Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke Named Among Holly Shand’s Best Third Forward Selections For Gameweek 21

Holly Shand returns with another round of FPL tips on SportsCasting – this week centred around the best third forward for your teams ahead of Gameweek 21.

The forwards template is holding firm, with form picks Alexander Isak and Chris Wood dominating most FPL teams. Managers are seemingly locked in a 3-4-3 formation, but a long-term injury for Evanilson and doubt over the fitness of Joao Pedro open up the third forward spot. So who should we pick?

FPL Gameweek 21 Tips: Best Third Forward

Dominic Solanke (£7.5m)

I’ve owned Dominic Solanke since Gameweek 8 and have been content with his returns through this period. In this time, he’s produced five goals and four assists in 12 appearances, playing the full 90 minutes on 10 occasions and missing just one game through illness.

He feels kindly priced as the nailed number nine in this Spurs side, who sit second only to Liverpool for goals scored this season, with 42. We must also note that they are among the most explosive sides in the Premier League this season, scoring 3+ goals on nine occasions.

Solanke’s ownership has been in permanent decline since Gameweek 8 and he’s now a relative differential in the game, in just 9% of squads. He’s the most expensive of the trio picked here, but another promising performance in the League Cup semi-final against Liverpool shows his potential.

Cody Gakpo (£7.3m)

Last week in this very column, I mentioned Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo as a great differential option in the game and he duly delivered a goal in the 2-2 draw against Manchester United. He remains a great pick and he’s still a differential, in around 8% of sides, as an option to double up on this Liverpool attack.

Gakpo has made the left wing spot his own, while Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota vie for the number nine role in Arne Slot’s front three, but be aware he can be prone to an early substitution. Gakpo is in a great vein of form, with three goals and one assist across the last four gameweeks.

Gameweek 21 is a tough entry point for would-be owners, with Liverpool travelling to third place Nottingham Forest, who are on a five game winning streak. They’ve kept four consecutive clean sheets and beat Liverpool 1-0 in the reverse fixture at Anfield back in September.

Raul Jimenez (£5.7m)

Raul Jimenez has been a surprise package in the last two gameweeks, registering three goals to take him up to ten goal involvements for the season, including two spot-kick conversions against Ipswich Town. He had produced just one goal in the previous seven gameweeks to this point.

There were concerns that the Fulham striker could be dropped in favour of Rodrigo Muniz who was first choice at the start of the season, but recent minutes and goals suggest that Jimenez is very much still higher in the pecking order, and being on penalties remains a crucial route to points.

At 9.9% owned, Jimenez just comes into differential status. Fulham’s kind run of fixtures continues into January, where they face West Ham, Leicester City and Manchester United in the next three gameweeks. He scored in the reverse fixture against this week’s opponent West Ham, which ended in a 1-1 draw.