Sponsored by FanTeam

The scoring systems and rules for FanTeam’s £1m season-long Premier League Fantasy game are very similar to those of FPL.

One of the main differences is the bonus points that midfielders and forwards get for completing 90 minutes of a game.

And that is the sole focus of this article from FPL Green Arrow as we take a look at which assets can be relied on for game-time.

SIGN UP TO FANTEAM’S £1M SEASON-LONG GAME HERE

While the FanTeam £1m season game is extremely similar to the FPL setup, there are a number of nuances that set it apart from the game played by millions of people around the world. Some of the differences, such as player position and price changes, are immediately obvious when looking at the game, but others are more subtle, especially when it comes to contrasts in the points scoring of the game.

One of the key variations of the scoring comes from the additional bonus point that can be gained by midfielders and forwards who complete 90 minutes in a game. That may not initially sound like much, but getting three to four attacking players in your team who play a full game in most Gameweeks can end up adding 120+ points to your end-of-season tally, which can have a huge impact on your final position. 

But who are the best players to target when it comes to the 90-minute bonus? We’ve taken a look at the stats from last season to see which players could end up with a significant boost to their score just by managing to stay on the pitch.

All Players

Throughout the course of last season, there were 53 players that played 90 minutes in 30 or more Premier League games, broken down by position below;

As FanTeam only awards the bonus point to midfielders and forwards, 41 of those players can be ruled out immediately, leaving 12 players to look into. One other thing to note is that Stuart Dallas (£5.5m) has had a positional change from defender to midfielder, but Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.5m) has moved in the opposite direction so the figures for positional breakdown remain the same.

Midfielders

The table below shows the 10 midfielders featured on the list, detailing their points from last season, but also, more importantly, what their points would have been with the updated scoring for 2021/22 with reduced impact points, shots on target points added and Dallas’ positional change adjustment.

The players’ adjusted points from last season have also been plotted against their price point for this season to try to give a more visual representation of the potential standout options from the above list to look into further;

Based on the above, five players have been selected to take a further look into their 20/21 season stats, based on the highest points-per-million figures using this season’s price:

* Excludes goals

Looking across the stats as a whole, James Ward-Prowse (£6.5m) had the highest combined goals and assists (15), as well as the most shots on target, and finished on the highest adjusted points total. Yet due to his price being £1-1.5m higher than Hojbjerg and McGinn, ends with a slightly lower points per million (PPM) score. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£5.0m) on the other hand, had a much lower number of attacking returns and only five shots on target, but coming in at just £5.0m gives him a healthy PPM of 28.16.

When looking purely at PPM, it’s clear to see from the above table that, if he can hit similar figures this season, then Stuart Dallas is by far and away the best option from a PPM basis. To put his scores into context, last season’s top four highest scorers – Mo Salah, Bruno Fernandes, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son – have PPM figures of 20.16, 20.55, 20.50 and 25.08 respectively, meaning all of the 90-minute men featured above offer better PPM value than the 20/21 top scorers.

The point about Dallas hitting similar figures is a big one: in 192 previous games for Leeds prior to the 20/21 season, he only scored 19 goals, at a rate of one goal every 10 games, making last season’s one goal in every 4.75 games standout as a potential anomaly, though he did play further forward which obviously contributed to his figures. On the other hand, Tomas Soucek (£6.0m) scored once every 3.8 games last season, which isn’t too far off his previous career stats of one in every 4.6 games, so he could be a safer option.

Midfielder Selection

Based on all of the above, I’m likely to start to the season with one/both of Soucek and Ward-Prowse, for the below main reasons;

• they have a more consistent track record of delivering attacking returns across multiple seasons
• they play 90 mins every week – Ward-Prowse has played every minute of the last two seasons and Soucek only missed one minute of action last season, which was the result of his late red card, which was later overturned
• they’re both a big threat from set pieces – Soucek from getting on the end of corners/FKs and Ward-Prowse as Southampton’s dead-ball specialist
• with them being the higher-priced options, it makes it much easier to move from one of them to Dallas if he does continue to be an attacking threat

Forwards

With only two forwards playing 90 mins in 30 or more games, it becomes much easier to review, even more so when you see who they are;

Even with Harry Kane’s injury record, the reliance Spurs had on him last season was still clear to see, with him playing the full game in 30 of the 35 games he started in the league. With a move to Man City looking increasingly likely, it remains to be seen whether he can maintain a similar record this season, though it would seem extremely unlikely given the attacking options available to them.

Ollie Watkins’ ever-present stint in the Villa team is even more impressive when you consider that there was still only one other forward to even complete 25 or more games – Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

*Excludes goals

With 22 attacking returns in his first season, it was a great start to life in the Premier League for Watkins and his adjusted points based on this season’s scoring matrix moved him up to the ninth highest scoring player across the whole game. The 36 points he accrued from playing 90 mins essentially equates to him having scored an extra 9 goals throughout the season, which just highlights how important those bonuses can be.

Harry Kane just continued to do what Harry Kane does last season, but even added a glut of assists to his game, something which has never been a big feature before last season, with only 18 assists from the previous five seasons combined. While a move to Man City would undoubtedly give him more scoring opportunities, it would also likely mean more rotation/rest for him, as well as a reduction in the need for him to drop deep and act as the creator.

Final Thought

By making the case for some players who wouldn’t necessarily be considered without the different point opportunities, the FanTeam scoring matrix does provide opportunities for slightly more varied team selections than in FPL. While it doesn’t make poor fantasy players great options, it can bring some cheaper options to the fore to free up budget for the higher-end players.

When reviewing the five midfielders looked at in more detail, their points from playing 90mins made up between 20-27% of their adjusted points total for the season. This highlights the need to delve deeper into the available options to try to unearth the hidden gems that could bring in points from more than just the traditional FPL scoring scenarios.

As with any fantasy format, the key thing is to properly acquaint yourself with the scoring, there will definitely be people playing who don’t do this, so you can immediately get the edge on them by familiarising yourself with the ins and outs of the game.

#ad 18+ begambleaware.org

FURTHER READING