Gameweek 17 review

Big scores for plenty of managers as Hammarby continued their impressive run of form against league minnows AFC Eskilstuna, winning 6-1. That makes it a goal difference of (I know, I know, I’m going to keep harping on about this though until it stops being insane every week) 20-7 from the last four games! All of the four most attacking players for Hammarby scored well with Muamer Tankovic (9.4m) getting 10 points, Nikola Djurdjic (10.4m) netting a massive 19 points, Imad Khalili (6.9m) a cheeky 11-pointer that promised more, and Alexander Kačaniklić (8.6m) ending up on 12 points. Aron Johansson (9.0m) will have his work cut out for him if he is to become a regular in Hammarby’s lineup as things stand.

AIK got a fifth straight clean sheet and goals from Henok Goitom (9.7m) and Chinedu Obasi (8.6m) made sure they also recorded their fourth consecutive win. Daniel Granli (4.6m), Sebastian Larsson (8.9m) and Tarik Elyounoussi (9.1m) got rotated and AIK looks to continue this worrying trend as long as they remain in the European competitions. New signing Felix Michel (4.8m) got his first start at the heart of the defence but exciting “there and back again”-signing Nabil Bahoui (9.5m) will have to wait a little bit longer before returning, yet again, to the AIK starting line-up for another stint. One to watch for multiple reasons, but crucially for fantasy managers, he’s a “points-player” who gets forward a lot, usually from a left-midfield position. From 90 competitive games for AIK he’s got 36 goals and 29 assists…

Djurgården won against Häcken at home 2-0, another clean sheet as they continue to impress defensively. Only three goals conceded in the last nine games speaks volumes and they’re developing into the “anti-Hammarby” (defensively solid, struggling in attack). Goalless draws in Östersund-Malmö and Göteborg-Norrköping made sure the top spots are well up for grabs as Djurgården, Hammarby, Häcken and Göteborg now get to play their 18th game which Malmö, AIK and Norrköping have already done in their respective double gameweeks earlier on.

The three most popular captains in the top 1k for gameweek 17, courtesy of GoktugErce:

1. Muamer Tankovic; Captained by 75%, Effective Ownership of 171.4% (!), scored 10 points.
2. Nikola Djurdjic; Captained by 12.4%, Effective Ownership of 69.8%, scored 19 points.
3. Anders Christiansen (10.1); Captained by 3.1%, Effective Ownership of 59.3%, scored 3 points.

Top 1k average points for the gameweek was 82.7, compared to the overall average of 52 points.

Blank Gameweek 18 preview

Blank gameweek 18 has landed upon our doorsteps and Victor Wernersson (5.8m) went ahead and got himself suspended for the game against Örebro, just as we needed him the most. The biggest culprits as far as suspensions go though simply has to be Malmö defender Eric Larsson (6.7m) and Sundsvall midfielder Juanjo Ciércoles (5.8m). Not only do they now blank in GW18, but they’re also suspended for GW19. Blank gameweek 18 (or BGW18 for the initiated…) contains, as you would expect, not that many fixtures as the earlier double gameweeks now take their toll on our squads. No games for AIK, Malmö, Norrköping or Sundvall then, where all but the final one contain a lot of popular players. AIK went out of the Champions League qualifiers on Wednesday but no respite for us yet, as that means they now enter the next round of Europa League qualifiers instead.

In the games that do however take place, we’ll see Östersund face off against an out of sorts AFC Eskilstuna, where you’d expect a certain Gustav Jarl (4.3m) to play his most important fantasy game to date for a lot of managers. Apparently not dead early-season bandwagon Adi Nalic (5.6m) could also get some gametime for a few squads, although many active managers will have jettisoned him by now after missing out on so many games between GW9-GW15.

Falkenberg managed to win the first of the two crucial home-games and now play a Helsingborg side that looks well off the pace. Losing 4-1 at home to Örebro, goalkeeper signing Anders Lindegaard (5.0m) is going to have to significantly up his game (six goals conceded from seven shots on target). Kalmar who’s now lost five straight games will try to stop a resurgent Hammarby who’s firing on all cylinders. Expect heavy captaincies and plenty of attacking double (or treble)-ups on the green and whites, although it should be noted that Kalmar (despite being quite awful) rarely gets turned over completely, at least not so far this year.

A (possibly) tired Häcken team will try to keep their top finish-dreams alive by getting all three points at home to Sirius. Thanks to some quite frankly farcical administrative work on Häcken’s part (they forgot to register him), Alexander Jeremejeff (9.9m) is not going to be able to play for them against AZ Alkmaar and should thus be nailed on for a start in this one, while other popular options might face rotation depending on how the midweek game goes. Djurgården travel to Elfsborg and will look to push on towards greater heights, as a win brings them top of the table ahead of Malmö and AIK, with an equal amount of games played. Finally, Göteborg plays away to a surprisingly goal-happy Örebro who’s now got eight goals from the last two games, in comparison to 16 goals from the 15 games that came before that.

Taking hits to field 11

Given the popularity of AIK, Malmö and Norrköping players, many fantasy managers will find themselves scrambling to field 11 players in BGW18. Even with the likes of Jarl stepping in, you may find yourself missing one, two, or maybe even three/four players from getting a full line-up out. Assuming you haven’t rolled a transfer, that means every extra transfer after the first one is a hit (-4 points). So is it worth taking a few hits to sort it out, or should you just take this one gameweek on the chin and accept your low score? Maybe you might even be tempted to wildcard, to sort it all out?

First of all, wildcarding in this particular GW is a very hard sell as you’d then have a maximum of four players from AIK, Malmö, and Norrköping going into GW19 and beyond. The fixtures in GW18 doesn’t really lend itself to a massive pile-on for any particular team (bar possibly Hammarby) and you’d be seriously hamstringing yourself, in comparison to saving the wildcard for at the very least one more gameweek.

So that leaves us with taking hits or just accepting your fate. Now I’m more of an aggressive and risk-taking kind of manager so for me it’s hard to accept not fielding 11, through my own choice. There’s an age-old saying along the lines of “it’s really only a -2” that applies to both double and blank gameweeks, and it’s roughly explained like this: Given the player you’re taking out is 100% going to get 0 points on the gameweek, replacing him with a non-blanker (who’s theoretical “floor” is two points, although conceded goals, cards and playing time could impact that) a hit is, for this gameweek only, “really a -2”. Now before you get out your pitchforks, I don’t fully subscribe to this as the player you’re selling might be someone who you’d quite soon want back (in which case it’s really between a -2 and a -8, barring wildcards). I do think there is a lot of merit to taking a few hits in doubles and blanks in Fantasy Allsvenskan though, as the bonus system makes the points-floor of creative and defensive players a bit higher than in FPL. My advice is (assuming you still have your wildcard) – don’t be too afraid to take a few hits to get eleven players out if it’s a part of a slightly longer strategy, just don’t take hits for the sake of it as you might end up wanting the players you’ve transferred out back in, sooner than you know.

Players to target

I could (and will) take the easy way out and tell you one last time to get Alexander Kačaniklić in if you can, as he’s looked incredible and is now on five goals and four assists from his last four games.

I will, however, also suggest a nice short-medium time punt on Imad Khalili and tempt you with things like;

“He’s an OOP cheap midfielder playing as a striker”, “he plays for an insanely attacking side” and “he’s got three goals, one assist from his last two games and arguably should have had a hattrick rather than a solitary goal against Eskilstuna”. The obvious caveat is Aron Johansson, obvious counter-point is fitness and form. Khalili has pretty much struggled since he came to Hammarby back in 2015, getting most playing time as a midfielder. But in another world seemingly (2013), he scored 15 goals and 3 assists in 23 appearances, playing as a striker for Helsingborg and Norrköping.

Captaincy thoughts

Unless opting for a Häcken player at home to Sirus, the runaway favourites for captaincy in GW18 will be Hammarby players. Muamer Tankovic and Nikola Djurdjic are the more “safe” options and will between them have a shocking EO in the top 1k I’d imagine. Personally I’m going out on a bit of a limb here and lobbying for Alexander Kačaniklić as he’s looked electric in his last couple of games and he’s been very threatening, while Tankovic has been firing a lot more speculative efforts from range (and getting good results to be fair). Really punty chasers can go for Khalili, but I think that just having him is enough at this stage as we can not be 100% certain of his gametime.

How are you getting on for BGW18? Are any hits necessary? Who are you looking to captain?

Meltens