EPL DFS Targets: Saturday, March 5th
It’s an exciting time in the world of soccer, with DraftKings announcing their big tournament with a total of $150K prizepool qualifier only event (King of the Pitch) and with MondoGoal running their annual online championship we find ourselves with some awesome soccer to look forward to this coming week.
And if three matches in 10 days wasn’t enough, we have MLS starting with a giant 10 game slate Sunday and UCL with some matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. What’s more, look for us here at RotoGrinders to start offering more soccer content to help YOU become a better daily fantasy soccer player.
Until then though, let’s go through this week’s EPL games and see what we can surmise of the matchups.
Goalkeepers
Top Tier Goalkeepers This week we have seven matches in the main Saturday slate with five of them showing an overwhelming favorite. I consider all five of them good options, but I will attempt to go through them here and rank them individually to try to give a better picture of who I think will have the best opportunity to succeed and in turn elevate your fantasy squad with him.
John Hart, Manchester City $4,500 – City are coming off a mixed bag of a week, on the one hand they won the Capital One Cup final in a penalty shootout with Liverpool (thanks to Caballero saving three penalties), while on the other, they turned around and lose 3-0 to the same Liverpool in what wasn’t even a close contest. A visit from bottom feeder Aston Villa should be what ails them, but in recent weeks City have committed some mistakes in three straight defeats to top tier teams. I don’t trust Hart to maintain a clean sheet, and I don’t think he will see much supply for saves and given his high price, I’ll likely pass on him.
Thibaut Courtois, Chelsea $4,300 – The second highest priced keeper is Chelsea’s man Courtois. Chelsea have turned things around and have looked like a top team again with no losses in their last 12 premier league matches. They are facing a tough Stoke side that they’ll need to beat to keep pace in the league, while keeping an eye out for the Champions League match with Paris Saint Germaine. Courtois is a good option, but with Shaqiri and the Stoke side being in good form (3 straight wins), I will likely avoid Courtois except in some gpp teams.
Fraser Forster, Southampton $4,200 – Southampton just conceded goals for the first time in a long time this week to Chelsea and Bournemouth. This weekend they face a matchup with Sunderland at home. Sunderland are the worst team in the league and while they may have added a piece or two that are interesting in the January window, they are still a dumpster fire. Forster is the keeper I will try to have in my lineups if I can afford him as his price is still higher than another keeper on my list that I have my eye on.
Kaspar Schmeichel, Leicester City $4,000 – He disappointed me midweek when I had him on my cash teams, but in daily fantasy we live and move on. This week he faces Watford on the road. I don’t normally target expensive keepers on the road unless they are heavily favored, and Schmeichel isn’t heavily favored either. So why is he on the list for potential targets? Watford have scored just 4 goals in their last six matches. I think Schmeichel will be a good GPP play this week but he’s not a sure thing as Watford play very good defense as well and may sit back to allow Vahrez to throw everything at them. In which case, Schmeichel won’t face many saves, meanwhile, Watford have two superb attackers that can score off of a single counter attack putting the clean sheet bonus at stake.
Lukasz Fabianski, Swansea $3,800 – For the price, Fabianski might be my top keeper this weekend given the matchup and the expected pace of the game. With Swansea starting a slightly weakened team against Arsenal AND still getting the win, they are riding very confident right now headed into this matchup. Because of that I expect that they’ll make some mistakes in the midfield that could lead to some possession going Norwich’s way. Norwich are not a very good finishing team, but they take a decent amount of shots to be a nuisance. And a nuisance can result in saves for the opposing keeper.
How about some value keepers? Adrian, Vito Mannone, Brad Guzan, and Jack Butland round out my list of potential value keepers for tournaments. For cash games I will try everything to get either Fabianski or Forster on my teams.
Defenders
Charlie Daniels, Bournemouth $4,200 – An expensive defender. I rarely mention those, but this week will be an exception as I can find some cheap midfielders that can make roster construction handle expensive defenders. Daniels has been great this season as he’s taken over the penalty kick and crossing duties for Bournemouth. I expect this matchup with Newcastle will be a bit sloppy and may feature some goals (or it could be extra tight and will feature crosses) either way, Daniels should benefit.
Brandon Galloway, Everton $2,400 – In the realm of value, Galloway could be in line for a start here after Oviedo and Baines may have picked up some knocks in the midweek. Look for Galloway or Fuenes Mori ($2,500) to start at the full back if Oviedo and/or Baines are out.
Deandre Yedlin, Sunderland $2,700 – The American has been playing very well recently with Sunderland adopting a more attacking style. It helps that he’s getting the starts and he’s been producing some fantasy outputs to go along with it. With seven crosses last time out in the midweek fixture, I’m looking for him to repeat that feat.
Midfielders
Marc Albrighton, Leicester $6,800 – There are three midfielders that are priced above 8K, and for my predictions, Albrighton has as high a floor as all of them, while still maintaining the potential for a high ceiling. Leicester are facing a Watford team that allows the second most crosses in the premier league on the season (second to Leicester interestingly enough) Look for Leicester to pressure Watford early and often and I’m looking for Albrighton and the rest of the Leicester crew to put pressure on the home team until they score a goal.
Gylfi Sigurdsson, Swansea $6,800 – I’d like to be able to roster him, Albrighton and Aguero (more on him later) on the same team. But price will probably get in the way unless some extra special value shows up. Sigurdsson was a second half sub last game and ended up conceding the foul that resulted in the Ashley Williams game winning goal against Arsenal in the midweek. Siggy is still on penalty kick duties as well as the lead crosser on the Swansea squad facing a very weak defense in the Canaries.
Wahbi Khazri, Sunderland $4,800 – Sunderland are a terrible team, let us not forget that. However, Khazri is in a great spot each and every week since this team basically gives him the ball and asks him to do work. And Khazri does work. He’s already scored and assisted and has not had a game with less than double digit fantasy points since his debut 5 games ago. Khazri is on crosses and corners for Sunderland and while an away matchup with Southampton is intimidating, Khazri should still produce some crosses and maybe a shot or two.
Andros Townsend, Newcastle $3,900 – Look for Townsend to come back in the lineup for Newcastle in a matchup that should provide them with the same performances he has been giving them. However, if Townsend fails his late fitness test, then feel free to roster Moussa Sissoko ($4,000) once more as he has been taking the Townsend role as the winger in the Newcastle offense. With a home matchup against Bournemouth, Newcastle should be in for a good competitive matchup.
Forwards
Sergio Aguero, Manchester City $8,600 – By far the biggest favorite to score multiple goals on Saturday. Aguero and City are expected to run through Villa and with Aguero being the head of the spear it’s going to be very tough to ignore him and not put him on every single one of my teams. Pivoting off of Aguero to Vardy or Costa is also a possibility as they are both in great positions and can deliver on their salaries.
Max Gradel, Bournemouth $4,100 – As I pointed out in my Wednesday piece, Gradel surprised me when he took the majority of the crosses for Bournemouth without Stanislas in the game due to injury, but he did. If that is to be his role going forward then he’s a great player to target as Bournemouth face Newcastle in what should be a great matchup for Gradel and at such a cheap price tag he’s worth rostering.
Alberto Paloschi, Swansea $3,900 – Paloschi didn’t play the last game for Swansea and they managed to defeat Arsenal, this weekend he’s fully rested and has a supporting midfield that is full of confidence. I expect that Paloschi will get a few shots in this matchup and with Norwich’s weak defense on tap, I think the expected goals for some of these goals will be high enough to expect Paloschi to come real close to scoring this weekend.