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 fantasy premier league GW30 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW30 REVIEW
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.
STATS TABLES
The stats tables are all available via the following google spreadsheet link and I will speak about a few key players during the gameweek.
KEY PLAYERS
Given that it’s a blank gameweek next time out, this will be a shortened version of the article where I will concentrate on those teams that do have a fixture during GW31.
Liverpool
I won’t spend too much time on the Reds as I’m sure that everybody is familiar with their players and the fantasy potential that they possess. We may well see a record-high captain percentage for Salah next week in spite of an unusually quiet performance where his only shot came in the 90th minute which he sent over the bar. He will be joined by Firmino in a significant number of teams and the Brazilian had 3 shots against United, but the team as a collective struggled to break down a tough defence.
The highest xG score came from Van Dijk who had 2 headed chances; the first of which he really should have converted, but the ball came off his shoulder. A goal seems to be around the corner for the 5.6mil defender; will it arrive in GW31? He will be challenged for that 3rd Liverpool slot by Mané who picked up an assist here and Robertson who continues to be a good attacking outlet on the left side of the pitch.
Everton
Their Merseyside rivals returned to winning ways with a solid 2-0 victory over a poor Brighton and it was Tosun who got on the scoresheet again. Unfortunately, Sigurdsson picked up an injury which looks likely to rule him out for a few weeks and Walcott has failed to continue his early from at his new club; he didn’t have a single shot or key pass in this game.
The intriguing options appear to be at the back with a couple of fantasy heroes from previous seasons as Coleman and Baines make their comebacks from injury. The latter picked up an assist and could be on penalty duties now after Rooney missed again from the spot.
Stoke
It’s difficult to judge Stoke this week as they faced City though they did keep the scoreline to only 2-0 so perhaps the defence is a good place to invest; Butland picked up another save point and has proven to be a magnet for bonus points in recent weeks.
As expected, Shaqiri looked the most likely to create something for his side and I anticipate him to have a reasonable ownership by the time his GW31 fixture against Everton starts as he is a popular transfer this week. He has failed to take a shot in his last couple of games, but the Swiss international possesses the quality to score from anywhere.
Watford
The main Watford attraction in recent weeks has been Deeney, but he missed a penalty against Arsenal and Richarlison was also unlucky not to pick up any returns after 4 shots and 2 key passes. The Hornets have the toughest fixture next week, so it would be a punt to bring in any of their assets now.
West Brom
They finally scored as Rondon found the back of the net, but the Baggies are still woeful defensively and create little; avoid and target the teams playing them. Speaking of which…
Bournemouth
It was a bad result for Bournemouth this weekend, but one player stood out for me; Stanislas missed a glorious early chance when he hit the bar, but he converted just minutes later with a low finish. He had 5 shots in total while also creating 3 chances for his teammates and has shown some consistent stats in recent weeks. The winger is a player that I am looking at as a transfer and we may also see him in the FFG team.
Wilson got 90 minutes for the first time in 3 weeks, but his place could still be under threat from the other strikers at the club. For example, King missed out with a small neck injury, but I would expect him to return to the starting XI next week. The selection of Bournemouth attacker could be crucial for the blank week with them facing the poorest side in the league and there are some decent options in there.
Crystal Palace
It was a tough trip to Chelsea for Hodgson’s men, but two players stood out for me. Van Aanholt has been showcasing his driving runs in recent matches which has enabled him to bag goals in successive games; goalscoring defenders are a great bonus at all times, but especially in blank weeks. The main man was the returning Zaha who emerged from the bench to claim the assist and had 3 key passes in total. He has been the key player for Palace in recent seasons and could present an intriguing differential.
Huddersfield
A very strange and frustrating game for the Terriers as Swansea had a man sent off early which saw Huddersfield completely bombard the opposition goal. They had 30 shots in total, of which 8 were taken by Mounie for an xG score of 0.58, but they were still unable to find the back of the net. Pritchard was able to start again after his dead leg last week, though he was withdrawn fairly early after 3 shots and 4 key passes.
Meanwhile, Swansea failed to have a single shot which meant it was a very comfortable clean sheet for their defenders to reward those managers who picked them up a week early.
That concludes the GW30 review. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
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