<p>The brilliant <a href="https://twitter.com/BigManBakar">@BigManBakar</a> shares his Gameweek 8 preview, answering some key questions of the week &#8211; powered by Fantasy Football Hub <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta">data</a> and his stellar FPL record.</p>
<p>You can find Bakar&#8217;s Gameweek 8 Wildcard team reveal <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/team-reveal-bigmanbakar">here</a>. And see the team reveals of all our experts <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-team-reveals">here</a>.</p>
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<h2><strong>Q) When to Wildcard?</strong></h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I look at the various windows where wildcarding looks like a real possibility and leave it up to you to decide whichever one suits you, depending on your own team:</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Gameweek 8:</strong></p>
<p>I decided to <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/what-is-the-fantasy-premier-league-wildcard-and-when-to-use-it">Wildcard</a> this week so I’m biased when I write this section.</p>
<p>I could have been in a position where I fielded 11 players with a hit this week but I assessed my squad and figured it was the best bet for me.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/team-reveal-bigmanbakar"><strong>View Bakar&#8217;s Gameweek 8 Wildcard team</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The disadvantage of wildcarding in Gameweek 8 is that the players we lose &#8211; from Liverpool and Chelsea &#8211; are good players down the line.</p>
<p>It puts you in a good position in Gameweek 8 but then you may end up with a slightly inferior team down the line.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I would suggest you draft a Gameweek 9 Wildcard team and see how much different it is from your new team after hits.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">If it’s mostly the same, then I’d Wildcard.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Gameweek 9:</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">There are plenty of advantages of wildcarding over an international break – you obviously have plenty of time to think and can account for any unexpected injuries very easily.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">You can bring in <strong>Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m)</strong> easily too, who has a blank this week.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">There’s also the fact you can punt on a Spurs player in Gameweek 8 and then get rid of them on the Gameweek 9 Wildcard.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Gameweek 13:</strong></p>
<p>The big advantage of wildcarding here is that you can easily get rid of your Manchester City and Arsenal players before their blank in Gameweek 12 and then bring them back in comfortably before their great runs from Gameweek 13.</p>
<p>It does however gives you slightly less time to benefit from the Wildcard, as we get unlimited transfers for the World Cup soon after anyway.</p>
<h2>Q) De Bruyne and Isak/Toney or Kane and Maddison/Bowen/Zaha on Wildcard?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m)</strong>, <strong>Alexander Isak (£7.0m)</strong> and <strong>Ivan Toney (£7.2m)</strong> all have great underlying numbers and fixtures, which means it becomes tough to justify <strong>Harry Kane (£11.4m)</strong>.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">As much as I&#8217;d like to have Kane against Leicester in my Wildcard team, he becomes hard to justify, as captaincy is out of the equation with Haaland in the form of his life.</p>
<p>Further, Isak and <strong>Kevin De Bruyne (£12.2m)</strong> is a more natural fit when you consider it saves you a transfer when you want to bring Salah back.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">He&#8217;s been overshadowed by Haaland so far, but De Bruyne&#8217;s numbers have been exemplary this season.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_49275" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49275" class="size-full wp-image-49275" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kdb-de-bruyne-2022.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kdb-de-bruyne-2022.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kdb-de-bruyne-2022-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kdb-de-bruyne-2022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kdb-de-bruyne-2022-610x407.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-49275" class="wp-caption-text">Kevin de Bruyne. Picture by Getty Images.</p></div>
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<h2>Q) Bowen, Maddison or Zaha?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">My preferences in order are <strong>James Maddison (£7.9m)</strong>, <strong>Jarrod Bowen (£8.1m)</strong>, and Zaha &#8211; in that order.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Zaha is statistically the best pick of the three but he has a blank this week followed by Chelsea, which is why I’d rather opt for the other two if picking right now.</p>
<p>I discuss the likes of Bowen and Maddison in my Gameweek 8 Wildcard <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/team-reveal-bigmanbakar">team reveal</a>.</p>
<div id="attachment_49381" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49381" class="size-full wp-image-49381" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Wilfried-Zaha.-Picture-by-Getty-Images..jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Wilfried-Zaha.-Picture-by-Getty-Images..jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Wilfried-Zaha.-Picture-by-Getty-Images.-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Wilfried-Zaha.-Picture-by-Getty-Images.-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Wilfried-Zaha.-Picture-by-Getty-Images.-610x407.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-49381" class="wp-caption-text">Wilfried Zaha. Picture by Getty Images.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><strong>Q) What advice do you have for those managers wildcarding in Gameweek 8?</strong></h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Don&#8217;t book in too many transfers in advance. A Wildcard team isn&#8217;t just about ensuring you have a good lineup for Gameweek 8.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">It’s also important to ensure that funds on a Wildcard are not too spread out.</p>
<p>For example, I see a lot of Wildcard teams with three out of Zaha, Bowen and Maddison.</p>
<p>I would pick two of them at best, or else it leaves very little flexibility to go back to Salah or Alexander-Arnold if required, and will force you into hits later on.</p>
<h2>Q) Is it worth buying Son this week?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Son Heung-min (£11.7m)</strong> has been playing really poorly over the past few weeks.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">In fact, he is hardly seen in any of the predicted lineups on the Spurs fan forums this week. I’d avoid.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_49267" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49267" class="size-full wp-image-49267" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/son.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/son.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/son-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/son-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/son-610x407.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-49267" class="wp-caption-text">Heung-Min Son. Picture by Getty Images.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Q) Is it worth selecting Alexander-Arnold in a Wildcard team?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I don’t think there’s a correct answer here. There is an argument to be made for ignoring him due to his fixtures in the upcoming gameweeks.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">But I’m not totally averse to the idea of holding him in a Wildcard team either, as it reduces a transfer booked in advance.</p>
<div id="attachment_47678" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47678" class="size-full wp-image-47678" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1410252669.jpg" alt="taa" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1410252669.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1410252669-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1410252669-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1410252669-610x407.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-47678" class="wp-caption-text">Trent Alexander-Arnold. Picture by Getty Images.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Q) Are any Chelsea options other than James worth considering on a Wildcard this week?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">New Chelsea manager Graham Potter has a habit of rotating his sides, so <strong>Reece James (£6.0m)</strong> is the only player I can say I want from Chelsea with a reasonable degree of assurance at the moment.</p>
<h2>Q) Is it worth keeping Martinelli on a Wildcard?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">With a goal involvement in four of his six starts, <strong>Gabriel Martinelli</strong> has been in fantastic form this season. He is still by far and away the best pick statistically when it comes to midfielders priced £6.5m and under.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that Arsenal have an upcoming blank in Gameweek 12, I believe he is worth persisting with, as a lot of us bought him for £6.0m and would lose value on a player who I still believe will do well in the weeks to come.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_48058" style="width: 1184px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-48058" class="size-full wp-image-48058" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli.jpg" alt="" width="1174" height="958" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli.jpg 1174w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli-300x245.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli-1024x836.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli-768x627.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli-610x498.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Martinelli-1080x881.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 1174px) 100vw, 1174px" /><p id="caption-attachment-48058" class="wp-caption-text">Gabriel Martinelli. Picture by Getty Images</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Q) What should be the strategy for those who have already used their Wildcard?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">There are quite a few teams I see this week who have already wildcarded and have to take a significant number of hits to field a starting 11.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">For example, if you have triple Liverpool, double Chelsea, double Brighton and the likes of <strong>Kyle Walker (£5.1m)</strong> in your squad, I imagine your squad will be fairly decimated.</p>
<p>My preference would be not to use the Free Hit, but in case you can barely field a starting 11, I would pull the trigger in that case.</p>
<h2>Q) What formation to pick when wildcarding?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">FPL managers wildcarding in Gameweek 8 or 9 should look to go three up front with the variety of options available.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Isak has had three big chances in just two games already, while Mitrovic and Toney are already in the top-three forwards for big chances after Haaland this season.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Dominic Solanke (£5.7m)</strong> is a possible option from Gameweek 9 as well. There are lots of options emerging in that price bracket.</p>
<h2>Q) Which two of Isak, Mitrovic &amp; Toney to pick at the moment?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">As discussed in my Wildcard team reveal, Mitrovic&#8217;s form is impossible to ignore at the moment.</p>
<p>As for the other two, I&#8217;d go with Isak over Toney.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Being Newcastle&#8217;s main man and with three big chance involvements in two games played already, I&#8217;d expect his numbers to be similar to Toney&#8217;s.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I see four fixtures for Isak in which he&#8217;s capable of hauling in the next five. With Toney, I see just Bournemouth in Gameweek 9.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_49268" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-49268" class="size-full wp-image-49268" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mitrovic.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="708" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mitrovic.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mitrovic-300x207.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mitrovic-768x531.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mitrovic-610x422.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-49268" class="wp-caption-text">Aleksandar Mitrovic. Picture by Getty Images.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Q) Which goalkeepers to select when on wildcard?</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Nick Pope (£5.1m)</strong> is the standout goalkeeper to own at the moment. He has the potential to post some strong returns as he has been accumulating bonus points at a quicker rate than Newcastle defenders.</p>
<p>I think <strong>Danny Ward (£4.0m)</strong> is likely to retain his number-one jersey at Leicester for the time being, at least for the Spurs game.</p>
<p>Picking him or <strong>Daniel Iverson </strong>is fine, as it&#8217;s a coin toss in the longer-term and they will only be backups for Pope.</p>
<h2>Check out our Ultimate Guide to FPL</h2>
<p>See our <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide-fpl-tips">Ultimate Guide</a> for everything you need to know ahead of FPL Gameweek one &#8211; from how-to guides to best player tips and team reveals.</p>
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