lively in his 166 minutes of Premier League action so far – he scored a brace against Nottingham Forest in Game Week 4 and banked all of his 18 points in one fell swoop.
His role may increase in importance as the season progresses.
Leandro Trossard (£3.6m)
- 19 points
- 0.3% ownership
Just as Brighton are a well-functioning Premier League side, their Belgian No11 has the technical skills to compete and then some in the top flight.
2021/22 was Trossard’s best ever campaign in terms of goals (eight) for the Seagulls and he’s out the gate with two in his first six outings this term, not to mention an assist.
Brighton are currently fourth in the league and Trossard has been a key contributor to their flying start but how will Graham Potter’s departure impact their fortunes after the international break?
The fact Trossard is categorised as a forward rather than a midfielder makes him a less viable option but he’s certainly not an asset to write-off totally.
Danny Ings (£3.1m)
- 21 points
- 0.7% ownership
Aston Villa’s No9 has a respectable total but that’s predominantly because of a 15-point haul against Bolton in the Carabao Cup.
Ings has blanked in three consecutive outings since then and didn’t feature against Man City so it would be a stretch to say he’s worth a transfer.
Banking points in the domestic cups is a perfectly legitimate method but generally speaking you want your players to be providing healthy returns in the league on a weekly basis.
Michail Antonio (£4.1m)
- 23 points
- 1.3% ownership
West Ham’s experienced striker is an underrated Dream Team asset.
Injury setbacks have frustrated his owners but he’s often been good value-for-money when fit, as evidenced by his opening salvo this campaign.
It’s two goals and two assists in terms of goal involvements and he pocketed 19 points cross Game Weeks 4 and 5.
Rodrigo (£2.4m)
- 28 points
- 1.6% ownership
The Leeds forward was flying before he popped his shoulder out against Everton in Game Week 4.
Re-energised under Jesse Marsch, Rodrigo filled in for the injury-dogged Patrick Bamford (£2.7m) at centre-forward and did a tremendous job before he was sidelined, scoring four goals and providing an assist in 360 minutes of Premier League action.
The 31-year-old is expected to return shortly after the international break and plenty of Dream Team bosses will be on the look out to see if he picks up where he left off.
Gianluca Scamacca (£2.9m)
- 30 points
- 1.9% ownership
Bow down to the master of the Europa Conference League!
The Hammers’ new target man took Viborg and Silkeborg for 31 points by virtue of two goals, an assist and a pair of Star Man awards.
The downside is that the Italy international has mustered minus one point from his league outings so far, mostly cameos off the bench in fairness.
One to keep an eye on but no more at this stage.
Che Adams (£2.9m)
- 31 points
- 0.8% ownership
Another strange case here as all 31 of the Southampton poacher’s points came in Game Week 3.
Adams came off the bench to score twice against Leicester on the Saturday before helping himself to a brace against Cambridge on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup.
Four goals in 97 minutes is, to put it mildly, good going but the pessimistic view is that a scoring rate of this nature is unsustainable, as evidenced by his blanks elsewhere.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
