After an absence of more than three agonising months, the Premier League is back and so are the FanTeam Premier League Monster tournaments! We will be entering our FISO team below into Saturday’s €20 entry (€100k prize pool) Premier League Monster, which has a maximum of 7,000 entries and the first 1,060 performers will be sharing in the 100,000 euros prize pool.
We’ll report back on how our team performed next week when we reveal our team for the next FanTeam Monster. The winner takes home a whopping €20,000 this weekend. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Monster with a lower prize pool of which the winner gets €1,000 this weekend.
Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that apply to their Monster competition so you can see the major differences when comparing the game to FPL.
First, FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the 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 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.
Second, FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the 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 defensive players from a club which would see you incur just a single-point deduction if you nail the clean sheet correctly.
Finally, the new Pursuit format is being applied to the upcoming GW30 100k Main Event. 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). This does put pressure on selecting the higher priced players because, whilst they are more likely to gain you points, if they don’t produce points in the match then they’ve cost you bonus points you could have got by choosing a cheaper player. 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 more Pursuit in more detail on the FanTeam website.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 30’s FanTeam 100k Main Event is set at 12h30 (UK time) on Saturday, June 20th, 2020. You can enter a team earlier and make changes right up to the deadline meaning you can see the line-ups for the first match.
Gameweek 30 Weekly Monster matches (UK+1 hour)
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 30+
Formation: 1-3-3 | Budget used: 76.0m (3.06 bonus points)
General approach
This weekend’s GW30 100K Main Event lets us pick 7 players from the 4 games played on Saturday, June 20th, based on a 83.7m budget. We have decided to go with three players from Leicester for their away game against Watford (for which we will be able to see the starting line-ups), two offensive Wolves assets, a Palace defender and Arsenal’s star man in the hope he bounces back after Wednesday’s dismal effort. All teams are playing away which may no longer be a disadvantage with the lack of crowds.
Leicester
Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Harvey Barnes
It sounds crazy, but between gameweeks 19 and 28, Jamie Vardy actually returned just a single assist for a very underwhelming total of 16 FanTeam points over that period blighted by injury etc. He got back to scoring ways in the last game before the coronabreak though, with a brace against Aston Villa during a 31-minute cameo off the bench. It’s hard to say what the status of the striker’s form is after three months without action, but he was still one of the first names on our team for Leicester’s away game against Watford in gameweek 30+. The Foxes are in the middle of a battle for a Champions League spot, while the Hornets are doing everything they can to avoid the drop in a tense relegation battle. The home team have conceded 44 goals in 29 games so far, which is no disaster, but the visitors are the most prolific scorers behind Liverpool and Man City. Vardy is the current Premier League topscorer with 19 goals and we believe he could enter the twenties this weekend.
On our three-man midfield, we saved two slots for Vardy’s team mates James Maddison and Harvey Barnes. As far as the former goes, there’s no denying that his season has been good, but his fantasy output disappointing, at least until now. Maddison has 6 goals and 5 assists to his name, which it not terrible, but he has failed to deliver an attacking return since his goal against Newcastle all the way back in gameweek 21. Add to that the fact that Watford were in decent form before the forced break and it becomes clear that this by no means is a walk in the park for the creative midfielder, but we see potential. He is a nailed-starter under Brendan Rodgers and he is on most of the set-pieces as well, so we’re hoping to see plenty of Leicester attacks flow through him on Saturday.
With Harvey Barnes we have not only selected a player with a reasonably favourable fixture in GW30+, but also the highest-scoring player in FanTeam in gameweek 29, the last one before the coronabreak. If you were lucky enough to have him in your team for the game versus Aston Villa, then you were rewarded with an amazing 18 points, courtesy of 2 goals, 1 assist, a clean sheet and 1 impact point. Do keep in mind that these were his first attacking returns since his 3 goals and 1 assist in the period GW23-GW25. At a price of 9.2m though, he is cheaper this weekend than the likes of Maddison, Tielemans and Ayoze, and looking at his tallies this season (6 goals, 8 assists, 7 clean sheets), we feel he could be very well represent a bit of a differential against Watford.
Wolves
Raul Jimenez, Adama Traoré
We have mentioned this several times before, but when it comes to consistent performers in English football, it doesn’t get much better than Raul Jimenez. The Wolves striker is his side’s topscorer and MVP with 13 goals and 6 assists, and he will be a major asset for them in their chase of a European spot, as he has been all season. In gameweek 30+, he is facing West Ham at their new stadium and we feel there could be goals in this one. Only three teams in the league (Southampton, Norwich, Villa) have conceded more than West Ham’s 50 goals, of which 26 came in front of their own fans.
Adama Traoré joins his fellow Wolf in our fantasy team for the FanTeam GW30 100K Main Event. The Spaniard has shown several flashes of brilliance this season and he was fast becoming a season favourite among FPL managers, but a niggling shoulder injury and a cramped fixture schedule led to his minutes being managed more than most FPL would have like. As a result, he played just 218 minutes of Premier League football spread over the last five gameweeks before the break in which he did not record a single attacking return. Three months of rest have permitted the powerful winger to recuperate his full fitness and we’re expecting him to start against West Ham on Saturday. What better opportunity to try and add to his 4 goals and 7 assists?
Arsenal
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
The Gunners were humbled by City at the Etihad on Wednesday night, though it should be mentioned that the away team were forced to make two substitutions in the first half hour (Xhaka out for Ceballos and Marí out for Luiz). The fact that Luiz completely misjudged De Bruyne’s assist for City’s first goal and then got himself sent off after causing a penalty for City’s second goal didn’t help, either. Our GW30+ pick Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang didn’t really appear in the play, but we’re expecting a different story against Brighton this Saturday. Arsenal might still have a hard time taking away the three points from the AmEx, but we’re confident that Auba will be seeing a lot more action for this one. It’s more or less the Gunners’ last chance to make anything of the 2019-20 campaign and try for a European slot, and we can’t imagine the Gabonese striker not starting for Mikel Arteta’s men. With 17 goals (as well as 3 assists), he is just two goals behind current PL topscorer Jamie Vardy and with contract negotiations still up in the air, this is the perfect moment for a serious Aubameyang haul.
Crystal Palace
Patrick van Aanholt
With Pursuit mode and the related bonus points for spending less budget in the back of our heads, we have gone with Patrick van Aanholt as our seventh and final fantasy pick for the FanTeam GW30 100K Main Event. The flying Crystal Palace left-back is a bit of a fantasy football favourite, thanks to his tendency to get forward and involved in his team’s attacks and he has shown again why this season, albeit a bit less overwhelmingly than in previous seasons perhaps. At the moment of writing, the Dutchman sits on 3 goals on top of his 7 clean sheets for a total of 77 FanTeam points.
This weekend’s opponent Bournemouth took just 1 point from their last four games before the coronabreak and they scored four goals over that period while conceding 9. It should be noted though, that these four games were against Sheffield United (away), Burnley (away), Chelsea (home) and Liverpool (away). What’s more worrying for the Cherries is that there are only four teams in the division who have scored less than their 29 goals. Crystal Palace, on the other hand, booked three consecutive victories before the break and boast the sixth-best defence in the league (32 goals conceded in 29 games). Despite this being an away game for the Eagles, we feel they are capable of taking something away from this one and the same goes for Van Aanholt.
As we said this team has been entered into the 20 euro FanTeam Premier League 100k Monster 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.