{"id":303750,"date":"2025-11-20T19:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T19:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/303750\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T19:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T19:10:19","slug":"gabriel-woltemade-which-man-utd-attacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/303750\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel, Woltemade + which Man Utd attacker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight-time top 10k finisher Zophar\u00a0hosts his weekly Q&A, giving his opinion on how to replace Gabriel Magalhaes (\u00a36.6m), whether to give up on Nick Woltemade (\u00a37.4m), and if Matheus Cunha (\u00a37.9m) is a better option than Bryan Mbeumo (\u00a38.5m).<\/p>\n

\"FPLQ: Without sitting on the fence, who are the top three Gabriel replacements?Q. Would you keep doubling up on Arsenal\u2019s defence?Q. Is Gabriel to William Saliba (\u00a36.0m) a no-brainer? We have seen Saliba\u2019s set-piece threat when Gabriel is out, plus he is only 11% owned.\"FPL<\/p>\n

(via FPL Virgin, Atimis and FPL Sanky)<\/p>\n

A: Unsurprisingly, a large chunk of the questions this week are about replacing Gabriel. At the time of writing, we\u2019ve not heard from Mikel Arteta, but rumours from David Ornstein say that the Brazilian will be out for a minimum of one month. This makes him a definite sell.<\/p>\n

There are four options that I like: Virgil van Dijk (\u00a35.9m), either Saliba or Jurrien Timber (\u00a36.2m), Crystal Palace\u2019s Daniel Munoz (\u00a35.8m), or a cheaper defender like Chris Richards (\u00a34.5m).<\/p>\n

Van Dijk is the obvious replacement, as Liverpool\u2019s upcoming fixture run has been well-documented on this site. The reigning champions\u2019 underlying defensive numbers have been poor, as they\u2019re in the bottom five for expected goals conceded (xGC) over the last six matches.<\/p>\n

But clean sheets against Real Madrid and Aston Villa show signs of improvement, as Arne Slot has returned largely to a team that brought him initial success.<\/p>\n

His defensive contribution (DefCon) potential is great, with only Marcos Senesi (\u00a35.0m) racking up more of these points amongst defenders. On the face of it, their upcoming opponents aren\u2019t traditionally good for gaining these against, as Nottingham Forest, West Ham United, Leeds United and Sunderland are quite content to concede possession.<\/p>\n

However, Liverpool have a weakness when facing long balls. It\u2019s a tactic that these sides will likely use, boosting van Dijk\u2019s DefCon prospects. As for set-piece threat, he\u2019ll usually score a few per season, meaning there\u2019s a good chance of an upcoming 17-pointer.<\/p>\n

Moving on to Timber and Saliba, most Gabriel owners probably own another Arsenal name at the back. If you already own Timber, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d go and buy Saliba. The latter\u2019s DefCon potential and goal threat looks minimal. Though he did profit in Gabriel\u2019s absence at set-pieces last season, he is nowhere near as good as the Brazilian in dead-ball situations.<\/p>\n

Yet his minutes are a bit more secure than Timber\u2019s over a busy period, and Arteta will be loath to leave out a second key centre-back. Timber is poor for DefCon, but boasts an attacking threat, as seen below.<\/p>\n

\"FPL<\/p>\n

The big question is how much worse will the Arsenal defence be without Gabriel?<\/p>\n

If you feel that their clean sheet prospects worsen, then I think moving to Virgil over Timber makes sense. I think they\u2019ll score similarly over the next five to six Gameweeks, though in isolation I prefer Timber because Arsenal\u2019s defence is on another level.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Munoz is second for expected goal involvement (xGI) amongst defenders. As Palace face Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley and Fulham over the next four, there might be a haul coming. Could the team\u2019s performances suffer with such a congested schedule? Possibly. But they still have a better defence than Liverpool, and Munoz has so much attacking upside.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you could downgrade Gabriel to somebody like Richards, then use that saved money to upgrade someone like Enzo Fernandez (\u00a36.7m) to a Manchester United midfielder.<\/p>\n

\"FPL<\/p>\n

Richards is actually on par with van Dijk for DefCon per 90, and those looking to Free Hit in Gameweek 13 won\u2019t see much difference in likely clean sheets.<\/p>\n

These are all viable options, depending on how you like to play and the structure of your team.<\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019ve had Nick Woltemade since Gameweek 5 and have stuck with him. Encouragingly, one could argue that he single-handedly took Germany to the World Cup. But in FPL, I am tempted to get Igor Thiago (\u00a36.3m) or Jean-Philippe Mateta (\u00a38.1m) instead. Does it make sense to give him a few more weeks, or sell?Q. What do we do with Woltemade? If Free Hitting in Gameweek 13, the three surrounding matches are at home \u2013 albeit the first is against Manchester City.Q. Are there any Newcastle United players worth getting for their decent run, apart from Woltemade?\"Woltemade<\/p>\n

(via I Have No Wirtz, Magic Zeico and Punned It)<\/p>\n

A: I think if you don\u2019t own Mateta, I would move Woltemade towards the Frenchman this week. But if, like my pod partner Lateriser, you own all three of Mateta, Woltemade and Erling Haaland (\u00a314.9m), I would keep faith.<\/p>\n

A Gameweek 13 Free Hit could briefly bring in Thiago, while Woltemade has encouraging home matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley straight after. They could be massive. Plus, I don\u2019t think Yoane Wissa (\u00a37.3m) will eat into his minutes anytime before then.<\/p>\n

In terms of other Newcastle assets, I think Malick Thiaw (\u00a34.9m) is worth looking at from Gameweek 14 onwards. Other attackers\u2019 minutes are likely to be shared.<\/p>\n

Q: How important do you think home\/away form is, when looking at a team\u2019s decline? For example, should we trust Newcastle to do well at home since their away form has collapsed, and vice versa with Spurs?\"FPL<\/p>\n

(via z13)<\/p>\n

A: Home and away does have a massive difference. Brentford are second for expected goals (xG) at home, but around mid-table when away. Nathan Collins (\u00a34.9m) has spoken in a post-match interview about how he wants teams to dread coming to their stadium, and we\u2019ve seen Newcastle mirror this.<\/p>\n

Of course, this has to be read alongside fixtures, as sometimes teams have had far more difficult opponents on the road, which was an unusual anomaly for Brentford at a similar point last season.<\/p>\n

I do think things will level out to an extent in Spurs and Newcastle\u2019s case, less so with Brentford.<\/p>\n

Q: Igor Thiago or Danny Welbeck (\u00a36.5m) as my Jarrod Bowen (\u00a37.7m) replacement?\"\u00ad\u00ad\u00adFPL<\/p>\n

(via @CastleRockDG76)<\/p>\n

A: Welbeck has an excellent set of short-term fixtures so, despite some concerns about his fitness and injury risks, I think I\u2019d pick him over Thiago for now. It\u2019s close, but Welbeck has three home games in the next four and Thiago has it the other way round. That tilts it towards the Englishman.<\/p>\n

Q: Should it be Bryan Mbeumo or Matheus Cunha, considering Mbeumo soon leaves for AFCON?\"FPL<\/p>\n

(via @Karan_G14)<\/p>\n

A: Shown below, Mbeumo is third amongst all players for non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI) this season.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t worry about the AFCON departure, though, because you\u2019re still getting a good chunk of time from him. I think he\u2019s the best attacking Man United option.<\/p>\n

\"FPLQ: To take Mohamed Salah (\u00a314.2m) or not is the biggest dilemma. Please discuss.\"FPL<\/p>\n

(via @somu_sj)<\/p>\n

A: Could Salah score big over the next six before AFCON? Yes, absolutely. A great captaincy option in Gameweeks 12, 14 and 16 when Haaland is away at Newcastle, Fulham and Palace? Yes.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s not worth ripping up your team for. I think midfielders such as Mbeumo, Bukayo Saka (\u00a310.1m) and Bruno Fernandes (\u00a38.9m) could all come close for points, and it wouldn\u2019t surprise me in the least if Haaland outscored the Egyptian during those away games.<\/p>\n

So, while I wouldn\u2019t put anyone off buying and captaining Salah, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth weakening your squad significantly for.<\/p>\n

\"FPL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight-time top 10k finisher Zophar\u00a0hosts his weekly Q&A, giving his opinion on how to replace Gabriel Magalhaes (\u00a36.6m),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[157823,157824,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-303750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-best-gyokeres-replacements","9":"tag-best-mid-price-midfielders","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}