Gameweek 9 Sleepers XI: Draft EPL

Bantah Boyz

5 hours ago

8 min read

Our Gameweek 9 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!

Michail Antonio shooting the ball for West Ham

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!

Gameweek 9 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 can't help but feel like scoring 67.75 FPts is a terrible score, but given it's been our 3rd best tally for the season, maybe we're being too harsh on ourselves, especially since we had an unlucky own goal and a no-show by one of our defenders. So let's start there. Mike Penders came in for the injured Emi Martinez and was looking pretty decent until he punched the ball backwards into his own net. The young Belgian shot-stopper ended the game with 0.25 FPts after 2 goals conceded too. The double up on the Chelsea defence obviously didn't go well, as Colwill only scored 4.5 FPts. Elvedi was a no-show, which apparently was due to illness - thanks for the heads-up Farke! Whilst our other 2 defenders, who conceded 1 goal each, were Milan van Ewijk (5 FPts) and Sepp van den Berg (9 FPts). Our 4-man midfield is where we got majority of our points. We got a whopping 23 FPts from Fulham's match-winning Oscar Bobb, who notched his 1st goal of the season against Coventry, and his opposite number Rudoni scored 11.75 FPts despite no attacking returns. Ryan Christie impressed off the bench scoring 6 FPts in 15 minutes and Jordan Henderson got 5.5 FPts during his entire game. Up top, Cherif only lasted 66 minutes and left the pitch with 0.5 FPts, while Ndoye scored 2.25 FPts in a similar length of time. Like I said, a bit unlucky but it's good that we improved compared to our previous weeks. Onwards and upwards I say! So keep reading for our Gameweek 9 plans.

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 or not they'll start in Gameweek 9. 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.

Antonin Kinsky (G, Spurs)

If you look at the clean sheet odds for Gameweek 9, Spurs actually have one of the best, if not the best odds for shutting out their opponents Crystal Palace this weekend. One could argue that Spurs have finally turned a corner in their season after securing back-to-back wins in the league, banking their 3rd clean sheet of the season against London rivals Chelsea in Gameweek 8. Kinsky hasn't really been an asset worth rostering this season, particularly when you consider the only times he has scored 10+ points are when Spurs have kept a clean sheet. So that's why we're going with him and only him as our Spurs defensive suggestion.

Chris Richards (D, Crystal Palace)

How would you feel if I told you that Chris Richards has scored the 15th most ghost points of all the players in the game. Kind of crazy to imagine right?! It's a shame that Crystal Palace are one of the worst defences in the league though, having conceded the most goals (19) this season. That being said, Spurs aren't very free scoring themselves either, having scored the 2nd fewest goals in the league, only better than the bottom 3 teams in the EPL table so far - Forest, Coventry and Sunderland. After all, Spurs beat Chelsea thanks to an own goal and counter attacking against a 10-man team. So Richard's 9.2 gPPS could still warrant a gamble as your DEF4/5 this weekend.

Dan Burn (D, Newcastle)

Dan Burn returned to the Magpies starting XI after they registered consecutive losses in the league for the first time this season. The English CB started alongside fellow veteran Fabian Schar to help steady the Newcastle ship, and in turn help them win their 3rd game of the season, including their 2nd clean sheet. He ended up scoring 14.75 FPts by full-time. Now Newcastle's defence has been pretty poor all season, but the good thing about Dan Burn is that he's got good ghost point potential and a bit of a ceiling. A great example of this was shown in their EFL cup tie against Everton themselves. Burn scored a goal as part of his 12.25 FPts tally, conceded 3 times and picked up a yellow card. We could see a repeat performance at St. James' Park, with the hope of fewer goals conceded.

Matty Cash (D, Aston Villa)

According to our Fixture Difficulty Tracker, Aston Villa defenders have the 2nd best rated fixture this weekend, when they host Fulham at Villa Park. After starting this season with 3 losses and a draw, Unai Emery's men now have 3 wins and a draw, after beating an undefeated Man City. One of the reasons they were able to do so was thanks to Matty Cash having a very solid game against Doku. Despite the Belgian completing 9 dribbles, Cash still managed to score 6.5 FPts with a yellow card and 1 goal conceded. He registered 1 key pass, 3 tackles won, 1 interception, 2 clearances and 2 blocked shots. The game before that, Cash scored 12.25 FPts with a clean sheet. If Villa have truly gotten back on track, they'll fancy their chances of a clean sheet against a Fulham attack that have only scored twice in their last 4 away games, the fewest in the league.

Nikola Milenkovic (D, Nottingham Forest)

After being out for nearly a month and a half, missing Gameweeks 4 till 7, Milenkovic was back on the pitch for Forest in Gameweek 8, resuming his reliable form for Fantrax managers. After 4 starts in the league, Milenkovic is averaging just under 8 gPPS. He is putting up some of his best underlying data since he's joined the league. Obviously it's a small sample size, but Glasner's 3-ATB system has shown in the past that they can be a great source of points once everything falls into place. With the Serbian in their lineup, they only lost once in 4 games, however without him they lost 3 in 4. His effect on the team is evident. The only time they kept a clean sheet was in his presence too.

Joelinton (M, Newcastle)

The Brazilian Magpie has finally recovered from his early-season injury and seems to be fully fit and firing again. Gameweek 8 saw him get his 2nd start in a row in the league, also making a 45-minute sub appearance in the EFL cup against Newcastle. In the cup, he scored 4.25 ghost points. In his 2 league games, he scored 4.25 FPts (1 yellow card) and 12.75 FPts (1 clean sheet point). So he's putting up some decent numbers as a potential MID4. If you need a backup plan for your gameweek, especially with 8 games being played on Saturday, the Monday Night Football fixture could be a sneaky solution via Joelinton.

Nilson Angulo (M, Sunderland)

Now I'm not one to typically punt on Sunderland attackers not named ELF or Xhaka, but Nilson Angulo is making me change my stance as a one-week punt as the Black Cats take on Coventry in what is shaping up to be a classic 6-pointer affair in the race to survive relegation. In Gameweek 8, Angulo scored 11.5 FPts, which marked his 3rd double digit score for the season, with the other 2 being 10.5 FPts (1 goal & 1 yellow card) and 14.5 FPts (1 assist). Sunderland have actually faced some tough opposition this season, coming up against the likes of Arsenal, Man City and high-flying Brighton. He's actually done ok against weaker opposition like Fulham too, scoring 7 FPts with no returns. So for pure matchup purposes, I don't hate this punt.

Regan Slater (M, Hull)

Slater started this season looking like an absolute bargain of a pick, having scores of 10.5 (1 assist), 9.75 and 12 FPts. In Gameweek 8, he scored 7 FPts, which is his 4th highest score for the season. It's not glamorous reading, but bear with me. What's strange is that all of these scores were when he was taking corners. There's no obvious explanation as to why he came off them, but he's taken 8 of the 31 they've been awarded, with only Belloumi (10 corners) taking more. So if he does happen to regain set piece duty, I like Slater as a MID4/5 pick this weekend, especially against fellow promoted team Ipswich. The Tractor Boys have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, so the chances of nailing an attacking return seem promising with Slater's sets.

Brandon Thomas-Asante (F, Coventry)

Thomas-Asante is actually one of the most in-form Sleeper picks at the moment. He's dropped scores of 10, 13.25 and 12.5 FPts in 3 of his last 4 games, two of which include assists. He's actually been quite influential during the Sky Blues' time in the league. He has been their most fouled player, meaning he's being depended upon to make things tick for them. Sure, winning fouls won't score you points in a default league, but he's also 2nd for shots attempted (11), he has the most assists for the team (2) and he's 1st for interceptions (13) and successful dribbles (7). Sunderland is a must-win game for Coventry if they want to stay in the Premier League. So gambling on Thomas-Asante could pay off if they succeed this weekend.

Mathys Tel (F, Spurs)

I'm actually surprised it took this long for Tel to become a relevant option under RDZ this season. If you remember the back-end of last season, when he finally got starts under RDZ, he put up scores like 12.25 FPts (1 assist), 16 FPts (1 goal) and 10.5 FPts (4 key passes). Mind you, he had a couple of promising starts this season as well, scoring 9.25 FPts in a 3-0 loss against the Bees and 6.5 FPts in a draw against Forest, but the Chelsea game is where he finally came to light as an option again. The French forward got his first goal of the season against Chelsea in what will be one of their most memorable wins in recent times. He scored 19.5 FPts, including 2 key passes, 1 accurate cross, 2 aerials and 4 successful dribbles. Spurs have a very juicy fixture run over the next 6 games, so you'll definitely want a piece of this action.

Tyrique George (F, Everton)

With the news of Jack Grealish already misbehaving off the pitch this season, with missing training and not even answering his phone, Tyrique George could be one of the main benefactors of this situation. Evil Saka, as he's lovingly called by some fans, was brutally dropped to the benched after a promising start to the season. He has had scores of 21.5 FPts vs Man Utd and 8.75 FPts vs Palace, but his 9 FPts versus Arsenal in Gameweek 8 made Fantrax managers take notice again. Moyes will need George until Grealish sorts himself out, and if George does get starts, he's a great FWD2/3 option. His scores usually comprise of key passes (9 - 2nd) and successful dribbles (12 - 1st), so he definitely has upside potential, particularly when he is playing alongside Barry, a striker with the 2nd most xG in the league.