It’s early doors in the Premier League season but a few players have stood out (or completely vanished) when it comes to Fantrax fantasy output. “Risers and Fallers” will be a season-long article series where we select 5 Risers and 5 Fallers to reevaluate 5 Gameweeks from now – to see if their stock has changed. Whether for better or for worse, we’ll hold ourselves accountable and see which players we were right about and which ones we were completely off base!
Risers are players that have overperformed their expected draft value thus far in the season or players that we had thought might be overhyped, but have so far proved us wrong.
Fallers are just the opposite. They are players that have underperformed their expected draft value so far or players that we thought highly of but just haven’t been able to string together a couple of positive performances.
Risers 📈
Joachim Andersen
As predicted, Joachim Andersen is the top-scoring player in Fantrax after gameweek 3. All jokes aside, Andersen put on a clinic against Brentford including 4 Key Passes, 3 Tackles Won, 7 Aerials Won, and 2 Accurate Crosses. It’s still early and we’ve been fooled before when it comes to Andersen’s scoring, but he’s a reliable starter against any opponent not named Manchester City. With Wolves, Fulham, and Forest in the next 5 matches, keep riding high on Andersen.
Julian Alvarez
An injury to Kevin De Bruyne was a boost to Julian Alvarez owners, but 15+ points in his first 3 matches has them all salivating at the mouth. For as much as they dominate possession, City haven’t looked overly lethal in front of goal…YET! This is fantastic news for Alvarez owners and it looks like his partnership with Haaland is growing better by the minute. Just hope that Pep doesn’t overdo it tactically and rotate him too often.
Pedro Neto
Ghosting Forwards are difficult to come by, but Pedro Neto is carrying the creative weight for Wolves and it’s great to see him back to full fitness. Neto has already tallied 10 Key Passes in 3 matches and if Gary O’Neil can get this team firing in front of goal Neto will likely be the one to profit the most. There are still some question marks around this Wolves side, but I’m willing to start Neto against any opponent that won’t dominate possession like City, Arsenal, or Spurs (only 7 points against possession-heavy Brighton).
Yves Bissouma
He’s not going to set the world alight when it comes to fantasy points, but Bissouma has been an extremely reliable MID 3 so far this season. The engine of the Spurs midfield has amassed scores of 12, 8, and 13 and is racking up the successful dribbles and defensive stats. It’s unlikely that Bissouma will start to add goal contributions to his game, but he’s one of the first names on the Tottenham team sheet and his underlying ghost points label him a set-and-forget player in any manager’s team.
Raheem Sterling
A player that divided opinion coming into this season, Raheem Sterling looks like the most creative player in an inconsistent Chelsea side still trying to find their feet under Pochettino. Unfortunately for Sterling, he can’t go up against Luton Town every gameweek. Sterling is slowly developing chemistry with the dangerous Nicolas Jackson and the more this team gels, the more upside Sterling has. Always willing to take a player on, Sterling’s dribbling stats and Key Passes are enough to keep him in your starting lineup or possibly trade him out while his stock is rising.
Fallers 📉
Marcus Rashford
Manchester United and Marcus Rashford desperately need Rasmus Hojlund to work out, at least for the sake of Rashford’s fantasy output. It’s no surprise that Rashford’s first game playing in his favorable LW role resulted in his first goal contribution and his first adequate fantasy score. Rashford makes the fallers list because of a few question marks I have about Manchester United at the moment. Is Hojlund the guy and can he stay healthy? Can they create better cohesion on the field? Will ten Hag figure out his best XI? Until we see more, I’m cautious with Rashford.
Cody Gakpo
Zach and I ranked Darwin Nunez higher than most coming into this season because we felt he had the attributes to cement his spot in the number 9 role. His display at Newcastle, scoring twice in his 12 minutes on the pitch, surely propels him into Klopp’s starting XI, right?! Gakpo is probably more suited in a midfield role, where he played in the first two matches of the season, but with Szoboszlai looking dangerous and Liverpool’s defense not looking great, Gakpo could be the odd man out at the moment. With scores of 3.5, 6, and 4.5 and being subbed off around the 60th minute in each match, it may be time to test the waters and see what trade value he still has.
Diogo Dalot
The second Red Devil to make the fallers list (only because I couldn’t fit everyone but Bruno Fernandes on here) Diogo Dalot may seem a bit harsh, but he has looked anonymous in his 1 sub appearance and 1 start. Playing on the less preferred left-hand side doesn’t help his game and tucking in as an inverted full-back doesn’t leave him much room to get creative. Unfortunately, he’s got very little trade value but I’d try to offload him to a United supporter or the manager rostering Shaw or Wan-Bissaka.
Martin Odegaard
Something just doesn’t seem to be clicking in the Arsenal midfield and maybe it’s just a matter of settling in for Rice and Havetz. There was a bit of skepticism around Odegaard during preseason and the fact that without attacking returns (of which he had 22 last season) he just doesn’t have the output of a 1st or 2nd round midfielder. We’re seeing that come to fruition in the first 3 matches and without the PK goal in gameweek 2, Odegaard would have finished the match with only 6.5 points.
Richarlison
You could make the argument that Richarlison has been unlucky in front of goal and you could say he looks lost in Ange Postecoglou’s system (albeit not entirely Richarlison’s fault), both of those things may be true. But one thing we do know is that his Fantrax scores of 5.5, 2.5, and 1 are bad…really bad. I wouldn’t ditch Richy altogether just yet, but if he’s your FWD 1, you definitely need to make a trade to bolster your front line.
As always if you have suggested players to monitor as Risers or Fallers in future articles, leave us a comment or message us on Twitter @PL_OnTap!
