Welcome to Genie's Corner for Gameweek 9! 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
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!
Bottom Table - Are my Title Hopes Over?
Being bottom table is never a fun time. Especially after 8 gameweeks you want to at least be within the top 3-4. Bottom table can refer to even being as high up as 7th in 12 team leagues, still not the ideal place to be. Long story short, no your title hopes are not over. In playoff leagues all you need to do is qualify and come top 6 in you league, from there it's a week to week game. In 38 gameweek seasons there are still 30 weeks to be played, but something has to change if you aren't near the top of your leagues table. Hopefully, I can give you a few tips on how to change the tides in your favour. Unfortunately, being in the bottom half after 38 gameweeks cannot be blamed on just "luck". Strategy and skill really are more key in this game than luck or variance.
Selling Your Top Assets
Yes this may be a bit of a bolder move, but being 1-7 isn't exactly because your "stars" are helping you out. Let's say your top 3 players on draft value in your roster are Son, Robertson, and Coutinho. Yes those are three of the top under performers this year, but very possibly could of been a manager's first three picks. The way to approach this is to try and sell Robertson and Coutinho based on name value alone. It may be worth holding Son given that recent hat trick, unless maybe you can swap him for his teammate Kane. Selling two of your top three assets should definitely be done in separate deals. Can you turn 2 "high-profile" very poor players into 3-4 every week starters? In my opinion draft value should be long out the window by now, and you should be looking at who will help win you weeks. Can you get yourself some set-piece takers on lower teams such as: Eze/Olise, Pereira, Neves, Gray, or Harrison/Aaronson? These players are set and forget and for the most part start week in and week out. The kind of players who should help you win a few games to get to the title.
On the flip side if you are 1-7 with De Bruyne as your #1 asset, should you sell him? I'm not saying yes, but I am saying it is time to entertain deals for him. Can you get back 3 players including 2 players in the Round 1-2 range? Yes, yes you can. Managers love De Bruyne and for a good reason he is a fantasy point magnet, but your team being "De Bruyne and inshallah" clearly isn't working, so it might be time to go for more quality and upside in numbers than relying on a sole player. An example of a possible deal could include something like Bruno + Saint-Maximin + Sinisterra. This gives you three players with very high ceilings and would surely help your roster, by spreading your risk among three strong assets and two of them have MID1 upside on their day.
Stop "Holding for the Future"
I've mentioned this numerous times in these segments but holding out hope a player will come good will only take you so far - especially if you are sitting bottom table. Drop or trade out those players that haven't played or have started the season in horrid form and are costing you matchups more than winning you them. Name value doesn't mean anything when it's points that matter in this game.
Matching your Opponents Clean sheets?
Ah yes, this is a constant conundrum for all fantasy managers - should you try and matchup your opponents clean sheets. Well, in this case when you are bottom of the table just trying to get wins wherever you can, I would say yes this is the way to go on a few conditions. Firstly, you only want to match your opponents "clean sheets", when there is actually clean sheet potential. Starting Zemura vs. Manchester City because your opponent has Kelly vs. Manchester City is not the way to go. You want to use some common sense when it comes to this and look at which of your opponents defenders can realistically get a clean sheet. If it's for example a Palace v. Southampton type game that has the potential to be a 0-0 or 1-0 type game and go ahead and match their clean sheet potential. Basically using this strategy allows you to say "my attacking players are better than yours"......again make sure this is actually the case. If you are facing a team with De Bruyne, Kane, and Zaha all in nice matchups and you really just have Diaz....matching clean sheets is NOT the way to go. In this case you will need differentials, because sorry your attackers are not better. Look to stack defenders from a single team, or go for those with boom/bust potential, and of course streaming defenders vs. teams that struggle to score.
Gameweek 9 Advice
Start All Reasonable United Assets
United are going up against Manchester City, who are known to just score for fun. United have been in better form as of late, especially vs. "top 6" opposition with wins over Arsenal and Liverpool this year. I don't see any reason why United can't pull off another win in this derby. I'm not saying to stream United players such as McTominay, Martinez, Varane, or even Malacia, because these players just don't score well usually. If you roster any of their attackers, or Dalot they are must starts for me. The attack should get their chances at goal vs. a City defence that has proven to be leaky already this season, while Dalot is just a ghost point machine and has become a set and forget DEF1. Those who benched Rashford vs. Liverpool and Arsenal surely would of regretted it...don't make the same mistake here.
Avoid Spurs Streamers
Another big match on the cards in the North London Derby. I do think this will be a close game...but I really don't fancy any Spurs "streamers" here. Spurs have shown to want to play on the counter attack even vs. the bottom table teams so this will really only benefit Kane and Son in a game vs. the league leaders. The likes of Bentancur, Hojbjerg, and most of their defenders not named Lloris could struggle to rack up points, and frankly this game could easily finish 3-3. I wouldn't be surprised given Spurs potency on the counter, but also their susceptibility to leak goals...almost every time a team is in their attacking third. When it comes to Arsenal I'm also not keen on starting any of their back 4, but don't mind their midfield streamers of Xhaka and Partey in this game.
Southampton vs. Everton
This game has streamer potential written all over it. Two teams struggling for consistency and form, where both need wins could be great for fantasy potential. We should know how Everton line up depending on injuries and the return of Calvert-Lewin, but Southampton is the mystery here, especially in attack. Edozie, Aribo, Armstrong, and Mara are all pushing to get starts as their attack was completely toothless vs. Aston Villa. All of them are viable options should they start. I am also happy streaming any defender/goalie from either team in this game given it's potential to finish as a low scoring affair as well, but I could also see lots of KP opportunities for all 4 fullbacks and headers to be won all over the pitch for the CBs. If you are struggling for streamers this week, this is the matchup to target in my opinion.
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