Because of that enormous total of 15 points that FanDuel gives teams if a player scores a goal, along with 7 for an assist, it’s of paramount importance for you to pick the best forwards you possibly can for your team. Here are some strategy points that can make all the difference as you choose your main goal-threat from the many available.
How Many People Own the Player?
Ownership can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, an under-owned player, many of whom play for unfashionable or lower-table clubs, might go on a crazy scoring streak that catches 98% of the FanDuel community off-guard. On the other hand, high ownership presents alternative considerations.
A player like Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the perfect cocktail of high profile and high delivery, and it’s inevitable that a high number of teams will take him as one of the forwards. This is both good and bad. If Ibrahimovic, who at the start of the 2016/17 season was owned by, at times, more than half the FanDuel players, scores points, and he’s on your team, then you benefit only as much as anyone else who has him – so it doesn’t get you an edge.
If, on the other hand, you don’t have Ibrahimovic, or another heavily-owned player, and he delivers a heavy daily fantasy score, the problem is that you miss out on points that many, if not most, of your rivals are getting. This is where a fear of missing out grips FanDuel players from time to time. It’s up to you to decide if the reward outweighs the risk when it comes to picking an underowned player over a very highly-owned one. Sometimes you need to go with the flock, just to make sure you don’t miss out on a 25-point haul by doing so. As you play more, you’ll be able to intuit how they’re likely to perform.
What is the Forward’s Role in the Game?
One reason why Alexis Sanchez habitually performs well in daily fantasy soccer is because the Arsenal forward takes a full part in the build-up play as well as contributing regular goals. Because FanDuel offers points for interceptions (1.5), changes created (3), and successful tackles (2), having a striker who defends from the front when his team does not have the ball can be the difference in your final team score.
A player who has a similarly strong work ethic is Leicester City’s Shinji Okazaki, but although he is an occasional great pick depending on the opponent, the Japanese international doesn’t score goals often enough to be a fixture in your FanDuel team.
Perhaps a better balance of goals and all-round involvement, at least when his club is doing well, is Watford’s forward Troy Deeney, who can usually be relied-on to score his fair share over the course of a season, but who regularly assists and takes part in the build-up to goals scored by others. At the premium end of things, Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane (less-owned than Ibrahimovic at the time of writing) creates almost as often as he scores.
What About the Opponent?
In the end, though, it’s up to you, on any given week, to identify the players who will deliver for you in FanDuel at the weekend. Build-up play matters, but you need to take a look at the opponent’s defensive weaknesses, and pick players who you think have the best chance of making an impact in their match. If your chosen player is up against a club that has conceded a lot of goals lately, there’s a strong chance of a good score.
What’s different for a forward is that he is your go-to. He needs to be reliably getting you double figures at least, each time you pick him, because otherwise you’ll be out of the running for contests, such is the way FanDuel’s scoring system is set up. Choose wisely, and your forward can net you the winnings you deserve.
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