In every Premier League fantasy draft there are “obvious” choices. Players who we know are going to deliver. Everyone would choose Agüero if they could: but since it’s a draft, only one manager can have him. Little by little, your options narrow down, and that’s where the differences come to play. You don’t need to detect the next Vardy, but you need to know which “lesser known” players can perform better than their previous seasons. Knowing how to discover them in time is what this article is about.
1) “Reading” the Premier League teams
“Reading” a team in the lower positions of the Premier League can be difficult. How can we get an advantage for our fantasy team?
The statistics give us a first approach. Take Bournemouth as an example. Although they’re having an average season in terms of points, they’re a team with a lot of goals. Clearly above average with 52 goals. Joshua King could be a great pick, with 15 goals. With 5 goals in his previous season, not many players would have picked him in a Premier League fantasy draft. Sometimes we can foresee this. If Bournemouth stays with little variations, next season we can expect similar results.
Changes can give us signs too: An “offensive” manager arriving to a team can also be used to assume that some players may have a good season if things work out. But not everything is about style. The 4-2-3-1 formation is very common these days. For a team that is fighting to avoid relegation, if they use the 4-3-2-1 system, we can assume that the weight of scoring will necessarily fall on their sole striker. The team may have a bad season, but that doesn’t mean that their striker is not performing well!
2) Know the Premier League transfer window
Sometimes knowing the movements in the transfer market can help you decide which players are going to be part of your Premier League fantasy team. Players who have already had good spells in the Premier League can always re-appear. Benteke did not have a good season at Liverpool, but his move to Crystal Palace has been very good so far. Álvaro Negredo’s arrival at Middlesbrough could have also been a good pick at the time. He’s a renowned player on a team that played him since he was the only forward. In this case, the bet went halfway, with only 9 goals, but it wouldn’t have been surprising if he reached a higher mark.
3) Search for offensive midfielders in the Premier League
If a striker can give us many points, imagine what a midfielder can achieve if he scores regularly!
Finding them is difficult, but it can be the key for your Premier League fantasy team. We want to pick them before everyone else in the draft! If we see or know that a midfielder is near the box often, either by the tactical scheme or by his own conditions, we know he can make a goal at any time. Manuel Lanzini is a great example. At West Ham he plays a very offensive role and that allows him to have the amount of goals that he has.
Stats from previous seasons could also help us to know this before everyone else. If a midfielder is also responsible for the free kicks and penalties, then we might have a great pick ahead. Sigurdsson has given a lot of samples of his free kick technique over the seasons, and always leaves us goals and assists.
Remember: Big teams have a lot of top players, but only a few stands out at the end of the season. What we need for our premier league fantasy team is good individual performances and we can find those in all teams. It’s just a matter of searching and analyzing.
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