As part of FISO’s special series of weekly articles on FanTeam, Europe’s biggest daily fantasy football provider, we will actually be entering the team we write about each week into the game. Our article will focus on an Early Entry for their Fantasy Premier League tournament held each week in order to help you identify game rules, tactics and the most promising players per gameweek, so you can win some of that large prize money.
Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€100k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €10,000. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool for those who prefer to play with lower stakes. Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.
Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and that represent some of the major differences when comparing the game to the FPL. Do though check out the Predicted Line-Ups for the Premier League clubs as well as the latest injury news (click on ‘Team’ to sort per club rather than the default ‘date’) before finalising your picks.
Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the Weekly Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead.
Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the Weekly Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.
Gameweek 19 €100K Weekly Monster matches
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 19
Formation: 4-4-2
GOALKEEPER
As usual, we have tried to find a budget-friendly goalkeeper with a good chance of save points more than anything else. This weekend, that profile seems to fit West Brom’s Sam Johnstone who, in the Saturday early match, faces Wolves missing their main striker, Raul Jimenez. There is a jump of almost £1m in his price up to the next goalkeeper that’s expected to play.
LEEDS UNITED
Our FanTeam €100K Weekly Monster selection for gameweek 19 contains two triple-ups, the first from Leeds players. Just four teams have scored more than the newly-promoted Whites’ 30 goals, which is in great part thanks to manager Marcelo Bielsa’s ultra-attacking game approach, regardless of the opposition. The result is a team that is often a joy to watch, both when they are overwhelming their opponents and when they are being picked apart in the back themselves. On Saturday, they are facing a struggling Brighton side at Elland Road after enjoying a two-week break from Premier League football. The Seagulls have shipped 29 goals in 18 games so far and the last of their two clean sheets was back in gameweek 13 against Fulham.
We think that Leeds are favourites for this one, both to win it and to score a few goals, which is why we have gone with both winger Raphinha and offensive star man Patrick Bamford this weekend. The former has proven to be an excellent addition to the team, and already sits on 2 goals and 2 assists from the last eight games. The latter is blossoming under Bielsa’s guidance in the Premier League this season, having scored an impressive 10 goals and assisted a further 5 already. Both will start fresh against Brighton and will get chances to add to their respective tallies.
Our third Leeds fantasy pick is defender Stuart Dallas. As we wrote earlier, Leeds are no source for clean sheets (though they did record 6 already), which is not what were hoping for either with the right-back / midfielder. Dallas gets an enormous amount of freedom to join the midfield and even the attack at Leeds, which is why he already has 3 goals and 2 assists to his name. Bielsa’s men will be dominating the game against Brighton, and we hope that Dallas will once again get a few chances to bomb forward and get involved in a few chances.
WEST HAM
Our first double-up for gameweek 18 comes from East London, where West Ham United will be hosting Burnley on Saturday. With 26 points from 17 games and a current 10th place, the Hammers are doing well this season. Their opponents had a difficult start to the season, but seem to have recovered some of the qualities in recent weeks. The Clarets have conceded just 3 goals in the last six gameweeks, while scoring just 4 times over that same period. In other words, goals seem to come at a premium in Burnley’s games, which is why we feel confident about selecting two West Ham defenders this weekend.
These two Hammers are right-back Vladimir Coufal and left-back, and dead-ball specialist, Aaron Cresswell. The former has started 13 out of 14 games since gameweek 4, which has resulted in 3 assists already, on top of 4 clean sheets. They are the top two priced West Ham defenders so safety net would help us out if either did not start. The home game against Burnley looks like a perfect opportunity for them to record their fifth clean sheet of the season.
MANCHESTER CITY
Despite the budget constraints this week, we have once again chosen to have faith in Manchester City, this time for their home game against Crystal Palace. Manager Pep Guardiola’s men play an uncharacteristic kind of football this season, with a rather inefficient attack and a very solid defence. While no team in the league has conceded less goals than the Cityzens, a surprising nine sides have scored more than them.
The problem is not the creation of chances though, but more their finishing, which is why we have selected midfield maestro Kevin de Bruyne for our €100K Weekly Monster selection in gameweek 18. The Belgian has delivered 1 goal and 3 assists for a total of 32 FT points over the last four gameweeks. He is the most creative force in the team by some distance and looks primed for a big haul in every game, which is why he is our captain as well. Someone just needs to get on the end of his passes…
He is joined in our team by right-back / left-back / central midfielder / playmaker Joan Cancelo, because we did not want to go without a skyblue defender this weekend. The Portuguese summer signing is loving life under Guardiola and gets plenty of freedom to join in attack, which should be music to the ears of every fantasy manager. As a matter of fact, he is the second-most creative player in terms of big chances created, behind KDB. Against the Eagles this weekend, returns at both ends of the pitch look to be on the cards for Cancelo.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Perhaps our riskiest bet of the weekend is the one we are placing on Manchester United. It’s true that the Red Devils are in good form, with 9 victories and 2 draws in their last eleven Premier League outings, but the risk lies in the fact that they are visiting Anfield on Sunday. It’s going to be a tough afternoon for them, considering Liverpool’s record at home however goals against a weakened Liverpool defence do seem quite possible. The Reds will be without their entire first-choice centre, which will mean we’ll see Fabinho (who does a very good job there, it should be noted) partnering with a youngster in between Andy Robertson on the left and Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right.
We have a feeling that this might just be the kind of set-up that the likes of Bruno Fernandes (our vice-captain), the resurgent Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford will enjoy. The Red Devils thrive when they can play on the counter and use their speed to exploit spaces in the opposition’s defence, and we can see this happening against Liverpool. Rashford, for example, has scored 7 goals and provided 5 assists so far, but only one of those returns came in a home game. The same trend can be seen when looking at Bruno’s performances: 11 goals and 8 assists to his name, of which 6 goals and 6 assists were recorded away from Old Trafford. Pogba was man of the match in the win against Burnley to send them top of the table. Liverpool will have a hard time keeping these three from improving their stats on Sunday.
Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.