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 20 €50K Midweek Monster matches
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 20
Formation: 4-3-3
MANCHESTER CITY
The stand-out fixture for Fantasy managers on all platforms in gameweek 20 is probably West Bromwich Albion vs Manchester City on Tuesday, and this goes for FanTeam’s €50K Midweek Monster as well. This also explains the premium pricing of all Skyblue assets, but this hasn’t stopped us from tripling up on them for this midweek round of Premier League football. We have gone with a defensive double-up combined with one midfield pick, though we are fully aware of the negative impact that the absence of playmaker Kevin de Bruyne might have on City’s offensive plans. Still, just two teams have scored less than West Brom and no team has conceded more than they have.
In defence, we have picked central defender John Stones, who is just coming off surprising brace against Crystal Palace in the double gameweek 19, and wing-back/midfielder/#10 Joao Cancelo. The former has recorded no less than 50 FT points over the last six games, while the latter has been good for 32 FT points over that same period. City’s 5 clean sheets in those six games have obviously played a big role here.
Our third Cityzen is Ilkay Gündogan, who has seen a somewhat unexpected surge in fantasy football returns in recent weeks. In the last seven games, which he all started by the way, the Turkish midfielder scored 5 goals for a very nice 55 FT points. Even in the presence of De Bruyne, Gündo was on penalties recently, which only adds to his appeal. Of course, it remains to be seen to what extent he is maintained in his more offensive role by Pep Guardiola now that KDB is out, but we feel he’s worth the investment for the visit to the Hawthornes.
SPURS
For this midweek round of football, we have also tripled up on Tottenham Hotspur assets, though their fixture is of quite another calibre than City’s. José Mourinho’s men are hosting Liverpool in London on Thursday, though the Reds are going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. They have not won in five and to make matters worse, they failed to score in four of those games. It looks like there could be no worse moment for them to face Spurs, who boast the second-best defence in the league and who have not lost since gameweek 16.
Naturally, Liverpool possess the qualities to turn it around at any moment, but in Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son, Spurs have the kind of players that can explode at any moment and against any opponent. The dynamic duo has combined for an incredible 13 goals already, an all-time Premier League and we’re just 19 games into the campaign, and the make-shift Liverpool backline won’t be looking forward to facing them. Goals might very well come at a premium in this one, but if any players are likely to be involved in them, it’s Kane and Son.
We just mentioned Liverpool’s sudden and quite shocking goal drought in recent weeks, which is why we have completed our Spurs trio with central defender Toby Alderweireld. We figured that both Reguilón and Aurier will have to deal with Salah and Mané, who, despite their recent blanks, can be a nightmare for any fullback. Alderweireld is a sure starter for Mourinho and he brings some attacking threat on set-pieces with him as well. Should he not start, then the FanTeam safety net will select Ben Davies or Davinson Sanchez for our team.
ASTON VILLA
It doesn’t occur very often, but this week, we have included three triple-ups in our FanTeam €50K Midweek Monster. Besides Man City and Spurs, we have also opted for an Aston Villa trio for their game at Turf Moor. The first encounter between these two teams, back in gameweek 13, ended in a 0-0 draw and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar result this time round. Burnley sit on 6 clean sheets this season, two of which came in the last four games, and they have scored just 2 goals in their last five games. Villa already have an impressive 9 clean sheets to their name, six of which came in the last games, and they have scored 4 goals in the last four games.
Based on these recent streaks, we decided to pick both Villa’s goalkeeper Emi Martinez and their left-back Matt Targett for our FanTeam squad. Thanks to the excellent defensive performances of his team, the former is actually the highest-scoring goalkeeper on FanTeam, while only ten defenders in the entire league rank higher than the latter at the moment. A visit to Turf Moor is never easy and the Clarets have improved considerably since the start of the season, but we consider the Villans favourites here with a decent chance of a tenth clean sheet.
Of course, when talking about Aston Villa, it’s practically impossible not to mention their talisman Jack Grealish, who completes our Villan trio. The young Englishman dropped a bit deeper into midfield during the absence of Ross Barkley, which had a bit of a negative effect on his fantasy returns, but with Barkley back in action, Grealish has moved into the forward line again. He has provided 2 assists in the last three games and if there is anyone capable of breaking down the Claret defence this week, it’s him.
WEST HAM
For the final two spots in our team, we have looked at East London, where West Ham are preparing for a visit to Selhurst Park. The Hammers are having a very good 2020-21 campaign with 32 points from 19 games and a 7th place. Their double gameweek 19 ended with two victories, 1-0 against Burnley and 2-1 versus West Brom, and it’s Crystal Palace away next for them. The Eagles come off a 4-0 defeat at the hands of City, but in the four games before that, they got five points by scoring 3 goals and conceding 4. This one does not look like it will become a high-scoring game, but West Ham are favourites for a win here, possibly with a clean sheet.
Considering Crystal Palace’s defensive record so far this season (only two teams have conceded more goals than them), we decided to go with two attacking Hammers, namely striker Michail Antonio and midfielder Tomas Soucek. While the latter is not a real forward in theory, he has shown a certain goal instinct this season already with 5 goals and 1 assist. The former has burst back onto the Premier League scene after struggling with injury issues and scored 2 goals in double gameweek 19. If the Hammers manage to create dangers against Palace, chances are that he and/or the powerful Soucek will be involved.
Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.