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 28 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 28 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.
This week is an odd one, as it is a blank gameweek for six teams as they are either still in the FA Cup or would have faced one of those teams. None of Brighton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and West Ham will feature in the Premier League this week, so you’ll be limited to the remaining 14 teams to pull together a lineup. You’ll also need to decide which players to keep hold of and which to drop. There’s a big double gameweek in GW29, so be sure to check the fixtures and your opponent’s lineup before dropping players who could be useful next time around.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the Gameweek 28 Start and Sit contenders!
Starts of the Week XI
Player Pos. Team Opponent % Rostered Fraser Forster G TOT @SOU 20% Craig Dawson D WOL LEE 18% Felipe D NOT NEW 28% Pedro Porro D TOT @SOU 55% Carlos Alcaraz M SOU TOT 14% Abdoulaye Doucoure M EVE @CHE 15% Joe Rothwell M BOU @AVL 1% Joe Willock M NEW @NOT 50% Jaidon Anthony F BOU @AVL 10% Matheus Cunha F WOL LEE 8% Tete F LEI @BRF 29%
Average % Rostered: 23%
Fraser Forster has deputized quite well for Hugo Lloris, at least from a fantasy perspective. He has gone a bit under the radar, in my opinion, possibly due to the poor fantasy showing from Tottenham’s number one throughout much of the season. Spurs face bottom-of-the-table Saints, a team really struggling for goals at the moment. That can be a recipe for disaster (the dreaded one shot faced, one goal conceded scenario), but Southampton has been creating a decent number of chances, so I like Forster’s prospects to rack up a few saves and potentially deliver another clean sheet.
The same logic applies to Pedro Porro, who also offers the benefit of attacking contributions. The January transfer appears to have settled into a starting role and has even assumed some set-piece duty. He offers very high-scoring potential in a week where that’s going to be quite hard to come by on the waiver wire or in the free-agent pool. Start Porro if you have him, but absolutely pick him up if he’s available in your league. Craig Dawson and Felipe are two defenders that come by their points in a more traditional fashion, through aerial duels, blocked shots, tackles, and clearances, but can also be attacking threats from set pieces. Neither has the best matchup but should provide a solid floor of points to make you feel better about running them out.
In midfield we have four players who definitely aren’t the flashiest names, but can do a job. Just what you’re likely to need to build out your lineup this week. Carlos Alcaraz returned from injury to surprisingly start both matches of Southampton’s double in GW27. He was withdrawn early in the second half of both, perhaps an indication that he wasn’t at 100%. He appears to be the first choice for Ruben Selles and I think (hope) he’ll improve on the meager 3.5 points he managed across the last two games. Joe Rothwell is another player who recently broke into the first team, and he’s been on set-piece duty for Bournemouth in the absence of Hamed Traore, who doesn’t have a return date. The Cherries are coming off of a morale-boosting win over Liverpool and will be confident heading into a match against Aston Villa. If he keeps his spot in the starting lineup, consider him a good option that your league mates may not give a second look. Given their recent performances, there will almost certainly be more competition for Abdoulaye Doucoure and Joe Willock. Doucoure has a difficult-on-paper fixture against a Chelsea team rounding into form, but he’s been a revelation since being restored to the team under Sean Dyche and I think he’s got the potential to be fixture-proof the rest of the season. Willock is a mystery wrapped in an enigma and could easily follow up his 20-pointer from GW27 with a 0.5. That said, he was excellent in real life and should continue in the starting lineup while Joelinton serves the second match of his suspension. A match against Nottingham Forest is too hard to ignore, even if you don’t know what you’ll be getting from the former Arsenal midfielder.
Up top, there are admittedly some doubts over whether any of Jaidon Anthony, Matheus Cunha or Tete will start this week. I like all three of them as high-upside players that haven’t quite delivered on their potential just yet. Anthony should benefit from the form of the teammates around him if he is called on from the beginning against Aston Villa. Wolves are desperately in need of goals and Julen Lopetegui hasn’t quite found the winning formula just yet. As Pedro Neto and Hwang Hee-Chan are coming back to fitness, there should be more chances for the central striker to put away. Tete was benched in GW27 to accommodate a switch in formation, mostly due to the absence of Harvey Barnes. Barnes was fit enough to make the bench, so he should make a return and bring the Brazilian with him. Brentford are a challenging team, but this recommendation is also made with one eye to Leicester’s fairly favorable double in Gameweek 29.
Sits of the Week XI
I’ve deliberately chosen not to include a “Sits XI” this week. With so many teams blanking this weekend, there aren’t likely to be too many fantasy managers with the luxury of a deep bench of players to choose from. Projections are showing the worst options among likely starters that are above 60% rostered include the likes of Timothy Castagne, Bruno Guimaraes and Wilfried Zaha, and I can’t in good conscience recommend that you bench any of them, particularly if you’re struggling to field a full XI. The advice for this week is to start who you can to get to a full team and, if you happen to have an extra player or two on your bench, put the guys who play in later games there unless you’re 100% confident they’re going to play. That will help ensure you aren’t forced into dropping players from your roster you’d rather keep hold of, and you can also make a judgment call based on how your matchup is going.
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!