The best midfielders for FanTeam’s €1m Premier League Fantasy game

Sponsored by FanTeam

Fantasy Football Scout are partnering with FanTeam, Europe’s biggest daily Fantasy sports platform, in 2020/21.

We’re paying particular attention to their season-long Premier League Fantasy game, in which there is a €1m prize pool – €200,000 of which goes straight to the winner.

It’s an appealing proposition as it’s a game close in style to FPL (and therefore easy to pick up) that comes with the chance of a huge windfall:

• A starting XI built from a 15-man squad
• One free transfer a week
• Price changes
• Captains and vice-captains
• £100m budget
• Maximum of three players per club
• Two Wildcards a season
• Very similar scoring system (three points for an assist, four for a clean sheet etc)

Entries cost just €25 per team, a payment you’ll make up by finishing in the top 5,659 places (see below).

We had previously given you a rundown on how to play the game, so now we turn our attention to the player price list.

Having already provided an analysis of the standout goalkeepers and pick of the defenders, we switch focus to options in midfield.

(All prices given are for FanTeam and not FPL)

CLICK HERE TO HEAD TO FANTEAM’S €1M PREMIER LEAGUE FANTASY GAME AND START PICKING YOUR TEAM

HOW MIDFIELDERS SCORE POINTS

Before we delve into the player pool, here’s how midfielders can accrue points in FanTeam and how the scoring system differs from FPL:

There are ways to lose points such as own-goals, yellow cards and sendings off (we’ll refer you to our ‘How To…’ for more details) but the above table gives a flavour of where you can expect the positive points to arrive from in FanTeam.

Here is a selection of the highest-scoring midfielders from FanTeam last season and their respective points in FPL:

*now a FanTeam forward in 2020/21

One aspect that immediately leaps out is that, unlike in defence, many midfielders are better off in FanTeam than they are in FPL.

There are two reasons for this: the “impact points” (i.e. winning/losing bonus) and the extra points midfielders and forwards get for completing a match.

In most cases, this offsets the loss of FPL’s Bonus Points System and particularly rewards players who are rotation-proof and play for one of the more successful sides in the division.

Seven of the top eight assets for points per match in FanTeam last season were midfielders, so it’s worth paying close attention to this band of players.

PLAYERS TO CONSIDER

RAHEEM STERLING

Right off the bat we’ll say that yes, we are fully aware that Manchester City blank in Gameweek 1.

But beyond that, and especially for the favourable fixture swing from Gameweek 10 onwards, Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) does immediately leap out of the premium midfield pool.

Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.5m) are identically priced in FPL and are tougher to split as a consequence but the considerable saving made on Sterling in FanTeam might make the decision a little easier.

The Belgian is widely seen as the more ‘nailed’ of the two but Sterling wasn’t too far behind him, with the breakdown of their run-outs listed below:

De Bruyne did average more points per match than Sterling in FanTeam last season (7.46 v 6.45) but the England international did, of course, have an uncharacteristically lean spell for a sizeable chunk of it.

His post-lockdown form (nine goals and four assists from Gameweek 30+) has certainly rekindled interest and he hit at least 30 attacking returns in his previous two campaigns, so certainly has the pedigree to improve on his 2019/20 points return.

His expected goal involvement figures also suggest he was hard done by, particularly when it came to assists.

Indeed, just six of them arrived in 2019/20; he had averaged 15.3 per year over the previous three seasons.

DEPENDABLE STARTERS – AND FINISHERS

The rewards for finishing a Premier League game in FanTeam opens up a whole new avenue for points.

Players we might have only half-considered in FPL are suddenly that bit more attractive in FanTeam: take James Ward-Prowse (£6.5m), for example.

A modestly appealing option in FPL thanks to his dead-ball expertise, Ward-Prowse’s durability and Ralph Hasenhuttl’s reluctance to rotate him adds to his allure in FanTeam.

He and Declan Rice (£4.5m) were as nailed as could be last season, not missing a single minute of league football.

Jack Grealish (£6.5m) was similarly a permanent fixture in the Aston Villa side last season, with his only absences and one substitution enforced by injury.

This dependability helped offset the fact that the three aforementioned players lost more matches than won, with their impact points balance in the negative.

Ward-Prowse ended the season 29 points better off in FanTeam than he did in FPL, catapulting him above the likes of James Maddison (£8.0m) and Adama Traore (£6.5m).

Dwight McNeil (£6.0m) is another player to watch from this pool of regular starters, for those who like a bit more threat from open play.

On the flip side, assets like Harvey Barnes (£7.5m), who finished just four Premier League matches, are slightly less appealing as a result.

BIG SIX ‘OTHERS’

It’s all very well us tipping up the likes of De Bruyne, Sterling, Sadio Mane (£12.0m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) – you all know their qualities as players and Fantasy assets already and many column inches have already been devoted to their attributes.

FanTeam‘s impact points do make other less-heralded assets from the more successful sides that bit more appealing, however.

Liverpool won 32 games and lost only three last season, so even those midfielders and forwards just turning up for the game and offering only sporadic attacking returns would have been amply rewarded.

While he may not be as permanent a fixture next season, Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) was a massive 39 points better off in FanTeam than he was in FPL as a result of his regular appearances and Liverpool’s winning streak.

Club captain Jordan Henderson (£6.0m) might be slightly more of a reliable pick this time around providing fitness is not an issue, although it should be said that central midfield was the area that Jurgen Klopp has traditionally rotated the most, both during games and between them.

BUDGET OPTIONS

There is a healthy crop of budget midfielders available in FanTeam, whether it be for playing purposes or purely for bench fodder status.

Tomas Soucek (£4.5m) leaps off the page, with the Hammers midfielder having scored three goals after lockdown ended this summer.

West Ham’s early fixtures are a tad off-putting, however, while we await further news on when the Czech midfielder will end his stint in self-isolation.

Alexis Mac Allister (£4.5m) hasn’t yet delivered on his promise for Brighton but is one to monitor given that he plays in an advanced attacking midfield role.

Perhaps more appealing at Albion is Yves Bissouma (£4.0m), who has rapidly developed into their most effective central midfielder and who started 10 of the Seagulls’ final 12 fixtures, coming off the bench in the other two matches.

Josh Brownhill (£4.5m) ought to start for Burnley from Gameweek 2 onwards with Jack Cork (£4.5m) a longer-term absentee, while Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m) has caught the eye in pre-season both out wide and up front – although his chances of a start may hinge on whether Eberechi Eze (£5.0m) fails to shake off a groin problem.

The new Palace signing is himself a name to seriously consider at that price, given his attacking reputation in the Championship.

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BEST FPL PLAYERS BY POSITION:

• Goalkeepers: Budget
• Goalkeepers: Premium
• Defenders: Budget
• Defenders: Mid-Price and Premium
• Midfielders: Budget
• Midfielders: Mid-Price
• Midfielders: Premium
• Forwards: Budget
• Forwards: Mid-Price
• Forwards: Premium