With the International break upon us, now seems a good time to take a look at the state of play in the Sky Game. Specifically I wanted to provide an update on who the Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, who is hogging the bonus points and finally take a look at how many of the 40 allowed transfers have been made by the leading managers.
Man of the Match
First up let’s take a look at the MoTM darlings so far, listing any player to have earned the award at least twice.
Points of note
· As in previous seasons midfielders dominate, with 11 of them filling up the 19 spots in this table. In particular attacking midfielders, with only Etienne Capoue and Joe Allen historically playing a bit deeper featuring – although they have been pushed up further this season as we know.
· Again past seasons have taught us that defenders and keepers struggle in this area and so it appears to be the case once more, with only a combined three throwing their hat in the ring here.
· Liverpool’s Phillipe Coutinho tops the pile and with his current form showing no signs of slowing. He looks a key player to draft in if you haven’t got him already. What’s quite impressive about the Brazilian, who is the third highest owned player in the game, is that no other Liverpool player features despite their equally impressive form. The Brazilian certainly seems to have a monopoly on the award at present making him an outstanding captain option as well.
· Eden Hazard of Chelsea seems to have returned to his former glory, ignoring last season’s apparent blip the Belgian topped the MoTM table at the end of the previous two seasons with 12 awards and nine respectively – along with Coutinho he also offers a very strong armband option.
· Although Man City players have been great fantasy wise in general, when it comes to the MoTM award its trickier to pin down. Three of their attacking options feature here (the most of any team) and therefore slightly decreases their individual skipper potential.
Bonus magnets
With a few tweaks in the bonus department this season by Sky, making it slightly easier to obtain, bonus has become more important than ever. Lets take a look at any player who has been awarded bonus more than five times.
Points of note
· Defensive or central midfielders dominate with just Burnley’s Tom Heaton, Shkodran Mustafa of Arsenal and the more attack minded Coutinho sitting outside this remit.
· Liverpool are offering all sorts of options in midfield across the fantasy games but in Sky Jordan Henderson is a real contender. In 11 starts the all action player has earned 16 separate forms of bonus. If you have struggled with captain points this season he offers the safest option out there with near enough a guarantee to return points in some way each game.
· With big hitters performing well this season our budget is often at breaking point, looking through the table above a number of possible ‘enablers’ feature from some of the lesser teams. Take the time to scout these players as they often end up offering some of the best value available.
Transfers
Lets now take a look at the average amount of transfers fantasy managers have in the higher reaches of the overall leaderboard:
With limited transfers the Sky game has a particular style that takes some players time to get used to.
Managing your transfers and striking a balance between burning them up for ‘must have’ players early on and retaining them for more flexibility late in the season has always been a fine art.
Due to this mechanic the Sky overall leaderboards are often in a state of “Tortoise and Hare” and how well your team is performing is hard to judge without the knowledge of your opponents’ transfer situation.
I would suggest if you are in and around the top 500 now and have 20 transfers or more, the £25,000 top prize is a real possibility.
