West Ham 24/25 Fantasy Forecast
- Draft Society
- Aug 3, 2024
- 9 min read
With draft day almost upon us, it's time to preview the Hammers fantasy football prospects for the new season in our 24/25 West Ham Fantasy Forecast. In this year's 24/25 Draft Kit, we are featuring both a Fantasy Flashback and a Fantasy Forecast for every single Premier League team. There is also a plethora of other EPL Draft related articles in our Draft Kit, ranging from strategy to mock drafts to transfers and everything in between. Check the 24/25 Draft Kit main page often, as it's updated constantly!
Our West Ham 24/25 Fantasy Forecast will feature players to watch, players to avoid, season points projections, an early season fixtures analysis, and our predicted XI. We've got it all covered. Our Draft Premier League fantasy forecasts will help set you up to dominate your draft! And be sure to check out the West Ham United Fantasy Flashback for our full analysis of last season's fantasy football results.
Check back often! Our team previews will be updated throughout the summer as any new transfer, injury, or rotation developments come to light.
Check out our 24/25 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you could ever need: Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Mock Drafts, Strategy, Draft 101. We've got it all!
West Ham Fantasy Forecast 24/25
Let's jump into our in-depth look at West Ham's prospects for the new EPL season below. This information will form a key component to your draft prep and set you up to dominate your draft!
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Fantasy Forecast
Past is prelude, as they say. So, turning to the 24/25 season, we've got West Ham player projections, key players to keep an eye on, players we're staying away from, question marks surrounding the club at this moment, an analysis of the Hammers' early-season fixtures, and our predicted starting lineup.
24/25 Player Projections
Below, you'll find our season projections for West Ham fantasy assets. Our projections are created using a number of contributing factors such as historical performances, expected team strength, betting odds and more. ProjPPS (Points Per Start) and ProjFPts (Projected Total Points) refer to Fantrax Default Scoring.
It's all change at West Ham as the Moyes era has finally ended. Julen Lopetegui was brought in, mainly to shore up the defense, which was relegation-level bad last season. He is well known to be a solid defensive minded coach who we last saw in the Premier League in 22/23, saving a rock bottom Wolves and steering them to their customary 13th place finish with an impressive 23 game run in the second half of the season. He usually sets up his teams in a 4231 formation with a defensive minded double pivot and roaming full-backs, who have some attacking freedom but not abandon their defensive duties.
Speaking of which, the defense looks pretty much set with the CB partnership of Mavropanos and Kilman (who Lopetegui coached at Wolves) presumed starters, but Aguerd and Zouma offer more than capable back-up possibilites. The left-back role is Emerson's for the taking, who looked great at the end of the season and draft legend Cresswell has signed a new contract to provide cover. Coufal is currently the only/main RB of note, but the singing of AWB (contingent on United getting Mazraoui) looks close to being completed. The depth chart at the double pivot looks much better than at the end of last season and I expect Alvarez and Paqueta to get the most minutes in these roles during the season. James Ward-Prowse started his debut season in East London like a house on fire, totally justifying the 100% FAB managers spent on him. However, as the season drew to a close, he slowly lost his usual set-piece monopoly and his spot became wobbly, too, which doesn't bode well for the season to come. Soucek's ever reliable presence and set-piece danger will earn him starts during the season, but I would stay away from drafting him. Guido Rodriguez was also brought in to back-up the defensive midfield. With these additions the Hammers defensive depth chart finally looks capable of making the step up in the Premier League and has clearly been constructed to withstand the looming danger of Paqueta's inevitable suspension.
The attack looks mighty exciting, I am not gonna lie. The plethora of talent available has been upgraded in the transfer market and while Wolves' 23 goals in 23 games under Julen is concerning, this new look Hammers attack has so much more firepower. The first choice starting front 4 should be pretty much set in stone. Bowen and Summerville on the wings, Kudus roaming in the '10' spot, and Fullkrug up top. New signing Luis Guilherme and veterans Ings and Antonio again offer more than capable backup options. But it is more likely that in case of injury/rotation Paqueta will be pushed higher up as the defensive midfield has more capable backups.
Players to Watch
We've highlighted some West Ham players that we're keeping an eye on. The players mentioned below may be sleepers. They may be up-and-coming youngsters. They may be vying for a spot in the XI. Whatever the case, we'll tell you why we're watching these particular assets in EPL Draft Fantasy this year.
Crysencio Summerville
Position: MID
Recommended Draft Pick: 40 - 50 (12 Team League: Round 4 - 5)
Analysis: I'm very excited about the prospects of Summerville in the Premier League. He was undoubtedly the most exciting, and arguably the best player in the Championship last season. He posted insane numbers with Leeds. He scored 19 goals and got 9 assists, but his Fantrax numbers are even more insane: 16.9 Points per Starts and11.6 ghost points per start. Those numbers make him top of our 'New Transfers and Promoted Players' stat page. He is a right sided left winger who loves to cut in and offer a box presence as well as crossing ability (81st percentile for Crosses). He will challenge the status quo at West Ham for set pieces, as he had an almost total monopoly last season at Leeds. He will add to the already exciting and dribbly attack, having ended last season in the 94th percentile for progressive carries and 87th in successful take-ons. These stat showever have all come in the Chempionship and on a team that he was by some distance the best player on, so while exciting, should definitely be taken with a pinch of salt.
Mo Kudus
Position: MID
Recommended Draft Pick: 19-24 (12 Team League: Round 2)
Analysis: I have written about Kudus plenty this off-season in the West Ham Flashback as well as in the Players We Love but Can't Draft article we published. The abbreviated notes are as follows: Kudus would have been the 9th highest-scoring player overall if the season started on the day he started his first game last season. He amassed 120+ successful take-ons, a whopping 40 more than second-placed dribbly boy, Jeremy Doku. He scored 8 goals and got 6 assists in around 70% of the EPL games. He should be a lock for top 25 talent but with question marks for most of the players from mid-Round 1, his availability might push him to be considered as early as Pick 13-15, which is a bit too expensive for my taste. But excitement about his abilities might get the better of me.
Players to Avoid
It's not all sunshine and rainbows at the London Stadium. At least, not as far as Draft Fantasy Football is concerned. Below, we will also highlight some fantasy assets that we're not so thrilled about. These are the West Ham players you might want to avoid come draft day.
James Ward-Prowse
Position: MID
Recommended Draft Pick: 65-70 (12 Team League: Round 6-7)
Analysis: The sad decline of a draft legend. For the first time ever, we are approaching a Draft Season where JWP is fit and available and we are not excited about his prospects. For what feels like centuries, he has been ever-present in the top 25 overall conversation as well as being the king of the select group of Steady and Elite players. His perfect set-piece deliveries, unparalleled free-kick scoring ability, and exemplary availability have made him a true Draft Legend. Southampton's relegation last season finally resulted in him bidding farewell to his Alma Mater and transferring to East London. His first season in the London Stadium started like a house on fire, but he ended up with, by his standards, a measly 75% of all set pieces. But the stat doesn't tell the whole story. In the final few games of the season, Bowen started taking most set pieces and with his main weapon neutered, he even had his place in the starting XI questioned. The new signings West Ham are making are painting a picture of a future with JWP playing more of a bit part role.
Lucas Paqueta
Position: MID
Recommended Draft Pick: 65-75 (12 Team League: Round 6 to7)
Analysis: I am considering avoiding Paqueta in this season's drafts for two reasons. One of which is obvious, although there is not much news and progress on his potential lifetime ban for his involvement in potential betting irregularities, I very much do not want to spend precious draft capital on a player who has the sword of Damocles hanging over his head. The ban might come in 2 weeks, 2 months, or a year, or he might be acquitted. Regardless, at the price point he is being drafted, that is not a risk I am willing to take.
The second season for my reluctance is his point-scoring ability. He is clearly a very very good footballer and a very good attacker. But his ability to play deeper and be effective in more defensive and regista-like duties has already had him line up in positions detrimental to his fantasy output last season (he only managed 1 double-digit score without an attacking return in the whole calendar year of 2024 and managed only 3 attacking returns). As outlined above, I bet that he lines up more often than not in a double pivot and while it will be great for West Ham and in real life, it will reduce his scoring to a high potential run-of-the-mill DM.
Question Marks
Not everything is crystal clear and predictable at West Ham. We've highlighted some questions surrounding the Hammers that we’re grappling with this preseason. We’ll try to note whether or not (and how much) these questions are affecting our perceptions of West Ham's fantasy assets.
How defensive is Julen, really?
Those pesky 23 games at Wolves weigh heavy on ole' Julen's reputation when it comes to assessing his Premier League potential. However, the most important thing to consider when trying to ascertain how effective he will be is available talent. For 3 seasons at Sevilla, he was able to consistently have them finish in the top 3 for the least goals and xGA conceded in La Liga. However, that hasn't stopped him from being able to post top 5 xG numbers. The talent available to him at West Ham is quasi-unprecedented in his career and he has shown that he has the ability to kick it with the big boys and produce attacking production to complement solid defense when he has the weapons available.
Early-Season Fixture Difficulty
The way that teams come out the gate has big implications in EPL Draft. A red-hot start creates red-hot trade targets. A dismal start means plummeting player values and losses for your fantasy team. Check out our thoughts on West Ham's early-season fixtures and our analysis of the fantasy implications they will have.
West Ham's early fixtures are a mixed bag, with City and Villa looking like potential fixtures you want to consider benching non-high-level assets. The easier fixtures are all away, so all-in-all, this isn't a bunch of fixtures that has me checking out their streamers to draft in late rounds. While everyone is in agreement that they will improve defensively, I would still be very nervous starting their CBs in most of these fixtures.
24/25 West Ham Predicted Lineup
Based on the information we have now, the below graphic is our best prediction for the eventual long-term West Ham lineup in 24/25. We can't account for any last minute transfers or injuries, but considering managerial tactics, player form, and availability, this is how we see West Ham's XI shaking out.
The biggest question mark regarding this lineup is Paqueta's role and whether Lopetegui will have the 'balls' to line him up in the double pivot, giving himself the ability to feature all 3 of Bowen, Kudus, and Summerville. Paqueta's ability to progress play and beat the midfield press would provide the perfect link from defense to attack. But that would also mean that he would lose some stability at the back as the "double pivot" would be shifted. In former Sevilla teams, Lopetegui had players with similar skill sets, namely Ever Banega and Ivan Rakitic, so I am backing him to find the perfect balance to get this team clicking and get the best out of the immense attacking talent on display.
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