West Ham top picks for FPL

The Premier League season is edging closer and closer along with the Official Fantasy game. Because of this we direct our focus towards the West Ham top picks in FPL. Analysing their defensive and offensive stats from last season to pick out their best fantasy players.

Looking at the West Ham top picks in FPL can be extremely helpful to managers. ‘The Hammers’ won European silverware last season but failed to covert that success into the league as they finished in 14th place. But before looking at their players, lets take a look at their early fixtures.

Fixture ticker

West Ham sit 19th on the season ticker. They face Bournemouth, Chelsea, Brighton, Luton, Manchester City and Liverpool in their first six matches. This is an early indicator to avoid investment in the West Ham assets early on.

The West Ham defence

West Ham maintained a mid-table level of defensive stats last campaign – ranking:

Ninth worst for goals conceded (55)
Ninth worst for shots on target conceded (170)
Ninth worst for expected goals conceded (54.33)

West Ham defensive assets

Below we compare the West Ham defensive options in terms of reliability and goal threat.

Firstly it is important to compare minutes played to gage how important they are to their team.

In the graphic we can see that goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m) played the most minutes with 3103. left-back Aaron Cresswell (£4.5m) played the second most minutes (2246). Full-back and centre-back Thilo Kehrer (£4.5m) played the third most minutes (2233).

Centre-backs Kurt Zouma (£4.5m) and Nayef Aguerd (£4.5m) ranked fifth and sixth for minutes although both suffered periods of injury.

It could also be worth comparing the goal threat of the West Ham defenders.

We can see that Aaron Cresswell leads the way in terms of non-penalty expected goal involvement with 3.20. Following him are Nayef Aguerd (2.49) Kurt Zouma (2.35).

The standout defensive options look to be centre-backs Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma who although affected by injuries last season are the least likely to be rotated – considering they played far less minutes than other options they still managed to create impressive NPXGI data.

The goalkeeper situation is always something to monitor – if Alphonse Areola takes the number one role he would be the only £4m playing goalkeeper in the game.

The West Ham attack

The Hammers were underwhelming last season in terms of attack – ranking:

Eight worst for goals (42)
Sixth worst for shots on target (141)
11th worst for expected goals (50.74)

West Ham offensive assets

We now compare the minutes and attacking data of all midfielders and strikers last season.

In terms of minutes midfielder Jarrod Bowen (£7m) played the most with 3230. Central midfielders Tomas Soucek (£5m) and Lucas Paqueta (£6m) sit second and third for minutes played. Midfielder Said Benrahma (£6m) played 2094 minutes.

Michail Antonio (£6m) played fifth most minutes with 1861 whilst fellow striker Danny Ings (£6m) follows close behind (1652).

In the graphic below we can see all of the attackers compared.

Once again, Jarrod Bowen edges all of the other options after registering 13.84 non-penalty expected goal involvement. Strikers Danny Ings and Michail Antonio ranked second and third for NPXGI (8.29 and 7.39).

Said Benrahma ranked fourth for NPXGI with 7.17.

The standout attacking option is of course Jarrod Bowen who came top of both minutes played and NPXGI. The second best option could be between Michail Antonio, Danny Ings and Said Benrahma – all of their pre-season minutes should be monitored.

Pre-season notes

West Ham have played five matches so far – they have won three, drawn one and lost one.
In the five matches they have played they have failed to keep a single clean sheet but scored 16 goals.
Amongst the goals was Jarrod Bowen (three), Danny Ings (two) and striker Gianluca Scamacca (£6m – two).

West Ham top picks

Alphonse Areola (monitoring his pre-season minutes will be key)
Kurt Zouma
Nayef Aguerd
Jarrod Bowen
Michail Antonio, Danny Ings or Said Benrahma (monitoring their pre-season minutes will be key)