Fantasy WSL Top Tips: Get ready for Gameweek 8

Our Fantasy WSL expert Ro Thomas looks ahead to a big double gameweek

The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster for many a Fantasy WSL manager, with reliable players subject to rest, rotation and in Lucy Bronze’s case laser eye surgery.

We have a couple of weeks’ worth of data to look through since the first report, with a few standout performances. I also want to give you something to think about for the next couple of weeks, especially as there is a huge opportunity on the horizon with the rearranged Chelsea vs Manchester United game counting as part of Gameweek 8 alongside their other fixtures. 

Quick health warning for Key Stage 3 mathematics: this piece may refer to reversion to the mean and standard deviation. For those of you who spent your teenage years wondering when algebra would be relevant to real life, I bet you never foresaw that it would be for fantasy football. 

First off, we have to give Bunny Shaw her flowers as the undisputed star of the season so far. Kudos to all those who captained her this week and I bow down to those who managed to play the Triple Captain card. With 17 points from three goals, three additional bonus points, plus over 60 minutes played, she outperformed her previous best performance against Liverpool in Gameweek 4 where she scored 12 points.

This makes Shaw the player with the highest points per game week at 7.4. A small moment of caution before you all rush to captain her for the next game. Firstly, her 17 points represented the biggest difference between the latest Gameweek points and the average of any player. Secondly, statistics would suggest this outperformance would be unlikely to continue. Finally, looking at the top players, Shaw has one of the more variable set of fantasy performances (for the mathematicians amongst us she has the second highest standard deviation of the top players).

All of these factors might make the betting manager think Shaw might be less likely to perform at this level in the coming gameweek – and this is especially the case as City’s next opponents are title-rivals Chelsea. Only you can make that choice. However, holding out for the long run is no bad thing with Bunny proving a Shaw thing on a total of 52 fantasy points through this season so far, the highest of all forwards.

Marie-Therese Höbinger is a prime example of an how an above-average big performance one week may result in something less spectacular the following week. The Liverpool forward scored twice in their victory over Tottenham in Gameweek, scoring 15 points. Since then she has only picked up a total of seven over four games.

There were two tough opponents in that mix, Manchester City and Chelsea, but Aston Villa and Crystal Palace may have been opportunities where managers would have expected her to shine a little more brightly. Liverpool’s next big match is the Merseyside derby against Everton and you can’t help but feel that unless she can pull a big game out of the bag then she’ll be on a few more transfer lists.

West Ham had a great Gameweek 6 with their 1-0 win over Leicester City rewarding several of their players after a less than glowing start to the season. It was a fruitful weekend for West Ham’s defenders as Shelina Zadorsky picked up 11 points alongside Anouk Denton and Li Mengwen on 10 and nine, respectively. Crucially, all of these picks are Fantasy WSL ‘Visionary’ players (players that score extra points for being owned by a small percentage of managers).

This was West Ham’s first clean sheet of the season and only Arsenal’s Katie McCabe scored more defensive points last week (on account of an assist). West Ham’s goalscorer Viviane Asseyi racked up nine points, with a season total of 29 boosted by her two previous assists. She’s only selected by 2.2% of managers, just above the 2.0% required to be a visionary, but congratulations to anyone who picked her out this week. 

A quick look forward: a manager would be remiss not to consider including Chelsea and Manchester United players this week given double chances to pick up points. This weekend, Chelsea face Manchester City while Manchester United play Leicester.

You would fancy United’s defence to have potential to score big against Leicester, who have only put two goals away all season. However, United are likely to be challenged by a Chelsea on imperious scoring form when the two meet for a rearranged fixture on 24 November.

This weekend, Chelsea undoubtedly have the tougher match up against City. Given this, I am going to make sure United’s Maya Le Tissier is in my team, and likely back one of the stalwart Chelsea midfield pair of Johanna Rytting Kaneryd or Guro Reiten. This offers me the chance to benefit if Chelsea manage a clean sheet against a wavering United. Both JRK and Reiten are players who love a big game and can bring out their best under pressure. I cannot wait to see whether they can keep Bunny Shaw and co quiet.

Even if things don’t go your way for these next fixtures, there’s no doubt the next few weeks will be tasty to watch. It’s always remembering as your faves are benched or left out of the team sheet with no explanation (I’m ruing selecting Palace’s Annabel Blanchard last week), this is just a game!