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 GW9 Monster:
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 9
Formation: 3-4-3
General approach
Gameweek 9 offers another set of interesting fixtures, both from a fantasy point of view and for Premier League fans in general. The multitude of injuries and COVID-19-related absences this weekend is going to make for a fascinating €50K Weekly Monster. With Spurs versus Man City and Liverpool at home to Leicester, a majority of premium assets are facing top-class opposition, while Chelsea face a Newcastle side that can be a tough one to crack at Saint James Park. Form team Southampton are up against Wolves at Molineux, whilst both West Ham and Everton are considered favourites for their clashes with Sheffield United and Fulham respectively, though both clubs are playing away from home.
For the first time in a while, we managed to group our Weekly Monster selection around three main groups of players, namely from Everton (at Craven Cottage), Leicester (away at Liverpool) and West Ham (facing Sheffield United at Bramall Lane). We selected three players from each roster and supplemented them with a Chelsea defender and a Newcastle goalkeeper to fit our budget. As you can see, we’re big on away teams this round, hopefully this approach will pan out.
EVERTON
Carlo Ancelotti’s men had a great start to the season and were sitting top of the table with 13 points after five games. Since gameweek 6 though, the Toffees did not win a single point and scored just two goals over a run that included two away games (Southampton and Newcastle) and one at Goodison Park against Manchester United. It’s no coincidence that the team was plagued by minor and major injuries during that period, as well as a red card courtesy of left-back Lucas Digne. This week should mark the return of some key attacking players though, including star man Richarlison and new signing James Rodriguez.
For the away game against Fulham, we have immediately selected the pair for our €50K Weekly Monster team. Richarlison missed the last three Premier League games but he started both World Cup qualifiers for Brazil over the international break, amassing 146 minutes and an assist spread over two games. As for James Rodriguez, the playmaker did not miss a minute of international football with the Colombian national squad as they lost both of the World Cup qualifiers, against Uruguay and Ecuador respectively. He did score a goal and the Colombia captain should be ready to face Fulham on Sunday.
We’re clearly betting on the Everton offence against a Cottager defence that has already conceded 15 goals in eight games, so striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has to be there as well. The 23-year old played a total of 84 minutes for England over the international break spread over two games and scored a penalty goal against Ireland. This should only add to his form and confidence, and we’re hoping that he can carry this form into this weekend’s Premier League showdown. His current 8 goals and 1 assist from 8 games only strengthen that hope, and he is our captain for gameweek 9.
LEICESTER CITY
In recent years, it has not happened very often that we, or anyone, bet big against Liverpool, especially not when playing at Anfield. Gameweek 9 of the Premier League is one of those times, though, at least for us it is. It’s not so much that the Reds are on a bad run of form or something along those lines, but their list of injuries and absences for this weekend is too hard to ignore. With Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Gomez and probably Robertson out for GW9, manager Jurgen Klopp will have to come up with a completely new backline. Add to that the absence of Fabinho and Henderson, and the obligatory COVID-19 isolation of Mo Salah, and betting against a good result for Liverpool starts making a bit more sense.
Even more so when knowing that this weekend’s opponents are Leicester, who currently sit top of the Premier League table with 18 points from 8 games. The Foxes have in their last 3 games conceded just 2 goals, which included away games against Leeds and Arsenal, and a visit of Wolves to the King Power Stadium. In an attacking sense, they scored 18 times already this season and 6 of those goals were scored in the last three games. Considering the form of the Foxes and the state of the Liverpool defence, we decided to take a bit of a chance and go all in on the Leicester attack.
This means that we selected, of course, Jamie Vardy for our gameweek 9 Weekly Monster team, as well as winger Harvey Barnes and playmaker James Maddison. None of these three players had international duties to deal with during the break, which only adds to their appeal, especially when considering that all of Liverpool’s players spread all over the globe to be with their national teams. Vardy is our main Fox seeing as he has already scored 8 goals and provided 2 assists this season, and is as nailed-on as can be for a Premier League side. Maddison started the season sidelined with a hip injury, but has been playing rather well since his return in gameweek 5. Finally, Barnes has been regular under manager Brendan Rodgers and will be hoping to work on his current tallies of 2 goals and 1 assist against a makeshift Liverpool defence. Should either Barnes or Maddison not start, FanTeam’s Safety Net will select Under or the in-form Youri Tielemans as a replacement.
WEST HAM
Our third triple-up of the week consists of three West Ham players as they prepare for the away game against Sheffield United. The Blades look to have a tough season ahead and the main reason for that is their shyness in front of goal. In eight games so far, they have scored just 4 times. Only Burnley have been less effective in an attacking sense. Manager Chris Wilder’s men have not managed to score more than once in a game this season, which doesn’t bode well for this weekend.
That’s because on Sunday, Sheffield United welcome West Ham to Bramall Lane and the Hammers have been pretty impressive so far this season. After a run of 8 games in which they faced, among others, Man City and Wolves at home and Leicester, Spurs and Liverpool away, they have a more than decent 11 points. Over the past three games, the Hammers conceded just 3 goals: 1 at home against City, 2 away at Anfield, and none against Fulham in gameweek 8. This is also why we have gone with a pair of West Ham defenders to form the core of our FanTeam €50 Weekly Monster backline this gameweek.
The main man is Aaron Cresswell, who already has 3 clean sheets and 3 assists to his name, is our first pick. The English defender is not only a nailed-on pick for manager David Moyes, but also a primary candidate for many of the Hammers’ set-pieces. He is joined in our defence by right-back Arthur Masuaku, who has already recorded 23 FT points this season, courtesy of 3 clean sheets and 1 assist. He also cost a fraction less than his teammates Coufal and Ogbonna. Our West Ham threesome is completed by attacking midfielder Pablo Fornals, who seems to have found his spot in East London and the Premier League. The Spaniard already has 2 goals and 3 assists in his belt, and we hope that he can one of the differentials against the Blades this weekend.
CHELSEA
With quite a bit of budget and one defensive spot to fill left, we figured there were few better options than to splash the cash on Chelsea left-back Ben Chilwell. The summer signing has slotted right into manager Frank Lampard’s starting eleven and with good reason. With his energy and attacking instincts, the Englishman has proven to be one of the best wing-backs in the league. As part of an improving Chelsea side, he has recorded 3 clean sheets, 2 goals and 2 assists in his last five games for a total of 41 FT points. This weekend, the Blues are visiting Newcastle, meaning there could be points on the cards at both ends of the pitch for Chilwell. Do keep an eye on his fitness status, but even if he doesn’t start, FanTeam’s Safety Net replaces him with Kurt Zouma for our team.
NEWCASTLE
Finally, our goalkeeper. After having just recommended Chilwell (and Chelsea) as a favourite for this weekend’s away game versus Newcastle, due to our remaining budget we have had to go with Magpies goalkeeper Karl Darlow. The 30-year old Englishman is an excellent shot stopper and has proven himself as a saves magnet this season so could score reasonable points even without a clean sheet. No other keeper in the Premier League has recorded more than his 38 saves, which represents an impressive 19 FT points over the first 8 gameweeks of the season. Newcastle are not favourites for their home game against Chelsea, but we can see another couple of save points coming Darlow’s way on Saturday.