This afternoon, we roll out the first End of Season poll as the Fantasy Football Scout awards get underway. To begin with, we focus on the goalkeepers, releasing a poll in the middle column of the homepage to collect your votes.
Bear in mind that the vote is from an overall Fantasy perspective – overall points, price, performances and value across the Fantasy games should all come into consideration.
Although our selections are mainly weighted towards the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game, we’ve also factored in performance in those games where clean sheet points alone are key to points output.
Prior to the first of this season’s nominees and poll, let’s look back join last season’s team of the season and, in particular, last season’s top stopper:
2013/14 Fantasy Football Scout Team of the Season Review
Goalkeeper – Vito Mannone
Defenders – Seamus Coleman, John Terry, Laurent Koscielny, Joel Ward
Midfielders – Steven Gerrard, Aaron Ramsey, Yaya Toure, Eden Hazard
Forwards – Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge
One glance at last season’s lineup reveals just how fortunes can turn. Sunderland’s Vito Manonne was voted the top Fantasy Football keeper for 2013/14: a year on, the Italian is frozen out at the Stadium of Light and far from contention in our awards.
Manonne earned 11 clean sheets in 28 appearances last season but, this term, lost his place after just nine appearances following a string of calamitous errors. The Black Cats’ keeper earned just two clean sheets, returning 3.2 points per game, a significant decline from his impressive 4.6 over the last campaign.
By November, Gus Poyet had seen enough, ousting Manonne in favour of summer signing, Costel Pantilimon. The big Romanian’s form ensured that Manonne was kept out of the picture and his future at the club must now be in doubt. It remains to be seen if he can return to the Fantasy reckoning next season.
While Manonne suffered a torrid campaign, let’s look over our list of candidates for this term’s top Fantasy keeper accolade:
Simon Mignolet
The Reds’ shot-stopper – despite being much maligned in the early stages of the season for an array of mishaps – sits at the summit of the FPL keeper rankings with 139 points. Having accrued just five clean sheets in the first 20 Gameweeks, Mignolet chalked up a further seven in the next nine rounds of fixtures, helping the Merseysiders post a 13-match unbeaten run. With 14 shut-outs in total, the former Sunderland keeper is in pole position to bag the Golden Glove accolade.
Mignolet boasts the highest points per game (4.2) of any keeper that’s tallied 15 or more appearances this term. Even though that figure surpasses any member of Liverpool’s defensive starters – with Martin Skrtel (4.1ppg) not far behind – the Belgian’s initial 5.5 price tag has dropped to 5.4 by virtue of a deluge of transfers out in the first half of the campaign.
Liverpool’s stopper sits on top of the Sun Dream Team keeper rankings with 142 points, totalling 18 clean sheets over his 51 appearances in that game. Mignolet also tops the current Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football rankings on 131 points.
Fraser Forster
Although Forster has been sidelined since sustaining a serious knee injury during a Gameweek 30 clash against Burnley, Southampton’s £10 million summer signing sits second in the race for the Golden Glove with 13 clean sheets.
Forster was an integral component of what’s proved to be the league’s second-meanest defence (28 goals conceded), with league champions Chelsea shipping just one goal fewer. The attacking returns of Ryan Bertrand and Nathanial Clyne have elevated their ppg averages (4.4 and 4.3m respectively) beyond Forster’s (3.9), yet his peak price tag (5.6) never reached the heights of Southampton’s high-scoring defenders, rendering their keeper the cheapest viable route into Ronald Koeman’s back line.
Forster’s value to the Saints is underlined by the fact that he conceded more than one goal on just four of his 30 appearances. Replacement Kelvin Davis, on the other hand, has been beaten twice in three of his subsequent five matches.
Across other games, Forster is ranked number one amongst keepers over in Sky Sports, amassing 119 points thus far, and also in the Fantasy League game, with 34 points, despite missing the last five league outings.
Tom Heaton
Priced at 4.5 and returning 126 points so far, Burnley’s stopper has proven better value for money than any keeper and is second only to Harry Kane in terms of overall FPL value for the season.
The Clarets have struggled to contain opposition attacks, notching just seven clean sheets this campaign. Instead, Heaton’s points haul has been bolstered by a profusion of saves. Only Robert Green (129) and Adrian (121) have repelled more shots than the ex-England U21 international, affording him a total of 28 save points, with two penalty stops also to his name. As a consequence, Heaton (3.6 ppg) has delivered points at a much greater rate than Burnley’s top-scoring defender, Kieran Trippier (2.8 ppg).
Ben Foster
Before he succumbed to injury back in Gameweek 29, West Brom’s shot-stopper ranked second behind the Saints’ Forster with regards to clean sheets, by 11 to 13. Foster clearly profited from the arrival of Tony Pulis on January 1 in response to the sacking of erstwhile manager, Alan Irvine. Upon his appointment at The Hawthorns, Pulis guided the Baggies – and hence Foster – to six shut-outs in nine outings before injury struck.
In Foster’s absence, budget-buy Boaz Myhill (4.1) has continued in a similar vein, carding shut-outs in four of his seven starts, and with the Pulis effect taking hold, Foster will be back on our radars next season once back to full fitness.
Lukasz Fabianski
The Swans shot-stopper has been by far the most profitable investment among their defensive unit, with a ppg (3.9) that bests the likes of Federico Fernandez (3.3) and Ashley Williams (3.2) – who could all, incidentally, be snapped up for 5.0 prior to Gameweek 1.
With 118 saves so far this season, Fabianski ranks fourth among his peers. Those saves have afforded the former Arsenal shot-stopper with 28 save points, placing him third in the FPL total score rankings for keepers, behind Mignolet (139) and Adrian (136). Fabianski’s 12 clean sheets so far this campaign give him an outside shot of challenging Mignolet for the Golden Glove, although the Welsh club’s remaining fixtures (ars, MCI, cry) make that a tough ask.
There’s no question that Fabianski has been this season’s weapon of choice in the Sky Sports game. His 103 points so far this term have come with a price tag of just 3.8 million, making him by far and away the most popular one-stop option. His value has also been a major plus in the Daily Telegraph where his 94 points have come for a price of just £2.3 million.
Adrian
Had it not been for Adrian’s heroics, West Ham could well have been floundering in the bottom half of the table at this point. The Hammers’ forward line has been pitiful of late – registering a paltry five goals in nine outings – yet the former Real Betis star has saved their blushes with three penalty saves in 10 starts, earning two double-figure points hauls in the process. His 28 FPL save points have made him the choice route into Sam Allardyce’s defence, with his 3.9 ppg outstripping Aaron Creswell’s 3.6 ppg – in spite of the latter’s two goals and four assists this term.
Only the R’s Green (129) has tallied more saves than Adrian (121), yet the Spanish keeper has managed to concede 16 fewer goals (42) than his counterpart (58). Indeed, when it comes to saves from shots from inside the box, Adrian’s 78 saves ranks higher than Green and any other keeper in the league. Adrian has also saved more penalties than any of his peers this term (3).
Adrian’s shot-stopping abilities have established him as a consistently strong option the weekly Fantasy Football games, registering 206.4 points in Mondogoal, the current top ranked keeper. He’s also proved excellent value in both the Sky Sports and Daily Telegraph games, returning 92 points for his 4.4 price tag in the former and providing the best value option in the latter, fetching 115 points for just £2.6 million.
David De Gea
As often transpires in the FPL, the outstanding keeper across the course of the campaign hasn’t served up the strongest Fantasy returns. David De Gea was rightfully induced into the PFA Team of the Year and placed third in the Player of the Year voting, yet he sits fourth among the league’s full complement of keepers in terms of total score (128).
By virtue of Manchester United’s generous defence, De Gea was on few managers’ radars in the first quarter of the season – a period in which the Red Devils notched just two shut-outs in 10 Gameweeks, shipping 14 goals in the process. Since then, the burgeoning starlet has only been beaten on 21 occasions, racking up a further eight clean sheets. Both De Gea and Chris Smalling (United’s top defender) were initially valued at 5.5 and have produced an identical ppg average (3.7), yet the former’s 0.5 price rise (as opposed to Smalling’s 0.2 drop, triggered by his sporadic starts) exemplifies his superior value.
De Gea is ranked second to Mignolet in the Sun Dream Team game and in the Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football. With 205 points, he’s also the second ranked stopper in Mondogoal, just a point behind Adrian.
Thibaut Courtois
Perhaps not surprisingly, Chelsea’s precocious talent has seen far less activity than the majority of his counterparts, as evidenced by the 69 saves Courtois has executed all season – a product, undoubtedly, of the fact that the Blues’ rearguard has conceded the fewest shots inside the box (187) of any team in the league.
Although Jose Mourinho’s decision to occasionally field Petr Cech has proven detrimental to the Belgian’s prospects, Courtois has still managed 12 clean sheets over his 30 starts. With the consistent attacking returns of Branislav Ivanovic (5.0 ppg) and John Terry (4.7 ppg) limiting our appeal in Courtois (3.9 ppg), he’s failed to arrive on many radars despite sitting eighth for keepers. If Cech departs the Bridge over the summer, though, the young Belgian could be one to consider in those Fantasy games where a one-stop keeper is essential.
Costel Pantilimon
Manonne’s successor in the Sunderland goal took his opportunity to impress. Installed back in Gameweek 10, the giant Romanian immediately secured the keeper’s jersey and worked his way into the affections of Fantasy managers.
While limited to 25 appearances, Pantilimon’s credentials as a shot stopper immediately came to the fore: with 100 saves currently to his name, his minutes per save stat of 23.74 is the most impressive of any keeper in the league. Over in the FPL, those saves have translated to 26 points, making him the strongest candidate in terms of save points per appearance.
With 101 FPL points over his 25 starts, Pantilimon has thus far returned an impressive 4.04 ppg, made up of eight clean sheets. Sunderland and Pantilimon have both wilted in recent months, however, returning just a single shut-out in the last eight league outings. Errors have also crept into the Romanian’s game, denting his outstanding early season form. Despite this, should Sunderland fail to clamber free of relegation, it would seem pretty certain that we’d see Pantilimon remain on our player lists by virtue of another summer move.
