Our Gameweek 9 Hot or Cold article is here to outline the current prospects of key Fantasy EPL players. Our 'Hot' or 'Cold' status will help take away your emotional attachment to certain Draft Premier League players and help you bring in the players that you need to help you dominate your Fantrax Draft League!
These Hot or Cold ratings are based on the data contained within the Weekly Rest-of-Season Rankings produced by Robbie P. The Draft Society's exclusive weekly refresh of Fantasy EPL prospect rankings!
Gameweek 9 Hot List
These are Fantasy EPL players that have risen in our Weekly ROS Rankings! Keep an eye on these Draft Premier League players, and bring them into your Fantrax squad if you can.
Phillip Billing
Position: Midfielder
Team: Bournemouth
GW7 Rank: 200
GW9 Rank: 117
What's Changed?: A mega haul at St. James' Park in GW8, consisting of a goal plus 14.5 sweet ghost points, and only missing an ACNC from a full ghost house. Now that would even make Ghost Point Hunter extraordinaire Ryan Barnes sit up and take notice. So while Billing may have got his goal from just 0.2xG in the game, the ghost points are certainly encouraging as Bournemouth come into a much kinder fixture schedule than they started the season with. In fact, for midfielders they are ranked top of our Fixture Difficulty Tracker until the World Cup. I wouldn't expect such an all action display every week, but Billing has shown he could be a solid asset going forward with good potential for some upside.
Demarai Gray
Position: Midfielder
Team: Everton
GW7 Rank: 58
GW9 Rank: 49
What's Changed?: Gray just keeps creeping up my ranks every week. He looks a different animal playing on the wing rather than filling in up top, which has really helped boost his ghost point output (9.0 & 7.5 gPPS in the last 2 GWs) and has been Everton's most dangerous looking player. Now that Everton have a recognised no.9 (whether it be Maupay or DCL when he eventually returns) this form should only continue, especially as Everton have a nice run of fixtures coming up (ranked 2nd for midfielders up to the World Cup). Gray typically matches or slightly outperforms his xG+xA, however he's currently got just the 1 goal from 2.1 xG+xA. We could see him improve even more if he, and Everton, manage to find their shooting boots again.
Diogo Jota
Position: Forward
Team: Liverpool
GW7 Rank: 44
GW9 Rank: 28
What's Changed?: It feels a bit odd to be including someone who has played just 9mins of Premier League football this season (all the way back in GW6) in my hot section, so why include him? Liverpool's struggles have been so severe and Jota's return (as well as Thiago and Matip's) so needed, that he's risen significantly in my ranks. Since GW6 we've also witnessed his return in the Champions League against Ajax, looking very lively in the 65mins he had on the pitch while bagging an assist, with Klopp making some interesting comments about the forward after the match.
“He combines qualities of Bobby and Darwin so that’s how it is so we need to defend on absolute top, top, top level and at the top as well,” said the German. “Diogo hasn’t played for a long time, especially from the start, he was twice injured in a row, lack of rhythm clear but he’s looked good in the training sessions now which we try to use. That’s why we decided, it was not a difficult decision to be honest.”
It was not a difficult decision... quite the stinging words for Bobby and Darwin there. It seems clear that Jota can bring the defensive work rate which Nunez can struggle with especially while getting used to a new team, and while, Bobby clearly offers that, Jota is a much more potent goal threat than him. Jota has had another couple of weeks to get fit, with more minutes under his belt for Portugal during the international break, including a goal against the Czech Republic. I would expect him to start against Brighton this weekend, and although we may see his minutes managed for a while, he's going to be great value even if he on only gets 70ish minutes.
For the full list of Gameweek 9 risers, check out our Weekly ROS Rankings page!
Gameweek 9 Cold List
These are Fantasy EPL players that have fallen in our Weekly ROS Rankings. This may be due to poor form, they have been dropped from the best 11, they have suffered an injury, or received a suspension. It's time to consider trading out or dropping these Draft Premier League players from your rosters!
Dwight McNeil
Position: Midfielder
Team: Everton
GW7 Rank: 74
GW9 Rank: 126
What's Changed?: Quite simply McNeil has lost his place in the preferred XI. While he put up some decent ghost point performances during his 4 starts, which we would expect from his time at Burnley, the lack of goals or assists is telling... also what we expect from his time at Burnley. The signing of Maupay as discussed above has meant that McNeil, Gray, and Gordon have to fit into two wing spots and it's clear that McNeil is 3rd choice there. Unfortunately, good fantasy performances don't always translate into real life performances and McNeil is looking at some serious bench warming time if things don't change.
Recommendation: At this point your either looking at an injury to Gordon or Gray helping McNeil to get back into the team, or potentially the return of Calvert-Lewin forcing Frank into a strategy rethink. If he wants to pepper crosses into him and McNeil is your man for that. If I could get any value for him in a trade I would look to ship him out, try starting with the manager who rosters Gray or Gordon and see if they fancy the handcuff. But I have seen him dropped in a couple of leagues and I wouldn't blame anyone for doing that. Don't get sucked into the sunk cost fallacy where you spent a big chunk of FAB or a high draft position on him, just get rid if you can't handle him on your roster anymore.
Neco Williams
Position: Defender
Team: Nottingham Forest
GW7 Rank: 53
GW9 Rank: 79
What's Changed?: While Neco is ranked 11th in our Ghost Point Tracker at 10.4 gPPS, this has really tailed off in the last couple of gameweeks against relatively weaker opposition in Bournemouth (6.25 FPts, 5.25 ghosts) and Fulham (-5 FPts, 1 ghosts). While a fluctuation in ghost point production might be expected, the fact that Forest have conceded 12 goals in the last 3 games, means Neco is finding it hard to put up decent points. He's lost the odd set piece that he was taking to Gibbs-White which reduces his value further. In our Set Piece Tracker Neco has a 10% reliance on set pieces for his FPts, if you remove them, instead of 6.9 PPS, he's more like 6.2 PPS which is really not fantasy relevant scoring. It may take Forest a while to sort themselves out with so many new signings, and they have an awful run of fixtures coming up (ranked 16th for defenders until the World Cup),
so realistically we could see these struggles continue.
Recommendation: We have Neco ranked 73rd in our Consensus Ranks which feels a bit high to me, so if you can trade him out for anyone close to that rank I would go for it. Try and sell the ghost points that Neco has been putting up and target more reliable defenders such as Ruben Dias or Joachim Andersen.
Dean Henderson
Position: Goalkeeper
Team: Nottingham Forest
GW7 Rank: 132
GW9 Rank: 186
What's Changed?: Henderson looked a world beater after 4 GWs, registering 5.5 saves a game, with a clean sheet and penalty save to boot. But it has all come crashing back to normality since with scores of -4.5, -5.75 and 2.25 and this also shows up in his expected stats. While his 8.5 PP90 makes him appear to be a decent hold, his 7.0 xPP90 makes the picture a lot bleaker. At 7.0 PP90 a keeper is effectively a streamer so he's only just hanging onto that currently. Throw in the bad run of fixtures coming up as mentioned above for Neco and Henderson's prospects are not looking good.
Recommendation: If there's any possibility of trading Henderson out, maybe as a sweetener in a bigger deal I would go for it, or a 1-1 deal for David Raya or Robert Sanchez would be a great move.
For the full list of Gameweek 9 fallers, check out our Weekly ROS Rankings page!
For all the latest from The Draft Society, follow @Draft_Society on Twitter!
And for more in-depth and exclusive resources, become a member of The Inner Circle.
