Fantasy Football bargains for next season

Posted on by admin

Fantasy football is a hugely popular activity across the United Kingdom. Research suggests that around 7 million play the official fantasy game of the Premier League with many playing similar games across several different websites. 

Whilst many fantasy squads contain the more obvious names of the Premier League, other players like to scout the market for bargains. Some will inevitably look at players from the newly promoted sides.

A look at Norwich City

Norwich went up as winners of the Championship during the 2018/2019 season but struggled in their Premier League campaign and went straight back down. This is a story that has been replicated this season. Following promotion from last season’s Championship, Fulham and West Brom’s stay in the Premier League was cut short after relegation. English Premier League relegation odds had indicated they were favourites to go down from the early stages of the season.

Norwich will have to sign new players if they want to avoid the same fate as last time, otherwise odds on the Premier League next season will no doubt have them as one of the favourites to get relegated.

Teemu Pukki once again played a huge part in Norwich gaining promotion during their last campaign. He will want to improve on the eleven goals he scored in his last season in the Premier League. One of the highlights of that season for Pukki was scoring the important third goal in a 3-2 win over Manchester City during the earlier stages of that season. Alongside Pukki, Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell are potential bargains for any fantasy football manager looking for value ahead of next season.

Watford’s strengths

Like Norwich, Watford will be looking to improve on their last season in the Premier League. A glance over Watford’s statistics from their successful promotion campaign shows that Ismalia Sarr was their top scorer with 13 goals. Despite the promotion, The Hornets only managed 63 goals in 46 appearances. They will need to improve in this area of the pitch against the tougher defences of the Premier League.

If you want to sign Watford players for your fantasy squad, it might be worth looking at their defence. They had one of the best defences in the Championship and with Ben Foster as the goalkeeper, they have a player with lots of Premier League experience. The likes of William Troost-Ekong might be worth exploring as cheaper substitute options in next season’s fantasy games. The Watford defender has played in the World Cup for Nigeria and has experience in Serie A so should be able to perform at a higher level.

Inspiration for newly promoted players

Patrick Bamford will almost certainly be more expensive in next season’s Fantasy Football after a promising debut campaign in the Premier League. He should still be cheaper than many of the league’s top attacking players. Ollie Watkins is another player who took on the challenge of playing in the Premier League as he moved from Brentford in the Championship to Aston Villa last summer. 

Both players will inspire some of the players moving up from the Championship and make the gamble of including newly promoted players appear more tempting.