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 (€50k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €5,000. 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 21 €50K Midweek Monster matches
Our team suggestion for the Midweek Monster in gameweek 22
Formation: 4-5-1
MANCHESTER CITY
Gameweek 22 presents us with a rather complicated set of fixtures from a fantasy point of view, especially with all the injuries and rotation worries going around. As a result, our selection for FanTeam’s €50K Midweek Monster contains just one triple-up, namely of Manchester City players. The Cityzens are in great form defensively and working towards a more prolific attack as well, and they are visiting Turf Moor on Wednesday. Never an easy game for any team, but we can see Pep Guardiola’s men scrape a win with a clean sheet here. Just FYI, the reverse fixture back in gameweek 10, when Burnley were still very much struggling, ended in 5-0.
The Clarets seem to have recovered the success formula that kept them amongst the English footballing elite for several seasons already. Despite losing their last two games, they did manage to take 14 points from the nine previous games. They are a tough, hard-working side, but scoring goals is still an issue. At the moment, only bottom side Sheffield United have scored less than their 13 goals in 20 games. Man City then, boast the best defence in the league with 13 goals conceded in 20 games, which is why we have gone with both Joao Cancelo and Ruben Dias for our defence. The former was rested in GW21 and is expected to return against Burnley, while Dias seems undroppable for Pep. Should he not be, then John Stones will replace him with help of FanTeam’s safety net.
For our third Cityzen, it was between Ilkay Gündogan and Raheem Sterling, and we’ve opted for the latter in the end. Raz was rested over the weekend and looks primed for a return to the starting eleven at Turf Moor. His form was growing with 2 goals and 1 assist in his last three games, and we think he could be instrumental in City’s attempts to keep the pitch wide and break down Burnley deep-lying defensive block.
LEICESTER CITY
For our midfield, we have selected Harvey Barnes, who has been on fire in recent weeks. The Englishman has recorded attacking returns in his last four games (2 goals, 2 assists), and he already has 7 goals and 3 assists to his name in the Premier League overall. He plays very much forward, especially in the absence of Jamie Vardy, but is still listed as a midfielder on FanTeam. This could provide some nice added out-of-position value. The Foxes are up against Fulham against Craven Cottage, where they will be heavy favourites to take the three points.
The fact that we feel that they might just do this without conceding, has made us pick James Justin for this Midweek Monster tournament as well. The young full-back is one of the revelations at the King Power Stadium this season, first filling in for the injured Ricardo Pereira and Timothy Castagne, and then turning himself into a starter for the Foxes. He is facing a Fulham side that has scored just 6 goals since gameweek 12, so hopefully Justin and his team mates can keep the Cottagers out for this one as well.
CRYSTAL PALACE
Our fourth and final defender is an Eagle facing the Magpies in gameweek 22. Patrick van Aanholt looked to have lost his place in Crystal Palace’s starting eleven to Tyrick Mitchell, but over the weekend, there the Dutchman suddenly was again. He got the 90 minutes for the first time since gameweek 15 and rewarded his FanTeam owners with a decent 7 FT points, courtesy of a clean sheet and an Impact point. For the away game against Newcastle on Tuesday, Mitchell is marked as a doubt on FanTeam, so we might see PVA start once again. Palace have kept 3 clean sheets in the last five games, while the Magpies scored just 3 goals over that same run, two of which came last weekend against Everton.
Of course, when talking about Crystal Palace, it’s impossible not to mention Wilfried Zaha by name. The Ivory Coast international is their top scorer with 9 goals, their joint-assist leader with 3 successful final passes, and the player with most shots in Roy Hodgson’s side. He was inches away from his second consecutive return against Wolves when he hit the bar and his overall form looked pretty good. Palace aren’t the most free-scoring of sides, but Zaha could be a good pick for your FanTeam €50K Midweek Monster side in gameweek 22.
SINGLE SHOOTERS
Our FanTeam selection for this midweek round also contains three single picks, one of which is Liverpool’s Mo Salah. The Egyptian failed to return in six consecutive gameweeks, but broke that unfortunate spell in GW21 by scoring a brace away at West Ham. He is expensive and Liverpool definitely still have some issues to work through, but they are not as bad as the results imply. Not at all. This week it’s a home game against Brighton, who will be full of confidence after beating Spurs 1-0 on Sunday. We don’t think that they will surprise the Reds at home though, and we feel Salah could be entering a period of consistent fantasy returns again, which is also why we have given him the captain’s armband this round.
A key (attacking) role in his team? Check. Acceptable price for GW22? Check. Good form? Check. Good fixture? Check. West Brom’s Mateus Pereira seems to check all of the boxes that make a fantasy asset great, apart from the “Plays for a good team” box. That could be less of a concern when they are visiting fellow relegation fighters Sheffield United on Tuesday, though. Pereira himself has scored 4 goals and provided 1 assist in his last four league games for a total of 33 FT points. He has the potential to be a match-winner in this hugely important game for both teams, which is why we’re betting on him in GW22.
Our final outfield player pick was partly budget-based as well, as we were running low on budget by the time we had selected nine players for our FanTeam €50K Midweek Monster squad. Southampton find themselves in a bit of a slump at the moment, having lost their last three games in the Premier League. Their star attacker Danny Ings had some injury issues over the past month or so and he hasn’t scored since his winner against Liverpool in gameweek 16 (the Saints did not play in GW18) although a marginal VAR decision in against Aston Villa at the weekend depreived him of a goal. Upcoming opponents Manchester United seem to have suddenly lost a bit of their excellent form with just 5 points from their last four games. This encounter will feature two teams in search of their earlier winning form and at Saint Mary’s, Ings could prove to be the difference.
GOALKEEPER
Finally, our goalkeeper. Once again, we have opted for a very much budget-enabling pick with high saves potential. Burnley shot stopper Nick Pope currently ranks second on FanTeam for saves (80 saves), 7 of which were made against Chelsea last weekend. As we discussed earlier in this piece, the Clarets are facing in-form Man City at Turf Moor, where they will be the heavy underdogs. A clean sheets looks unlikely, but a few save points definitely don’t.
Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.