We won’t lie, there’s not a whole lot to get excited about this weekend, but it’s worth rolling with the punches in anticipation of some big weeks ahead.
Gameweek 28 Review
A guy who hasn’t played 90 minutes since October scores a hat-trick and is by far and away the leading scorer in Fantasy Football this weekend, surely you can’t be serious? Well, yes we are serious and don’t call him Shirley, call him Schurrle, Andre Schurrle.
The Chelsea midfielder had become something of a non-entity as far as Fantasy Football was concerned for the last few months but he was back with a bang against Fulham on Saturday, scoring a hat-trick and three bonus points for a 20-point total overall.
That was five points better than his nearest challengers, Luis Suarez and Moussa Sissoko after a goal and an assist and two goals respectively in very productive individual outings at the weekend.
Christian Benteke’s brace against Norwich – his first goals in five league games – earned him 13 points and a place in the Dream Team attack alongside Suarez, with Everton’s Leighton Baines on 11 points along with our own Jonathan Walters after the Stoke man banished his previous penalty demons with the only goal in a victory over Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium.
Eden Hazard and Jonathan de Guzman ended up a point further back with ten points apiece with Everton’s John Stones, Spurs’ Kyle Naughton (both on 8 points) and Stoke netminder Asmir Begovic (7 points) making up the Dream Team this week.
J-League
‘Twas a bit of a mixed bag of scores in the J-League this week with more than 20 points separating the best score from the worst in the top five, but there was no change at the top as Barry Curran’s gambitbeer increased their lead over Adrian Marnane’s Michu at De Gea Bar to 33 points.
Below that, there are some new faces making an appearance in the upper echelons of the league at just the right time, namely James O’Donoghue’s I’m The Gaffer in fourth and James Curran’s Catch Me if U Can in fifth, while Des Finegan gained some ground on the leaders with a solid 64 points this week, a score that has him nestled safely in third spot.
J-League Top 5:
- Gambitbeer – Barry Curran: 1,866 points
- Michu at De Gea Bar – Adrian Marnane: 1,833 points
- The_K_Krew – Des Finegan: 1,824 points
- I’m the Gaffer – James O’Donoghue: 1,820 points
- Catch Me if U Can! – James Curran: 1,818 points
Slim Pickings
While double gameweeks in Fantasy Football are great and very exciting, they come about because of weekends like the one that lies ahead, where only a handful of teams are playing and the schedule wreaks havoc with the plans of Fantasy managers at such a crucial stage of the season.
With the FA Cup quarter-finals also taking place, only half of the teams in the Premier League are in action this weekend, with the other half of teams not in action including the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, teams whose players form a significant percentage of a lot of Fantasy Football teams at the moment.
The temptation for the panicky manager would be to use a whole load of transfers, or even a wildcard, to get in as many players as possible that are in action, but why would you that when, in only two gameweeks time in Gameweek 31, there will be a whopping 15 matches under consideration for Fantasy Football purposes, with the aforementioned trio of clubs amongst ten teams in action on two occasions?
You don’t want to go getting rid of in-form players like, for example, Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Yaya Toure only to have to get them in again in a fortnight’s time, so the best advice we could give this week is to hang tough, make as good use of your bench as is possible and wait to potentially reap the benefits a little further down the line.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Wayne Rooney (£11.1 million). Man United could sure do with one of his trademark goalscoring spurts and with doubts over RVP’s fitness, Rooney could well be spearheading the United attack against a fragile West Brom side at the Hawthorns.
Mid-Range: Adam Lallana (£8.2 million). Was the best player on the pitch for the first hour or so against Liverpool last weekend before fading out, but Eden Hazard and Yaya Toure are the only midfielders to score more points than the Southampton man this season.
Bargain Basement: Kyle Naughton (£4.1 million). Spurs will have a tough job keeping a clean sheet against Chelsea, but even as a squad choice, Naughton is cheap and has played 90 minutes in the last three games.
Irish Pick: Jonathan Walters (£6.1 million). Not too many Irish players in action this weekend, we’re afraid, but after converting a penalty against Arsenal last weekend, Walters’ confidence should be high ahead of a trip to Norwich this weekend.
Captain’s Pick: Eden Hazard (£11.1 million). With two assists and 10 points against Fulham, he copper-fastened his position as the highest scoring midfielder in the league above Yaya Toure and will be out to make Spurs suffer at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.
