Fantasy Football Tips – a DGW Special

Fantasy Football Tips – a DGW Special

A double game week is a beautiful thing, like an oasis in the desert when you’ve been chugging along the past few GWs having a tough time. Planning ahead is, of course, vital, although with just QPR and Spurs involved in this DGW, the usual level of pre-analysis and scribbling down various transfer permutations to maximise the DGW coverage may not be as necessary. QPR of course are struggling just above the relegation zone and with their second highest scoring player injured and their captain suspended, there are very few realistic options to choose from. Well, just one major one really. And you know who he is!!

Spurs meanwhile are a completely different kettle of fish with many different options available and it won’t surprise you to learn that the vast majority of this article will concentrate on the North London club. However, there is a small caveat here with Spurs and that is the threat of rotation. DGW28 sees Spurs reach the end of a run of fixtures that come the full time whistle at QPR will have seen them play six matches in just 17 days, including the two-legged Europa League tie with Fiorentina which they lost, a hard-fought London derby vs West Ham and of course Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final vs Chelsea at Wembley, which they also lost! It’s therefore not been a great few days for Spurs. Don’t forget how manager Pochettino loves to rotate, especially when his team has played in Europe, so it may well be that some of his first choice team do not play the full 180mins of the DGW.

DGW Fixture Reminder

QPR vs Arsenal (Weds 4 March 19.45)

Spurs vs Swansea (Weds 4 March 19.45)

QPR vs Spurs (Sat 7 March 15.00)

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For those concerned about rotation for Spurs, this is how they started in the Capital One Cup Final:

Lloris
Rose, Vertonghen, Dier, Walker
Bentaleb, Mason
Chadli, Eriksen, Townsend
Kane

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[/three_fourth]Hugo Lloris vs Robert Green
No contest here, Lloris wins hands down. Despite having two home fixtures, Rangers face two London derbies vs Arsenal and the Spurs and quite frankly you’d fancy both North London teams to score. Bear in mind that Rangers have only kept clean sheets this season vs Sunderland, Aston Villa, Burnley and Crystal Palace, so the chances of them keeping the likes of Alexis, Giroud, Cazorla, Eriksen and Kane quiet are hugely unlikely!

So Lloris is your man out of the two, he has played every minute for Spurs in the league this season and a home game vs Swansea followed by a trip to QPR should give a good chance of at least one clean sheet you would hope. Although it must be made clear that clean sheets have almost been as sparse for Spurs as they have been for Rangers this season and so our advice is: If you already own Lloris then play him, but if you don’t then there may be better value in some of their defenders. And if you own Green then check who your second keeper is playing!

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[/three_fourth]Which takes us along nicely to our chosen trio of Kyle Walker, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose. All three defenders like to get forward – Walker down the right, Rose down the left and Vertonghen at set-pieces. The value player here is clearly Rose, who is priced at just 4.8mln and has scored 3 more FPL points than 5.9mln priced Vertonghen. Rose has become Pochettino’s first choice left back in eight of their last nine league matches, with Ben Davies often filling in for him on Europa nights as he did on Thursday. Rose scored Spurs’ first goal in their comeback vs West Ham with the cleanest strike of a ball you will ever see, which was his second goal in seven matches, whilst he has also contributed three assists. Walker, despite his attacking instincts, is less attractive at 5.8mln, though don’t rule out an assist or even a goal from the defender who has completed a successful comeback from injury.

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[/three_fourth]Midfield is where all the fun lies and can provide an excellent differential if you choose the right one! The obvious and premium choice is Christian Eriksen – nine goals and two assists tells its own story and the fact that he was benched for the 1st half vs the Hammers suggests that Pochettino was trying to give his star midfielder a deserved rest – unfortunately his team mates didn’t play ball and he was called upon for the 2nd half! The Dane is the joint third highest scoring midfielder in FPL, ahead of the more expensive Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla, David Silva, Yaya Toure and Angel di Maria, suggesting that Eriksen should maybe also be a consideration for you for the remainder of the season, especially when you consider that other than Man Utd aside in GW29, Spurs don’t face a top five side until they face Southampton and Man City in GWs 35 & 36.

If Eriksen is the obvious, but more expensive choice, then we need to find some cheaper differentials and the first name to appear on that list is Nacer Chadli. Priced at 6.4mln Chadli has experienced a season of mixed fortunes. By GW11 the Belgian had scored six goals and was comfortably outscoring his more expensive midfield partner. However an injury saw him miss a couple of game-weeks and he has only completed 90mins twice since GW11, scoring just one, though in fairness he has created five assists in that time. The sad and untimely death of his father has clearly had an effect and Chadli has played just 66mins in the last four gameweeks. It would be a small gamble to play him, but it’s one that may just pay off. Chadli did at least start the final vs Chelsea, highlighting how much Pochettino values him.

Erik Lamela is an enigma – one goal and five assists this season is scant return for a player of his talent and one would immediately point to Chadli as a better mid-price option. However, Lamela has started the last four matches, assisting once in the defeat at Anfield – in those four matches Spurs has scored nine goals and so Lamela’s return probably sums up his Spurs career to date – flatters to deceive.

Two other Spurs names that may come under consideration for those chasing the DGW are Mousa Dembele and Nabil Bentaleb. Dembele is priced at 5.3mln and has scored one and assisted two in his last four matches – it’s worth bearing in mind that these are his only goal and assists this season, although his game time has been much more reliable of late and in many of these games he has played just off Harry Kane. Bentaleb is cheap as chips at 4.3mln and has started the last three matches, assisting once. He’s not going to make your DGW or turn it into a blockbuster, but if you have a couple of spare transfers or already own two DGW players and money is tight then he may be a cheeky option for DGW28.

The gamblers among you may just be tempted by Rangers winger Matty Phillips. We know QPR can’t defend, but one thing they will do is have a go, illustrated clearly by their 2-0 win up at Sunderland and then their 2-1 defeat at Hull while playing with 10 men after Joey Barton was sent off. So three goals in two games for Rangers – our man Phillips assisted them all – not bad for a 4.6mln DGW midfielder?

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[/three_fourth]And so onto the strikers and it is no surprise to you that the two DGW picks are Spurs’ Harry Kane and Rangers’ Charlie Austin. The pair sit second and third in the FPL striker charts, only eclipsed by Sergio Aguero – who happens to cost more than both Kane and Austin combined! Both strikers need little introduction to you and it is quite possible that you have owned both already this season. Once Kane established himself as Spurs main striker (it took Pochettino ten weeks to realise that Adebayor and Soldado were as useful as a Greek Finance Minister), then his season has just gone from strength to strength – 14 goals, six assists – he has only failed to score in two of his last eleven matches and to be honest I feel I’m wasting my time here as you probably already own him. In fact, if you don’t – just stop reading this and go buy him! The HurriKane is likely to top the captain poll this week and you wouldn’t bet against him terrorising both the Swansea and Rangers defenders, the only small worry is that Pochettino alarmingly has a small brain malfunction and starts either Adebayor or Soldado in one of the matches or more likely young Harry is hauled off in the second half if one of the games is already won.

Austin is only two assists away from Kane’s haul and the only real differences between the two are Kane’s more consistent scoring and the fact that Austin plays for a team with less quality, suggesting that Kane’s scoring is arguably more sustainable throughout the rest of the season and of course the higher quality of opposition Austin faces in DGW28. But don’t discount Charlie – two home matches in four days means the Loft can do their job and get behind the R’s with two local derbies and the fact that nine of Austin’s fourteen goals have come at home adds more weight to the argument to include him this week.

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To conclude we feel it’s important to restate that we don’t recommend selecting six DGW’ers. Other sides have great fixtures this week – City home to Leicester, Liverpool home to Burnley, Southampton home to Palace and don’t forget Arsenal at QPR, therefore it’s likely that players such as Aguero, Sturridge, Giroud, Silva, Cazorla, Clyne, Bertand and Sterling could easily outscore many of the DGW’ers. However, we think it’s worth trying to fit in two or maybe three of the above options to give your team every chance of taking advantage of the DGW and climbing up the rankings!

Best of luck for the Double!

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WooFBet

We would like to remind you that our official partners, WooFBet, are again running a whole host of prize competitions, which will please many of you who are slowly building a lovely retirement nest egg, while others continue to persevere in the hope that this week will be their week! If you haven’t done so yet we recommend you get yourselves over to WooFBet.com as this week they have over €500 in free entry prizes and a whopping €500 in guaranteed pots. You also have the option to create your own tournaments and head-to-head challenges. Choose your rules and buy-in fee, and invite friends or leave it open for the public to challenge you.

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Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips – a DGW Special. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9