After each gameweek, Joseph Crilley is going to be writing an article reviewing all the Premier League games from a fantasy perspective. He will be providing some stats and a brief summary on the performances and prospects of a few of the players. This is the second part of the GW16 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW16 REVIEW – PART 2
For each game, I will be providing a stats table containing the following: Goals (G), Assists (A), Shots (S), On Target (OT), Key Passes (KP), Bonus points (BP) and fantasy points (FP). Any statistic highlighted in yellow signifies that the player leads that category for his team. Blue highlight shows the players that registered a fantasy return (goal, assist or clean sheet) and green shows any player that scored 10+ points.
The tables also include the Expected Goals and Expected Assists for each individual player. This is in addition to the expected goals for each team in brackets within the scoreline. BBC Sport provided a very useful piece to help explain this statistic. Essentially each shot is given a score between 0 and 1 as to how likely it is to go in the net. For example, suppose a shot taken from inside the box is worth 0.56; this will be added to the xG tally of the player who take the shot and added to the xA of the player who passes the ball to him. All underlying stats are from the brilliant website understat.com. References to average position come from the twitter site 11tegen11.
TOTTENHAM (3.37) 5-1 (0.74) STOKE
Spurs finally got an early goal against one of the so-called smaller teams and it inevitably resulted in a thumping win which should restore some confidence after 4 league games without a win.
Nonetheless, it was another game without a clean sheet after a mistake by Lloris and managers should be avoiding the defence. The full backs seem to be rotating every game and Vertonghen, the only other available regular defender, is too expensive for a defence that seems to be missing Alderweireld.
The best player on the pitch was Son and this is backed up by some cracking underlying stats – no wonder Rob spoke about him in his player picks article. He added some much-needed energy to the side and In the absence of the suspended Sanchez, I’d expect Spurs to continue with 4 at the back which should mean more starts for the Korean. We saw towards the end of last season that his form can force Pochettino to use a formation to fit him into the side, so he could remain in the starting XI going forwards. Eriksen finally scored again and he really should have added another in the closing stages. It was a quieter game for Alli but he did manage to pick up an assist at least.
He’s finally done it – Kane has bagged a big haul at home against a smaller side. It was a brace for the most expensive FPL asset and he arguably should have had a hat-trick as he also missed two one v one chances. He looked much sharper on Saturday and looks back to full fitness after his hamstring injury in early November. I spoke about Salah in yesterday’s article and you can’t really go wrong captaining him or Kane for every game this season.
Surely Mark Hughes has got to be under serious pressure now; he needs to desperately address his side’s form and at least there’s a couple good fixtures on the horizon.
It says everything about this game that Butland was their best player by a distance and he made some cracking saves to keep the score-line down otherwise it wouldn’t have been far off double figures. Shawcross managed to score at both ends of the pitch but it was dreadful game for him and his fellow defenders.
Not much to shout about in the Potters’ midfield though Shaqiri did have one clear sight of goal that was well-saved.
That chance was created by Diouf who started in a forward role this week and is still showing a little potential as a budget striker at 5.6mil.
BURNLEY (0.48) 1-0 (0.84) WATFORD
Burnley continue to fly and are still level on points with Spurs, sitting 7th in table which is a fantastic achievement by Sean Dyche.
Another clean sheet at Turf Moor which was made easier by a first half sending off for the opposition. Unfortunately for me and my fellow Mee owners, he missed out and Dyche has said that he’s a doubt for their game on Tuesday. Strangely, Pope has failed to pick up save points since GW11.
I quite like the look of Gudmonsson at 5.0mil and he picked up his 5th assist in the last 9 gameweeks and also saw a free-kick and another shot well saved.
Not too much on offer from Wood and it’s tough to trust a striker in a team that doesn’t score too many.
A disappointing result for Watford who will feel the game swung on a poor decision to send off one of their players.
Zeegelaar was that man after seeing some recent transfer activity and will be suspended for three games, unless an appeal is successful. Kiko missed out with what Marco Silva described as ‘fatigue’ and he is a doubt for the next game though should definitely return for the weekend.
It was tough for Richarlison after his side went down to 10 men but he did have one great headed chance before the incident. The next five fixtures look great and it’s easy to see why FFG is contemplating bringing the Brazilian into his team.
Deeney was preferred from the start this week but it’s tough to predict who will start each week out of him and Gray.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4.13) 2-2 (0.93) BOURNEMOUTH
Just look at that XG score! Palace really are the experts at underperforming their expected stats and I wonder whether they will regress to the mean throughout the season.
Terrible news at the back for Hodgson though as Sakho has been ruled out for a lengthy period of time after picking up a calf injury. He was replaced by Dann who scored for the fourth game in a row against Bournemouth, a very random stat.
All the midfielders were heavily involved and had a decent number of shots & key passes. Milivojevic scored a penalty which was won by Zaha who would have picked up another assist had the second penalty been converted. Loftus-Cheek had some good moments again and is still the best sub-5mil option for me with some good upcoming fixtures.
What was Benteke thinking? Clearly from a very selfish point of view as he should never have wrestled the ball off the club’s penalty taker in the last minute which would have sealed a massive victory. Hodgson was extremely annoyed with the striker and I wonder if he’ll drop him for the next game which would see the midfielders pushed further forward.
A decent away point for Bournemouth even if they did need a last-minute penalty save to earn it.
It was Begovic that saved it which atoned for his earlier foul to concede the first penalty. No shots or key passes from Daniels and it looks a good time to move the left-back out of our teams given the upcoming fixtures.
Surprisingly, that’s four assists in his last six games for Surman and he is ticking over nicely at 4.8mil.
An amazing lobbed finish helped Defoe on his way to a brace and maximum bonus. He was preferred to Wilson and the wheels have firmly come off the bandwagon now after his hat-trick a few weeks ago.
NEWCASTLE (0.98) 2-3 (0.44) LEICESTER
A strange game this one when looking at the low expected goals but it was a high scoring game nonetheless and another Newcastle loss at the end of it.
The defence has suffered in the absence of Lascelles and they will be hoping to have him back for the midweek fixture against Everton. Darlow started in goal again but it wasn’t a great performance from him and I wonder whether Elliot will return to the starting line-up.
Another blank for Ritchie who has returned in just 2 of his last 11 games. Merino registered an assist and maybe should have been given another for his shocking pass which led to the first Leicester goal.
Both Joselu and Gayle started up front and were both on the scoresheet with the latter looking particularly sharp and he now has 3 goals in his last 4 starts.
That’s 3 wins in a row for Leicester under the leadership of Puel and they have got some players in great form.
They were unable to add another clean sheet but there should be opportunity in the next couple of games at least. Cheapie Chilwell started again for the third game in succession.
Mahrez is playing fantastically well currently but is competing in a crowded fantasy bracket which is why his ownership remains low. He provides a good differential and has 4 goals and as many assists in the last 9 games. Youngster Gray was lively again and scored his side’s second goal from an Albrighton assist. The three mentioned players are posing a threat to the opposition in every game at the moment.
However, it’s just one goal in the last six games for Vardy and he was very quiet in this game with just the one shot.
HUDDERSFIELD (2.39) 2-0 (0.28) BRIGHTON
A much-needed win for the Terriers which was a first since GW11 to lift them away from the relegation zone.
A comfortable clean sheet for them and Lossl only had one easy save to make. Both Zanka and Schindler got assists and double figure hauls.
Ince had 5 shots in the game but was still unable to break his Premier League duck.
A return to the starting line-up for Mounie and he bagged his second brace of the season and it will be interesting to see if he cements his place in the team.
An extremely poor performance from Brighton which was missing their usual defensive solidarity and I wonder if the thumping by Liverpool last week has done some damage to their confidence.
Conceding an expected goal score of over 2 against a fellow promotion side is less than ideal and I’m questioning their defence for the first time this season.
A very quiet game for Gross who was withdrawn after just 65 minutes and it’s four blanks in a row for him now; perhaps it’s time to move the German out of your fantasy teams; especially with a trip to Wembley next.
It’s a similar story for Murray though at least he lasted the full 90 mins but registered just the one shot.
That concludes part 2 of the GW16 review. Part 1 can be found here. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
Follow us on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news.
Geek Leagues
Fantasy Premier League: 5379-1967
Sun: FantasyFootballGeek SGDKX9Y3
TFF: FantasyFootballGeek PIN 8000919 Passcode 1159
Sky: FFGeek 8310511
UCL: 18664FKG
TFF UCL: FantasyFootballGeek PIN 8137738 Passcode 1210
