Who is Hot and Who is Not: Draft Fantasy 2017 -2018

Hot or Not – Draft Fantasy Football

In this week’s post we cover players who we think are standout picks for the upcoming Draft Fantasy season and those who are likely to flop this season.

With Manchester City completing their signings early this summer, Guardiola has shown his intent. With a couple of full backs added to their squad they will be strong title contenders. Neighbors Manchester United still struggle to complete signings, apart from the signing of Victor Lindelof from Benfica

Title holders Chelsea seem to be strong favorites to retain the trophy. However, with transfer talks over Lukaku stalling with Everton, Hazard’s injury and Diego Costa’s imminent transfer it will be interesting to see who leads the line for the Blues.

See More: New Kits for the 2017-2018 Premier League Season

Spurs too seem to have a strong claim having retained most of their players. However their full backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker, who have been standout performers for the club both in defense and offense, being part of the most miserly defense(26 goals) and contributing 2 goals and 9 assists together, are both sought after within the league

Liverpool have strengthened their attack with the signing of Salah however defensively they still look uncertain with no new signings yet and the chaos over Van Dijk’s transfer. Arsenal fans meanwhile still await their club’s first signing for the summer with rumors of Alexandre Lacazette doing the rounds.

Who’s Hot

Vincent Kompany

See More: Huddersfield Town FPL Draft Overview

After starting just 10 games last term (in which he only played >60 minutes in 9 matches) Kompany was the standout defender for the Citizens scoring 3 goals which was the highest for any City defender.

The stats clearly show that with Kompany, City have a much stronger defense. The midfield plays with much more confidence with no losses when he was part of the lineup, 21 goals scored and only 7 conceded. Although his career has been plagued with injuries, if he can ensure that he remains fit for majority of this season, City fans are in for a treat.

Marcus Alonso

An injury to Eden Hazard, that keeps him out until mid September, means that the Spanish wing back be entrusted with greater attacking responsibility. With 6 goals and 5 assists to his name in his first season for Chelsea in the EPL, he had the joint best goal-scoring record for a defender, landing him on our Hot List.

While other teams may not have been able to strategize against the 3-4-3 used by Conte at Chelsea, they have certainly adopted the League winners strategy. It will be interesting to see teams match-up against a defense that conceded just 33 goals with 16 clean sheets(best in the league).

Harry Kane

Harry Kane will be looking to add to the reputation which he has built over the last 3 seasons scoring 21, 25, and 29 goals respectively winning the golden boot over the last 2 editions of the tournament.

With speculation surrounding the futures of all the other players on the list, Kane is probably the first player to get picked when the draft begins. I would highly recommend the Spurs forward, as they seem to be retaining their creative players(Eriksen, Alli, Son) in this summer transfer window.

Sadio Mane

The Liverpool player had a great first season after joining from Southampton scoring 13 goals and providing 7 assists in 25 starts for the Reds joint at the top of the goal scoring chart for Liverpool by Coutinho.

Mane seems to be the more aggressive player of the pair, with his marauding runs tearing apart the best of defenders. With Salah’s arrival, Liverpool will rely a lot on pace and counter attack which will suit Mane’s style of play.

With no national duties at the AFCON this season he is a certain pick for me in the draft who maybe overlooked by other players.

Who’s Not

Davy Klaassen

The 24 year old, Dutch attacking midfielder, signed from Ajax, scored 22 goals and assisted 10 for club and country last year. However with fixtures against City, Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester United in their first 5 games, expect a tough start to his EPL career.

Over the course of the season however, he may mature but I would refrain from picking him early, having seen how Memphis Depay fared when coming into a much more competitive league.

Raheem Sterling

Although he scored 7 goals and provided 14 assists, he did not manage to win his manager’s confidence getting just 4 starts in their last 10 league games.

If moving down the pecking order wasn’t enough, the signing of Bernardo Silva, a wide midfielder from Monaco clearly indicates that rotation will be the policy at Manchester City and under-performing won’t be tolerated by Guardiola who has a catalog of attacking midfield options available to him(Silva, De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Sane(injured till September), Nolito) .

Tom Heaton

See More: Premier League’s New Gem

One of the gems of last season, the English goalkeeper made 142 saves keeping 10 clean sheets however their away form was dismal and among the worst in the league.

Their first 10 fixtures feature away games against Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton and Man City.

Besides the fixtures, rumors linking Michael Keane, their best defender, away from the club would be worrying for the Clarets’ fans.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

The lack of intent from Manchester United displayed last season would be worrying for supporters of Mkhitaryan, a winger who thrives in attack-minded football as shown at Dortmund where he scored 18 goals for club and country in 2015-16 while he managed only 12 in 2016-17, many of which came in the Europa league.

The defensive ideology of Mourinho at United ensured that they conceded only 29 goals, however they scored just 54 goals in the Premier League, at least 20 goals behind the top 5. Managers should be wary of picking attackers in the United team and should prefer regular defensive options.

 

That’s it from me folks. Gear up for the start of the season and stay up to date with Draft Fantasy Football