GW 35 Togga Player Picks: It Starts Tuesday, April 17th!

Forget whatever the Official game or, you know, the real life EPL are telling you: Togga’s GW 35 is a beautiful and unique snowflake that will run from Tuesday April 17th through Monday April 23rd (as will Fantrax +Bench, so watch your deadlines!). It will feature 10 matches, but not every team will play: Burnley play twice (home to Chelsea and away at Stoke), but Huddersfield will play no part in this strange GW.

With all of this in mind, let’s get right to it: Here are my GW 35 Togga player picks!

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Goalkeeper

Jordan Pickford (v Newcastle)

I know what you’re thinking: Why no Burnley keeper? My reason is that the double game week could finally see Tom Heaton back in action. I believe Nick “The Young” Pope will get the start at home against Chelsea, but he’s likely to concede, maybe twice. Wouldn’t that be the perfect excuse/time to give a healthy Tom Heaton the start away to Stoke? My worry with Pope then, is maybe you get 2 points in the Chelsea game, and then a donut at Stoke.

I don’t love the Pickford v Newcastle matchup, but I can see 3-4 saves here, and even if he concedes a goal, that is still good for about 6 points. Other solid alternatives include Ederson (v Swansea) and Loris Karius (@ West Brom).

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Defenders

James Tarkowski and Stephen Ward (v Chelsea; @ Stoke); Shkodran Mustafi (v West Ham); Virgil van Dijk (@ West Brom)

Despite my reservations against trusting a Burnley keeper for Burnley’s GW 35 double, I’m perfectly fine picking two defenders. Tarkowski is a shoo-in, and then it’s a tossup between Ward and Matt Lowton. I’m going with Ward because he’s been in slightly better form than his fullback counterpart.

The other two defender spots will be occupied by (so-so in real life, but great in Togga) Shkodran Mustafi and Liverpool’s man-mountain Dutch international VvD. Other alternatives include Tottenham’s usual suspects (Jan Vertonghen and/or a fullback like Ben Davies or Kieran Trippier or Serge Aurier) and Chelsea’s usual suspects (Marcos Alonso and/or Cesar Azpilicueta).

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Midfielders

Johan Berg Gudmunsson; Wilfried Zaha (@ Watford FC); Kevin De Bruyne (v Swansea); Christian Eriksen (v Brighton)

Bartender, make it a double Icelandic Gudmunsson please!

Rounding out the midfielder picks are the white-hot Zaha (should have picked England for national team duty, man!), City’s maestro supremo KDB (but watch out, as he hasn’t been scoring high point totals recently), and Togga Mount Rushmore honoree Eriksen.

If any of these picks don’t float your proverbial boat, you could do worse than to consider differential counterparts to any (all) of my non-Icelandic-Gudmunsson picks: Andros Townsend, David Silva, and Dele Alli.

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Forwards

Mo Salah (@ West Brom); Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (v West Ham)

Just like Eriksen, Salah has been enshrined on my Togga Mount Rushmore. If he starts in real life, he starts for me in Togga. Arsenal’s Spiderman has been a beast since joining Arsenal, and is among the most elite Togga performers regardless of position. He’s not been enshrined in my Togga Mount Rushmore, but he’s close.

If you simply cannot avoid the temptation of Burnley’s DGW, then I’d rate Chris Wood ahead of Ashley Barnes.

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And there ya have it, my GW 35 Togga player picks! Do you agree with my take, or are you simply grabbing as many Burnley blokes as you can get your hands on and trusting Sean Dyche to manage the rest of your week? Let us know in the comments section below!