Getting your team selection correct in Draft Premier League is just as essential as your pre-season draft or your weekly waiver wire claims. And that’s exactly why we’re here to help with our Gameweek 20 Start and Sit article! We’re here to help you with some of the big Fantasy EPL decisions you may need to make for the upcoming fixtures.
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Gameweek 20 Start and Sit
Whether you’re an obsessed EPL fan like our Fantrax HQ team, or a casual player new to the world of Fantasy EPL, you know to start your attacking players against relegation-threatened sides. We’re not going to waste your time dealing with the obvious! The goal of this article is to delve into notable players across each Fantrax position and let you know if you should be starting or sitting those players.
Our format is as follows: We will be choosing 2 different teams. One will be our starts of the week, made up of non-obvious, low-rostered players. The other will be our sits of the week, made up of highly rostered, normally started players. We will keep track of how each team performs in next week’s article for full transparency.
Now let’s see the teams!
Starts of the Week XI
| Player | Position | Team | Opponent | % Rostered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Butland | CRY | BRF | NOR - Tue 10:00AM | 9% |
| Joachim Andersen | D | BHA | NOR - Tue 10:00AM | 19% |
| Craig Dawson | D | WHU | @WAT - Tue 10:00AM | 30% |
| Addji Keaninkin Marc-Israel Guehi | D | MUN | NOR - Tue 10:00AM | 17% |
| Jamaal Lascelles | D | TOT | @EVE - Thu 2:30PM | 4% |
| Miguel Almiron | M | BUR | @EVE - Thu 2:30PM | 17% |
| Fernandinho | M | WHU | @BRF - Wed 3:15PM | 16% |
| Naby Keita | M | BHA | @LEI - Tue 3:00PM | 31% |
| Manuel Lanzini | M | MUN | @WAT - Tue 10:00AM | 20% |
| James Milner | M | SOU | @LEI - Tue 3:00PM | 8% |
| Dwight Gayle | F | BUR | @EVE - Thu 2:30PM | 0% |
Average % Rostered: 16%
As usual, we like targeting the players who are opposing Norwich. This week that’s Crystal Palace, whose defense we’re going to stack and suggest starting backup goalkeeper Butland and the 2 center-backs Guehi and Andersen (if he’s fit and starting). The midweek game coupled with the many injuries and COVID-related absences lend us many under-rostered options who we think are great starts this week. In the absence of Liverpool’s 3 preferred midfielders, both Milner and Keita are likely to start against Leicester who gave up 6 goals to City and 3 goals to Liverpool’s B team not too long ago. In Rodri’s likely continued absence, we’d suggest starting the aging maestro Fernandinho (let’s hope 2 starts aren’t too much for him in 1 week). After Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin were injured today, we recommend starting 0% rostered Dwight Gayle against a very banged-up Everton side, as well as his teammate Miguel Almiron. Finally, we like starting the 2 West Ham players, Dawson and Lanzini, because they’re far too under-rostered and they have a likely high-scoring matchup vs Watford.
Sits of the Week XI
| Player | Position | Team | Opponent | % Rostered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alisson | G | LIV | @LEI - Tue 3:00PM | 97% |
| Tariq Lamptey | D | BHA | @CHE - Wed 2:30PM | 79% |
| Valentino Livramento | D | SOU | TOT - Tue 10:00AM | 78% |
| Ethan Pinnock | D | BRF | MCI - Wed 3:15PM | 83% |
| James Tarkowski | D | BUR | @MUN - Thu 3:15PM | 90% |
| Abdoulaye Doucoure | M | EVE | NEW - Thu 2:30PM | 72% |
| Fred | M | MUN | BUR - Thu 3:15PM | 67% |
| Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg | M | TOT | @SOU - Tue 10:00AM | 92% |
| Leandro Trossard | M | BHA | @CHE - Wed 2:30PM | 98% |
| Ivan Toney | F | BRF | MCI - Wed 3:15PM | 99% |
| Jamie Vardy | F | LEI | LIV - Tue 3:00PM | 99% |
Average % Rostered: 87%
Brighton, Brentford, and Leicester City are the 3 teams playing the top sides (Chelsea, Manchester City, and Liverpool) this week, so we suggest benching your defenders or any of your goal or assist dependent players from those teams. That includes some of our selections like Lamptey, Pinnock, Trossard, Toney, and Vardy. We also like sitting Tarkowski away to United, who should be desperate for goals, after struggling at Newcastle in GW19, as well as Livramento vs Tottenham, who are in good form, whereas the over-rostered defender is not (2.5, 3.25, -2.5 in his last 3 starts). The final 3 sits are Fred, Doucoure, and Hojbjerg who all squarely fit in the over-rostered midfielders who have decent floors, but little to no ceilings. Fred had been on a bit of a run before getting yanked at halftime in GW19, Doucoure will likely be surrounded in the XI by a bunch of U-23’s, and Hojbjerg is purely a mediocre midfielder who’s generally not good for more than about 7 points.
Last Week’s Performance
Last week out Starts XI put up a healthy 97.75 points, with only 9 starting players. Standout performers include Emerson Royal who had 30 and Craig Dawson who had 17. Other than the keeper, Fernandez, everyone was over 6 points. Taylor and Vydra could not start against Everton due to the game being postponed last minute. On the other hand, our Sits XI had 86.75 from 9 starters. The vast majority of that scoring came from Jorginho who had 26.5 due to 2 penalties scored (we said “Jorginho’s floor is nonexistent if he doesn’t get a penalty kick” last week, but he managed to get not 1, but 2) and Maddison who had 28.5 from a goal and an assist in Leicester’s 3-6 loss vs Manchester City. Those 2 were misses, but the other 7 starters averaged only 4.5 points, with Schmeichel’s -7.75 and Buendia’s 0 the worst of the bunch. To summarize, our Starts of the Week team, which was 28% rostered on average, beat our Sits of the Week team, which was 86% rostered by 11 points.
Check out Draft Society’s Fantrax Weekly Player Projections page for more player evaluations for the upcoming week!
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