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 (€75k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €7,500. 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 that starts 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 25 €75K Weekly Monster matches

Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 25

Formation: 4-4-2

MANCHESTER UNITED

The core of our team selection for gameweek 25 of FanTeam’s €75K Weekly Monster consists of Manchester United players as the Red Devils are preparing to host Newcastle at Old Trafford on Sunday. Since their 9-0 thrashing of Southampton back in gameweek 22, United have booked two rather disappointing results with draws at home against Everton and away at relegation-threatened West Brom. They are currently 7 points behind leaders Manchester City and their skyblue city rivals have a game in hand as well. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men really can’t afford another misstep against bottom-half-of-the-table opposition.

Seeing as Man United currently boast the league’s most productive attack, we have gone big on their forwards and midfielders. In the midfield we’ve gone with Mason Greenwood and, of course, Bruno Fernandes. The former was rested for the gameweek 24 and is likely to feature from the start as usual against the Magpies, while the latter is irreplaceable for United. The Portuguese playmaker is going through a purple patch once again with 3 goals and 2 assists in his last three games, bringing his Premier League totals to 14 goals and 11 assists. Bruno is also our captain for GW25. The Red Devils will have to face Real Sociedad on Thursday first, so keep an eye on lineups and team news, but in any case, the FanTeam safety net is active.

Our United trio is completed by Edinson Cavani, who looks to have cemented his place in Solskjaer’s starting eleven for now. The Uruguayan goal machine has started the last four league games and completed the 90 minutes in three of those games. Over that same run, he scored 2 goals and recorded 19 FT points. Should he, for some reason, not start against Newcastle, then the FanTeam safety net will replace him with Anthony Martial for us.

BURNLEY

In defence, we have opted for two double-ups, one of those coming from the north of the country. Burnley are one of the sides that has shown most improvement over the season so far and their increased defensive confidence has everything to with it. After 23 games, the Clarets have scored just 17 goals, but they also boast the eighth-best defence in the entire league. They have got 7 clean sheets to their name already, the last of which was booked in their last game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Sean Dyche’s men will be up against West Brom at Turf Moor in gameweek 25, a game that ended in 0-0 back in gameweek 5.

Seeing as we’re hoping for another low-scoring affair on Saturday, we have picked Matt Lowton and James Tarkowski for FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster team. Neither of the two have offered much in an attacking sense this season, though Lowton did score his first goal of the season last weekend, but they are both nailed-on parts of Sean Dyche’s defence. Against a Baggies team that has scored just 19 goals all season, chances of an eighth clean sheet are real and the Clarets know that this one they simply cannot lose if they want to stay clear of the relegation battle.

BRIGHTON

Our second defensive double-up for this weekend comes from the south of England, from Brighton & Hove to be exact. The local pride has finally started to convert decent to very good performances into points and they have been steadily moving away from the very bottom of the table ever since. While scoring goals is still a major point of concern for the Seagulls, their defence is second only to Manchester City’s at the moment. Over the past six games, they have kept no less than 5 clean sheets and it should be noted that this run included encounters with Leeds, Spurs, Liverpool and Villa.

Up next is a home game against Crystal Palace for Graham Potter’s men and the Eagles will once again be without their star man Wilfried Zaha. This considerably increases chances of a sixth clean sheet in seven for Brighton, as their opponents have not yet managed to score a goal in a game in which their Ivory Coast talisman did not start. Hence, our selection of Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn for our gameweek 25 fantasy team. Both defenders are secured of a start on Monday and just coming off a very sturdy 0-0 draw at Villa Park, so we’re hoping they will carry their solid form into the clash with Palace.

SHEFFIELD UNITED

This could very well be the first time this season that we have considered Sheffield United players for our FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster team and certainly the first time that we have opted for a double pick from Chris Wilder’s side. At the moment of writing, the Blades are bottom of the league, where they have been for most of the season, but budget constraints from our side and some promising signs of improvement from their side plus a positive fixture convinced us to take a punt on them. They have become more competitive compared to the start of the season and even though it might be too late to save them from relegation, it makes them an interesting differential for fantasy managers.

The Blades are playing fellow relegation-zone settlers Fulham on Saturday night and the Cottagers haven’t really felt at home in Craven Cottage this season. They have scored just a single goal in their last six home games, while conceding just five at their own end. For both teams, this game is a must-win and we feel Sheffield United have got a bit more momentum at the moment, so we have added David McGoldrick and John Lundstram to our side. This encounter has all the makings of a low-scoring affair, but the Blades know that victory at the Cottage is needed to maintain any hopes of Premier League survival.

BONUS

With the shape they’re currently in and keeping the fact that they seem to be running away with first place, it’s odd not to include any Manchester City players in our team. Even without Kevin de Bruyne who is on the comeback trail, the Cityzens are the best and most consistent team in the league right now. The only downside to their assets is that they are facing Arsenal at the Emirates this weekend. The Gunners are a bit unreliable at the moment and the game could end 0-1 or just as well 0-4. In case of the latter scenario, we figured it would be smart to cover at least some of our bases by picking Raheem Sterling for our gameweek 25 selection. The England international has scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists in the last five league games, and we’re expecting him to turn up from the start against Arsenal as well.

GOALKEEPER

Gameweek 25 offers us plenty of nice fixtures, but from a fantasy point of view, many of them are hard to predict. Lots of this weekend’s match-ups are quite evenly matched when it comes to squad quality and form, which has led to a high average player price on FanTeam. Our outfield picks stretched our budget considerably as a result, which is why we have gone for a cheap starter in goal again. Newcastle’s Karl Darlow is facing our three Man United aces coming Sunday and though we’re hoping for a few United goals (from our captain Bruno, preferably), we wouldn’t be surprised for Darlow to come off with a few save points as well. He is currently ranked third on FanTeam when it comes to saves and he has been one of the best Magpies in an otherwise up-and-down season for them.