As the football world attempts to re-resemble some sort of normality, few could begrudge Leicester City of their victory at Cardiff. But what else? City? Ruthless. Chelsea? Strong enough. Spurs and United? Lucky. The title race is certainly shaping up nicely and two other potential contenders in Arsenal and Liverpool locked horns in a contest that re-affirmed what a great job Unai Emery is doing at The Emirates while simultaneously re-igniting the VAR debate. A few eyebrows were raised at the inclusion of Roberto Firmino in last week’s fallers section. His negative Fantrax score last week will only serve to further frustrate FPL draft owners. Could be worse. Could be an Alexander Mitrovic owner. Here are this week’s Fantasy Premier League draft Risers and Fallers.
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Fantasy Premier League draft risers
Mohamed Salah
Last year, this call would be considered as too mainstream. This year, it’s bordering on the differential territory. Despite a supposed lack of form, Mohamed Salah is putting up some serious numbers in Fantrax. A busy performance at Arsenal yielded 10 points despite not contributing a goal or assist.
Not a bad way to follow a 30.5 point haul in GW 10. This puts the aforementioned colleague of the Egyptian’s to shame. Liverpool will welcome a nice run of fixtures, starting with a home fixture against lowly Fulham this Sunday. I expect Salah to be at the heart of all the good things the Reds do.
Those FPL draft managers who plumped for Salah over Kevin De Bruyne will be feeling smug in the next month or so.
Shane Duffy
A legend of the advanced scoring FPL draft game. Put simply, Shane Duffy gets loads of points because he does loads of defensive stuff. The performance at Everton aside, Brighton have looked solid in recent weeks. Three consecutive clean sheets prior to their 3-1 defeat at Goodison are a testament to their stubbornness.
Duffy collects points from all areas, mainly from winning aerials, tackles, interceptions, and clearances which goes some way to explaining scores of 8.25, 12.25 and 21.75. A trip to Cardiff this week should give him plenty of opportunities to get his head in the way.
If Duffy is unavailable, the lesser-owned Lewis Dunk essentially does the same job.
James Maddison
It’s been a while since I last mentioned James Maddison. So here he is. Four consecutive blank gameweeks has led to much talk of the highly owned midfielders being sold by many in the salary cap version of FPL. However, in FPL draft, he continues to be worth his weight in gold.
No goals and no assists haven’t lead to no points. His busy style, dominance of set pieces and his wand of a right foot mean three of those last four weeks have culminated in double-figure hauls in Fantrax.
Also, there’s no chance his run of blanks continues for much longer. After an excellent chance to put things right this week at home against a lackluster Burnley, Maddison faces Brighton, Watford, and Fulham in a great run of fixtures which extends all the way to GW18.
If there are any disgruntled Maddison FPL draft owners…firstly, why? Secondly, take advantage and fire over a trade offer. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Maddison’s average draft position of 104 looks stupid now.
Fantasy Premier League Draft Fallers
Alexander Mitrovic
Alexander Mitrovic owners were among the smuggest members of the FPL draft community after five gameweeks. Now, the same people are left to reminisce over better times. After four goalless weeks, Mitrovic was in the last chance saloon for many going into the Monday night thriller against Huddersfield. He blew it.
The out of form Serb is (to some degree) a victim of his team’s horrible run. However, his scores don’t lie and “Mitro” has remembered how much he enjoys a yellow card. This week’s trip to Anfield is unlikely to bring an immediate upturn in fortunes for Fulham and Mitrovic.
Kevin De Bruyne
Not again. Pep Guardiola could probably have won without his star man in last week’s midweek cup tie against Fulham. How he (along with several thousand FPL draft managers) wishes he could turn back time.
Kevin De Bruyne was all set to complete his first 90 minutes before an unfortunate collision with Manchester United loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah. Cue more knee ligament damage confirmation that he will miss the Manchester derby. Not just that. Six weeks in all. Disaster strikes once again for those FPL draft managers that used the first pick in their draft to snatch the Belgian genius.
Son Heung Min
Another FPL draft favorite enduring a difficult time. Despite Dele Alli’s injury struggles, Son Heung Min has been the victim of the good form of Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela this season and has spent more time than expected kicking his heels on the bench.
Gameweek 11 was bittersweet for the South Korean superstar, leaving the bench early, contributing an assist before returning to the place that he is becoming all too familiar with before the 90 minutes was out.
Alli’s return should inhibit Son’s minutes even further. On his day, Son is the ultimate high upside FPL draft player. Unfortunately for himself and his owners, his day is coming often enough at the moment.
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