Fantasy Football: Why having Aguero and Ibrahimovic is essential
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Deciding how many and which of the heavy hitters to pick is one of the biggest dilemmas facing Fantasy Football managers ahead of the start of any season.
With five strikers priced at £10m or more and three midfielders valued in the same bracket, there are plenty of avenues for managers to explore when targeting the expensive assets.
Perhaps the largest predicament of all this term is whether to go with both Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – the two priciest options at £13m and £11.5m respectively. Getting the pair takes up the best part of a quarter of the total budget that needs to stretch across 15 players.
However, there is a clear reason why it makes sense to head into week one with the two Manchester frontmen.
Bandwagons tend to form early in the season as fantasy managers use up transfers on acquiring players that have started the campaign impressively. Riyad Mahrez saw his price rise from £5.5m to £6.5m last season on the back of a blistering start which saw the collection of double-figure-point hauls in six of the first seven weeks.
Significantly, the Leicester man was relatively easy to transfer in for many managers because he was so cheap. If Aguero or Ibrahimovic fly out of the blocks, managers won’t find it so easy to free up the funds to bring either in.
The only real ways will be to take a points hit by making numerous transfers or even playing the available wildcard.
On the flip side, if Aguero or Ibrahimovic fail to start well, pick up injuries or look candidates to be regularly substituted, their hefty price tag makes them ideal candidates to be transferred out of a team at an early stage. The available funds generated also make it easy to jump on any other bandwagons that pick up steam.
For example, if Jamie Vardy scores in the first two matches, managers will be scrambling to get him in for £10m. For those who only have Aguero alongside two other strikers costing £8m or less, finding the additional budget will be challenging.
By having both Manchester City striker and the Swedish veteran, ditching either for Vardy is far easier and provides some loose change on the side to sort out other potential squad issues.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
