Fantasy Allsvenskan: GW4

Early Friday Deadline!

Fantasy Allsvenskan is picking up pace and GW3 is already placing itself firmly in the rear-view mirror. It was a week where Paulinho showed up big time with two goals, an assist and three bonus points, where AIK lost their clean sheet (but also scored for the first time this season) and where a few budget options piqued our interest.

Before we get into a quick gameweek review I’ve got a public service announcement that is so important that I’m going to put it both here, and in the GW4 preview: The deadline for GW4 is this Friday at 12.30 CET! Don’t miss out and risk ruining the holidays…

 Can we get by without Paulinho in our squads?

In short, yes. No player is ever truly “essential”, but some players tend to hog a lot of points on a frequent basis – quite a good characteristic for a player in fantasy football. Unfortunately (or perhaps we should be thankful, as it makes the game more interesting), the powers that be has put Paulinho in at a very premium price of 12.0m.  That means that having him tends to upset the balance of the squad somewhat and when his striking partner Alexander Jeremejeff is available at 9.6m, the choice between them gets that much trickier.

A potential double up is an option, but are you ready to not have any of the other good in-form strikers in your squad? Mohamed Buya Turay (9.5m) has scored three goals in three games as has Linus Hallenius (10.6m), to name a few.

Adi Nalic – flash in the pan or budget gem?

Adi Nalic (5.8m) has started his loan spell at AFC Eskilstuna from Malmö FF in a brilliant fashion, with his two goals and two assists giving him 23 points in total from three games. He’s currently the top scoring midfielder in the fantasy game and to put that into some perspective, only Paulinho beats him overall with his total of 26 points. The question that many are now asking themselves are, can he keep it up? Does he really need to at that price though? The community does seem to think that there is some mileage to that pick, as he now finds himself in 19% of the squads. AFC Eskilstuna has started off quite alright and do seem to be willing to put up a genuine fight to stay in the top-flight so interest in Nalic will probably continue.

AIKs defence breached

After two consecutive 0-0 results, AIK supporters where starting to get restless. Owners of a defensive double or treble up where understandably excited but IK Sirius had other plans as Philip Haglund (7.5m) broke the clean sheet extravaganza. AIK ended up turning it around in the end though and secured their first win of the season. Next up for AIK is traveling to a struggling Örebro SK side, while Sirius faces off against Malmö at home.

IFK Göteborg fell to a competent Djurgården

Try as they may, Göteborg can’t quite shake the economical issues that has put them where they’ve been for the last couple of seasons. What that does mean however, is that young and talented players will get plenty of gametime and a player that has reached out and grabbed that chance with both hands is Benjamin Nygren (5.7m). Scoring a goal and two assists last time around, Nygren looked threatening and besides hitting the post, also managed to hit the back of the net this time around as well. That means he is currently trailing Paulinho by just 5 points so far, for less than half the cost! A player that has started the season off really badly for IFK Göteborg though is Giorgi Kharaishvili (8.4m) and he didn’t cover himself in glory this time around either, getting a red card for his efforts.

Mohamed Buya Turay scored his third goal of the season and Jonathan Ring (7.5m) came away with two assists, both of them are potentially interesting picks going forward – although Djurgården’s upcoming schedule (Häcken away, Norrköping home, Hammarby away, Helsingborg away, AIK home) is looking a bit dicey.

Preview GW4

Yet again just a friendly reminder that the deadline for GW4 is this Friday at 12.30 CET!

Easy to miss yet equally painful none the less. As the holidays are getting on, the Allsvenskan players are afforded no leave of absence, so neither are us managers!

Östersund entertains Elfsborg as two teams that have struggled for consistency battle it out up north. Should be an open game with potentially quite a few goals, even though Östersund is a bit hard to place at the moment (having faced off against both AIK and Malmö away in the first three games). Pawel Cibicki (8.5m) and Hosam Aiesh (9.5m) to pick up the points?

IFK Norrköping faces off against Falkenberg at home, Norrköping with just two points from the first three games really need to start winning if they are to mount any kind of a threat to Malmö and AIK. Jordan Larsson (7.1m) with two goals so far looks a decent shout assuming he keeps his spot.

As mentioned Örebro plays against AIK and will be trying to go back to clean sheets, without losing out on their new attacking form. We all saw what Witry (5.1m) did to them in GW2… Örebro really needs to get their stuff together sooner rather than later if they are to avoid the drop, whether or not they are able to against AIK is another question.

In GIF Sundsvall-Kalmar, Linus Hallenius and Maic Sema (8.6m) will be looking to continue on their good individual form, while new Kalmar-coach Magnus Pehrsson needs to translate talk into points as they have yet to record a win this season. Sundsvall should have enough to make sure that doesn’t transpire in this gameweek at least.

Sirius entertains Malmö and even though they’ve started off well this will be an incredibly difficult task for them. In front of the home supporters (a lot of them students from Uppsala) they will give it their best though and if they can score against AIK, they should be able to score against Malmö. Will Malmö rotate again and suffer the consequences or stick with what works? Philip Haglund is one to watch here.

BK Häcken receives Djurgården fresh out of beating Göteborg at home. Will Paulinho keep it up, or is it Jeremejeff’s turn? Buya Turay and Jonathan Ring looks like ones to watch – can Witry get fit in time?

A somewhat dysfunctional Hammarby gets to square off against AFC Eskilstuna at home and they will be desperate to deliver the first win of the season in front of their fans. I don’t expect Eskilstuna to just roll over though and given the state of Hammarby’s defence, I’d say they’re currently equally likely to be on the scoresheet. Vidar Örn Kjartansson (10.0m) scored his first goal since coming to Hammarby but only managed a 5-pointer in GW3, maybe another goal or two this week? Can Nalic make it another week without blanking?

Finally, IFK Göteborg faces Helsingborg and all eyes will be on Benjamin Nygren, only 17 years old but already bearing the hopes of so many on his shoulders. Old favourite Lasse Vibe (8.5m) should not be forgotten though and if he’s match fit, this could be the game where he introduces himself yet again to our collective thoughts.

How did you do in GW3?

What are your plans for GW4?

And how on earth will we get all these strikers into three spots….

Happy holidays everyone!

Meltens