With just over a week to go until the 2018/19 season begins, Watford players aren’t proving to be popular purchases in the Fantasy Premier League community.
The Hornets are one of only two clubs – the other being newly promoted Cardiff City – who don’t have a single player with an FPL ownership of 5% or more.
This isn’t a huge shock, looking at last season’s figures: the Hertfordshire club had the third-worst defensive record in the top flight and only one of their players – central midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure (£6.0m) – scored more than five league goals. Richarlison, meanwhile, departed for Everton last week.
Javi Gracia’s side are third-favourites for relegation with some bookmakers and their form from Gameweek 14 onwards last season – the Hornets won more matches (six) before this point than they did in their remaining 25 games (five) – was that of a team fighting the drop.
Watford’s opening three fixtures this season are enticing, however: home matches against Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace sandwich the Hornets’ trip to Burnley, who could be in UEFA Europa League action either side of that encounter.
Encouraging underlying defensive statistics, the pre-season form of Andre Gray (£6.0m) and a tactical system that encourages their full-backs to attack are worthy of note, too – all of which we will expand on in the article below.
In-depth data on Watford’s season is available in the Members’ Area, while Fantasy Football Scout members can also read our detailed analysis of the key statistics in the article below.
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5 years, 9 months agoDid Shaw do anything in game to suggest worth getting for first few games of season or Bailly a better option even if less likely to provide attacking returns ?