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 GW8 Monster:
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 8
Formation: 3-5-2
General approach
Gameweek 8 of the Premier League is offering us yet another very interesting set of fixtures, most of which we find quite hard to predict, Encounters like Leicester versus Wolves at the King Power, Manchester City against champions Liverpool at the Etihad and Everton hosting a struggling Manchester United side could go either way. This only makes the FanTeam €50K Weekly Monster tournament for GW8 all the more interesting and we expect quite a lot of variation in terms of squad compilations this weekend.
For our gameweek 8 squad, we have focused on West Ham at home to Fulham and Everton at Goodison Park against Man United by picking three fantasy assets from each side. We have added two double picks to the core of the team, with two players from Leeds as they visit Selhurst Park and two players from Aston Villa for their visit to Arsenal. To finish it off, we have added our joker pick for the week, who is also our captain.
WEST HAM
Despite a very difficult opening set of fixtures, including away games versus Liverpool, Spurs, and Leicester and home games against Wolves and Man City, West Ham have made a good impression in the opening weeks of the 2020-21 campaign. They currently sit on 8 points and that is, in part, due to a decent defensive setup. The Hammers have conceded 10 goals so far, a tally that could have easily been much worse considering their opposition in the first seven gameweeks.
That’s also why we have gone with two West Ham defenders for our FanTeam €50K Weekly Monster selection for their home encounter with Fulham, namely Aaron Cresswell and Arthur Masuaku. Both have already been part of 2 clean sheets and they also have 4 assists between the two of them, 3 for Cresswell and 1 for Masuaku.
Fulham booked the first victory of the season last weekend at home against fellow new boys West Brom, so they should be entering this game with some confidence, but we think West Ham will win this one. The Cottagers sit on 7 goals from seven games, but keep in mind that 3 of those goals were scored in GW2 during the 4-3 defeat at the hands of Leeds and 2 more were scored last weekend against the Baggies. In the remaining five games, they scored just 2 goals, which sounds promising for our defensive Hammers picks.
At the same time, Scott Parker’s men already scored 14 goals in seven games, which is why we have also added winger Jarrod Bowen to our team. The 23-year old Englishman is the most expensive Hammers asset in the game this weekend and we think that is with good reason. He brings a lot of threat with him and we feel that the home game against the Cottagers could be a good opportunity to work on his current tallies (3 goals in 7 games). On top of that, he could represent some differential value this weekend as well.
EVERTON
Besides the Hammers, we have also gone with a Toffees triple-up. At first glance, this might look like a strange decision, seeing as they are playing Manchester United, but this might actually be the first time in many years that Everton are favourites to (comfortably) win this encounter. Carlo Ancelotti’s men did lose against Newcastle last weekend to end their unbeaten run since gameweek 1, but they could find some comfort in the fact that they were missing a few key players, including superstar signing James Rodriguez. United can hardly say the same about their terrible current form, which came to a boiling point in the mid-week defeat at the hands of Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League.
Our first Everton fantasy is, of course, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has cemented his place as Everton’s starting striker this season. The 23-year old forward has already scored 8 goals this season, making him the second-highest-scoring attacker in FanTeam right now, a position he shares with Leicester star Jamie Vardy. The Red Devils have conceded 13 goals in six games so far and if the mid-week game showed us one thing, it’s that their defensive setup is not at all stable at the moment.
That’s also the reason why we have decided to go all in on the Everton attack, and to add both James Rodriguez and Gylfi Sigurdsson to our squad. The former missed the last game due to injury, but 23 FanTeam points in the three games prior to that, courtesy of 2 goals, 2 assists and 1 Impact point. The latter seems to be playing himself into the favors of Ancelotti a bit after a season start as substitute. He was in charge of several set-pieces in gameweek 7 against Newcastle and should be again against United. In case he doesn’t start for the Toffees, FanTeam’s Safety Net will replace him with Alex Iwobi or André Gomes for us.
ASTON VILLA
We have gone with Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez this week as he is facing Arsenal at the Emirates. The Gunners are favourites for this one, that much is clear, but they are not in great form either. They currently sit in ninth place in the league and have scored just 9 goals so far. Only six teams have scored less. Villa, at the same time, seem to have cooled down a bit after a dream start to the season. The last two games were lost, both at home, and 7 goals were conceded over that run. We’re very curious to see what will happen in this one and we hope that Martinez will at least bring us some save points.
Our second Villa man is, of course, the magnificent Jack Grealish. He is by far the club’s best player and always up for an attacking return, even if his team is not performing. Just look at the 3-4 loss against Southampton last weekend, in which he managed to record 2 assists and a last-minute goal for a total of 13 FT points. Combine this with his frequent set-piece duties and it becomes clear that, in case Villa do cause an upset in London on Sunday evening, the midfielder will be involved.
LEEDS
With 10 points from seven games and a 12th place in the league at the time of writing, Leeds United are doing more than decent on their return amongst the English footballing elite. One of the big men in Marcelo Bielsa’s machine is midfielder Mateusz Klich, who has already recorded 2 goals, 2 assists and 2 clean sheets this season. Over the past 3 games, the Polish playmaker recorded 9 points and we feel that he could get the freedom to work his magic against Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday. The Eagles will try to keep things tight in the back as usual, but there not as solid as they were last season, considering they have already conceded 11 goals this season. A clean sheet against Leeds doesn’t seem likely.
As a matter of fact, if any team could book a clean sheet in this one, it’s Leeds. Not so much because of their defensive solidity (they have conceded a worrying 13 goals in 7 games already), but because of Palace’s shyness in front of goal. Only four teams have scored less than their 8 goals, which is why we have also added Leeds defender Stuart Dallas to our team. Bielsa gives his the freedom to roam forward, with a goal and an assist as a result so far. Against the Eagles, the lack of pressure on the visiting defensive line could result in returns at both ends of the pitch for the left-back.
JOKER
By far the biggest chunk of our budget in gameweek 8 of FanTeam’s €50K Weekly Monster was spent on Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who is also our captain this weekend. The England striker is having a devastating start to the 2020-21 campaign with 6 goals and 8 assists from just seven games, and he is up against the league’s most obliging defence on Sunday. José Mourinho’s men are visiting the Hawthornes where West Brom will be looking for their first victory of the season. This one seems unlikely to be converted into three points by Slaven Bilic’ men though, as they are not just facing Kane, but the most prolific Premier League attack overall.
