DraftKings Interleague Soccer: Monday, February 13th
With DraftKings adding some of these interleague contests, there is actually interest in the contests and we have been seeing the prize pools growing every week. For this Monday’s slate there are 3 games in this slate. In this article I’ll go through each game quickly and give you my take on which players are worth your dollars and likely to deliver for your fantasy team. The games we’re looking at span three different leagues, the Premier League brings us Bournemouth hosting Manchester City. The Spanish La Liga brings us Eibar playing host to relegation bound Granada. And finally, the Italian Serie A brings us Lazio facing AC Milan. Each of the matches has its own appeal that I’ll go through one at a time.
It is important to remember, games will lock at 2:45 EST, with lineups coming out about an hour before hand, so be sure to be on the look out for these team announcements either on twitter or on your app of choice.
So, let’s get started.
Bournemouth vs Manchester City
Bournemouth are hosting Manchester City and are coming off a tough game where they lost to Everton 6-3 in what was a very high scoring match that saw Lukaku score 4 goals. Bournemouth losing that match makes their run of winless game stretch up to five games. With Manchester City coming in to visit then the run is expected to continue even further since City have been playing very well lately. Manchester City hit a wall a few weeks ago with a 4-0 loss to Everton, but since that game they have gone on to draw with Tottenham then beat West Ham and Swansea. With this matchup being played away, City are likely to still come away with the win but not without sustaining their own damage as they have only kept three away clean sheets despite having the second best away record.
Bournemouth Plays
It will be tough to look away from *Artur Boruc (GK, $3,900) in this one as he faces a team that takes the second most shots per game away from their home stadium. City average 5 shots on target per game away, and with Boruc holding an average save percentage of 60%, the bare minimum expectation from Boruc will be at least coming out even. And with his salary sitting at such a cheap mark, it would not be a bad idea of spending elsewhere and saving salary on goalkeeper. Especially since GK has proven over time to be the most volatile position in DFS on DraftKings.
Elsewhere on this team, I don’t expect that Bournemouth will have a lot of success against City in terms of possession leaving them with little options that are intriguing for fantasy purposes. One such option I would consider however is Junior Stanislas (MID, $6,500) and only if he starts on the right wing in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Time and time again, Bournemouth have pushed their possessions to the right side of the pitch in order to give Stanislas more opportunities to create for his teammates. What’s more supporting of the Stanislas move is that Manchester City’s last eleven goals have all either come from the right side or been assisted on the right indicating that there is a massive breakdown defensively from this team. For tournaments I wouldn’t hesitate to put Stanislas and the striker (probably Callum Wilson) together on a lineup. For differentials, you could go with the starting right full back (likely Adam Smith).
Manchester City Plays
With Sergio Aguero (FOR, $9,500) coming off the bench twice in the last two games many people will be very hesitant to take him in their lineups especially after the emergence of Gabriel Jesus (MID/FOR, $8,700) as a solid striker in his place. There are now, of course, rumors of Aguero wanting out of the club, but saying publicly he’ll wait and see what role he plays on the team before deciding what he prefers in the summer. The emergence of Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling as top performers in the midfield puts the pressure on Pep Guardiola to pick a starting 11 from a healthy squad. Whichever of Aguero or Jesus start at the forward spot will likely have the upper hand at scoring multiple goals in this matchup. Moreover, looking at the midfield, there is a dearth of options from Kevin De Bruyne, $9,900, Leroy Sane, $5,800, David Silva $6,700 and Raheem Sterling $7,100, not to mention Yaya Toure $5,000 who all carry similar upside and floors. Without KDBs crossing and overall attacking upside he’s been relegated to a tournament only option and for his price, I’d rather look elsewhere to the other midfielders.
The midfielder that I like the most for City in this one is David Silva who seems to have taken over some of the Kevin De Bruyne duties in the midfield with double digit outings in his last three games despite only scoring once and having a single assist.
Elsewhere, I would avoid the defenders in this one as Pep doesn’t use them as full backs making Kolarov and Zabaleta/Fernandinho not very viable high floor defensive options.
Eibar vs Grenada
If you don’t play a lot of La Liga DFS, this will be a good introduction to this league as it features a mid table side, Eibar facing a bottom dwelling club that is headed for relegation in Grenada. Eibar are a solid team that feature a number of standout players and are playing this match at home where they won their last matchup against Deportivo La Coruna 3-1. They followed that home win with a signature road performance against Valencia winning 4-0. The team comes into this one as heavy favorites which puts several players into consideration.
Adrian Gonzalez, $4,900 – He’s got three goals in his last four games, with the only game he hasn’t scored in coming against Barcelona. Two of those goals were penalties, so he’s got a cap on him. However, given his role on the team, he’s also capable of delivering assists and can take shots. For his very cheap price, it makes him one of the better plays on the board.
Pedro Leon, $8,800 – He’s a crossing machine as he seems destined to double digit crosses each and every time he takes the field. Of course, he’s also great at creating chances for his teammates and with the ability to play on either side of the pitch as well as play in front of goal, Leon should be a major part of your lineups Monday.
Sergi Enrich, $6,700 – While not a high floor player, Enrich does have multi-goal upside as he’s shown in several matches this season. Priced at just $6.7K he’s a great play to take advantage of in a good matchup.
The full backs – Ander Capa and Antonio Luna (or Anaitz Arbilla) should be the two starting full backs here. They’re both relatively cheap and the team likes to push forward with the full backs for a dual sided attack. They are both playable and worth considering on your teams.
On the other side of the ball, Grenada might not offer much in terms of resistance against Eibar, but they do have a few plays that are worth considering.
Andreas Pereira, $6,200 – If you are looking for a potentially underowned option, Pereira might be that player as he’s on the road, but he’s also the most valuable player on this large underdog. Pereira takes crosses, corners and shots for this team. He has two goals in his last two games, and he tends to be the sole driving force for this Grenada team. And going against an Eibar team that doesn’t keep a lot of clean sheets (only five this season), Pereira has a good chance at scoring a third goal in as many games. On second thought, maybe Pereira will be higher owned than I realize.
Lazio vs AC Milan
In Serie A, Lazio and AC Milan have a seemingly even matchup if you just look at the standings, however, if you’ve been following these teams and/or check out the odds, you’ll see that Lazio are sizeable favorites in this one. Lazio come into this one after winning last week 6-2 on the road against a Pescara side that hasn’t won in 22 straight weeks in Serie A. This match won’t be as easy against a strong AC Milan side, but Lazio should come away victors. Speaking of AC Milan, they are finally back to winning after losing four straight including matchups against Napoli, Juventus, Sampdoria and Udinese. Their win last time out against Bologna was a costly 1-0 win on the road in that they received 2 red cards to Paletta and Kucka and an injury to Romagnoli. The winner of this match should find themselves moving closer to European qualification, and both teams have ambition to qualify to at least the Europa League.
Marco Parolo, $6,100 – The elephant in the room is Parolo who scored 4 goals last time out against Pescara and took 7 shots the game before that one. So naturally everybody will think that he’s a must play. Before I can declare him a ‘must play’ we need to examine the trends. Prior to his two game run with 14 shots, he TOTALLED 11 shots in his previous EIGHT games. It’s difficult to judge whether Parolo’s change in production is prompted by a managerial philosophy change. But looking at his average positioning you’ll see a change in his touch-chart moving from a defensive midfielder, and almost a holding midfielder to a wing player beginning with the Juventus matchup. And while Juventus was a dominant team and Parolo failed to make a lot of damage, he did have 2 of the team’s 11 shots. The following matchup with Chievo he recorded 8 of 28 shots, and finally against Pescara he had 6 of 17. Most of those shots were opportunistic however, so it’s tough to expect a multi-goal performance from him, but you could predict that he’s going to provide some opportunities. He’s not quite a must play, but he should definitely be on your radar for his upside.
Ciro Immobile, $8,400 – He might be the highest profile player on this team and for good reason. Immobile has 12 goals on the season and is in a run of 4 goals and an assist in his last six matches. With a large majority of people likely flocking to City’s expensive attacking options, Immobile may end up being a decent pivot away from the otherwise highly owned English Premier League players.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, $5,500 – In the range of players that are worth considering, Milinkovic-Savic will likely not fall on many people’s radar. There is a treasure trove of other players mentioned in this article that he may end up in the 10%-20% range. Savic will be involved in the attack and will be a part of what should be a back and forth game. More than that, he’ll be a pivot from the likes of Deulofeu, and Leroy Sane.
On the other side of the ball, there are a few other options I’d consider
Gerard Deulofeu, $5,700 – The new addition to this Milan team came on strong starting on the left wing in a 4-3-3 formation. Milan has been very active offensively in those three games with the team injected with new blood. Deulofeu will be familiar to some due to his time at Everton, and there is history of wing players from the EPL finding their way in Serie A (Cuadrado and Salah to name 2), so it will be interesting to see how far Deulofeu can come this season with his new team.
Suso, $7,700 – Looking at the rest of the forward options, Suso and Bacca both stand out as they form the remainder of the front 3 in the 4-3-3 formation. Suso in particular has a higher floor due to his crossing ability and goal scoring upside. He has 7 assists on the season to go along with 5 goals. He also has 19 crosses in his last two games combined, and should continue that trend in this one.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, $4,300 – Another cheap goalkeeper to consider is Donnarumma as he’s going to face some shots, but also has a team that could come away with the win. Donnarumma is a skilled 17 year old who has been starting in goal for Milan and so far this season has done well with conceding just 27 goals in 23 matches for the sixth best defense in Italy. He should get some saves this game and would deliver on his cheap salary with just a slightly positive result.