Premier League Fantasy Soccer Talk – Matchday 28
All the English Premier League Fantasy picks you’ll need this Matchweek.
Here We Go Again
We are back at it after a couple weeks of Champions League and FA cup matches. I think we can all agree that the biggest upset was easily Wigan over Manchester City. As the season goes on and other competitions start picking up pace we're about to see those other competitions becoming very important to us as fantasy owners. We can start to see how the fantasy schedule will be affected. Certain teams will start missing match-weeks to play in other competitions. That will affect fantasy owners 2 different ways. In a few weeks multiple teams won't have matchups but on the bright side those same teams will have the all-important double match, match-weeks.
Last Show's Points
The last 2 weeks Tiki and I have hit well on the Buy and Risk players. The Sell players are still a bit too high for my liking. We should be seeing 8 points or less for Sell players. Overall, I think we did pretty well.
Buys: 29
Keeps: 15
Sells: 13
Risks: 22
Matchday 28 Matchups
Favorable:
Leicester vs Stoke
Liverpool vs West Ham
Crystal Palace vs Spurs
Burnley vs Southampton
Arsenal vs Manchester City
Unfavorable:
Bournemouth vs Newcastle
Brighton vs Swansea
West Brom vs Huddersfield
Watford vs Everton
Manchester United vs Chelsea
Position Recommendations
Goalkeepers
Buy: Hugo Lloris (Spurs) £5.4
Teams Selected by: 8.1%
Next 5 matches: Crystal Palace, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Chelsea
Tottenham's form has been good for a while. Even with injuries, their defense has been top notch. Since the beginning of December Tottenham has only lost to Manchester City.
Keep: Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester) £5.0
Teams Selected by: 5.0%
Next 5 matches: Stoke, Bournemouth, West Ham, None, Brighton
In the last 10 matches Leicester's form has been less than good. They have lost half of the matches while only winning 2 of the 10. They have also accumulated 3 red cards in that time. Schmeichel has been one of Leicester's rocks ever since joining their team. I can see him pushing Leicester to a strong finish so they can end up in the Top 8.
Sell: Wayne Hennessey (Crystal Palace) £4.3
Teams Selected by: 1.8%
Next 5 matches: Spurs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Huddersfield, Liverpool
I wonder what the percentage of the 1.8% who own Hennessey are Palace fans. Let’s be honest, for the next 5 weeks Palace is going against 4 of the Top 6 teams in England. It would be too easy to just pick Palace players for every single Sell player. This will be the only Palace player I pick this week to make the picks a bit more interesting.
Risky: Loris Karius (Liverpool) £4.8
Teams Selected by: 0.3%
Next 5 matches: West Ham, Newcastle, Man United, Watford, Crystal Palace
For the second week in a row I'm going for Loris Karius. Even though Liverpool individually and as a team is looking a lot better there are still a lot of questions to be asked.
Defenders
Buy: Jack Stephens (Southampton) £4.5
Teams Selected by: 0.7%
Next 5 matches: Burnley, Stoke, Newcastle, None, West Ham
Last match week I had Mawson as the defender to buy and this week I have Stephens. Anyone who listens to our show will know there is a little friendly debate with the guys on who’s the better defensive prospect. I personally like both of them for any team outside the Top 6. Stephens has scored twice in the last 3 weeks. On another note, Burnley’s last win was 12 matches ago, which was December 12th against Stoke.
Keep: Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle) £4.7
Teams Selected by: 7.7%
Next 5 matches: Bournemouth, Liverpool, Southampton, Spurs, Huddersfield
Lascelles has been one of, if not the only bright spot from Newcastle in the fantasy. His 3 goals for the year isn’t much at all but 2 resulted in wins and 1 in a draw. In the last 7 weeks Lascelles has averaged 5 points per game.
Sell: Marco Alonso (Chelsea) £7.2
Teams Selected by: 20.7%
Next 5 matches: Manchester United, Manchester Ciy, Crystal Palace, None, Spurs
This is the perfect time to drop the best scoring defender in the game. Not only is Chelsea playing 3 of the Top 6 teams but they also have a week where they don’t have a match. Alonso has already lost .2 points in the last couple of match-weeks and it’s about to go further down in the next 5. Get out now and make some profit.
Risky: Mathias Jorgensen (Huddersfield) £4.5
Teams Selected by: 6.2%
Next 5 matches: West Brom, Spurs, Swansea, Crystal Palace
Huddersfield has been one of the least impressive teams in recent times. They’ve only won 1 match since 12/16. That last win though was an impressive 4-1 victory over Bournemouth. Three of the next five opponents are in the bottom 6 of the table. This could be a good time for Huddersfield to pick up their previous form from earlier on in the year. Huddersfield is also facing a team who is showing worse form. To add onto that, West Brom is showing signs of weak mentality and lack of focus after Evans, Barry, Myhill, and Livermore had a part in stealing a taxi while training in Barcelona.
Midfielders
Buy: Christian Eriksen (Spurs) £9.2
Teams Selected by: 12.9%
Next 5 matches: Crystal Palace, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Chelsea
I shouldn't have to say anything. This player, This team, and This schedule says it all.
Keep: Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) £8.6
Teams Selected by: 7.0%
Next 5 matches: Stoke, Bournemouth, West Brom, None, Brighton
This guy is showing he's filled with class. You should be as reluctant to sell Mahrez as much as Leicester was.
Sell: Paul Pogba (Manchester United) £7.9
Teams Selected by: 13.1%
Next 5 matches: Chelsea, Palace, Liverpool, None, Swansea
Second week in a row we have a Manchester United player as the player to Sell. The schedule doesn’t help but there's too many question marks surrounding the majority of the team. Is this the beginning of the end for Jose in Manchester?
Risky: Andre Ayew (Swansea) £6.8
Teams Selected by: 1.0%
Next 5 matches: Brighton, West Ham, Huddersfield, None, Manchester United
This is the Riskiest player of the week. We don't know if he's going to play, Brighton can be a tough team to play against, but I'm eager to see the Ayew brothers together for 90 minutes.
Strikers
Buy: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) £12.0
Teams Selected by: 30.5%
Next 5 matches: Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke, None, Everton
The next 2 matchups are difficult for Manchester City but after a FA Cup lose I can see them making a statement against Arsenal to get back on track. Technically speaking, because of the schedule this could also be the worst time to buy Sergio Aguero. In the next 7 match-weeks Manchester City are facing off against 4 of the Top 6 team, along with Everton who is one of 3 teams to capture draw in their previous matchup, and a week without a match. The smart move would be to buy Harry Kane. Aguero is a gut pick for me.
Keep: Troy Deeney (Watford) £6.3
Teams Selected by: 0.4%
Next 5 matches: Everton, West Brom, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bournemouth
Watford has been an up and down type of team this season but Troy Deeney is a player who can put this team on his back not just with goals but also with heart. It doesn’t hurt his next 2 matchups are against 2 teams who seem incapable of keeping a clean sheet.
Sell: Alvaro Morata (Chelsea) £10.4
Teams Selected by: 7.7%
Next 5 matches: Manchester United, Manchester City, Crystal Palace, None, Spurs
This guy has the potential of being a top 3 or 4 striker in England but it’ll take time. Standing with 10 goals and 5 assists for the league I’m sure nobody would label this season as a success so far considering all the hype that followed Morata here. Add that with the upcoming schedule, the uncertainty of whether Morata will start, and coming off a back injury makes him a perfect Sell player. Even if he does start we won’t know which Morata will play. At times, he looks top class but other times he looks like he’s getting bullied out on the pitch.
Risky: Callum Wilson (Bournemouth) £6.0
Teams Selected by: 9.9%
Next 5 matches: Newcastle, Leicester, Spurs, West Brom, Watford
This could be a bias pick because I always had a soft spot for Wilson. He is practically Bournemouth’s version of Sturridge. If he can stay on the field for a whole season without getting injured we may see something special from this guy. From Week 20 to Week 25 Wilson scored 4 goals and assisted 2 more. The last 2 match-weeks have been underwhelming for the whole Bournemouth squad losing to Stoke and Huddersfield. If Bournemouth starts clicking like they did last year then Bournemouth will be looking at Top 8 and we’ll be looking at a lot of fantasy points.