FISO are starting a new series of weekly articles on Fanteam, Europe’s biggest daily fantasy football provider (and entering the team that we write about!). This series will focus on Fanteam’s Weekly Monster, a weekly fantasy league based on the Premier League games that kick-off on or after Saturday 3pm UK time with €50,000 worth of guaranteed prize money. That’s every gameweek, in case you were wondering. Our article will focus on a Early Entry for this weekly tournament which will help you identify game rules, tactics and the most promising players per gameweek so you can win some of that large prize money. Every gameweek, we will choose a team of eleven players from the selected Premier League matches within a virtual budget of €100 million. In that sense, the Weekly Monster is quite similar to the official Fantasy Premier League game we all know and love.
Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€50k prize pool) Weekly Monster, which has a maximum entry limit of 3,000. Every week, we’ll report back on how our team performed in the previous week. A finish in the top 20% of a given week would see us win part of the prize pool of which the winner normally takes home about €4,000. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool (of which the winner normally gets about €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. By ‘next’ lowest we mean if our player (who doesn’t start) is priced at 7m and two players priced less than him at 6.8m and 6.5m start then our replacement will be the 6.8m player. The automatic replacement is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule means people who have entered a team into the Weekly Monster need not 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.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 25’s Fanteam MidWeek Monster is set at 3PM (UK time) on Saturday, February 1st, 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 3PM games, so you can change your selections accordingly up until the 3PM deadline, but not after.
Gameweek 25 Weekly Monster matches
| 01/02/20 | West Ham | Brighton |
| 01/02/20 | Watford | Everton |
| 01/02/20 | Liverpool | Southampton |
| 01/02/20 | Crystal Palace | Sheffield United |
| 01/02/20 | Bournemouth | Aston Villa |
| 01/02/20 | Newcastle | Norwich |
| 01/02/20 | Manchester United | Wolves |
| 02/02/20 | Burnley | Arsenal |
| 02/02/20 | Spurs | Manchester City |
How did our Weekly Monster team fare in gameweek 24?
Formation: 3-5-2 | Budget used: | GW24 finish: 1800th/2600 | Prize pool: ///
| NAME (club) (opponent) | PRICE (m) | RETURNS | POINTS |
| Alex McCarthy (SOU) (CRY away) | Clean sheet | 7 | |
| Brandon Williams (UTD) (BUR home) | /// | 0 | |
| Mason Holgate (EVE) (NEW home) | /// | 1 | |
| Djibril Sidibé (EVE) (NEW home) | /// | 1 | |
| C Anthony Martial (UTD) (BUR home) | /// | 4 | |
| Juan Mata (UTD) (BUR home) | /// | 2 | |
| James Maddison (LEI) (WHU home) | /// | 4 | |
| Jack Grealish (AST) (WAT home) | /// | 4 | |
| Stuart Armstrong (SOU) (CRY away) | 1 goal, clean sheet | 10 | |
| Shane Long (SOU) (CRY away) | /// | 3 | |
| VC Jamie Vardy (LEI) (WHU home) | /// | 2 |
Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 25
Formation: 3-4-3 | Budget used: €98.9m
Goalkeeper
West Ham’s Lucasz Fabianski is the first asset from our West Ham triple-up this in gameweek 25. The Hammers have been far from defensively solid so far this season, with only Norwich, Villa and Southampton (when including the 0-9 against Leicester), but things have improved under David Moyes, West Ham have conceded 10 goals in the last 7 Premier League games, but 4 of those were scored by Leicester in GW24. After tonight’s DGW fixture at Anfield in which Fabianski has reappeared after injury, the Hammers are hosting Brighton this weekend, with the Seagulls having scored just 11 goals in 12 away games and taking just 8 points from that run. We’re betting on a few save points and a clean sheet.
Defenders
Our defence this week is very Newcastle-heavy, as the Magpies welcome bottom-of-the-table Norwich on Saturday. The Canaries may have looked better recently, but they are still last in the table when it comes to overall points, overall goal difference, overall goals conceded, points won from away games (5 from 12 games), goals scored in away games (just 6) and goal difference in away games (-16 goals). In other words, this simply does not look good for Norwich in any way. Newcastle boast the shared second-best defence in home games in the entire league, beaten only by Liverpool (12 goals conceded vs. 9 goals conceded). Steve Bruce’s men have also won the majority of their 30 points in front of their own fans, namely 19 out of 30 points.
We could go on for a while longer, but we believe we have made our point in regard to going for Newcastle defenders this weekend. Our Fanteam Weekly Monster selection for gameweek 25 includes both Jamaal Lascelles and Ciaran Clark for a combined price of 13.3m. Both look fit and ready to start against Norwich, which is something already, considering the fact that the likes of Yedlin, Schär and GW24 hero (for some) Lejeune are all marked red. Out of the last five Premier League games, Lascelles completed the 90 minutes four times, while Clark did so on three occasions (in one other game he played 70 minutes). On top of that, the former has a goal to his name as well, while the latter has even scored twice already.
Our third and final defensive pick for gameweek 25 is our first big hitter as well, namely Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold. At 11.3m, he is actually this week’s most expensive defender, which is generally what happens when a player combines such good form with a favourable fixture. The Reds are facing Southampton at Anfield and even though the Saints are in excellent form of late, led by ex- Liverpool man Danny Ings and his seemingly never-ending purple patch, we find it hard to not imagine a relatively comfortable home win for Jurgen Klopp’s men here. We should also mention that, besides being the most expensive defensive asset, TAA is also the highest-scoring defender on Fanteam with 142 points, courtesy of 8 clean sheets, 2 goals and no less than 12 assists. This weekend, we’re crossing our fingers for another rain of returns from both ends of the pitch.
Midfielders
We will start our list of midfield picks for gameweek 25 of the Fanteam Weekly Monster with our biggest and most expensive name, Mo Salah. Thanks to many of the reasons already elaborated upon previously when discussing the TAA pick, Liverpool’s Egyptian wizard is this round’s most expensive player overall. With Sadio Mané our for a few games due to injury, the eyes will be on Salah more than ever when the Saints roll up to Anfield. Fortunately for everything Liverpool though, Salah loves playing in front of his own fans: 10 of his 11 Premier League goals this season were scored at home and he has scored in his last 2 matches. Looking at the fixtures for GW25, he is probably the premium asset with the most favourable match-up, which means that he will likely be captained by many and that includes us.
Our second midfield pick of the week represents another combination of good form and a decent fixture, but this team is not Liverpool. It’s Newcastle. Miguel Almirón was brought in from Atlanta last season and he has definitely shown moments of class for the Magpies, but one thing was really missing, namely some involvement in the scoring of goals. His first assist came back in gameweek 14, but we had to wait for his first goal as a Toon until the home game against Palace in GW18. This first goal after 27 games was then followed by a goal versus Wolves at Molineux a few weeks later. Two goals in his last seven games might not sound too impressive, but that run included home games against Everton, Leicester and Chelsea, and away games against Man United, Wolves and Everton. This coming Saturday, Norwich are visiting Saint James’ Park and we feel it might be the perfect décor for Almirón’s third PL goal as a Magpie.
In midfield, you will also find our second Hammers pick for the weekend, Mark Noble. The West Ham captain is a mainstay in David Moyes starting lineup, which is underlined by the English veteran completing the 90 minutes in each of his last four Premier League outings. Over that run of games, he actually recorded an outstanding 27 points in Fanteam’s Weekly Monster, courtesy of 3 goals and a clean sheet. The big thing here is, of course, that Noble is on penalties for West Ham, which always adds a bit to a player’s appeal. Saturday’s opponents Brighton have been far from solid away from home so far this season, conceding a worrying 21 goals in 12 away games and scoring just 11. David Moyes still has plenty of work to do at West Ham, that’s for sure, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them keeping the three points at home for this one.
We are playing a four-men midfield this weekend, and our fourth and final midfielder is Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish, who is turning into something of a repetitive pick for us by now. The reason for that is that he tends to combine a relatively affordable price tag in Fanteam’s Weekly Monster with a key role in an attack-minded side. Granted, Aston Villa are no Liverpool or City and they certainly look like a candidate for relegation by the time gameweek 38 is on the cards, but they do attack and the majority of those attacks passes through Grealish. He is absolutely nailed on for manager Dean Smith, he is on most set-pieces, and he has already amassed 110 points in the Weekly Monster games. In his last seven PL games, the Englishman has recorded 41 points, courtesy of 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 clean sheet and 3 impact points. We are placing a punt on him continuing his fine form against Bournemouth at the Vitality this weekend, after leading Villa to the League Cup final this week by eliminating Leicester over two games.
Forwards
The third Liverpool player of our selection for GW25 can be found in attack, where Roberto Firmino is our third big hitter at a price of 13.2m. At the time of writing, West Ham- Liverpool still needs to be completed, but we already know that, out of Liverpool’s attacking trio, only the Brazilian forward managed to satisfy his fantasy owners in the 1st match of DGW24. Mané got injured after half an hour, Salah blanked, and Firmino scored his 8th goal of the season. Of those eight goals, eight were scored away from home, though. That’s right, all of them. Liverpool are hosting Southampton this weekend, so in this light, picking Firmino might not seem as wise as it seemed, but what we’re mainly going with here is the attacker’s excellent overall form. He is a vital cog in Jurgen Klopp’s attacking and pressing machine, and with Mané out injured, a bit more of the goalscoring responsibility will rest on his shoulders.
Our second forward also completes a triple-up, with Sebastien Haller completing this week’s West Ham trio. His 6 goals and 3 assists after 22 games of his debut season in the Premier League for a mid-table team are not bad tallies, especially considering the Hammers’ footballing woes in the first half of the season, but we can’t say he has been prolific in front of goal, either. In the last four games, Haller scored a goal (against Bournemouth at home) and provided an assist (versus Leicester at the King Power), and he completed the 90 minutes in all of those games as well. Saturday’s opponent Brighton has been having trouble defending on the road this season (the Seagulls have conceded 21 goals in 12 away games) and we’re hoping Haller can benefit from this by working on his goalscoring record.
As we said this team has been entered into the 20 euro FanTeam Weekly Monster and we hope to report back next week that we’ve shared part of the 50,000 euros prize pool. You can also follow discussions about FanTeam games on FISO’s FanTeam Forum. FISO members could win free ‘Weekly Monster’ entries (worth 20 euros) via the FISO FanTeam forum. There are freerolls for new entrants if registered within the last 8 weeks. Read all about a fiso member who won 30,000 euros on FanTeam from just a 2 euro entry fee. FanTeam have also just launched a 500,000 euro Fantasy Premier League game.