You can’t win or lose a league at the draft but you can get a head start! How do you do that? By identifying those sleepers that you can wait until the right moment to pounce open in your draft!
A sleeper is basically a player that you can pick up in a draft much later than they probably should be due to a poor previous campaign or for other similar reasons. I great example from last season is Jarrod Bowen who went between round six and round eight in most drafts but after a stellar season went on to finish at the 7th best player in the whole game. Bargain!
In this part of the draft kit, we run through each Premier League team picking out potential sleepers to watch out for in your draft. In this one we start with the game of Tuchel roulette at Chelsea and run through to Leeds United!
Chelsea
The Chelsea merry-go-round rotation looks set to continue under Thomas Tuchel. The imminent arrival of Raheem Sterling will only seek to crowd those forward positions but expensive flop Romelu Lukaku’s departure will only make already popular pick Kai Havertz more nailed on, bumping up his draft value a few places.
The obvious sleeper here is Ben Chilwell who missed a large chunk of the last campaign through serious injury. A fully fit Chilwell is undoubtedly an elite Fantrax defender flying forward from left wing back but his revious lay off will probably see him fall further than he should in drafts. Round four should be good value for Chilwell.
If you want a slice of the attack, Christian Pulisic’s ADP from mock drafts is around the 96 mark, It’s far from guaranteed that he will see minutes once again this season but grabbing him in round nine is hardly expensive for a player of his talents.
Crystal Palace
Patrick Vieira turned Crystal Palace into an exciting attacking outfit in the space of 12 months last season and you can do far worse than getting a slice of their attack in this summer’s drafts. The loss of Connor Gallagher will be one that’s felt but getting his replacement in could prove to be lucrative.
That replacement could easily be Eberechi Eze who enjoyed some minutes in the number ten role following his return from injury towards the back end of last season. Early mock drafts have seen him going in round eight which should be an absolute bargain if Eze continues to star in a central role.
Most other players bar Wilf Zaha and Michael Olise are streamable, the latter of which I think could be in for a huge season following an exciting first Premier League campaign.
Everton
An absolute disaster for Frank Lampard’s Everton sees almost all of their draftable assets fall into the Sleepers category this season. Talisman Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the most notable faller this season. After being taking at the end of the first/beginning of the second last season, DCL’s torrid campaign meant he was almost droppable three quarters of the way through the season.
Everton simply can’t be as bad as last season so any upturn in form should surely see Calvert-Lewin reutning to something close to his best form and is a starting forward in any Fantrax roster going forward. His ADP has him going in round five which could be a top bargain by the season’s end.
Fancy a left field sleeper? Surely the once supremely talented Dele Alli is due a comeback at some stage. A good pre-season could be the platform for that but even if he doesn’t you’re probably only using a very late pick on the former England man. Well worth a late punt!
Fulham
It’s always difficult to pick out differential picks from a newly promoted side ahead of the draft but bar talisman Aleksander Mitrovic, most of their assets should fall quite far down the draft board.
Harry Wilson is an intriguing one as it looks like he’s finally going to get a fair crack at the big time following another lucrative Championship campaign. He should dominate set pieces and is the Fulham player we’re most interested in drafting this summer. Anywhere from round eight onwards looks to be excellent value for the former Liverpool star who has been desperate to perform on the big stage for years now.
Fulham’s last Premier League campaign was a pretty awful one but Antonee Robinson was probably their most useable Fantrax asset charging forward from left back. You should be able to grab Robinson towards the bank end of the draft and he should be a useful late addition to your defence from round 13 onwards.
Leeds United
Like Everton, a torrid campaign for Leeds last time should see plenty of their players fall in this season’s draft, bar Raphinha of course.
In Patrick Bamford, Leeds probably possess the sleepiest sleeper of them all thanks to his injury laiden season in 2021/22. You’d probably have needed to use a 2nd round pick to secure Bamford on your roster last summer but injury after injury will have led most managers to have dropped the forward to the waiver wire by the turn of the year.
This season will be far better for Bamford (because it can’t physically be worse) and his injury turmoil means that you may be able to get hold of him in the sixth/seventh round this time. Not bad for a player who scored 17 Premier League goals two seasons ago.
Jack Harrison is another one who suffered a fall from grace last season, owing to poor form rather than injury. He should still be considered around the 6th round mark this season after a much improved second half of the season but won’t be taken in round three or four like he was a year ago.
Fantasy Football 92 