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.
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.
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.
Fixtures for the GW7 Monster:
Our team for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 7
Formation: 4-3-3
General approach
For gameweek 7, FanTeam have organized another €50K Weekend Monster tournament for which we had to compile a team of 11 players with a tight budget of 100M. Choices had to be made as the weekend offers us a few fixtures that look very appealing from a fantasy football point of view. This means plenty of high-priced assets and not enough spots nor money to fit them all in. This usually results in a lack of a real template, which is one of the things that makes the FanTeam tournaments so exciting.
For our gameweek 7 selection, we are betting big on Spurs despite their loss to Antwerp FC in the Europa League on Thursday, in combination with a triple pick from the West Brom Albion roster as they roll up to Craven Cottage on Monday. The Baggies represent our trio of budget enablers with potential to deliver FanTeam points. On top of that, we added two Red Devils to the mix for their home game against Arsenal, topped of with three individual picks to help us stay within budget.
Don’t forget that the deadline for the gameweek 7 €50K Weekly Monster is set at 12h30 on Saturday, October 31st.
SPURS
We’re starting our article with our captain for this week, Tottenham’s very own Harry Kane. The English striker is having a fantastic start to the season with a direct involvement in no less than 13 goals in his first six games (5 goals, 8 assists). In fact, no other player in the history of the Premier League recorded as many direct involvements in the first six games of a season. The Spurs are currently one of the most attacking teams in the league as they have scored the most goals and have created the most big chances. This weekend’s opponent Brighton are still looking to translate their more than decent displays on the pitch into points, but we don’t think that will start happening against Kane and co. The Seagulls have conceded 12 goals in 6 games and Kane will be looking to add to that total on Sunday.
To make matters worse, for Brighton that is, is that Heung-Min Son will be looking to do the same. In tandem with Kane, the Korean has been phenomenal so far this season with 8 goals and 2 assists in the first six games of the campaign. He is also the only player to have scored more FT points than the England striker (65 vs 63). Like Kane, he started on the bench against Antwerp in the Europa League on Thursday, but came in at the start of the second half to try and force a way back into the game. It was to no avail though, as Spurs were defeated, much to Mourinho’s chagrin. On the upside, a home game against Brighton could be just what they need to get back on the winning track.
To complete our Tottenham trio, we decided to invest a relatively hefty 9.4M in central defender Toby Alderweireld. The Belgian should return to the starting lineup after sitting out the mid-week game in his city of birth and we feel he could be in for a decent return on Sunday. Last weekend, he was part of Tottenham’s first clean sheet of the season, away against Burnley, and he’ll be eager to follow that up with a good display this weekend. On top of that, he’s a threat at attacking set-pieces, especially when considering the excellent delivery from the likes of Kane, Son and even Gareth Bale.
WEST BROM
In order to fit in some heavy hitters, we had to pick a few budget-friendly assets as well and we might have found them in the West Brom squad. They are playing Fulham away from home on Monday and seeing as the Cottagers have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, we have gone with Baggies’ playmaker Matheus Pereira to start with. The Brazilian midfielder has so far collected 25 FT points, and sits on 1 goal and 1 assists. Against three of the lowest-scoring teams in the league (Wolves, Sheffield United and Palace), Fulham conceded 4 goals over the past 3 games, so WBA will be hoping for chances in this game. Should those chances come, then we’re sure Pereira will be involved, as he has been in 50% of their goals so far.
Apart from their defensive woes, Fulham have also been lacking up front since the start of the campaign. In six games, they have scored just 5 goals and 3 of those goals came in the gameweek 2 roller coaster 4-3 defeat against Leeds. As a result, we have gone with a West Brom defensive double-up consisting of experienced right-back Branislav Ivanovic and English left-back Conor Townsend. The Baggies tightened up in the back after a difficult start to the season and have conceded just 3 goals in the last three games, a run that included their first clean sheet of the season back in gameweek 5 against Burnley. The away game at Craven Cottage presents a perfect opportunity for WBA to book an important victory against a direct rival in the relegation battle and there are definitely chances of a clean sheet.
MANCHESTER UNITED
United’s start to the Premier League season has been very underwhelming with just 8 points from the first six games and a current 15th place in the table. In the Champions League on Wednesday though, they booked one of their best results by thrashing last year’s semi-finalists RB Leipzig 5-0 at Old Trafford. The big man on United’s side was forward Marcus Rashford, who came on in the 63rd minute to replace Mason Greenwood when the score was still just 1-0. Half an hour later, Rashford has bagged three and the scoreboard showed 5-0. The young Englishman will be brimming with confidence for Saturday’s clash with Arsenal at home, who have not kept a clean sheet since gameweek 1 against Fulham. It’s true that Mikel Arteta’s men have looked more stable in defence of late, but we feel Rashford could be a decent differential pick for gameweek 7 of FanTeam’s €50K Weekly Monster tournament.
Seeing as Bruno Fernandes did not fit in our team due to budget restrictions, we’ve gone with Paul Pogba as our second Red Devil. The Frenchman hasn’t really lived up to expectations yet this season, but he played a decent game further up front against Leipzig on Wednesday. He provided the assist for Mason Greenwood’s opener and he was taken off in the 81st minute, which should mean he starts against the Gunners on Saturday, for the first time since gameweek 4. Should that not be the case though, then FanTeam’s Safety Net will replace him for us with one of Donny van de Beek, Juan Mata, Scott McTominay or Fred.
INIDIVIDUAL PICKS
It’s becoming a bit of a habit by now to select Danny Ings as a kind of joker for our Weekly Monster squads, but the reason for picking him every time is simple: he keeps delivering. The Southampton striker has blanked just twice this season, while he scored 4 times and assisted twice in the other four games. He is a sure starter for coach Ralph Hasenhüttl and the focal point of a decent Saints forward line. Over the last three games, they have bagged 7 goals and Ings was directly involved in 3 of those (1 goal, 2 assists). This weekend, Southampton are visiting Villa Park and even though they might not end up on the winning side against one of the season’s surprise packages so far, we’re more than willing to bet on the England striker getting opportunities to add to his current tallies.
Our second individual fantasy pick is Everton defender Yerry Mina who is visiting Saint James’ Park with his team on Saturday. The Toffees suffered their first loss of the season last weekends at the hands of Southampton, but they are still top of the table at the moment. They have not booked a clean sheet since their 0-1 away win at the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium in gameweek 1, but we feel the away game against Newcastle could be a good opportunity to get their second shut-out of the season. The Magpies have scored 8 goals already this season, but 5 of those goals came in just two games. Mina is a nailed-on starter for Carlo Ancelotti and he also offers some attacking threat from attacking set-pieces.
Finally, our goalkeeper. We had very little budget left to pick a goalie for gameweek 7 of FanTeam €50K Weekly Monster, which is why we went with Sheffield United shot stopper Aaron Ramsdale. The young Englishman is playing at home against Manchester City this weekend and despite the low chance of the Blades keeping a clean sheet, there could be a few save points on the cards here. Having said that, Man City have not hit their attacking stride yet this season and both of their strikers are still out injured. Similarly, Sheffield United have not really shown the same levels of defensive stability yet in comparison to last season, though their performance at Anfield in gameweek 6 provided a glimmer of hope. We hope that playing at home from an underdog position can bring out the best in Chris Wilder’s men with at least a few save points for Ramsdale to show for after 90 minutes.
Do check out FanTeam’s Predicted Line-Ups for the Premier League clubs before finalising your team. You will only be able to see the starting line-ups for the 1st fixture of the GW – Sheffield Utd v Manchester City.