Fantasy WSL Top Tips: Get ready for Gameweek 6

The Cutback's Fantasy WSL expert Ro Thomas helps answer some of your selection dilemmas

Are you flummoxed by your WSL Fantasy team? Are you slipping down the rankings week by week? Are you struggling to balance your budget, drop your emotional-support defence, find a fit forward? 

Well, I am here to help.

I’m a spreadsheet monkey in my day job, and a football lad by night. I realised through the first block of WSL games that I was getting blinded by my love for Arsenal, and needed a more objective view to help plan my fantasy teams week by week. 

I’ve put as much data as I can find into a spreadsheet, run the numbers, and will share a couple of insights each game week so The Cutback’s Fantasy WSL managers can be more Gareth Taylor and less Gareth Fail-er.

A caveat: like all investment advice, past performance is no guarantee of future football results. ‘Black swan’ events that are near impossible to predict (injuries, games called off last minute or Chelsea’s diarrhoea disaster of 2021) can throw the best laid fantasy plans up in the air. Please take these insights as a guide, and do not sue me if the price of a player rockets on my recommendation.

Equally, you might for some reason want to keep a still-injured Sam Kerr in your team as a talisman, for pure vibes, as 2.1% of people clearly do. You do you. 

Let’s get into it. First we have a round up of the opening five games of the season. In real life, this saw Manchester City top the table, with 13 points, ahead of Chelsea who are still to play their fifth match (recently confirmed as a double game week on Sunday 24^th November). In Fantasy WSL world, Man City’s fortunes have been less glittering, as their players collectively have scored 238 points, well below Chelsea whose seven-goal stormer against Crystal Palace means they’ve rocketed to the top of the table on 272 points. 

As a reminder, players pick up points for goals and assists; defenders and keepers for clean sheets and shot stopping; and there are bonus points for players having particularly great games. Some players also gain additional ‘Visionary’ points for being the hipsters choice, i.e. only being selected by less than two percent of Fantasy WSL managers.   

It will be no surprise that Chelsea’s Johanna Rytting Kaneryd is the top-scoring player so far, with a whopping 35 points - 18 of them coming in that 5-2 win against Tottenham. Two goals and an assist bumped up her score in a fantastic performance. With two goals over the international break, she doesn’t appear to be slowing down, and her stock has predictably risen, with her price rising to £9.2m from £9.1m just over the last week. She is still only the fourth-highest priced midfielder, so there might still be time to get her at a good price. 

What might be more surprising is the best value player (calculated by dividing their points by their price). For the biggest bang for your fantasy buck, look no further than Crystal Palace’s Shae Yanez. Priced at just £4m, she has delivered 30 points so far this season. Visionary points helped along the way here, though sadly as more managers have cottoned on she’s no longer in the mix for these. However, she is still racking up bonuses thanks to the sheer amount of shot stopping she has had to do. In the opening match against Tottenham, she completed over 12 saves, gaining four points on top of those awarded for minutes played. These, plus two bonus points, neutralised the penalties picked up for conceding four goals.

Despite these impressive stats, it’s Chelsea’s goalkeeper Hannah Hampton who is the most selected player across not only all keepers, but all outfield players too. She is owned by 48% of of Fantasy WSL managers. Despite this, Hampton has only gained 15 points this season, making her the 10^th best choice across the WSL keepers. She is likely hampered by Chelsea being stronger overall across the pitch; she only has received one point so far for making three saves in a game and is unlikely to pick up Visionary points any time soon. 

Although I won’t give away all my secrets this first week, I’ll leave you with a pick for the WSL’s return: Celin Bizet Ildhusøy, Manchester United’s queen of assists. She has picked up a brilliant 24 points so far, making her the second-highest scoring Visionary player. After cementing her place in the team after the first two games, she seems to have momentum on her side. She picked up another assist in Norway’s 9-0 drubbing of Albania in the break and will be raring to go against Arsenal on Sunday.

Join me next time when I’ll be reflecting on the top movers in both points and picks. You might even be party to some more tips from the super spreadsheet.

If you’d like advice on your Fantasy WSL team drop a question in the comments and Ro will answer it the next edition.