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. This series will focus on FanTeam’s Premier League Main Event, a daily fantasy league based on the Premier League games. Our article will focus on an Early Entry for this weekly tournament 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 (€60k prize pool) Main Event, which has a maximum entry limit of 5,000 participants. Every week, we’ll report back on how our team performed in the previous week. A finish in the top 667 would see us win part of the prize pool of which the winner takes home a cool €10,000. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool (of which the winner should get about €1,500) 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.
Finally, the Pursuit format is being applied to the upcoming FanTeam Weekly Monster for gameweek 31+. In this game mode, you get more bonus points the cheaper your players are (you gain 1 point for every 2.5 million euros underspent). Your captain will get double points, but he will also cost twice as much. Your vice-captain will get 150% more points, but he will also cost 150% more. You can read about Pursuit in more detail on the FanTeam website.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 31+ FanTeam’s Main Event is set at 18h00 (UK time) on Wednesday, June 25th, 2020. You can enter a team earlier and make changes right up to the deadline. This means you have an hour to check the starting line-ups for the four 18h00 games, so you can change your selections accordingly up until the 18h00 deadline, but not after.
Gameweek 31 Weekly Monster matches (times UK+1)
How did our Weekly Monster team fare in gameweek 30+?
Formation: 1-3-3| Budget used: 63.7m|
| NAME (club) (opponent) | RETURNS | POINTS |
| Van Aanholt (Palace) vs Bournemouth away | Clean sheet, 1 assist, impact +1 | 10 x 1.5 |
| Barnes (Leicester) vs Watford away | Clean sheet | 3 |
| Moutinho (Wolves) vs West Ham away | Clean sheet, impact +1 | 4 |
| Jimenez (Wolves) vs West Ham away | 1 goal, impact +1 | 7 x 2 |
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 31
Formation: 4-3| Budget used: 96.6m
General approach
With the first gameweek of Premier League football after the coronabreak now behind us, we don’t even have 24 hours before the start of the next round and its looking like another promising one. FanTeam’s Weekly Main Event is focused on Wednesday’s 5 games (see earlier table) and is offering us an attractive set of fixtures, including from a fantasy football point of view. We have decided to stick to mainly two teams, complemented with a bonus pick from a Manchester United and Aston Villa, respectively. The spine of our team for gameweek 31+ includes a midfielder and two forwards from Wolves (at home vs Bournemouth) and a midfielder and a forward from Everton (away vs Norwich).
WOLVES
Raul Jimenez, Adama Traoré, Diego Jota
Wolves’ opponent Bournemouth disappointed in gameweek 30+ with a 0-2 loss at home against Crystal Palace, who, up to that point, had scored just 26 goals overall this season. Only Norwich netted fewer times. The Cherries dominated possession for parts of the game, but rarely managed to become really threatening, which will have delighted Wolves coach Nuno Espirito Santo. Only six teams in the division have a better defensive record than his team (34 goals conceded in 30 games) and they are just coming off a relatively comfortable 0-2 over West Ham in London. Besides the victory though, Wolves did not wait to show good form immediately after the coronabreak.
That is, as usual, partly thanks to the qualities of their main man up front, Raul Jimenez, who is also our first of three Wolves picks for this week. With a goal and one impact point from the game against West Ham, he got off to a good start on FanTeam with 7 points. This has brought his totals for the season to 14 goals and 6 assists, and even though the Mexican did not record any returns in the reverse fixture back in gameweek 13, we feel his chances of scoring or at least assisting are considerable in this game.
That’s also why we opted for an attacking Wolves double-up with Diogo Jota joining Jimenez in our attacking set-up for gameweek 31+. The Portuguese forward’s tallies for the season (6 goals, 3 assists) are not even close to those of his partner in attack, but he looked dangerous against West Ham in GW30+ and his pre-coronabreak form was one of the best in the entire league. The 23-year old did not return anything in the last gameweek before the break, but in the two gameweeks prior to that, he scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists for a sweet total of 24 points on FanTeam. On top of that, we feel that the majority of people will opt for Traoré over Jota, which could turn the Portuguese dribbler into a nice differential.
Still, Adama Traoré is in our selection as well, as the Spanish powerhouse helped turn the previous game versus West Ham around. Up until his introduction from the bench in place of Dendoncker, Wolves were drawing with the Hammers. Together with Pedro Neto, Traoré entered in the 64th minute and it took him less than 10 minutes to provide the assist for Raul Jimenez’ opener. That was his 8th assist of the season already and he has 4 goals to his name as well. Based on his substitute appearance in GW30+ and the way in which he influenced the game subsequently, we would be surprised if Traoré did not start for Wolves’ home game against the Cherries on Wednesday.
EVERTON
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison
Everton are the reason Liverpool will not be crowning themselves champions against Crystal Palace in GW31+ yet. The Toffees were not particularly buoyant and a 0-0 was possibly a just reflection of the game. Still, playing Liverpool immediately after a break of three months was about the most difficult task imaginable for Carlo Ancelotti’s men, but they ended up putting in a decent shift. Up next is Norwich at Carrow Road, and we feel there could be goals and a nice result on the cards here for Everton.
In that light, we have chosen to include Everton’s starting attacking duo for our FanTeam Weekly Monster team. First off is Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who was in excellent form before the break and showed flashes of brilliance against the Reds as well. The young striker sits on 13 goals and an assist already, and five of those goals (as well as the single assist) were recorded in the last seven gameweeks before the season’s forced interruption. Apart from Aston Villa, no team in the Premier League has conceded as many goals as Everton’s opponent Norwich have (55 goals in 30 games) and the Canaries also look like the most likely candidate to be the first to confirm their relegation in the coming weeks, though there are still eight rounds of PL football to go.
Still, we figured the context of the clash between Norwich and Everton justified doubling up on Everton’s attack, which is why Richarlison is joining DCL in our selection for the gameweek 31+ Weekly Monster. The Brazilian is a nailed-on part of Carlo Ancelotti’s starting lineup and it’s not too hard to see why: in a relatively disappointing season for the Toffees, he still managed to get 10 goals and 5 assists from 2,442 minutes of Premier League football. That’s a direct involvement in just over 40% of all of Everton’s goals this season. Richarlison hasn’t missed a second of game time since gameweek 20 (he was injured in rounds 23 and 24) and we expect more of the same against Norwich on Wednesday evening, as well as a few attacking returns hopefully.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Bruno Fernandes
Manchester United have shown this season that consistency of form and results is not yet the name of the game at Old Trafford, but there have been definite signs of evolution and improvement. One of the most tangible of those improvements is the winter signing of midfielder Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese creator hit the ground running at United and as a result, he has missed just three minutes of Premier League football since his arrival. He has six league games to his name already, and he delivered big in those games: 3 goals, 3 assists and 4 clean sheets. In gameweek 31+, United are facing a Sheffield United side who will need to find a way to cope with the suspension of John Egan, the possible injury of Jack O’Connell and the ineligibility of Dean Henderson to play against his parent club, the three of them being defensive mainstays in Chris Wilder’s starting eleven. We’re not saying the Blades are suddenly easy prey, far from it, but we can imagine them turning up a bit a bit more cautious than usual. Let’s see if Fernandes will find a way to take advantage of their troubles and mediocre post-corona form.
ASTON VILLA
Jack Grealish
Our final pick for gameweek 31+ is a bit of a returning feature in our team selections, but there is a good reason for that. You see, when Aston Villa have a (relatively) favourable fixture, their captain Jack Grealish should always enter your considerations as a fantasy manager. His price is usually quite acceptable (9m this week, for example) and he is the main focal point for everything that has to do with a Villa attacking move. The reason for that is his extraordinary quality on the ball, which is also illustrated by the fact that he is, by some margin, the most fouled player in the league. Still, this hasn’t kept the young Englishman from scoring 7 goals and providing 7 assists this season, which amounts to a direct involvement in exactly 40% of Aston Villa’s goals. The opponent on Wednesday is Newcastle at Saint Mary’s, which is not an easy fixture by any stretch, but one where we could see Grealish shine. Besides that, by beating Sheffield United in GW30+, the Magpies are now virtually safe from relegation, while the Villains are still in very real risk of losing their Premier League status. These different mindsets may have an effect on the game’s evolution as well.
As we said this team has been entered into the 20 euro FanTeam Premier League 60k Main Event and we hope to report back next week that we’ve shared part of the 100,000 euros prize pool. You can also follow discussions about FanTeam games on FISO’s FanTeam Forum where we have a FreeRoll for those that want to learn a bit more about the game.