Welcome to Genie's Corner for Gameweek 13! Here, I, (DraftGenie), will be providing you with my thoughts on all things draft! Each segment of Genie's Corner will focus on something specific and relevant to current events in the Draft Fantasy EPL world. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I tend to take a bold and differential approach to the draft game, which has led to many fantasy titles. In these articles I will be giving you my unique insights, bold takes, sage advice, and much more throughout the season.
Genie's Corner Gameweek 13
Check out this weekly dive into the mind of our mercurial Fantrax EPL manager and analyst Draft Genie! Each week he provides his thoughts on strategies, players to watch, trades to push for, and much more!
Gameweek 13 Advice
Liverpool Attack
Liverpool have just arguably lost 2 of their top 3 attackers in Diaz and Jota until after the World Cup. This isn't something Klopp wants to deal with given the need for his team to start making up ground in the table. Nunez will get a lot more starts than many would have thought 10 days ago, but don't put all your eggs in this basket. If Klopp trots out a 4-4-2, expect some rotation among the attacking 2. Nunez scored in the win vs. West Ham which will help his chances short term for starts. Salah has been very goal dependent in recent weeks, proving it with his 10.5 point display with a goal against Manchester City, but if he is going to turn the tide it's really now or never. A few friendly games are coming up, and some combo of Carvalho, Elliott, Nunez, Firmino, and Salah will be looking to bag a load of goals. My advice here is to pick up Carvalho and Elliott off your waivers if you can, and try to trade in Nunez/Firmino on the "cheaper", considering Salah will probably be way too expensive to bring in. Trent and Robertson will both continue in their attacking roles, but in a 4-4-2 it remains to be seen how much license they will have to get forward in this system considering Liverpool defensive struggles this year. What to do with Jota and Diaz? I'll discuss that below in the injured player section.
United vs. Chelsea
Probably the biggest game of the gameweek, and it is currently up in the air who are the "favourites". Both teams have shown their struggles and their strengths. Potter has done a great job turning Chelsea around so quickly, but they still are susceptible to a stinker. Ten Hag has improved United as a whole since the opening few games, but their attackers have been very wasteful in recent games. This will need to change if United are to get a result. Sterling and Auba haven't exactly been lighting the world on fire either, so again this game can really go either way. I am more than happy to start most players in this matchup. A few ones I would look to bench, or even drop/not stream are: Chalobah, Casemeiro, McTominay, Kovacic, Jorginho, and Martinez. None of these players score very well without a clean sheet or a return, so there is too much risk, and there are lot better matchups to stream players from than this one. Luckily this game is on a Saturday so if there is a surprise benching of one of Rashford/Antony from United or Auba/Sterling/Mount of Chelsea, managers can adjust accordingly. I do expect both these managers to put out their best XIs unless there are injuries from the midweek games, and I envision a low scoring game with one team potentially edging it 2-1 (hopefully United). Both teams should get their attacking chances, which means KPs for the attackers, and defensive stats for most of the usual ghost point warriors such as Dalot, Azpi, Silva, & Shaw. I am okay playing Kepa in this game given his recent form, and De Gea isn't the worst streamer either given his improved form and ability to get a 20+ score against Top 6 teams.
Starting Players from the Bench
We are in the stretch where managers may rotate to prevent fatigue-related injuries on the weekend. The toughest decision for fantasy managers is what level of player to drop, and who you should start from the bench. Unless you are really in a surprise situation where you can't drop a big name asset, the only players I am willing to play off the bench are: De Bruyne, Salah, and Son as all have proven they can score decent points as substitutes. Otherwise, look to field players in the starting XI, and HAVE BACKUPS!!! West Ham vs. Bournemouth is on Monday - a lot of FAs will be available there even if you don't plan to use them, just pick up 1or 2 of them to give you the flexibility to sub out surprise benchings in the Sunday games especially.
Injured Assets
There are currently quite a few good assets who are injured right now, and some with a return date of "After the World Cup". Our colleague @TheFFChaps will soon be publishing an excellent article delving deep into this issue , so I won't belabor the point. But Jota, Diaz, Reece James, and Isak are the ones that I am thinking of right now, and I fully expect 1-2 more injuries to creep up sooner rather than later. The toughest decision you can make is whether to drop them or not. I'm sure in some leagues someone may offer you 10-20% of their value to bring in these big names assets, but that's probably on the same level of just dropping them in terms of helping your team. Unless you can get 70-80% of their actual value I really think you should HOLD these players. In smaller leagues (10 or less), I am okay dropping them. 12 or higher...HOLD!!! The first 3 at least are elite level players that are key to their team's attack, and Isak has shown he can be an excellent FWD2 - although he is the one I am most likely to drop.
You may get really stuck in the next few weeks where you need the bench space with injuries, suspensions, or rotation, but I promise you there are better players to drop from your team. For example: If you are still holding onto Pulisic and he doesn't start in the current gameweek drop him, same for rotation prone players like Aribo, Guedes, Buendia etc... Yes, I know I always say think short term and be ruthless, but that goes hand in hand with you dropping mid-level assets to allow you to keep your gameweek winning assets until after the World Cup. After these weekend fixtures, there are only 3 more games until the World Cup, while a return date of late December sounds so far away, you're really only holding these elite guys for just 3 weeks, and potentially having them for the final 21 (!!!) weeks of the season. So take the "ruthless" advice and use it towards those mid-tier level guys or elite streamers that rotate or get a suspension, drop them and hold these 4 big boys. Saint-Maximin is one who could get his timeline extended until after the World Cup given his injury history, and he is probably near the top of the list of these guys you must hold.
Genie's Streamers
After a great debut in the Gameweek 11 edition, this segment is here to stay (for now), giving you a few "Genie" type players to stream this weekend. Usually I aim to showcase players that are lower than 50% rostered.
Odsonne Edouard vs. Everton
Kurt Zouma vs. Bournemouth
Liam Cooper vs. Fulham
Willian vs. Leeds
Kepa vs. Manchester United
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