Our Gameweek 16 Sleepers XI article provides Draft managers with a lineup of Fantasy EPL hidden gems. Our starting eleven of Draft Premier League differential picks will help you find a golden ticket to a big score this weekend! These hints and tips will give you a better chance of picking up an all-important victory, as any one of these under-the-radar picks could make the difference in a head-to-head game!
We'll be focusing on players that will bring us not only attacking returns or clean sheets, but also those players that score Ghost Points in the sophisticated and statistics based Fantrax Scoring System!
Fantasy EPL Gameweek 16 Sleepers XI
For this article, we use the percentage rostered calculation from Fantrax and Sleeper. Our only rule is that each player we highlight is rostered in 60% of leagues or fewer at the time of writing. Therefore, there's a good chance some of these players will be free agents in your Draft league! As always, we'll take form, fixtures, projected points, and a healthy dose of intuition into account to make our selections.
I really should have taken Totti's offer on switching articles again, especially after the Sleepers XI from GW15 basically failed their exam after putting up a season-low 48.5 FPts. So let's do another post-mortem. So in GW15, in net, we went with Fraser Forster who only put up 3 FPts after conceding 4 goals versus Chelsea. In our 5-man defence, we had a no-show from Matty Cash after his impressive 20+ FPts haul in GW14. In hindsight, we should have considered a CB who was less likely to be rested given their midweek Champions League game. Our defenders who did play though, performed ok. Two defenders conceded one goal each, one being Kilman, who continued his ridiculous ghost point production by putting up 14.75 FPts and Kerkez who managed 4.75 FPts against Ipswich. The remaining 2 DEFs both conceded 2 goals each, with O'Shea managing 9.25 FPts and Jan-Paul van Hecke putting up 5.25 FPts. If you think that's bad, it got worse in midfield. Tyler Adams was absent due to muscle cramping and was also having his load managed after coming back from such a long term injury. So trusting him to start yet again during this congested fixture period was a bit of an oversight. That being said, our pair of playing Saints, Dibling and Mateus Fernandes, only registered 3.5 and 3.25 FPts respectively, while new boy on the block McAteer, who only played 61 minutes, scored a whole point. Welp. Finally, our lone FWD, 3-first-names da Silva, commonly referred to as Jota Silva, only got 3.75 Fpts. To be fair, he was a bit unlucky to not get an attacking return versus the Red Devils, especially with Nottingham Forest having scored 3 goals on the day. He also got the only yellow card from our XI. Alas, we have to keep trying. I'm not insane - my mother had me tested! So let's go again.
The Sleepers XI table below includes a full team of Starters, as well as 5 Reserves - high-upside players with some question marks around whether or not they'll start in Gameweek 16. So keep an eye out when lineups are announced and pick them up if you see them starting, especially if you need to fill a spot on your roster. Read below for the rationale behind each of the Starter selections.
Fraser Forster (G, Tottenham)
Despite the mediocre score in GW15 versus Chelsea, we're going to stick with Forster as our GK for GW16 versus one of his old employers, Southampton. The Saints are still rock bottom of the Premier League table and have still scored the fewest goals (11) for the campaign. Ange is under serious pressure from the fans and will be demanding an emphatic result after losing back-to-back games in the league, so let's hope that comes with a clean sheet.
Illia Zabarnyi (D, Bournemouth)
In GW15, Zabarnyi logged his highest gameweek score for the season (18.5 FPts) versus Ipswich Town, with all of it being ghost points. Now with Senesi potentially being out for a few months, there's a chance that Zabarnyi becomes the main source of defensive points from the Cherries backline. Even if he concedes a goal or two versus West Ham, Zabarnyi's ghost point production should be enough of a buffer for him to be a starting defender in any roster.
Jakub Kiwior (D, Arsenal)
Given the uncertainty with Gabriel Magalhaes' fitness and Calafiori being ruled out for the weekend's game, there's a chance that Kiwior is called upon yet again, either as a CB or in one of the fullback spots. We're backing the Arsenal defence to keep another clean sheet this gameweek, despite how ravaged their backline has been this season. It's only because they face Everton. The Toffees are tied for the 2nd fewest goals scored this season (14) and 4 of them came versus Wolves in the last match they played. Lest we forget that they blanked for 4 games before that! So there's a very good chance of a shutout by the Gunners.
Matt Doherty (D, Wolves)
Has Matt Doherty been revived? The Irish DEF has started back-to-back games for the first time since GW2. As a reminder, in GW14, although Doherty scored 0 FPts, he and the Wolves defence did concede 4 goals on that occasion - so the ghost point production is definitely there. Doherty actually scores at 14.8 gPP90, which is the best of all the Wolves defenders. He even has the highest ceiling (16.0) which was reflected in his last match, where he scored a goal and ended on 20.75 FPts. Next up is Ipswich town, a team that is also on 9 points for the season, so this is definitely a must-win game for Wolves if they want to build some momentum to avoid the drop come the end of the season.
Nelson Semedo (D, Wolves)
If you can't get Doherty as your Wolves DEF pick versus Ipswich Town in GW16, then Semedo is probably your next best option. Semedo's 6.2 PPS is the 2nd best of all the Wolves defenders and he also has a ceiling of 11.0, which is very possible given his position as a wingback. Despite Wolves having conceded the most goals (38) of the campaign so far, Ipswich have also scored the 2nd fewest goals (14), tied with the likes of Everton and Crystal Palace. So it's almost like a moveable object coming up against a stoppable force. So let's back the home team in getting that possibly improbable clean sheet.
Valentino Livramento (D, Newcastle)
Livramento and his fellow Magpies host Leicester City, a team who has started to find some life in their form again with 1W and 1D with Ruud at the helm. That being said, our fixture difficulty tracker still rates the Newcastle DEFs as having the 3rd best fixture for all defensive options in GW16. Livramento seems to have finally locked down that right-back position for Newcastle so he seems secure for minutes, especially when he's playing 90 minutes on a regular basis. Livra's recent scores might not be the most promising sign for points but he is still 2nd for key passes (8), tackles won (14), ACNCs (4) and 1st for successful dribbles (9) of all the Newcastle defenders. So the upside is there, it's only a matter of how many goals they can keep out of their own net.
Jack Taylor (M, Ipswich)
After 9 appearances off the bench, Jack Taylor finally had his first start of the season and had a very healthy return. Taylor played 88 minutes and registered 3 key passes, while attempting 4 shots with 1 being on target. Ipswich take on fellow strugglers Wolves, who have conceded the most goals for the season, so the Tractor Boys will be fancying their chances at getting on the scoresheet. Even if they don't score, Taylor's ability to score ghost points definitely makes him an option if you need a MID-5. Beware though, I've personally not had much luck rostering Ipswich outfielders like Hutchinson or Szmodics so this is purely a punt!
Jacob Murphy (M, Newcastle)
Only a few days ago, Newcastle had announced that Callum Wilson had yet another injury (shocker I know) and is facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines. So naturally there was a lot of concern regarding the over dependancy on Isak up top. Isak has already shown in the past that he can also be fairly injury prone as well so it would be a genuine surprise if he managed to start every match as the lone striker during this busy fixture period of the season. We're not saying that Isak is going to be benched in GW16 but Eddie Howe has also shown that he is fully comfortable with rotating options like Barnes and Gordon in recent gameweeks, which opened up then opportunity for Murphy to start games as well. In Murphy's last game, he had a 20.25 FPts haul despite only playing 59 minutes. We do expect Murphy to start more games now than he has before and with the highest gPP90 (8.3) of all the Newcastle MIDs, he's definitely worth rostering regardless of the number of minutes that he plays.
Matt O'Riley (M, Brighton)
Let the O'Riley saga continue! Even though the English MID seems to be a step-behind the rest of the league from a physicality perspective, he seems to still be scoring points! In his last start for the Seagulls, O'Riley scored 6 FPts, despite conceding the own goal against Fulham. What's really important to note is the fact that he was on almost every set piece in Craven Cottage affair, which saw him score 11 ghost points. Granted only one of his chances created was from open play, the points floor is quite promising. So if O'Riley's fitness can get better match by match, we could be looking at a gem of a midfielder for many managers that have struggled to secure dependable options for their roster.
Tyler Adams (M, Bournemouth)
After such an injury riddled time with the Cherries, the combative American midfielder has finally managed to nail down a position in the Bournemouth midfield. Adams was finally able to play 90 minutes in consecutive games, which meant he was able to start 4 games in a row. So it should have been no surprise that he missed out in GW15 due to muscle cramps and was being protected to avoid re-injuring himself during this congested fixture period. Adams is currently scoring at 10.1 gPPS which is the highest of all the Bournemouth midfielders, which he surpassed in his last game having scored 15 ghost points versus Spurs in GW14.
Crysencio Summerville (F, West Ham)
Last week, the terrible news broke out about Michail Antonio's car accident and the FWD having to undergo lower-limb surgery which we assume would rule him out for the foreseeable future. It also doesn't help that Fullkrug has missed most of the season due to injury, despite coming on and scoring in GW14. This inevitably opened up the opportunity for Bowen to play up-top, Kudus on the right wing and Summerville on the left side. In GW15, Summerville managed to score 8 FPts in 72 minutes, which included 4 key passes, the most he has recorded in a game this season. Maybe we finally see Cree have his breakthrough moment for the Hammers, god knows Lopetegui could use his attacking talents to reinvigorate their worrying start to the season so far.
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