Welcome to Genie's Corner for Gameweek 2! Here, I, (DraftGenie), will be providing you with my thoughts on all things draft! Each segment of Genie's Corner will focus on something specific and relevant to current events in the Draft Fantasy EPL world. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I tend to take a bold and differential approach to the draft game, which has led to many fantasy titles. In these articles I will be giving you my unique insights, bold takes, sage advice, and much more throughout the season.
Genie's Corner Gameweek 2
Check out this weekly dive into the mind of our mercurial Fantrax EPL manager and analyst Draft Genie! Each week he provides his thoughts on strategies, players to watch, trades to push for, and much more!
What to do if you've already lost a big name asset
For leagues that drafted in early August or even the end of July, there will be various managers who have already lost their 1st or 2nd pick for the season. Kane has gone to Bayern, De Bruyne will be out for a large part of the season, and Nkunku will be back in January. Some smaller injuries to Jesus, McNeil, and new signing Hojlund are also in play. Managers who took Kane or KDB in round 1 will probably feel their season is over, and I'm sure that those who took Nkunku in round 2 may have the same feeling of doubt. Luckily for you, there is still every chance you win your league's title. The first thing I would do if you roster KDB or Nkunku is to try and trade them out for a usable asset. Yes, you will be taking a massive value hit, but you can get an every-week starter with at least some upside. There will be a few managers ready to punt on De Bruyne hoping Pep somehow rushes him back, and may be willing to give up a 6th-7th round pick. If you can get say Almiron or Andreas P. for KDB I would do that trade all day. Obviously, the other manager thinks they have the steal of the year, but unfortunately for you, they are able to hold KDB a lot better than you. Adding in this set-and-forget type asset will somewhat damage the blow of losing your 1st round pick, but more important than ever will need to be your activity in the trade market and the waiver wire. Bringing in FAB in trades is a great idea, giving you the edge on those weekly pickups or a very late window transfer that could have sneaky value. In terms of Nkunku, if you haven't dropped him I would look to trade him out to a manager with Chelsea assets. From there you can maybe get a MID4 or FWD3 to help soften the blow of losing Nkunku. Players such as: Jimenez, Nunes, and Enzo are all decent targets to help keep your team going.
Losing a big-name player will also mean you may need to have a shorter leash on some of your other stars before you consider trading them out. Let's say your draft went something like KDB-Watkins-Gakpo-Mount or even Martinelli-Kane-Paqueta-Diaby. Coming out of the draft both those teams had a solid foundation, but each lost one of their first two picks. On the Kane team, Paqueta is now rumoured to move to City, and we all know how attackers fair in their first year under Pep, so said team could be losing two set-and-forget assets and be stuck with a core of just Martinelli and Diaby. In this case, I would look to trade out Paqueta to someone rostering City assets and get back as much value as you possibly can. Secondly, look at dealing out Martinelli for two slightly worse assets. What I have found is when it comes to first-round picks many people will significantly overpay to get them as long as they are fit. You can probably get a very sneaky deal for Martinelli involving a 2nd and 3rd/4th rounder and even some FAB. Let's say you can get Diaz and Shaw + FAB for Martinelli + some lower picks. That trade will help give you more flexibility week to week and provide other routes to victory; as opposed to needing Martinelli to hit 15+ every week to have a chance you can most likely bank on one of Shaw or Diaz to do that or sometimes even both. Trading out the "best" asset in a deal isn't always the worst thing; sometimes the value you get back will help you get closer to a league title than relying on just one or two star players to do their thing for 38 weeks straight.