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Fantasy Football Preview: Week Five

Fantasy Football Preview: Week Five

We take a look at the best options for those fantasy football squads over the weekend.

Anonymous

Anonymous

DEFENDER

Since the retirement of Denis Irwin it has been a nightmare picking reliable defenders in fantasy football. As attacking play has evolved and transfer fees on strikers has doubled and doubled again, clean sheets seems to have developed into more luck than judgement.

Rio Ferdinand made the point that football is producing less and less world class defenders and he should know, he played 12 times for QPR don't you know?

The point is, I think chasing big money defenders in your fantasy team is as futile as a Harry Redknapp car window on deadline day. Sure, throw in set piece taking players and notorious goalscorers but failing that, just look for which team happen to be conceding less, no matter how poor you might presume them to be.

Step forward Tony Pulis and an abhorrently un-entertaining West Brom side. Many of the lazy fans in your office will have included Gareth McAuley as top scoring defender, due to his average skewing opening weeks. But they're the type of guys still think Belgium are a top tip that no ons ever heard of and are telling people to sign Freddy Adu on Football Manager.

Brendan Galloway however has played back to back 90 minutes in the last two weeks and clocked up eight points, while going completely unnoticed at under 1% picked.

Sure, he sounds like a professional wrestler, but the Everton loanee will inevitably provide more going forward than McAuley in the long run and while West Brom have (inexplicably) the 2nd best defence in the league I don't see why you wouldn't include him.

Brendan Galloway
Brendan Galloway

MIDFIELDER

One man who has gone largely unnoticed in fantasy football so far this year is Santi Cazorla at Arsenal.

It might be because people can't see past Ozil and Sanchez, it might be because they don't believe he will play 90 minutes on a regular basis or it might be because so many people pronounce his name 'Cor-zola' that they don't know how to search him.

What I do know is that he is the 3rd highest scoring midfielder in the game and is under 10% picked. He has 2 goals in 2 games, a fair few bonus points and 180 minutes played in the last couple of weeks.

Hull away isn't as easy as you will have thought when the fixture list was released but Santi also has penalties and free kicks in his locker and it's worth sticking him in before he becomes 30 or 40% picked.

Cazorla
Cazorla

FORWARD

I hate to be captain obvious but it's Romelu Lukaku isn't it? Even without his hat trick against Sunderland, it is hard to ignore Everton's run of fixtures and the potential points in the coming weeks.

Middlesbrough, Bournemouth and Palace make up Lukaku's next 3 opponents and Big Rom could find himself top of the scoring charts in that time.

He could also find himself goalless and the subject of a cruel twitter meme campaign by them but that's the risk we take. More importantly he isn't as selected as you might think.

Only 12.5% of fantasy football players currently have Lukaku on their books and many will feel the week after a hat trick is too late to bring him in. I say poppycock.

I mean I don't actually say poppycock, no one has since the 1930s and I imagine Romelu's picked percentage will have been even lower then but it would be foolish to leave him out just because you don't want to be late to the party. It's better than not being at the party at all. The 16 year old version of me will vouch for that.

Words by: Craig Hazell (@TheGafferTapes)

Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku
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