Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI: Draft EPL

Our Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI article provides Draft managers with a lineup of Fantasy EPL hidden gems. Our starting eleven of Draft Premier League differential picks will help you find a golden ticket to a big score this weekend! These hints and tips will give you a better chance of picking up an all-important victory, as any one of these under-the-radar picks could make the difference in a head-to-head game!

We'll be focusing on players that will bring us not only attacking returns or clean sheets, but also those players that score Ghost Points in the sophisticated and statistics based Fantrax Scoring System!

Fantasy EPL Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI

For this article, we use the percentage rostered calculation from Fantrax and Sleeper. Our only rule is that each player we highlight is rostered in 60% of leagues or fewer at the time of writing. Therefore, there's a good chance some of these players will be free agents in your Draft league! As always, we'll take form, fixtures, projected points, and a healthy dose of intuition into account to make our selections.

I'm not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised to see us end up with a 93.75 FPts score in Gameweek 27. The pickings were very slim and the matchups were not the easiest, so how did we manage this feat? Well to start with our goalkeeper, Petrovic continued his improved form with 14 FPts (clean sheet). In defence, We had a nice spread of scores. Wesley Fofana, despite being sent off, still managed to score 8.75 FPts by banking a lucky clean sheet, Sepp van den Berg (2 goals conceded) and Hincapie (1 goal conceded) dropped 12.25 FPts each, while Alex Jimenez rounded out the backline with his 10.25 FPts score (clean sheet). Our 3-man midfield also faired well with Jensen and Sancho both scoring 6 FPts each, but the latter doing so as a 28-minute sub, whereas Alex Scott dropped 10 FPts, mainly ghosts with his single clean sheet point. Finally, our front line. It was a bit of a mixed bag as Kevin was subbed off after 43 minutes with only 2.25 FPts for his efforts, Elanga did nothing in his 77 minutes against Man City, while Guessand scored a goal off the bench and ended up with 12 FPts in his 17 minute appearance. We were quite close to the 100 FPts mark, but still a bit short, so let's hope to maintain this form as we head into Gameweek 28.

The Sleepers XI table below includes a full team of Starters, as well as 5 Reserves - high-upside players with some question marks around whether they'll start in Gameweek 28. So, keep an eye out when lineups are announced and pick them up if you see them starting, especially if you need to fill a spot on your roster. Read below for the rationale behind each of the Starter selections.

Bart Verbruggen (G, Brighton)

According to our Fixture Difficulty Tracker, Brighton's goalkeeper has the best rated fixture for Gameweek 28. Verbruggen being an option this weekend comes at a really good time for Fantrax managers, especially if you're the frustrated owner of a more popular pick like Pickford, Sanchez or even Roefs, as all three have been averaging under 3 PPS for the past few gameweeks. Despite the fact that Brighton have only kept 6 clean sheets all season, they did surprisingly keep one against Brentford. Up next for the Seagulls are Nottingham Forest, a team that looks like they could easily be relegated come the end of the season. Over the last 4 gameweeks, not only have the Tricky Trees not won a single game, they have also only scored 2 goals in that period, the fewest in the division. I'd fancy the swap in net if you need one.

Harry Maguire (D, Man Utd) 

Even though Man Utd have only kept 6 clean sheets this season, did you know that Maguire has contributed to 5 of them? The English DEF has only started 10 games this season! That's basically a clean sheet every other game. No way in hell are Man Utd and Maguire going to double their clean sheet tally by the end of this season, but they definitely have improved. They've now kept 2 clean sheets in their last 3 games and are hosting an out-of-sorts Crystal Palace team whose manager clearly wants out and seems to have basically given up on their season. In the last 12 games, Crystal Palace have only scored 9 goals, the fewest in the league along with Championship-bound Wolves. They're still missing Mateta up-top and Sarr has looked tired in the last few games, whilst Pino and Guessand have been better off the bench than in starts. So Maguire and his teammates could easily register another clean sheet this weekend.

Joachim Andersen (D, Fulham) 

It feels strange to write about Andersen as a Sleeper pick as in seasons past, he used to be a very reliable DEF-2/3 for most managers, but after last season's 6.4 PPS performance, it's understandable. This season though, it feels like the Dane's 7.5 gPPS is going a bit under the radar, probably due to the fact that the Cottagers have only kept 5 clean sheets all season. However Dr. Tottenham is always ready to see his next patient and you're probably willing to hold on to him until Gameweek 31 given their fixture run of WHU, NFO, BUR. Lest we forget, Andersen does also have a knack of picking up the odd attacking return as well. A solid DEF-4/5 pick for the next few games.

Kieran Trippier (D, Newcastle)

After seeing scores of 5, 4.75, 4.25 and 5.5 FPTs, you must be thinking I'm crazy to be suggesting an asset like Trippier, especially given the fact that Everton have been the best away team in the league over the last 8 gameweeks, but the thing is, they've only scored 8 goals during that spell. This is only more than Sunderland and Wolves! The scores mentioned at the start have also included 0 clean sheets and attacking returns, which seems bizarre for an asset that has always gotten attacking returns in every season he's played. He already has 3 assists in the Champions League, with his most recent one coming in the midweek 2nd leg against Qarabag. Believe it or not, Trippier also has the 2nd most key passes (23) of all Newcastle outfielders and is a regular set piece taker, so he's bound to notch his first attacking return sooner or later.

Tyrone Mings (D, Aston Villa)

After missing the majority of the season due to injury, Mings is back in the fold and has become an immediate starter alongside Konsa again. In his 9 starts this season, he's scored double digits in 4 of them and those weren't all with clean sheets. Other than leftbacks Maatsen and Digne, Mings is actually the next best ghosting defender from Villa, scoring around 7.0 gPP90 and averaging over 9 PPS. This is solid numbers for your DEF-4/5 spot if you need to bench popular options like Chalobah who have a tough fixture against Arsenal this weekend. Mings has also shown he can get the odd attacking return as well. Wolves away up next should be a tough challenge for Emery's men, but they'll be looking to get a result this game as the spots for the Champions League qualification for next season are starting to get more difficult with Man Utd throwing their hat in the ring.

Diego Gomez (M, Brighton)

Ever since Gomez scored 4 goals in the EFL Cup, albeit against Barnsley, he's always been on my radar as a potential streamer, mainly due to the fact that Hürzeler has been guilty of rotating his attacking options. Gomez has the 5th best points ceiling (16.6) of all Brighton players and, believe it or not, is actually the 2nd highest goalscorer (4) for the Seagulls in the league, only behind Dat-Guy-Welbz (Danny Welbeck for those newbies). With Minteh still not able to buy a start in the league, we're assuming that Gomez keeps his starting spot against Nottingham Forest this weekend, a team that could be a bit lethargic after their midweek European commitments. An easy MID-4/5 pick for any roster this weekend.

Emile Smith Rowe (M, Fulham)

If you were to make a league table of the last 12 games in the Premier League, Tottenham would sit dead last with 7 losses and 23 goals conceded, which would be the most of all teams in both categories. Even with a change in the dugout for Spurs, it still feels like things aren't about to change anytime soon and relegation looking a very real possibility. This alone feels like a great reason to stream any outfielder against them, especially an ex-Gunner. ESR's points haven't been the greatest over his last few appearances, especially from a ghosting perspective, but his 7.9 PP90 still feels like it's worth a gamble as your MID-4/5.

Jacob Ramsey (M, Newcastle)

Ramsey hasn't had the best of seasons with his new club, with only 7 starts to his name and was averaging under 3 PPS during the first 5 games that he was in the starting XI. However, his last 2 games have made managers take notice. He's now registered attacking returns in back-to-back games with a 14 FPts score against Spurs, which included a goal, and a 17.75 FPts haul against Man City of all teams, which inlcuded an assist. Some noticeable stats from his last 2 appearances were that he attempted 5 shots against Spurs and had 3 key passes against Man City, the most in each category he's had all season. Clearly something has changed for the new Magpie and in Bruno's absence, they could really use another threat from their midfield. The only risky bit with this pick was that he wasn't part of the UCL squad in their midweek tie against Qarabag but Howe did mention that his muscle strain wasn't as serious as initially feared. Easy drop if he doesn't start.

James Ward-Prowse (F, Burnley)

The time is finally here! You should not be surprised that I'm obviously writing about my fantasy darling, James Ward-Prowse. The English veteran midfielder came on as a substitute against Chelsea, in only his 2nd appearance for the Clarets, and nearly helped them win the game. He got the assist for their equaliser from a corner, taking 3 of the 5 that Burnley were awarded, and ended up with 11 FPts. If Burnley are to pull off a miracle and stay in the Premier League, they will most likely need to rely on one of the best dead-ball specialists the League has ever seen. Who knows, maybe he gets to take their penalties as well! A great MID-5 option with the potential to score like a MID-3.

Rio Ngumoha (F, Liverpool)

Loads of Liverpool fans have been crying for Rio to finally get a start in the league, especially since Salah has massively dropped off in ability and performances in recent games, and Gakpo wastefulness. Salah's inability to constantly play the killer pass, and more importantly struggling to dribble past a player, has pretty much killed their creativity and threat down Liverpool's right side. Despite only being used as a substitute on 9 different occasions, he already has his first Prem goal against Newcastle and has actually been showing massive ghost point potential, accumulating 31.5 FPts in 81 minutes of play. That's a PP90 of 35! No way are we suggesting that he'll score exactly that if he starts, and he is still very much an outside shot to start, but you can definitely expect a very tidy score if he does! One to watch.

Tolu Arokodare (F, Wolves) 

If you're like me and you've been rolling out a 1-striker formation in your leagues, then you could probably consider Arokodare as the perfect option to lead your line. The concerning thing though is that he was used as a substitute once in the last 5 games for Wolves. However, on the plus side, in his last 4 starts, he has been averaging just over 10 PPS, with only 1 goal during that spell. What's great about his last game is that even though he missed the penalty against Crystal Palace, he still managed to score 8.5 FPts, which included a season-high 10 aerials, along with 3 shots on target. The good thing about this pick is that it's the first game of the gameweek, so if he doesn't start, you've got an easy decision. With a gPPS of just over 7, I'd definitely back Tolu in the West Midlands derby, especially as the home team under the Friday night lights.

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