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Fantasy Football Scout provide regular reports packed with hints and tips to help you, hopefully, climb the ladder of fantasy football management and get the upper hand in your respective leagues.
Ahead of Gameweek 4 clash against West Ham United, took a look at their advice...
Over the last few Fantasy Premier League (FPL) seasons managers have invested large proportions of their budgets in the premium defenders. Going with a what is known as ‘big at the back’ strategy.
However, the start of the 2022/23 season has seen a few managers looking to move away from this. There is a movement in the FPL community that this could be the season to invest heavily in the forward line.
Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus (£8.1m) is now owned by over 80% of the game, making him the most popular FPL asset ever. Managers are also heavily invested in one of the premium forwards, Harry Kane (£11.4m) or Erling Haaland (£11.6m).
In previous seasons this would have meant that the third forward spot would have been what FPL managers call a burner slot. Burner slots in FPL are positions where the manager picks the cheapest option possible, knowing that they are unlikely to start for their teams.
However, with the quality of the forwards in the game so far this season, it seems sensible for FPL managers to invest in all three forward spots. Villa forward Ollie Watkins (£7.4m) looks like being an excellent option for FPL managers.
Player Focus
Watkins has made two starts in the Premier League this season and in those matches he has returned a goal, two assists and three bonus points.
This comes from four goal attempts, all of which have come from inside the box. Two of these chances were classified as big chances.
Watkins’ 13 penalty area touches are positive for FPL managers. This suggests that he is in the right positions on the pitch to register attacking returns for his owners.
Watkins also offers FPL managers further routes to points with his assist potential. The forward has created three chances for his teammates so far this campaign, one of which was classified as a big chance.
He is top across the Villa team for expected assists (xA) so far this season. This means that he is the player who is expected to have registered the most assists for the Villans so far this season. Watkins is also top for expected goal involvement (xGI) and is second for expected goals (xG) only Emi Buendia (£6.0m) is expected to have scored more goals than the Villa front man.
Last season only five FPL forwards registered more goals than the 11 that Watkins converted.
