As mentioned previously, our Fantasy football coverage will also include a weekly article on the Sky Sports game as we look to broaden our analysis of the various games available to Fantasy managers this season. Having already assessed the Rules, the Player List and broken down last season’s Man of the Match awards, the next article analyses the introduction of the new bonus points system, which awards players who make 60+ completed passes and/or 4+ successful tackles in any given Gameweek.
Unlike the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game, Sky Sports use Opta data for analysing player performance – making it a perfect accompaniment for our Members section data. For that purpose, we’ve created custom tables in the Members Area which highlights the main protagonists from 2011/12, indicating the respective haul each player would have accrued in bonus points alone were the rule in place last season. These statistics are not available in the Sky Sports game, or anywhere else, giving our members a real edge when it comes to selecting their initial squads.
With two points for 60+ passes and another two points for 4+ tackles, it’s clear that the new bonus system will have a definite impact in how we approach the task of setting up our teams for the season ahead. Bearing in mind that the Points Scoring system allocates five points for a goal or a Man of the Match award and three points for an assist, identifying those players who are capable of producing the bonus points looks almost as vital.
Unsurprisingly, given the bonus criteria, nine of the top ten are midfielders, while Swansea’s passing game under Brendan Rodgers sees as many as three of their players also feature in the upper echelons, with one hovering just outside…
