FPL Gameweek Eight: What to do with Fulham players?

Many Fantasy Premier League players around the world made a gamble on Fulham assets after the international break.

That was not due to any specific form - The Cottagers were still winless at the time from their first five matches.

It was down entirely to the fixtures - Ipswich, Hull and Coventry in quick succession - that is a fixture anomaly that few can ignore.

I imagine even fewer Fulham fans could ignore the prospect of putting at least one Cottagers asset in their FPL teams for three matches against newly-promoted teams.

But with a 2-1 loss to Ipswich and a 1-0 triumph over Hull, there has not exactly been a whole lot of joy for those who did decide to own a Fulham asset.

Unless, of course, you made a bizarre choice to pick Ryan Sessegnon or Alex Iwobi in your FPL teams, then you will have been quite content (perhaps less so with Sessegnon last week).

The majority of people who did gamble on Fulham assets, of course, chose to include either Josh King, Gonzalo Garcia, or if you were particularly bullish on the Cottagers’ prospects, both.

I myself went for King, after being very impressed with what I had seen from the first five matches.

I remain impressed from a Fulham and footballing standpoint, but from an FPL perspective, he has been truly very frustrating to own.

But what do you do now if you do own Fulham players?

Well, I think you simply have to hold firm for one more week.

When including King in my case, I knew I wanted him for three matches and then I would reassess.

While he has blanked in both of those matches, in fact, being booked in both to make matters even worse, King has been objectively good.

Against Hull, he notched up an xG of 0.19 and an xA of 0.32, meaning he had an xGi of 0.51, which suggests he was unlucky not to come away with a return.

If we take away the expected part of it, because despite using it a lot, I don’t love it as a stat, King’s big chance against Hull actually gave me more confidence in him rather than the opposite.

Yes, he should have scored, but he is getting in the right areas for one, and Fulham are clearly creating enough chances.

So for me, King is an easy hold for Coventry, a side who have conceded more goals (14) than any side other than Crystal Palace (17).

Garcia is an even more frustrating pick to own than King, and I imagine there will be a lot of twitchy fingers with Evanilson of Bournemouth and Nicolas Jackson of Aston Villa tempting moves to make.

But Garcia sits eighth overall for expected goals in the Premier League and, despite having scored only once, goals are surely coming.

The time to sell may well be next week, but if I owned any Fulham asset, I would be keeping them for one more week.