The high-profile Gameweek 10 absentees of Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Odegaard and Destiny Udogie have taught us that FPL managers need squad depth. Especially when the festive schedule gives some varying rest periods at each club. That’s why we’ve picked out a few ultra-cheap defenders that should prevent managers like FPL General from only fielding 10 men in future.

The same Pro Pundit provided a Gameweek 11 Wildcard draft, although he’s unlikely to activate his own just yet. Going by the worrying trend spotted by Simon March, a lot may choose to purposely copy that squad – which he firmly believes is cheating, not learning. Sticking with Wildcards, four of ‘The Great and the Good’ used theirs last weekend, headlined by Pras picking hat-trick hero Eddie Nketiah.

Meanwhile, reigning champion FPL Gunz (Ali) needs to sell the injured Pedro Neto. A separate article investigates his best replacements, where Hwang Hee-chan is a unanimous Scout Squad pick but Douglas Luiz is close to suspension. Captain Sensible and Rate My Team projections back Erling Haaland as the preferred captain over Mohamed Salah.

The midweek EFL Cup action saw an interesting few player starts, rests and out-of-position experiments. Crystal Palace pair Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise have resumed first-team training at the perfect time, as the Eagles join Brighton in having brilliant short-term fixtures. FPL Milanista is tempted by Odsonne Edouard – picked out as a great differential for the trip to Burnley.

Still to come between now and the deadline is a Big Numbers piece, alongside the latest from Zophar and Lateriser.

As always, check out our Gameweek 11 page to quickly access all recent articles, plus the standard press conference updates from managers. Visit our Members Area for comparison tools and an in-depth collection of Opta data.

Over on our YouTube channel, alongside the usual Scoutcast, Burning Questions and Deadline Dilemmas episodes are General’s Orders and his 59^th Minute podcast. Tom and Joe go over their line-ups, whilst FPL Winners features Ali and Gianni.