One of the most interesting portions of this week's podcast episode was our examination of the top 5 goalkeepers in fantasy points. Here's the list:
- Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea)
- Eldin Jakupovic (Hull)
- Ben Foster (West Brom)
- Tom Heaton (Burnley)
- Artur Boruc (Bournemouth)
The reason why this list is fascinating is that all five of them come from teams in the bottom half of the Premier League table. How is this possible? How are the best fantasy scoring goalkeepers from the worst teams?
There are two reasons: a lack of clean sheets and saves.
The top teams in the league are not shutting out their opponents, so they are not getting clean sheet points. They also are not making many saves. This means that the best goalkeepers are not getting any opportunities to score in fantasy soccer.
The worst teams are giving up a lot of shots. A lot of shots means a lot of saves. Saves earn keepers points, even if they lose points for giving up goals. Because of the lack of clean sheets across the league, this makes having busy goalkeepers the optimal fantasy play.
As Dave mentioned on the pod, the most valuable goalkeeper right now might be Jordan Pickford (Sunderland).
Here's a brief look at the top 5 fantasy scorers so far at the other positions:
Defenders
- Kyle Walker - TOT (33)
- Gareth McAuley - WBA (23)
- Scott Dann - CRY (22)
- Toby Alderweireld - TOT (22)
- Jan Vertonghen - TOT (22)
The top 20 defenders are all bunched together in scoring. As you can see, aside from Kyle Walker, it doesn't matter who else you have in the top 20. And while diversification can sometimes help you in fantasy soccer, right now it would be okay to have 3 Spurs defenders.
Midfielders
- Etienne Capoue (Watford)
- Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
- Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
- Michail Antonio (West Ham)
- Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)
How long can Etienne Capoue stay the top fantasy scorer in the entire Premier League? As Dave and I (Scott) mentioned on our podcast this week, probably until either of us puts him in our lineups. We like de Bruyne to have lasting power, though.
Forwards
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United)
- Diego Costa (Chelsea)
- Romelu Lukaku (Everton)
With forwards, there's really just a top three and then a bit of a dropoff. Reports that Zlatan is one of the top 5 players dropped in FPL are ridiculous.
