Our Gameweek 19 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 19 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.
We got brought back down to earth with our Sleepers XI for GW18 with a 86.25 FPts score but it was still one of our better scores for the season! So lots of positives to build on. Let's see how the lads got on shall we. In net we went with Fabianski, based on our tactic of just playing defensive assets against the worst team in the league (Southampton), and we were both unlucky and lucky. Unlucky because he got subbed during the first half due to an injury and lucky because he still managed to score 8 FPts in 36 minutes. In defence we went with 4 players, all of them playing 90 minutes or quite close to it and 3 of them getting a clean sheet. Two of our defenders were the Bournemouth CBs, Huijsen and Zabarnyi, with the former picking up the only yellow card in our entire roster. Huijsen's 17.25 score was mostly from 5 tackles won, whereas Zabarnyi's 16 FPts included 3 key passes. Our other 2 defenders were Emerson, who got 11.25 FPts versus Southampton (which obviously included a clean sheet) and Adarabioyo's 1 FPts which came from a 1-2 home loss to Fulham. In midfield we also had 4 players. Mateus Fernandes managed 13.25 FPts in 72 minutes (4 key passes!) whereas the in-form Ouattara only got 4.25 FPts in his 84 minutes. Our remaining two MIDs who played 90 minutes were Schade who got 6.5 FPts and another hot performing Cherry, Christie, who got a respectable 8.5 FPts. In our FWD line, we went with the double Wolves picks in Guedes and Rodrigo Gomes. Guedes who got the start, scored -1 in 73 minutes but Rodrigo Gomes outscored his compatriot with 1.25 FPts after coming on as a substitute in the dying minutes of their victory versus Manchester United. So not the worst score in the end. However we will keep trying to achieve at least 100 FPts every week, so keep on reading as we aim to complete our weekly challenge!
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 19. 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.
Dean Henderson (G, Crystal Palace)
There should be no surprise that yet again we're punting against Southampton for yet another clean sheet. The Saints are the only team to have not scored a single goal over the last 4 games and despite new manager Juric showing some fight in the game versus West Ham in GW18, there really should be no excuse for not scoring against the Hammers, especially after losing their best defender (Kilman) and starting GK (Fabianski) during the first half of the game. The Eagles managed a shutout versus an in-form Bournemouth team, so we expect nothing less versus the bottom team of the Premier League.
Maxence Lacroix (D, Crystal Palace)
Lacroix has been a fantastic addition to Crystal Palace's defence this season. The 6ft-3in French DEF has formed a formidable partnership alongside Chalobah and Guehi, with Munoz and Mitchell flanking them on either side. In GW19, they face the prospects of battling against "Tall Paul" and the Saints, and will therefore require Lacroix's physicality to ensure they prevent Southampton from scoring. Lacroix isn't the best ghosting asset from the Eagles backline but he's definitely a reliable DEF-3/4 who has shown his ability to nick the odd attacking return with a goal and an assist to his name so far.
Timothy Castagne (D, Fulham)
Oddly enough, Fulham defenders have been given the best rated fixture of all defensive options in GW19 (fixture difficulty tracker) despite playing one of the most in-form teams in the league, Bournemouth. After Tete was ruled out for the next couple of months, Castagne was the immediate benefactor. In his last 2 starts, Castagne scored 14 FPts and 14.25 FPts. His first score included a clean sheet whereas the other score only had an assist, which means that the Belgian is averaging 7-8 gPPS. A decent floor for your DEF-3.
Tosin Adarabioyo (D, Chelsea)
Chelsea succumbed to a brutal last minute loss versus their neighbours Fulham in GW18, a result that Maresca will definitely want to bounce back from as soon as possible. Maresca has already mentioned that he will be making a few changes to the Chelsea team versus Ipswich in GW19 but we're expecting them in the attack instead of the defence. Ipswich Town have one of the worst home records of the season, scoring the fewest home goals (6) over the last 8 home games of all clubs this season. Although Tosin only managed 1 FPts last gameweek, we're banking on the Blues to keep a clean sheet on the road this weekend.
Trevoh Chalobah (D, Crystal Palace)
All other Crystal Palace defenders pale in comparison to Daniel Munoz's ghost point production. That being said, the next best option is Trevoh Chalobah. His 8.6 gPPS is only second to Munoz but he boasts the highest ceiling of 17.8, which makes sense given the fact that he has already scored 2 goals this season. Chalobah should be starting most games, if not all, so we'd definitely be grabbing him as an option versus the Saints in GW19.
Vitalii Mykolenko (D, Everton)
Many a manager was dumping their Everton defenders not named Tarkowski and how wrong they were for doing so! The Toffees have now kept 5 clean sheets in their last 7 games and in the games they did concede, one was a freak 4-0 loss versus Manchester United (of all teams!) and only one goal in a draw versus champions Manchester City. Although Everton face 4th placed Nottingham Forest, the Merseyside club have already shut out the other top 3 teams with 2 draws and a win this season. Even if Mykolenko was to concede, his 6.5 gPPS should be enough to warrant a start as a DEF-3/4 in your roster.
Joao Gomes (M, Wolves)
Joao Gomes has been such an annoying asset to roster this season. When you don't play him, he scores 20+ FPts, when you do play him, he tends to score less than 10 FPts. At some point surely we have to time it correctly, RIGHT?! This might be said time! Wolves face an out of sorts Spurs team that will be missing yet another senior CB in their ranks, so this could potentially be another bloodbath for Spurs. Hopefully not as bad as the one against Liverpool where they conceded 6 goals! Despite the frustrating points output, Gomes has still been averaging 5-7 gPPS over his last 4 games, which were masked by a couple of yellow cards. So if you need a MID-4/5, this is probably the fixture to gamble on.
Tyler Adams (M, Bournemouth)
Kluivert is one of many players that are suspended for GW19 after picking up his 5th yellow card within the first 19 games of the season. This naturally opens up a spot for another Bournemouth midfielder which could either be David Brooks or Tyler Adams. However, given the tough opponent in Fulham for GW19, we're tipping Adams to be given the start to add some solidity to the Cherries midfield. It also helps that he got his rest versus Crystal Palace after coming on as a substitute for half an hour. Adams keeps getting ghost points regardless of how many minutes he plays, so with 9.4 gPPS this season, he seems a safe pick as your MID-4/5 if you need one.
Goncalo Guedes (F, Wolves)
Guedes and ghost points are not friends! We did mention in our previous article that rolling him out as an option came with high risk, hence the -1 FPts score in GW18 versus Manchester United. So maybe the high reward comes now. Wolves face Spurs, a team that has conceded the 2nd most goals (11) over the past 4 games, obviously inflated by the 6 goals they shipped versus league leaders Liverpool. That being said, with Dragusin, Romero, van de Ven, Davies and now Spence missing in GW19, Spurs might be playing the likes of Bissouma as a stopgap CB. Wolves should benefit from this dire situation so we're going to gamble on Guedes getting an attacking return or 2.
Joao Felix (F, Chelsea)
After Chelsea's 1-2 loss at home versus Fulham, Maresca will be making changes in his attack. It's not just the result but last time Chelsea had 3 games within a week, Maresca utilised his European first team to good effect. Joao Felix was one of those starters and he managed to score 16 FPts with only an assist to his name. Felix actually has the best ghost point production (9.3 gPPS) of all the Chelsea FWDs, which makes him a no-brainer pick if he is given the start versus Ipswich Town, yet another promoted team that are fighting to save their season.
Rodrigo Muniz (F, Fulham)
It's a bit crazy that Fulham and co. were not able to score a single goal versus Southhampton in GW17. Nevertheless, Muniz who got the start in that game, still has 2 goals in his last 3 appearances, both coming off the bench versus Liverpool and Chelsea. As we mentioned before with the likes of Felix, we're expecting some level of rotation from the Fulham team as they will want to avoid yet another injury within their ranks, after losing an in-form Nelson only a few gameweeks ago. Bournemouth are definitely not an easy team to score against but Fulham were not at full strength versus Southampton with the likes of Joshua King being deployed within their first XI. If you're struggling for a FWD-2/3, then Muniz is worth a punt if he gets the start.
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