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 upon in your draft!
A sleeper is 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!
Nottingham Forest
There’s plenty of excitement surrounding Forest ahead of their first Premier League campaign in two decades. Out of the three promoted clubs, it’s Steve Cooper’s side that are also fancied most by Fantrax manager’s.
Brennan Johnson and old but new Fantrax toy Jesse Lingard are their most desired assets but I’d much prefer to wait on new striker Taiwo Awoniyi and flying wing back Neco Williams who racked up the ghost points in the Championship last season at Fulham.
Defensive stalwart Steve Cook’s aerial dominance and willingness to throw himself in front of anything should also see him become a very useful end of draft pick this season.
Southampton
From excitement to, well, Southampton. Outside of JWP, it’s hard to feel anything for any Saints players this season.
New boy Joe Aribo obviously possesses talent and appears to be going late on in drafts while full backs Kyle Walker Peters and Romain Perraud should provide useful value is the 4-2-2-2 formation is brought into action again.
Digging even deeper, you feel like if Nathan Tella is ever going to break through it has to be this season, while injury hit Stuart Armstrong is often worth streaming on a good gameweek. Neither are worth drafting anywhere before round 14 though, especially Tella with his injury.
Apart from that, you’re probably hoping for some late transfer window activity at St Mary’s!
Tottenham Hotspur
Plenty to look out for at Tottenham this season with their squad arguably looking stronger than ever.
The top assets will follow a regular pattern while plenty of competition inadvertently creates sleeper picks due to fear of rotation.
Richarlison will slip down many drafts due to rotation concerns but I see him getting more minutes than predicted. It’s at full back that it gets interesting though as Ivan Perisic is expected to be first choice at left wing back. Don’t rule out Ryan Sessegnon however. The young full back finished last season well and I think he starts the season while Perisic gets up to speed. Sess could be an early season bargain at round 11/12 or even later.
On the other side, it feels like it could be any from a list of four that takes the right wing back slot. Emerson Royal and Djed Spence should fall right to the end of most drafts with Matt Doherty expected to take up that spot. All of them should get decent minutes though and should score well when they do.
West Ham United
Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio grab most of the headlines in Fantrax drafts from the Hammers. Most of the talk will be who accompanies them if they stick with a forward three.
Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals both respectively enjoyed their best Premier League seasons so far in 2021/22 and both will look to establish themselves as a starter once more. Both are also falling far in drafts due to uncertainty around playing time.
Tomas Soucek has gone from Fantrax hero to zero in the space of a season but his aerial threat should mean he shouldn’t be overlooked.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
And finally, our Sleeper’s series is rounded off by Wolves! Morgan Gibbs White is the name that sticks out as he looks likely to be given his breakout season following a decent Championship campaign. He will surely take that number 10 role if Wolves do (as expected) steer away from the three at the back in favour of 4-2-3-1.
New boy Nathan Collins has also gone under the radar after a massively impressive season ending for Burnley. It remains to be seen whether he can reproduce the same numbers in a far different setup but his aerial dominance and threat from set pieces should see him become a very useful late round pick.
Fantasy Football 92 