FanDuel Focus – Gameweek 17

Welcome to our second article of the week that provides you with a rundown of FanDuel’s contests and the key player picks.

As usual, we will take a look at the prize pots and entry deadlines, while also offering an assessment of player targets, courtesy of my strongest line-up for the upcoming round of fixtures.

This week, FanDuel are again rolling out an offer for new accounts: users that sign up before midday tomorrow will receive £5 in free credit, no deposit required.

Use the promo code “SCOUTFIVER” when registering your account to claim the offer.

This weekend’s contests are again split over three windows.

Remember that whatever games you choose to enter, the FanDuel late-swap function means it’s possible to scan the teamsheets and change any non-starters in your squad right up until kick-off.

The Gameweek’s full ten-fixture slate gets started with Chelsea’s visit to Selhurst Park at 12.30pm on Saturday.

There’s also separate Saturday and Sunday/Monday slates. The Saturday-only games begin at 3 pm and consist of five matches, including the evening encounter between West Brom and Manchester United at the Hawthorns.

On Sunday it’s an earlier 1.30pm start on the South Coast as Bournemouth welcome local rivals Southampton; the action wraps up with the Merseyside derby on Monday night.

If you’re starting out with FanDuel, the player picks below will offer a useful first step for the Gameweek but we also recommend that you take a look at our earlier strategy guide for further tips.

This examines the type of players to target in the various positions, based on the average scores they would have accrued if the FanDuel scoring was applied to last season.

My Strongest XI

Hugo Lloris £7.2m
Harry Maguire £6.0m
Gary Cahill £6.7m
Michael Keane £8.2m
Chris Brunt £7.7m
Ander Herrera £9.3m
Adam Lallana £9.8m
Christian Eriksen £13.5m
Jermain Defoe £8.5m
Andy Carroll £8.5m
Diego Costa £14.8m

The Key Picks

We’re sticking with Hugo Lloris in goal as Spurs host a Burnley side that have simply been dire away from Turf Moor.

Despite a robust performance by the Clarets at West Ham in midweek, they once again failed to score, making it six blanks in seven on the road: Sean Dyche’s men have netted just one goal on their travels.

Lloris racked up an impressive 30.75 FanDuel points against Hull City, making five saves on his way to a second straight shutout at White Hart Lane.

Clearances, blocks and interceptions are the primary source of points for defenders in FanDuel and West Ham’s supply to Andy Carroll should give the Hull backline an opportunity to harvest plenty of those.

We are gifted a rather handy budget option from Mike Phelan’s backline in the form of Harry Maguire. He picked up 12 CBI’s to score 23.5 points against Spurs in midweek and also earned an unlikely assist in his previous outing. Maguire is expected be part of a back three against the Hammers and should offer strong value.

We often like to target defenders playing against Crystal Palace due to their tendency to launch balls into the box at every opportunity. That had us pondering Chelsea’s rearguard and, while David Luiz’ set piece duties were tempting, we’ve turned to the cheaper option of Gary Cahill.

The centre-back is joint top for CBI’s recorded by Blues defenders, level with Cesar Azpilicueta (£7.7m): they’ve both tallied 104 of those defensive actions this campaign.

To complete our defence we’ve turned to Burnley but overlooked their more expensive options, in favour of full-back Matt Lowton.

His 18.73 FanDuel average is just below the 19.27 and 19.16 points per match that Michael Keane (£8.2) and Ben Mee (£8.1m) have gathered. But, while the centre-backs have picked up more CBI’s, Lowton’s 50 tackles are over double either of his team-mates. With Spurs operating a wing-back system, we feel that Danny Rose will keep Lowton busy, hopefully helping him to a strong return from tackles once again. A total of 17 chances created also ranks the Clarets man among the top six defenders.

We included Christ Brunt in our midweek line-up and the West Brom asset rewarded us with a pair of assists. The versatile midfielder now has an average of 27 points per match when he’s started at the Hawthorns this season. While the visit of Manchester United may limit his threat, on current form Tony Pulis will surely see the Irishman’s deliveries as a key weapon against Jose Mourinho’s defence.

That clash also provides us with our next pick. We couldn’t quite stretch our budget to Paul Pogba (£11.8) or Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£13.3), so have turned instead to the steady presence of Ander Herrera.

The Spaniard isn’t particularly strong in any area but has promising underlying numbers all-round. Over five consecutive starts, he’s served up two assists, 16 tackles, 27 CBI’s, drawn 11 fouls and created seven chances. Against the Baggies, we’re expecting the midfielder to hit or exceed his 21-point FanDuel average.

Our next pick turned in his best performance of the season against a usually resilient Middlesbrough. A pair of goals and assist for Adam Lallana in midweek made it six of each over the campaign. The Liverpool midfielder picked up points from nine different actions at the Riverside, illustrating his level of involvement and potential value as a FanDuel asset.

While Harry Kane drew a blank against Hull City, Christian Eriksen confirmed that he has been the stand-out midfielder over the last four Gameweeks with a huge 60.5 points haul.

The Dane has now netted five goals and served up a pair of assists over that period. That’s given him a 51.75 average which means we just can’t overlook the Spurs dead-ball specialist against a Burnley side that have conceded the most attempts from set plays (83).

We had to target a West Ham attacking asset against a dismal Hull City rearguard, and it’s Andy Carroll who gets the nod.

The Tigers have conceded 40 headed goal attempts this term, only three sides have allowed more – a statistic that appears to play into the hands of the big Hammers target man. Carroll scored against Arsenal at the London Stadium last weekend and earned 20 points in midweek against Burnley, despite failing to find the net.

Jermain Defoe is our second striker in a 3-4-3. The Black Cats poacher may have blanked in his last two outings, but remains a strong prospect for the visit of Watford.

Defoe scored goals in each of his home matches before the midweek blank with Chelsea, scoring 29 points against Leicester City and 38.75 in the Hull City victory prior to that. We see similar returns for the visit of the Hornets.

We end our line-up with investment in Diego Costa, despite his blank against Sunderland. The Blues forward is yet to go two matches without providing returns this season; we feel that he should prosper against a Crystal Palace defence with just a single clean sheet to date. The Chelsea asset has a 30.69 average in FanDuel, five points ahead of Harry Kane (£14.3m) who has registered 25.07 points per match.

This Week’s Contests

The full Gameweek slate – the Fan Favourite – again offers the biggest prize pot of this round of fixtures, with £4000 on offer. There’s a £5 buy-in with £750 on offer for the top-ranked team.

There’s a £1000 contest for Saturday, which has a £3 entry fee and pays out £100 to the top participant. Meanwhile, the Sunday Special is a £1400 pot with £280 available for first place with a £7 buy-in. That slate includes Liverpool’s trip to Goodison Park on Monday evening.

You can register for a free account at FanDuel via this link.