Our Fantasy EPL 22/23 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 highlights Fantrax Fantasy EPL Sleepers from Leeds, as we highlight three potential hidden gems for the new season! Click here for details on how you can access our 22/23 Draft Kit.
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Leeds Sleepers
As noted above, these are potential Fantrax Sleepers from Leeds. These Fantasy EPL players are likely to be drafted in the later rounds. Read below for three under the radar players who could provide excellent value in your pre-season draft.
Before we dive in, a note: There aren’t really any players worthy of highlighting as sleepers among players who featured in Leeds’ relegation scrap last season. Stuart Dallas and Luke Ayling may have been decent shouts for this category if they hadn’t suffered serious injuries last campaign (and, at least in Ayling’s case, had a direct replacement not been brought in over the summer).
Each of the players highlighted here is brand new to the Premier League and, as such, we don’t have truly representative data to look at when making recommendations for where they should be drafted. Points from previous seasons may appear inflated due to playing in an easier league, or may not be as impressive as they could be due to limited sample size in a more challenging competition.
These players do, however, fit The Draft Society definition of a sleeper, which is “A player who you think is going under the radar and will therefore outperform his draft position.” Just be cautious in how you value them and be sure to give extra consideration to your roster to ensure you have the tolerance to take a larger risk than you would drafting a player who is more of a known quantity in the EPL.
Luis Sinisterra
Position: Forward
21/22 Points: N/A (transfer from Feyenoord)
21/22 Points Per 90: 18.9 (from 29 starts in the Dutch Eredivisie)
22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 10.7 (29 starts)
Recommended Draft Pick: 73 or later (12 Team League: Round 7 or later)
Overview: A potent attacking threat, Sinisterra has delivered in competitions a tier below Premier League standard. If he can even come close to replicating his attacking exploits in England, he’ll be a great pick-up as a FWD3.
*These stats were accrued by Sinisterra in the Eredivisie, but percentiles are if they were accrued in EPL*
It must have been made clear quite early in the summer transfer window that Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips wouldn’t be sticking around at Elland Road for another season. Leeds very quickly brought in a slew of new players for 22/23. Luis Sinisterra arrives in a £23m move as the heir to Raphinha’s throne and will be expected to pick up where the Barcelona-bound winger left off. This admittedly seems a little unfair on the Colombian given Raph's lofty standards. That said, the 23-year-old delivered some impressive stats for Feyenoord last season. In addition to his 12 goals and 7 assists in the Eredivisie (Dutch first division), the wide man delivered 6 goals and 4 assists during his team’s run to the finals of the Europa Conference League.
Sinisterra has primarily played as a left winger and - given Leeds manager Jesse Marsch’s preference to use inverted wingers - will likely fill the same role at his new club, with Jack Harrison expected to take up the right wing berth. DraftLad’s spreadsheet of incoming players to the Premier League this season, which translates statistical output from other leagues into Fantrax Default Scoring terms, features the Colombian near the top of the charts. His 505 points (355 of which came from ghost points) would have made him the 4th overall player in the Premier League last season. Obviously, he’ll be in a much more difficult league on a much less dominant team (Feyenoord finished 3rd in the Dutch league last season), so his fantasy output likely won’t be anywhere near those heights. But the potential is there for Leeds to move on from Raphinha without missing him too much thanks to their dynamic new attacking talent.
Rasmus Kristensen
Position: Defender
21/22 Points: N/A (transfer from RB Salzburg)
21/22 Points Per 90: 6.5 (from 8 starts in the Champions League)
22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 7.8 (30 starts)
Recommended Draft Pick: 109 or later (12 Team League: Round 10 or later)
Overview: An all-around talent, the 25-year-old Dane will be reunited with his former manager for a new challenge in the Premier League. He’ll be heavily involved in Leeds’ attacking sequences in addition to his defensive duties, which bodes well for ghost point production.
Prior to a short-lived and relatively unsuccessful stint in charge of RB Leipzig in 2021, Jesse Marsch spent a couple years at the helm of sister club RB Salzburg. In his first season in charge, his side won the double, running away with the Austrian Bundesliga title and handily dispatching their opponents in the final of the Austrian Cup. Danish right back Rasmus Kristensen follows his former manager to Leeds after enjoying success in Salzburg, winning the title in each of his three seasons at the club.
The fullback is an exciting and necessary arrival in West Yorkshire, with Luke Ayling missing a significant portion of the 21/22 season through injury and back-up options virtually non-existent. Kristensen, also sometimes referred to as Nissen, will be an immediate starter with Ayling working his way back to fitness. But I expect him to remain first choice in the role regardless. He’s a complete player - he is physical, fast, good on the ball, a competent crosser and an aerial threat from set pieces.
His points per start numbers don’t look particularly promising, but the underlying stats tell a different story, as he managed 9.3 ghost points per start across his starts in the Champions League last season. With Marsch using inverted wingers, Kristensen will be expected to get into very advanced positions on overlapping runs into the box or to the byline for a cutback to the penalty spot. Seven goals and four assists from right back is nothing to turn your nose up at, even if it was accomplished in a lower tier competition. Expect similar attacking endeavor from the Denmark international, but somewhat reduced output.
Brenden Aaronson
Position: Midfielder
21/22 Points: N/A (transfer from RB Salzburg)
21/22 Points Per 90: 7.8 (from 8 starts in the Champions League)
22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 7.3 (25 starts)
Recommended Draft Pick: 133 or later (12 Team League: Round 12 or later)
Overview: A bit of an unknown quantity given how quickly he’s developed, the American international has divided opinion at The Draft Society. He’s one to monitor in pre-season to see how well his skill set will translate to the biggest stage, but should see plenty of the pitch and will be surrounded by capable attackers to feed.
Young American midfielder Brenden Aaronson will continue his meteoric rise up the ranks of the world football ladder by reuniting with his former manager Jesse Marsch. The United States has been painfully slow to adopt soccer into its pantheon of professional sports, but the recent crop of Americans making the jump to top European leagues is evidence of how far the game has come in the past decade.
Aaronson was playing in the American second division as recently as 2018, and has since been a part of title-winning teams in MLS and the Austrian Bundesliga. The £25m fee paid by Leeds is an indication of their faith in the attacking midfielder to continue his development, and perhaps also that he’ll be trusted to establish himself as a starter from the beginning of the campaign.
The youngster will likely need to bulk up a bit to hold his own in the rough and tumble Premier League. But he is adept at transitional play from defense to attack and has a good range of passing to go with an effortless dribbling style. He isn’t likely to deliver too many goals, but should rack up points from key passes in to Jack Harrison and Luis Sinisterra as they make their runs across opposition back lines. I may be a bit higher on him than most of my fellow TDS analysts, but expect Aaronson to deliver value before the final rounds of the draft, especially if he’s in the starting lineup during the latter stages of pre-season.
More Fantasy Sleepers: Arsenal | Aston Villa | Bournemouth | Brentford | Brighton | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Fulham | Leicester | Liverpool | Man City | Man United | Newcastle | Nottm Forest | Southampton | Tottenham | West Ham | Wolves
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