Our Fantasy EPL 21/22 Draft Kit promises to be the most comprehensive set of pre-season Draft Premier League articles ever produced! A key component of our Draft Kit will be the Team Preview articles which analyze key assets to sit alongside our all-important Draft Rankings. This article delves into the Best Fantrax Fantasy EPL Players from Play-off winners Brentford!
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Brentford Best Fantasy Players
As noted above, these are the Best Brentford Players for the Fantrax Fantasy EPL platform. We analyze the Bees' top three prospects ahead of the new season, with an estimated draft pick for each player.
Ivan Toney
Position: Forward
20/21 Points: N/A (~686 in the Championship)
20/21 Points Per Start: N/A (~14.9 PP90 in the Championship)
Recommended Draft Pick: 37 - 48 (12 Team League: 4th round)
Overview: Record breaking Championship striker with a point to prove. Will start almost every game and his aerial ability should provide a decent floor.
Having struggled at Newcastle and fallen into the path of a ‘loan ranger’, Toney’s career was revitalised with a move to Peterborough United in 2018. After a solid debut season, he was League One Player of the Year in 2019/20, with 24 goals in 32 league appearances. This led to his becoming the latest in a series of outstanding signings by Brentford, who have recently sold Watkins, Konsa (both Aston Villa), Benrahma (West Ham), and Maupay (Brighton) to Premier League clubs for a tidy profit.
In Ollie Watkins, Toney had big shoes to fill but he more than met expectations: his 31 goals (excluding playoffs) in 2020/21 is a Championship record, beating Glenn Murray’s 30 in 2012/13. As you can see from his percentiles chart, he is more than just a goal scorer. Although not particularly tall (179cm), Toney’s aerial ability sees him often labelled as a target man, and his proclivity for neat flicks and back heels is reminiscent of Olivier Giroud.
Toney will no doubt face some challenges in adapting to the Premier League. 9 of his 31 goals were from the spot last season - watch out for his ice cool, slow ‘run-up’ - and Brentford are unlikely to win as many penalties in the Premier League. He also can be wasteful with his shooting: last season he took 30 shots from outside the box without scoring. This habit could become an issue if he starts to get frustrated by the fewer opportunities provided to him in the Premier League. Despite these concerns, he should be a solid Fantrax performer. He will play the full 90 minutes pretty much every game, and even if he struggles in front of goal, he will likely put up respectable numbers.
Sergi Canos
Position: Forward
20/21 Points: N/A (~450 in the Championship)
20/21 Points Per Start: N/A (~13.0 PP90 in the Championship)
Recommended Draft Pick: 97 - 120 (12 Team League: 8th to 9th round)
Overview: Technically gifted Spaniard who can do a bit of everything. Could be a late round gem.
After a difficult spell at Norwich, where he was largely neglected by then boss Alex Neil, Canos (not Caños) moved back to Brentford in January 2017, having already played for the club on loan from Liverpool in 2015/16. It wasn’t until Said Benrahma left that he fully nailed down a starting place in the side, and the 2020/21 season was his most productive yet with 9 goals and 8 assists. His best performance of the season came against Cardiff in December, where he scored a spectacular hattrick... Well worth a watch.
Canos is a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades. He predominantly plays on the left wing in Brentford’s 4-3-3, but he is capable of playing further back, and even started at left back (covering for the injured Rico Henry) in the playoff semi-final. It’s unsurprising therefore that his ball-winning numbers are high for a forward, but he also likes a dribble and sends in plenty of right-footed crosses from the left half space. One concern is his average minutes per start from last season: 77; be prepared to see your man hooked early if you decide to draft him on to your roster.
Judging by some of the early mock drafts, Canos is flying well under the radar at the moment and could be a steal in the late rounds if you're willing to wait that long. The Premier League is a big step up from the Championship, but Canos's all-round game should lend itself well to Default Fantrax Scoring.
Bryan Mbeumo
Position: Forward
20/21 Points: N/A (~389 in the Championship)
20/21 Points Per Start: N/A (~10.6 PP90 in the Championship)
Recommended Draft Pick: 145 - 168 (12 Team League: 13th to 14th round)
Overview: Pacey winger who starred in the playoffs but can do better than last year's stats show. Takes the odd set piece.
Signed from Troyes (where he acquired the nickname ‘The Ligue 2 Mbappe') as a teenager in 2019, Mbeumo (pronounced Mm-BER-mo, not Mm-BWAY-mo) went on to form the deadly ‘BMW’ strikeforce (alongside Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma) that scored 57 goals and provided 18 assists between them as Brentford finished 3rd in the Championship in 2019/20, before losing to Fulham in the play-off final. His output fell in 2020/21, with a relatively meagre 8 goals and 10 assists, but he played a vital role in both the playoff semi-final and final.
Mbeumo is a rapid right winger (although he occasionally played up front with Toney when Brentford played a 3-4-1-2 last season), who likes to cut inside and shoot with his left foot. While Mathias Jensen is The Bees’ main set-piece taker, Mbeumo should get his fair share of dead ball deliveries; he registered 13 key passes from corners and 5 from free-kicks last season. Of Brentford’s front 3, I expect Mbeumo to score least well, but his pace will cause Premier League defenders problems on the counter. Look for him towards the end of drafts if you're in need of a forward.
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