FanDuel EPL Soccer: Fixtures, Flyers & Fades – Mar 17 2018
By David Gate
We have a shorter four game slate on Saturday in FanDuel EPL soccer. We have all the Fixtures, Flyers and Fades you need to cash in soccer DFS this weekend!
Although it is an FA Cup weekend there are enough Premier League teams out of the competition to put together a smaller EPL slate. There are four games and eight teams for us in a nice size competition.
I am giving my column from last week a B minus grade. Nick Pope, Wilfred Ndidi and Aaron Wan-Bissaka all came good. The fades of Southampton, Huddersfield and Swansea all paid off and watching the chalky Lanzini stink was a good call.
Saying that we missed with Murray & Gross over Vardy & Mahrez. The latter pair are back on the same page and many winning lines had that pair.
This week has only one big six team this week in Liverpool whose front three will be highly owned. It is impossible to get all three into a lineup with the predicted starters with the cheapest defender priced at 5k and cheapest MID and FWD being 6k.
That actually makes the slate more interesting as people will have decisions to make rather than just stack Liverpool with punt plays.
I break down this column into three categories: Fixtures are those you need to build your lineups around. Flyers are the gambles and the punts; cheaper or lesser known players in great positions for a break out game. Fades are those you need to avoid; I think who you choose to fade in soccer DFS is more important than in any other DFS sport.
I’ll be on Twitter @davidgatesports to chat through lineups changes and team sheet surprises from 10:00am ET – the clock’s have not gone forward in England yet, so you get an extra hour this weekend!
FanDuel EPL Soccer: Fixtures
When one team dominates the roster I am always looking for reasons for avoiding the chalk plays. There are precious little reasons to do so this weekend. Liverpool are the second best attack in the league playing Watford who are the 17th worst defense. And the game is at Anfield.
The last time the two sides met on the opening day of the season Mohamed Salah (13000), Roberto Firmino (12000) and Sadio Mane (10000) all got on the scoresheet. Good luck working out who to fade and why! Salah will be chalk as the best player on the roster. Firmino will be chalk as the only decent FWD on the slate. Mane will be chalk as the only other attacker you can pair with either of the first two. There will also be a lot of Emre Can (9000), James Milner (8000) and Oxlade-Chamberlain (8500) if they start.
One defender that stands out this week is Ahmed Hegazi (6500) who is one of the safest plays in FanDuel DFS. He always puts up a decent floor but has strong upside this week against Bournemouth who concede a high proportion of goals to headers from set pieces. He also scored against them on the opening day of the year. Lightning to strike twice?
I love Jack Butland (5500) as the best option at GK in the battle of the overrated England keepers. It will be hard to get him in if you are stacking Liverpool attackers so I would go for Wayne Hennessey (4500) as the best cheap option.
FanDuel EPL Soccer: Flyers
I’m still on the Aaron Wan-Bissaka (5500) train this week. He has seen only a small price bump despite three straight 20+ FanDuel point performances. A little note; those games were against Chelsea, Tottenham and Man Utd. The matchup this week is not as good versus Huddersfield but they are away from home in a game I expect to be very competitive.
There are no decent options at under 5.5k this week so you are going to have to pay up a little to at least give you some production from the position. Two players I think are easy to include are Watford center backs Sebastian Prodl (5500) and Adrian Mariappa (5500). While neither player started against Liverpool earlier in the season the two that did racked up 60 FanDuel points between them. I think they hit at least 40 points as a pair this week.
I like Crystal Palace against Huddersfield now that Wilfried Zaha (8500) is back in the side. He is slightly underpriced and has a good matchup. I will also be using a lot of Luka Milivojevic (7500) now that his price is more reasonable.
My biggest ‘flyer’ from this game though is Alexander Sørloth (7000) in a weak FWD position this Saturday. He has done well picking up auxiliary stats and has played every minute for Palace since signing in January.
FanDuel EPL Soccer: Fades
The last time Watford faced Liverpool they scored three goals in a thrilling 3-3 draw but that was a long time ago. The Hornets enter this game needing only 4-6 points from the remaining 8 fixtures to guarantee safety. This is not one of those games where they are expecting to put up points.
They have plenty of talent and are able to cause Liverpool problems but if the Reds get an early goal then this game could be a blow out. I don’t think you can trust any of the Watford MIDs or FWDs this weekend. The only exception would be Will Hughes (6000) if he gets a start as his price is too low.
While Liverpool players dominate the top of the rosters the next tier is populated by the blue shirts of Everton. I am expecting a lot of people to go to Wayne Rooney (9000) and Theo Walcott (9500) as well known options. Their matchup is decent but their form is terrible. I would rather go with Chris Brunt (7000) and Salomon Rondon (8000) as a better pairing.
FanDuel EPL: Lineup
Note: this is a sample lineup and are not optimized. The only guarantee I can give you is that I will playing it too. I will also have some lines that are not here. Best thing is to take some of these picks and build your own lineup – especially in GPP – as lineup sharing only reduces the amount you can win.
Sample Lineup:
FWD: Firmino – Liverpool
FWD: Sorloth – Crystal Palace
MID: Mane – Liverpool
MlD: Milner – Liverpool
MID: Milivojevic – Crystal Palace
DEF: Prodl – Watford
DEF: Mariappa – Watford
GK: Hennessey – Crystal Palace
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