The best forwards 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.

There are thousands of prizes on offer in their season-long Premier League Fantasy game, with €1m guaranteed to be dished out.

Anyone who knows a thing or two about FPL will find it easy to play FanTeam‘s €1m game as the rules are strikingly similar – and instead of just pride or a lofty overall rank to play for, there is the chance of a huge cash 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, the pick of the defenders and the ones to watch in midfield, we switch focus to options in attack.

(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 FORWARDS SCORE POINTS

Before we delve into the player pool, here’s how forwards 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 forwards from FanTeam last season and their respective points in FPL:

*now a FanTeam midfielder in 2020/21

PLAYERS TO CONSIDER

DEPENDABLE STARTERS – AND FINISHERS

As mentioned in the scoring system guide above, forwards (and midfielders) get an extra point for lasting the full game.

Over the course of the season, that could add up to a tidy haul.

Jamie Vardy (£10.5m) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) were big beneficiaries of this last season, having been nearly rotation-proof both during games and between them.

In 32 of Vardy’s 35 appearances, the Leicester City striker lasted the course.

Aubameyang, similarly, failed to last 90 minutes in just five of his 36 appearances.

Durability is obviously not the be-all and end-all but look at Sergio Aguero (£11.5m), for example: the Argentine only played a full match on eight occasions in an admittedly injury-ravaged 2019/20, leaving him some way adrift of the likes of Vardy and Aubameyang before goals are taken into account.

BEWARE THE BONUS

The Bonus Points System is the forward’s friend in FPL.

Five of the top six FPL assets for bonus points last season were classified as forwards, with Danny Ings (£8.5m) racking up more of them (40) than any other player.

With his positive and minus “impact points” cancelling each other out, Ings was subsequently not quite as deadly in FanTeam as he was in FPL – although he still hit the back of the net on 22 occasions, let’s not forget.

On the flip side, look at how much the winning bonus benefited Roberto Firmino (£9.0m), who finished 43 points behind Ings in FPL but two points ahead of him in FanTeam.

MARCUS RASHFORD AND TIMO WERNER

If the likes of Aguero and Aubameyang are too pricey, then Timo Werner (£10.0m) and Marcus Rashford (£10.0m) appeal a rung down on the premium ladder.

Rashford blanks in Gameweek 1, of course, but has a decent run of games to follow.

Not only cheaper than the aforementioned strikers, he’s also available for less money than Bruno Fernandes (£11.0m) and Anthony Martial (£10.5m).

While not being classified as a midfielder is a blow, look at his achievements in 2019/20 in registering a better points-per-match average than all bar Vardy in the forwards pool:

Granted he may have lost his share of penalties to Fernandes but he did win four of the six spot-kicks he converted, so would have gained assist points anyway.

We’ll point you in the direction of our dedicated Scout Report for more on Werner but 28 goals and eight assists in 34 Bundesliga appearances last season underscores his potential, while Chelsea face four teams who finished in the bottom half of the Premier League or came up from the Championship in the first five Gameweeks.

BUDGET OPTIONS

As in FPL, Michail Antonio has been priced up at an eye-catching £6.5m in FanTeam.

Ten goals and four assists from just 19 starts and five substitute appearances was impressive, with nine of those attacking returns arriving in West Ham’s post-restart fixtures.

Antonio’s season-long minutes-per-xGI (expected goal involvement) figure was also better than those of Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.5m).

Perhaps the biggest downside is the tricky early-season fixture schedule but, that aside, he could represent excellent value in 2020/21 based on what we saw at the back-end of last season.

Che Adams (£5.5m) caught the eye after the summer restart, finding the back of the net on four occasions; Giroud and Antonio were the only two current FanTeam forwards who could better his goals-per-90-minutes average after lockdown.

It’s still a bit early to say for sure whether Adams will become a regular starter alongside Ings as Shane Long (£5.0m) had been preferred before coronavirus stopped play but there were positive signs in the summer and indeed in pre-season too.

Finally, if it’s pure, non-playing, budget-freeing bench fodder you’re after: look no further than Jay-Roy Grot and George Hirst, two assets who are available at £4.0m – that’s half a million lower than any forward in FPL.

START PICKING YOUR TEAM FOR FANTEAM’S €1M PREMIER LEAGUE FANTASY GAME NOW

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BEST 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