Time for another ownership update, which is based on data taken over the weekend and he final pre-season matches of summer.
Among those who are falling is Tottenham right back Kieran Trippier, who hobbled off the pitch at the weekend.
But equally there are signs of promising form starting to build among other players, with a pre-season goal or two doing wonders for raising the profile of a formerly overlooked prospect.
Bandwagons
Sadio Mané is a great example of a goal offering a timely reminder of Fantasy potential.
He was stumbling along with a slowly decreasing ownership, which had dwindled from 6.1% on day one to just 4.8% last weekend. Then he opened the scoring against Bayern Munich and it rocketed, or maybe it was this excellent hot topic about the winger from Rambo Motin that helped his ownership swell. Since last week Mane has almost quadrupled his ownership, and now appears in 16.3% of teams.
As mentioned last week, some of the new arrivals have sparked much interest. West Ham new recruits Joe Hart (13.6%) and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez 20.6%) have built up significant levels of ownership, and continue to increase. Is this because we are familiar with these players, and value their previous experience in the Premier League?
Nemanja Matic is also worth a mention. As a Chelsea player he was trotting along with an ownership of less than 5% – in fact he was so “under the radar” that I hadn’t even thought to monitor him! But then he signed for Man Utd – and his ownership has jumped to over 10%. Will he really score that many more points in a red shirt rather than a blue one?
Finally, Kevin De Bruyne has taken off this week. With no goals, but four assists; he is increasingly looking like the most reliable route into a very strong looking Man City attack, and his ownership has picked up significantly in the last 10 days and he is now the second most popular midfielder, with 25.1% of FPL managers showing their faith in him.
Bandwagons derailed
Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata standing has plummeted Aafter rising to an initial peak of 11.5%, he slipped back to 10.1% over the weekend – maybe as a result of the strong pre-season performance (five goals, three assists) of Michy Batshuayi? The Spaniard’s less than impressive display in the Community Shield on Sunday, when he missed from the spot in the penalty shoot out, has further harmed his popularity, with his ownership down to 8.8% the next day.
I mentioned Alexandre Lacazette and Victor Lindeloff last week – both were popular picks when the game was announced. But confidence in these players seems to have waned, and they continue to be ejected to make way for other options. Lindeloff is now owned by less than one in ten FPL managers and the Gunners striker sits in 17% of team.
Even goalkeepers are not immune to the fickle fettling of the Fantasy manager. West Brom’s Ben Foster (4.5m) appeared to be a good cheap option between the sticks, playing for a manager with a reputation for defensive tactics. But his initial ownership of 21.2% has steadily ebbed away to his current level of 16.2%.
Newcastle duo Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie as well as James Milner, who may have relinquished penalty taking duties to Roberto Firmino, have all been shedding owners fairly steadily – though the latter two have shown some signs of recovery this week.
I expect there will be further potholes to negotiate on the road to next Friday’s deadline.
