Adelaide United captain Craig Goodwin heads into the FIFA Men’s World Cup break as the ‘fantasy king’, after scoring a season-high 27 points, along with a six-figure increase in price to make him the competition’s most prized asset.
Days after having his place locked in the Socceroos’ World Cup squad, Goodwin came out with a vengeance on Friday night, putting his name up for a start in Australia’s opener against defending champions France in just over a week’s time.
Goodwin scored Adelaide’s second goal, before teeing up Ben Warland for the Reds’ third in their romping 3-0 win over rivals Melbourne Victory – helping him along to his highest score of the season and a $103.5k price increase.
Only Goodwin is averaging more than 20 points per-game over the last three weeks (23.7 ppg).
Incredibly, Goodwin is now the most expensive player in the game at $730K, which is $120K clear of second-highest scorer and national team team-mate Jamie Maclaren of Melbourne City at $610K.
The winger is only in 35.8% of teams and with that price tag, fantasy owners will need to find a way to clear cap space in order to fit him in – or wait for a potential price-drop in the weeks to follow.
Goalscoring defenders headline Team of the Week
While Goodwin was the week’s highest scorers, a number of defenders showcased what they could do at the other end of the pitch to emerge in this week’s best fantasy XI.
Warland’s whopping 23 points was helped by a 91st-minute sealer, coupled by keeping a clean sheet against Victory’s famed attacking quartet – which failed to fire against the Reds.
After scoring -1 a week prior, Western United’s Jacob Tratt also helped himself to 19 points, with his header kick-starting their incredible fightback on Sunday afternoon, but caution must be exercised when considering him for your team as both Tomoki Imai and Nikolai Topor-Stanley are set to return after the break.
Rounding out the back three is Jonathan Aspropotamitis, who scored his first ever professional goal in Macarthur FC’s last-gasp 3-2 win over Central Coast Mariners and came in with a score of 15 points – which wasn’t helped by the two goals they leaked.
Another first goal-scorer was Melbourne City midfielder Richard Van der Venne, who helped himself to 19 points.
Alternative striker options emerge
Most fantasy players have built their attack around the likes of Maclaren and Jason Cummings, but a number of other options have begun to emerge who could serve as an alternative or as a compliment to their solid early-season form.
City’s Marco Tilio ($429K) and Adelaide’s Hiroshi Ibusuki ($374K) have emerged as potential ‘point of difference’ players, averaging 14.7 ppg each over the last three games – while sitting in 3.4% and 4.7% of teams respectively.
Tilio has made the most of his run in the starting XI, scoring two goals going into the weekend before and adding an assist against the Jets, while Ibusuki has scored in each of his last three games.
The other, who could provide a quick boost after the break, is Garang Kuol (and $356K), who despite being on the way out in January has averaged 13.3 points over the last three weeks – headlined by his 23 points against the Bulls.
Incredibly, he’s done all of this as a substitute and similarly to the aforementioned duo is only in 6.0% of teams.
Then there’s Western United’s Aleksandar Prijovic. The Joe Marston medallist roared back into form with a goal off the bench in his first game of the season and 11 points, as a result.
Given it’s more than likely he will be back in the starting lineup at some stage after the resumption, Prijovic looms as a cut-price option at only $367K.
Others to keep an eye on are Prijovic’s Western team-mate Connor Pain (12.3 average in last three), Western Sydney Wanderers’ Brandon Borrello (10.3 avg) and City’s Mathew Leckie (9.7 average).
