Premier League Fantasy Football Tips: Round 1
In addition to the usual Premier League predictor picks I'll be writing ahead of each round of the season, for the 2019/20 campaign we thought it may also be useful to begin generating a discussion over which players look like good options in our fantasy games throughout the year.
As most of you will know, we have two Premier League fantasy games on offer here at Superbru, a full fantasy tournament and a daily 5-a-side fantasy tournament. Both are great fun to play but will challenge you in different ways. In the full fantasy, you need to plan ahead when building your squad and making transfers as you'll be relying on the same players for plenty of games of the season, while in the 5-a-side, each and every day of action becomes significant and you'll often find yourself needing to select some players for a match that may not affect your full Superbru team at all.
Using the average taken from the thousands of picks to have been made in our main game - the Premier League Predictor - we're able to provide you with a 'predicted goals' tally for each team in every round of the competition and we believe this can come in handy when choosing between certain players for your fantasy points.
Mo Salah will be difficult to ignore for the captaincy in Round 1, whilst the high-scoring defensive trio of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk and Andrew Robertson will grace many teams. That said, Man City shouldn’t be overlooked, along with Tottenham and Arsenal - all are predicted to score at least twice.
Alongside the usual suspects, Watford and Bournemouth are expected to keep it tight at the back, and should provide some useful defensive options. Though one of my tips for this weekend is rather obvious in Harry Kane, a lot of the time I'll be looking to provide options that are a little more outside of the box based on this data, since none of you will need telling that Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Andy Robertson are likely to pick up points.
Harry Kane
I know it's fairly obvious, but there are probably still some people telling themselves that Kane struggles in August. Whilst the stats show that to be true, Kane has a great chance to start with a bang against Villa at home this weekend and is nailed on to start every game when fit. He'll be a fantastic option for Saturday's 5-a-side round and with his first three home games being Villa, Newcastle and Palace, he's a good pick in the full fantasy too. Though Tottenham's trip to City in Round 2 is a concern, I'm less worried about their game against Arsenal away in Round 4 as Kane seems to score in quite a few North London derbies.
Ben Foster
Watford started really well last season and have the exact same opening fixture in this campaign. I can see Ben Foster standing a chance of picking up some clean sheet and save points in each of his first four games and Brighton's predicted goal tally of 0.62 is encouraging for Round One. Given that many of us we'll be picking two outfield players from the top clubs like Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham, a goalkeeper from a lesser side is a good option to consider. There's also an increased chance of penalty saves since plenty more will be taken now that VAR is in play but that's probably not something you want to be banking on!
Ryan Fraser
Fraser is fairly well known as a decent fantasy option outside of the big six and I think he looks especially promising for the opening stages of this season. Sheffield United at home is a great fixture to have first up and Villa away in Round 2 is also kind. Fellow winger David Brooks is out for a couple of months with injury meaning the Cherries will be even more reliant on Fraser to create chances for Callum Wilson and Josh King. Bournemouth's new signing Harry Wilson (loaned from Liverpool) is a good signing in my opinion but rather than being a threat to Fraser's RW spot, he'll be playing on the left hand side and therefore making the Cherries even stronger when going forward.
Best of luck to you all for the opening weekend of Premier League fantasy action. We hope the predicted goals charts are useful!
As most of you will know, we have two Premier League fantasy games on offer here at Superbru, a full fantasy tournament and a daily 5-a-side fantasy tournament. Both are great fun to play but will challenge you in different ways. In the full fantasy, you need to plan ahead when building your squad and making transfers as you'll be relying on the same players for plenty of games of the season, while in the 5-a-side, each and every day of action becomes significant and you'll often find yourself needing to select some players for a match that may not affect your full Superbru team at all.
Using the average taken from the thousands of picks to have been made in our main game - the Premier League Predictor - we're able to provide you with a 'predicted goals' tally for each team in every round of the competition and we believe this can come in handy when choosing between certain players for your fantasy points.
Round One: Predicted Goals
Here are two graphs displaying the predicted goals data for the opening weekend. Liverpool’s kind home fixture with newly-promoted Norwich means they are top of the Predicted Goals chart and with the fewest predicted goals conceded, making them the standout fantasy option for the opening round of Premier League action.Mo Salah will be difficult to ignore for the captaincy in Round 1, whilst the high-scoring defensive trio of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk and Andrew Robertson will grace many teams. That said, Man City shouldn’t be overlooked, along with Tottenham and Arsenal - all are predicted to score at least twice.
Alongside the usual suspects, Watford and Bournemouth are expected to keep it tight at the back, and should provide some useful defensive options. Though one of my tips for this weekend is rather obvious in Harry Kane, a lot of the time I'll be looking to provide options that are a little more outside of the box based on this data, since none of you will need telling that Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Andy Robertson are likely to pick up points.
Round One: Players to Consider
With most people set to have an all-Liverpool 5-a-side team for the opening Friday night game and Sunday's matches looking fairly even on the predicted goals charts, all 3 of my tips for this weekend play on Saturday. There are lots of new Premier League arrivals that I'm looking forward to watching in this campaign, but for the start of the season, I think it's safest to stick with players that are known to perform well in the PL.Harry Kane
I know it's fairly obvious, but there are probably still some people telling themselves that Kane struggles in August. Whilst the stats show that to be true, Kane has a great chance to start with a bang against Villa at home this weekend and is nailed on to start every game when fit. He'll be a fantastic option for Saturday's 5-a-side round and with his first three home games being Villa, Newcastle and Palace, he's a good pick in the full fantasy too. Though Tottenham's trip to City in Round 2 is a concern, I'm less worried about their game against Arsenal away in Round 4 as Kane seems to score in quite a few North London derbies.
Ben Foster
Watford started really well last season and have the exact same opening fixture in this campaign. I can see Ben Foster standing a chance of picking up some clean sheet and save points in each of his first four games and Brighton's predicted goal tally of 0.62 is encouraging for Round One. Given that many of us we'll be picking two outfield players from the top clubs like Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham, a goalkeeper from a lesser side is a good option to consider. There's also an increased chance of penalty saves since plenty more will be taken now that VAR is in play but that's probably not something you want to be banking on!
Ryan Fraser
Fraser is fairly well known as a decent fantasy option outside of the big six and I think he looks especially promising for the opening stages of this season. Sheffield United at home is a great fixture to have first up and Villa away in Round 2 is also kind. Fellow winger David Brooks is out for a couple of months with injury meaning the Cherries will be even more reliant on Fraser to create chances for Callum Wilson and Josh King. Bournemouth's new signing Harry Wilson (loaned from Liverpool) is a good signing in my opinion but rather than being a threat to Fraser's RW spot, he'll be playing on the left hand side and therefore making the Cherries even stronger when going forward.
Best of luck to you all for the opening weekend of Premier League fantasy action. We hope the predicted goals charts are useful!
