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After their resounding 5-0 victory last weekend, Brendan Rodgers has named an unchanged Liverpool side to take on a Cardiff side that has shown promise at home, but struggled on the road. With matches away to Manchester City and Chelsea coming up, this game is an absolute must-win for the Reds, so I'm hopeful we see the same kind of performance that led to AVB's (perhaps harsh) demise at Tottenham.
Later today we'll see how Manchester City fare without Sergio Aguero as they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage, what David Moyes meant by "We'll have to see" regarding Wayne Rooney, and whether or not Tony Pulis' Crystal Palace team can keep a fourth straight home clean sheet against a Newcastle side that has performed admirably so far this season. There is also a chance for West Brom to right the ship at home against Hull, another match where Christian Benteke would have scored last season as Aston Villa travel to take on Stoke City, and a test of Sunderland's depth and fitness after an extra-time Capital One Cup victory over Chelsea midweek.
As far as my own team is concerned, I've gone with an extremely unorthodox 4-4-2 this weekend as I've decided to play my hunches and stop over-thinking things. Here's what I've settled on:
Mignolet, Ward, Debuchy, P. Jones, M. Olsson, Coutinho, Silva, Henderson, Redmond, Mirallas, Suarez (c)
Bench: Oviedo, Sterling, Jerome, Gazzaniga
I have some major differentials in Olsson and Mirallas that I hope will outperform players like Lukaku, Negredo, Wellbeck and some of the other more popular picks this week. I also had a hunch on Mile Jedinak, but after reviewing his stats I realized he hasn't been putting up good points since Week 10, which was also the point at which Barry Bannan established himself in the Palace team. Bannan's taken away all the free kicks Jedinak was taking early in the season, so his value to me has dropped fairly significantly. This obviously means he will score against Newcastle.
How did your team end up? Have you gone all out on one or two teams (like Mo), or have you spread the wealth? I wish you luck this week and, as always, happy chatting!