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Remember at school when it was time to play football and you had to pick teams. The horrible feeling of everyone getting picked one by one and still you are standing there thinking "WHAT!? No way Sam Smith is better than me"? Well that's the agony we are going to subject our multi-millionaire heroes to in today's article.
We will rank the saints squad fantasy value from first to worst by doing a draft.
The rules are simple and similar to when me and Tommy played the same game in the lead up to EURO 2016. This time we have more players to choose from so 6 members of our team will be picking their favourite players. Standard snake draft fantasy football rules. We will use the official fantasy football site points system and scores will be tallied up week by week.
So without further ado we go to the first pick. Paul Johnson you are on the clock:
Pick 1 - Paul Johnson:
"Van Dijk please"
And a reason?
"because he is damn good"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
VIRGIL VAN DIJK | DEF | £5.5m | 130 | 3.82 | 3060 | 89.47% |
Pick 2 - Jake Hughes:
"Dusan Tadic. David will know I'm his biggest fan* and I'm sure he's good for an assist!"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
DUSAN TADIC | MID | £7.5m | 157 | 6.16 | 2293 | 67.05% |
*Last season when Tadic couldn't get a game I said to Jake he is still our best player. He begged to differ. There was going to be an heated debate article about the disagreement until Dusan lit on fire and I felt bad about the idea of rubbing it in Jake's face
"I was going to take Dusan. Instead I'll go for Redmond. Dude will be playing up top with Tadic creating tons of chances for him. Will vastly improve on his Norwich stats of last season."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
NATHAN REDMOND | MID | £6.0m | 110 | 4.23 | 2339 | 68.39 |
Pick 4 - Tommy Scott
"Shane Long. 10-15 goals are coming this season, maybe a few assists. Love his work."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
SHANE LONG | FWD | £6.5m | 109 | 4.65 | 2111 | 61.73% |
Pick 5 - Dan Vaughan
"Austin for me then, purely as I need points up top. Fully fit I expect him to score 15+ this year - saints will need his goals!"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
CHARLIE AUSTIN | FWD | £6.5m | 208 | 6.49 | 208 | 6.08% |
Pick 6 & 7 - George Galpin
"Cedric and Forster for me. No doubting the fact that saints' strongest area so the clean sheets will help me points wise. Cedric's willingness to attack coupled with Puel's liking for the width to come from the full backs make him a good choice!"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
FRASER FORSTER | GKP | £5.0m | 68 | 3.78 | 1620 | 47.37% |
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
CEDRIC SOARES | DEF | £5.0m | 86 | 3.93 | 1971 | 57.63% |
Pick 8 - Dan Vaughan
"Gamble for me: Pied. The boss likes him, clean sheets, he is versatile and apparently plays as a winger at times..."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JEREMY PIED | DEF | £5.0m | - | - | - | - |
Pick 9 - Tommy Scott
"Hojbjerg for me then. He'll be in the middle of the diamond, and I wouldn't be surprised if his creativity gets him a few assists and some goals. We'll see."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
PIERRE-EMILE HOJBJERG | MID | £4.5m | - | - | - | - |
Pick 10 - David Williams
"I'll take Fonte. He won't leave... surely. Pierre and Oriol in front of him Van Dijk at his side, Forster behind. I foresee quite a few clean sheets"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JOSE FONTE | DEF | £5.5m | 127 | 3.61 | 3169 | 92.66% |
Pick 11 - Jake Hughes
"Steve Davis is next up for me. Notched up a few goals last season and he's everywhere on the pitch so could slip in a few assists too."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
STEVEN DAVIS | MID | £5.5m | 112 | 3.86 | 2611 | 76.35% |
Pick 12 & 13 - Paul Johnson
"Bertrand. He should be a permanent fixture and will chip in with the odd goal and assist"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
RYAN BERTRAND | DEF | £5.5m | 106 | 3.31 | 2880 | 84.21% |
... a silence befalls the drafting arena. Tension mounts as Paul takes his time announcing his third selection.
Some time later after receiving a nudge.
"It's been brought to my attention that I have another pick. And I'll go with JWP. This could be his year..."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JAMES WARD-PROWSE | MID | £5.5m | 80 | 4.70 | 1533 | 44.82% |
Pick 14 - Jake Hughes
"I'll go with Jordy Clasie. I think he should be a regular starter for Southampton this season and I really liked his performances last season - especially in the latter half of the 2015/16 campaign. Comfortable on the ball and happy to take it forward, Clasie could create a fair few chances for Saints this season and could even score a few goals himself."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JORDY CLASIE | MID | £5.0m | 43 | 2.50 | 1551 | 45.35% |
Pick 15 - David Williams
"God damn it! I wanted Clasie. I'll take Romeu. Yes he'll get minus points for yellow cards but he got a goal in pre-season and has been shooting from miles out all summer. Yes, they all went well wide, I live in hope one might "cuco" it's way into the back of the net."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
ORIOL ROMEU | MID | £4.5m | 45 | 2.52 | 1606 | 46.96% |
Pick 16 - Tommy Scott
"I'll take Ryan Bertrand. Ryan, once healthy, will be a full-time starter, and with a new mindset in getting full-backs up the pitch, he could be in for a good season."
Good try Tommy, but Ryan has already been selected...
"Whoops, that's what I get for not reading. Let me talk to the front office about a new pick."
"I guess I'll take Jay Rodriguez. He'll score this season as a backup (maybe)."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JAY RODRIGUEZ | MID | £6.5m | 14 | 3.64 | 346 | 10.12% |
Pick 17 - Daniel Vaughan
"Do cup games count?"
No, we are looking at the scores from official fantasy football game, premier league only.
"Lame. My players are so poor! Yoshi as he'll probably play the most and people give him too much stick for my liking."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
MAYA YOSHIDA | DEF | £4.5m | 52 | 4.62 | 1014 | 29.65% |
Pick 18 & 19 - George Galpin
""I'll take Matt Targett and Harry Reed!
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
MATT TARGETT | DEF | £4.5m | 61 | 5.14 | 1069 | 31.26% |
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
HARRISON REED | MID | £4.5m | 1 | 9.00 | 10 | 0.29% |
Pick 20 - Dan Vaughan
"Hesketh I guess... Slightly more likely to play than remainers"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
JAKE HESKETH | MID | - | - | - | - | - |
Pick 21 - Tommy Scott
"Alex McCarthy. Great #2 behind Fraser, but won't see much of the pitch in EPL play barring an injury."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
ALEX MCCARTHY | GKP | £4.5m | 20 | 2.86 | 630 | 18.42% |
Pick 22 - David Williams
"I'll take Cuco. His days appear to be numbered but he might get a few games before falling back to 3rd choice right back"
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
CUCO MARTINA | DEF | £4.5m | 36 | 2.99 | 1084 | 31.70% |
Pick 23 - Jake Hughes
"Gardos. If Fonte were to leave (I don't think he will and I pray he doesn't), Gardos could be in for some playing time."
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
FLORIN GARDOS | DEF | £4.0m | - | - | - | - |
Pick 24 - Paul Johnson
"Whoever is left. They're obviously shit because they're the last man left. I intend on turning them into sausages to fuel my three good players."
Sorry Sam.
Name | Position | Value | Points | Pts/90 | Mins | Time Played % |
SAM MCQUEEN | MID | - | - | - | - | - |
So there we have it the teams will line up as follows:
Paul Johnson | Jake Hughes | David Williams | Tommy Scott | Dan Vaughan | George Galpin |
Van Dijk | Tadic | Redmond | Long | Austin | Forster |
Bertrand | Davis | Fonte | Hojbjerg | Pied | Cedric |
Ward-Prowse | Clasie | Romeu | Rodriguez | Yoshida | Targett |
McQueen | Gardos | Martina | McCarthy | Hesketh | Reed |
So who is going to win? Which draft picks were good and bad? Which three saints have made it into your fantasy team? Have you even selected three? Let us know in the comments below.
If you haven't done so already, don't forget to join our leagues on the official site.
Standard scoring: 1480982-375102
Head-to-head: 1480982-375363
And make sure you keep your eyes on the site throughout the season for regular fantasy updates.