The Fantasy Challenge is kicking off a new series this week, starting with the ‘Test Lab.’ This experimental phase offers managers a unique opportunity to influence the future of Fantasy Premier League by participating in trials and providing valuable feedback.
The events are focused on earning points through different players with their differing playstyles, with this week’s challenge seeing each interception and tackle worth one extra point, while three recoveries are worth one point.
Managers can enter a 5 a side team using an unlimited budget up until Monday, when Nottingham Forest host Crystal Palace.
Whom to buy?
Based on last season’s statistics, here are the players you should be looking at. In terms of interceptions per 90 in the Premier League last season, the top 5 were Fulham’s Antonee Robinson, Lewis Cook from Bournemouth, Aaron Wan Bissaka now of West Ham at the moment, Christian Norgaard of Brentford and Valentino Livramento of Newcastle. This season’s list looks different with Jota of Nottingham Forest leading the list. Orel Mangala of Everton, Ferdi Kadioglu of Brighton, Lisandro Martinez of Manchester United and Rodrigo Bentancur of Spurs make up the list.
Also Read: Best Forward Picks for Fantasy Premier League GW 8
If we look at successful tackles per 90, this season the leaders are Kosta Nedeljkovic of Aston Villa, Carlos Forbs of Wolves, Abdul Fatawu of Leicester City, Ibrahim Sangare of Nottingham Forest and Renato Veiga of Chelsea. Last season the leaders were Boubacar Traore and Joao Gomes of Wolves, Casemiro of Manchester United, Joel Veltman of Brighton and Nathan Patterson of Everton.
So who should you buy? The focus is obviously on combative midfielders and defenders. Here’s a shortlist based on statistics.
Defenders – Antonee Robinson, Diogo Dalot, Destiny Udogie, Victor Kristiansen, Ethan Pinnock
Midfielders – Moises Caicedo, Mario Lemina, Wilfried Ndidi, Lewis Cook, Bruno Guimaraes
Forwards – Iliman Ndiaye, Chris Wood, Diogo Jota.