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 24 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.
Gameweek 24 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.
Now let’s see the Gameweek 24 Start and Sit contenders!
Starts of the Week XI
Player Pos. Team Opponent % Rostered Jordan Pickford G EVE LEE 50% Rico Henry D BRF CRY 39% Max Kilman D WOL BOU 45% Vitalii Mykolenko D EVE LEE 38% Joel Veltman D BHA FUL 28% Philip Billing M BOU @WOL 45% Fred M MUN LEI 26% Amadou Onana M EVE LEE 31% Marcel Sabitzer M MUN LEI 60% Patrick Bamford F LEE @EVE 64% Kelechi Iheanacho F LEI @MUN 27%
Average % Rostered: 41%
Jordan Pickford continues in goal this week and will likely remain a good option for the coming weeks, particularly as Everton has a double gameweek on the horizon. The Toffees succumbed to a defeat in the Merseyside Derby, but have looked like a much more cohesive outfit in the early days of Sean Dyche’s tenure. A fixture against fellow strugglers Leeds may afford the keeper a chance at both save and clean sheet points.
Brentford’s form has been excellent of late, though you could certainly argue they were fortunate to earn a point at Arsenal. Regardless of that result, the defense has been a viable route to positive fantasy scores recently and I’m backing Rico Henry to find some joy on both sides of the ball against a pretty hapless Crystal Palace outfit. Wolves is another team that is in the middle of a good run of fixtures, so Max Kilman or any of the other starting defenders should be worth picking up for the home match against Bournemouth, which will be followed by a double gameweek in Week 25. I’m returning to the Everton well with Vitalii Mykolenko – a defender who hasn’t scored particularly well this season but could see more attacking output with a tactical shift from Dyche toward more deliveries into the opposition penalty area. Remember, players like Matt Lowton and Charlie Taylor were often capable of big Fantrax scores despite being Championship-quality players. Rounding out the backline is Joel Veltman, another player who doesn’t offer huge upside, but delivers a solid floor of peripheral stats to make him a viable option to roll out, particularly when Brighton have favorable fixtures. It’s anyone’s guess which Fulham will show up this weekend.
Let’s call our formation this week a 4-2-2-2, with the Red Devils duo of Fred and Marcel Sabitzer forming the base of our box. United have turned to this setup in the absence of Casemiro through suspension, and it’s worked well for them. Both the Brazilian veteran and Austrian newcomer have contributed with some solid ghost points, and I like their chances of continuing that trend against a resurgent Leicester city side. Tackles and interceptions will be the bread and butter for these two, but don’t be surprised if they get in on the attacking act as well; the Foxes haven’t kept a League clean sheet since before the World Cup. In the advanced midfield positions, both Amadou Onana and Philip Billing have been utilized as second strikers and aerial targets from set pieces. Onana was excellent against Arsenal a few weeks back, but was a bust in the loss to Liverpool. He’ll be hoping to recreate the performance from his new manager’s first match in charge when his side takes on Leeds. For Billing, he’s now surrounded with a glut of exciting new attacking talent, which bodes well for his fantasy contributions as he’ll have more opportunity to either set them up with key passes or get on the end of crosses for aerials and shots on target.
Up top, I’m going a bit counterintuitive to my defensive picks and suggesting you start Patrick Bamford if he’s in the initial eleven for Leeds when they face Everton. The forward has been unlucky not to score, and won’t have to worry about a new manager as Leeds hasn’t been able to find a long-term replacement for Jesse Marsch just yet. With the rest of his attacking teammates returning to fitness and form, he should continue to find opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net. Finally, while a match against Manchester United may seem like a daunting task, you simply cannot ignore the form of Kelechi Iheanacho at the moment. We’ve seen in the past that the Nigerian has the potential to be a top-tier fantasy asset when called upon, but those instances are usually few and far between. Could the January acquisition of Tete be the solution to being able to rely on Iheanacho as a regular starter for Leeds? Time will tell, but if not, be sure to enjoy this purple patch while you can.
Sits of the Week XI
Player Pos. Team Opponent % Rostered Ederson G MCI @NOT 94% Sven Botman D NEW LIV 98% Pascal Struijk D LEE @EVE 71% Kyle Walker D MCI @NOT 79% Emiliano Buendia M AVL ARS 70% Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall M LEI @MUN 72% Morgan Gibbs-White M NOT MCI 78% Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg M TOT WHU 95% Andreas Pereira M FUL @BHA 90% Brennan Johnson F NOT MCI 87% Son Heung-Min F TOT WHU 100%
Average % Rostered: 85%
As Ryan mentioned in last week’s column, betting on Manchester City defensive assets is not advisable, as they just don’t deliver enough in the way of points from counting stats to offset the damage done by conceding a goal. For that reason, I’m sticking with Ederson in goal and even adding Kyle Walker to the mix, despite City’s favorable match against Nottingham Forest. Yes, they may be able to pick up a clean sheet, but that’s not what you want to be counting on to win your gameweek. If you need more proof that you should stay away, just take a look at Walker’s Fantrax scoring page – even in the 6-0 win in the reverse fixture against Forest, he only managed 9.5 points with a clean sheet.
Moving on from City, I’m taking a bold stance and claiming you shouldn’t start your Newcastle defenders not named Kieran Trippier this week. Sven Botman has tended to score the worst of the remaining three. Reliable defenders are like gold this season, so if you don’t have other options available to you to make a fixture-based play for points, you can roll with your Magpies, but there has been a slight dip in form that a revitalized Liverpool team could capitalize on. Speaking of dips in form, Pascal Struijk has been a shadow of his early-season self lately and is at risk of being dropped when all of Liam Cooper, Max Wober, and Robin Koch are available. Even Junior Firpo has been getting a look in recently, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Struijk benched or even hooked early if he does retain his place in the starting lineup.
Kicking off the 5-man midfield is Emi Buendia. Aston Villa’s form has faltered after a promising start under Unai Emery and they’re set to face an Arsenal side that will be desperate to return to the top of the table after their midweek loss to Man City. I think the Gunners will be able to stifle the Argentine’s creative output. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been as consistent a performer as Leicester has had this season, but he could be at risk of dropping out of the side as well in favor of more defensive stability from the likes of Papy Mendy and Youri Tielemans. Even if he does start against United, I’d look to stream someone from a more favorable match-up if I could. Morgan Gibbs-White has been a revelation since the World Cup break, establishing himself as a top-tier fantasy asset. However, I don’t expect him or his attacking partners to have much of the ball against City, so you may want to look elsewhere. With the season-ending injury to Rodrigo Bentancur, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will be asked to take on even more of the workload in central midfield for Spurs. With inexperienced players around him, he may be forced to be more conservative to support the defense, resulting in fewer attacking involvements. As I mentioned previously, Fulham has been a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde act recently, and I’m not feeling confident in Andreas Pereira to overcome the excellent midfield trio of Pascal Gross, Alexis Mac Allister, and Moises Caicedo when he faces them this weekend.
Up top, it’s a similar story to MGW for Brennan Johnson, who has been in outstanding form since the restart. City has been leaky at the back, but I think there are better players to place your bets on this week. Finally, I’m having a go at Son Heung-Min again. I fully believe he’s capable of returning to the player that won the Golden Boot last season, but it doesn’t feel like it’s going to happen any time soon. The Korean has been in woeful form lately and, with Tottenham playing in the final match of the gameweek, I’d be concerned about him being benched this week in favor of giving Richarlison a chance to spur his team on to victory.
Make sure you also check out our official EPL content partner, The Draft Society, for all the latest! Check out their Fantrax Weekly Player Projections page for more player evaluations for the upcoming week!