WITH OR WITHOUT HAALAND

There may be an international break taking place but Scout never stops, with such time allowing a deeper look at current situations. The main question involves Erling Haaland. One goal in five matches (all competitions) is way below his usual, terrifying standard – could managers really go without this £14.0m asset?

Some of the ‘Great and the Good’ already have, where nine of the 18 used their Wildcards for Gameweek 8. However, his expected goals (xG) data is still dominant over recent Gameweeks and he’s about to be boosted by the return of unsuspended team-mate Rodri. That’s why he makes the Scout Picks bus team for Gameweek 9.

Owners shouldn’t be put off by Man City’s bad-looking upcoming matches, although Chelsea sit bottom of the Season Ticker to slightly dampen the appeal of cheap midfielder Cole Palmer. On the other hand, Aston Villa, West Ham and Liverpool are about to begin some superb fixtures.

Any Darwin Nunez or Luis Diaz punts need to be taken with caution because Neale’s very popular accumulation of international players and dates suggests the Reds’ South American pair may not be ready for their Merseyside derby.

Meanwhile, each team’s underlying stats are compared to last season, with another data analysis taking early fixture difficulty into account. As for Pro Pundits, their next pieces will arrive closer to next Saturday’s 11:00 (BST) deadline.

As always, check out our Gameweek 9 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 and Goals Imminent episodes are General’s Orders and his 59^th Minute podcast. Joe drafts a Gameweek 9 Wildcard for managers, Marc guests on the weekly Q&A and David has clearly been reading fairy tales again because he asks if we can trust Wolves.