As most of you who are reading this will know, my mum passed and it’s been the worst few weeks of my life. So in search of ways to occupy my mind, today I’m looking at how [edit] footballs fantasy football league has panned out from game weeks (GW) 5-8 and have been pleasantly surprised to find that I was the most successful manager over the past month ?.
The victory owes much to a well-judged use of my WildCard where I correctly predicted that Eden Hazard would outscore Mo Salah ? freeing up some much-needed budget to add Sergio Aguero as my marquee striker. All my changes meant that I ended up a full 12 points clear of the next best manager over the past few game week, meaning I win my own £5 prize!
| Top 5 Managers | Total Points GW 5-8 |
| Kevin Lawson | 269 |
| Russell McGowan | 255 |
| David Gentry | 253 |
| Christie Montogomery | 246 |
| Jon Hillcock | 245 |
Before I move onto my next set of recommendations, let’s look at the overall standings, where Jon Hillcock tops the table after two strong months in succession (there is going to be a prize for the overall winner too):
Fancy joining my league and be in with a chance of winning a fiver? Then join my league (1872220-628148) and score more points than any other manager during game weeks 9-12.
Goalkeepers
With his next two games against Huddersfield and Cardiff – two of the divisions lowest scoring teams – followed by a tough to read fixture against Arsenal and then another easy looking game against Fulham Alisson (£5.6m, Liverpool) should justify his expense for the next four GW’s. I’m pretty confident that there are 2 clean sheets amongst that run for the Reds.
My next pick shouldn’t be a surprise to my readers, as for the third month running I’m going to recommend that you select Dubravka (£5.0m, Newcastle), who has he managed to keep his points ticking over as the keeper in a team that, bar Brighton, has had arguably the hardest fixture list at the start of the season. Both teams now have a run of 10 games where they stand a decent chance of keeping a clean sheet, making Dubravka a safe bet to pick-up some clean sheets and bonus points.
Defenders
Keeping with the same logic that both Newcastle and Brighton each have a set of winnable fixtures on the horizon, my defensive recommendations this month are a pick from each team. First up we have Federico Fernandez (£4.4m, Newcastle) who has been easily been the Toon’s best defender so far this season. The Argentine centre-back is likely to continue to partner Jamal Lascelles for most of those 10 games, making a mockery of his price tag.
From Brighton, I’m going to pick Shane Duffy (£4.5m) who has already got a taste for goals this season and is only selected by 3.9% of managers. If you’re looking for a cheap way to make progress in your own leagues, he looks to be a great cheap option for the next two months.
Midfielders
A tricky month to look beyond the usual suspects here, so I’m going to make David Brooks (£5.0m, Bournemouth) my one midfield recommendation this month. Familiar to fans of Football Manager as an English player with amazing potential, Brooks made the step up to the Premier League after a transfer from Sheffield United. A key component of their counter-attacking style this season, Brooks will no doubt be winning the same sort of plaudits that have James Maddison a darling of football fans in the know.
Strikers
A few more to pick from here for fans looking to fill their second and third choice striker picks. First up we have Leicester duo, Jamie Vardy (£9.0m) and Kelechi Iheanacho (£5.9m) who after a tricky fixture against Arsenal will surely take West Ham’s high defensive line to the sword, before having their way with Cardiff and Burnley.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for a steady eddie to replace Mitrovic or perhaps Ings who seemed to be stuttering, then you could do a heap worse than Glen Murray (£6.6m, Brighton) who has already bagged give goals this term and should have a great chance of breaking the 10 goal barrier before Christmas.
