The Drafties: November 2021

The Drafties!

How can I explain it?

Awards you and I created,

I’m glad that you all made it!

Okay, enough ripping from The Office.

Here at The Draft Society we have, however, decided to emulate the great Michael Scott by creating The Drafties – a monthly awards article to honour (and shame!) the fantasy players who have been carrying our teams to glory (or dragging them down into the abyss). We have seven awards and at the end of each month we will convene at DTS HQ and argue over who deserves the credit/discredit of receiving each.

So without further ado, here are the winners of the November 2021 Drafties…

The Drafties will be coming at you each and every month! Comment below with your predictions for next month!

The “Steady Eddie” Award

The Steady Eddie award goes to the player who has been a model of consistency throughout the month.

Winner: Stuart Dallas (MID; Leeds United)

Leeds man, Dallas has played all but 13 minutes of the season so far, and this ‘nailed-on-90’ status tends to be a common characteristic of Steady Eddies. The midfielder has brought in scores of 10, 18, and 9.5 in reasonably tough matchups against Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Brighton & Hove Albion. He did it all without scoring or assisting too – proving to be a diamond in terms of ghost points; particularly the Spurs game where he accumulated five Key Passes and four Tackles Won. Dallas also scored a very-steady Eddie 10.5 against Crystal Palace in gameweek 14 (which straddled both November and December) and has become a productive fantasy asset with Leeds’ improved form.

Honourable Mentions: Rico Henry, Mohammed Salisu

The “Andrey Arshavin” Award

The Andrey Arshavin award goes to the best individual gameweek performance of the month (in honour of when Arshavin scored 4 goals against Liverpool back in 2009).

Winner: James Maddison (MID; Leicester City) vs Watford

Many of us had written off James Maddison (our very own DrafterThoughts had him at 99 in the most recent Consensus Ranks!) but the Leicester man has started to show glimpses of why he was once considered a round 1/2 talent in the not too distant past. Case in point: the match against Watford. A one goal, two assist game led to a massive 37-pointer being dropped for those lucky managers who had kept the faith. This is a guy who in his first eight starts of the season scored just 35 points. The next question is whether he can start putting in half-as-productive performances on a regular basis. Then we will know that he’s truly back.

Honourable Mentions: Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Arsenal, Emmanuel Dennis vs Manchester United

The “Fall from Grace” Award

The Fall from Grace award goes to the player who has seen their fantasy value drop the most during the month.

Winner: Bruno Fernandes (MID; Manchester United)

Bruno Fernandes scored six points in the whole of November. SIX. Admittedly, he was perfectly consistent, hitting two’s each time, but these are not the scores we expect from the man who went either 1.1 or 1.2 in pretty much every single draft this season. Even in tough matchups (United did face Chelsea and Manchester City during this time) we are used to bigger numbers. To put this into perspective, last season the midfielder scored at least six points in 31 of his 37 games and reached double digits an absurd 27 times. These are worrying times for Bruno rosterers – particularly now that we’ve seen CR7 has taken over penalty duties.

Honourable Mentions: Michail Antonio, Said Benrahma

The “Most Frustrating” Award

The Most Frustrating award goes to the player who has been most frustrating from a fantasy perspective. This may be due to a number of reasons including underwhelming performances, regularly being rested/dropped, coming close to hauling but not quite doing so, etc.

Winner: Mason Mount (MID; Chelsea)

Smashing Bruno’s November points out of the park with a whopping seven himself is Mason Mount. The Chelsea man did, however, only start one of three games during the month – adding to his frustration value (and perhaps detracting from his “fall from grace” capacity). The other big reason for the midfielder winning this award is that the month of unproductive fantasy scoring was wedged between the October 23rd 47.5 pointer against Norwich and the combined 54 point haul in early December against Watford and West Ham. The fantasy value is clearly still there, but the opportunities – for reasons probably only Tuchel really knows – are frustratingly limited.

Honourable Mentions: Jamie Vardy, Michail Antonio

The “Super Streamer” Award

The Super Streamer award goes to the best performing player of the month who was/is often streamable (i.e., is rostered in less than 50% of leagues).

Winner: Max Kilman (DEF; Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Wow. Where on earth has this come from? August, September, and October saw Kilman produce FP/G’s of 5.8, 5.3, and 3.6. Then November hit and we get a 50.5 point, 12.6 FP/G month from the Wolves defender. There’s been no positional change involved, and to be honest, it’s not even solely a case of Wolves improving defensively (they have, but even prior to November they had conceded the fourth fewest goals in the league). A first ever Premier League goal early in the month certainly helps but this is still a little bit of a strange one. Data from FBRef suggests he’s been a little busier all-over, but nothing really stands out. Whatever it is, the managers in those 43% of leagues who have rostered him won’t mind as long as it continues.

Honourable Mentions: Rayan Ait-Nouri, Grant Hanley

The “Top Shot-Stopper” Award

The Top Shot-Stopper award goes to the best performing goalkeeper of the month (about time they get some recognition!)

Winner: Jose Sa (GK; Wolverhampton Wanderers)

The only unanimous selection this month came in the form of Wolves keeper Jose Sa for Top Shot-Stopper. The Portuguese man is in his debut season in the Premier League and is currently the number 1 fantasy player in his position in terms of points scored and is 3rd in terms of FP/G (minimum 3 games played). He’s been good all season, but in November particularly so. Returns of 7.25 and 4.25 before the international break were followed by monster performances of 17.5 and 19 in the clean sheets against West Ham and Norwich. A word of warning though: Sa’s current save % of 81.8 is likely to be unsustainable, and with Wolves giving up just the 6th fewest shots against, his fantasy value could drop if/when the clean sheets dry up.

Honourable Mentions: Alvaro Fernandez, Tim Krul

The “Simply Elite” Award

The Simply Elite award is, as the name implies, simple: it goes to the best player in our amazing draft fantasy game for that month. The guy who produced at a first round, first pick level.

Winner: Trent Alexander-Arnold (DEF; Liverpool)

This one was almost unanimous (I’ll leave our loyal readers to guess which individual differed in their opinion…). Trent Alexander-Arnold had a huge month, averaging 26.5 points per game. He did it against some good teams too. First up Liverpool visited an excellent West Ham side (4th in the table, and deservedly so), and even in the defeat, TAA put up 26.25. Then came Arsenal, who despite certain losses since then, came to Anfield unbeaten in their last eight league games. Two assists and a clean sheet led to a 32-pointer in that one. And then finally there was Southampton, who reside all the way down in 16th position, but actually have the 7th best XGD in the league. They’re no pushovers. Well, except for Liverpool and for Trent, who finished the month with a 21.25 point game. He makes it back-to-back Liverpool players for the Simply Elite award.

Honourable Mentions: Joao Cancelo

TDS Crew’s December Predictions

Before we leave you, we thought it might be a bit of fun to make some predictions for next month. So here they are:

Do you agree with our selections? How many from your fantasy teams have been honoured/dishonoured? And what are your own predictions for next month? Let us know by commenting below or getting in touch on Twitter!

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