Fantrax and Football

Doku delivers 24 ghost points, Kevin Schade’s scores fall off a cliff, and Bournemouth keep giving us reasons to buy in. Tim and Karl shake off another painful Newcastle watch to break down Gameweek 9 and pick out the Fantrax moves worth making ahead of GW10.

Is Declan Rice now a better asset than Florian Wirtz? Why does Morgan Rogers still feel riskier than Cole Palmer when their numbers are almost identical? And what do you do with Schade when his trade value has hit the floor?

Plus:

• Brighton beat City, while Doku and Elliot Anderson reward patient managers.
• Evanilson, Tavernier and Bournemouth’s defence keep delivering.
• Mathys Tel backs up the hype as Spurs start to click.
• Jack Rudoni and Nicolas Jackson strengthen their claims as waiver-wire bargains of the season.
• Why reliable floors matter—and what this season’s top defenders tell us about draft strategy.
• GW10 waiver targets, including Abdoul Ouattara, Wesley Fofana, Ian Maatsen and Abdukodir Khusanov.

There’s also a recap of last week’s Starts of the Week, with Tel earning Tim the bragging rights. This week’s picks will follow in an article ahead of GW10.

Find more fantasy football analysis and weekly waiver-wire articles at draftacademical.com.

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Bruno’s on the bench, Nicolas Jackson is flying, and Mathys Tel is back on the Fantrax radar. Tim and Karl welcome Discord regular and waiver-wire contributor Luke for a Gameweek 8 breakdown and a look ahead to GW9.

The lads debate what Bruno Fernandes owners should do next, whether Jackson’s hot streak can last, and why Oscar Bobb’s growing influence deserves your attention. There’s also Bournemouth’s attacking resurgence, Newcastle’s defensive reshuffle, and the familiar dilemma of trusting players who deliver—when they actually start.

Plus:

• Injury and availability updates on Palmer, Wirtz, Maddison and more.
• Tel’s appeal ahead of Spurs’ upcoming fixtures.
• GW9 waiver targets, defensive pickups and forward stashes.
• How to navigate a painfully thin midfield waiver wire.
• Starts of the Week: Sepp van den Berg, Jaka Bijol and Mathys Tel.

Along the way, Luke explains his 7–1 listener-league start, Karl makes the case for Fantrax favourites, and Tim reveals why Dominic Solanke is haunting his dreams.

Find more fantasy football analysis and weekly waiver-wire articles at draftacademical.com. Join the conversation in the official Fantrax & Football Discord:
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Karl and Gary are back with Tim after a long international break and a missed week celebrating Canadian thanksgiving to unpack GW7. We open with a trivia question on the team that’s created 11.5 xG but scored just five goals, then dig into the season’s biggest xG over- and underperformers.

In the headlines, we ask whether Chelsea’s first clean sheet in nine months is real and what Emi Martinez’s broken jaw means for his owners. We also cover Florian Wirtz’s nine key passes against nine-man Brentford, Kovacic’s cameo and Semenyo’s injury at City, and whether Vuskovic is now the best defender in Fantrax. Then it’s Dalot’s recent form at United, whether Bruno is washed, Eze’s struggles at Arsenal and Newcastle’s worrying slide.

Next, we look at whether Forest will find their finishing under Glasner and who takes Liverpool’s set pieces with Szoboszlai out. We also run an overreaction-or-real check on Brighton, Bournemouth and Pedro Neto.

As always, the lads finish up with the waiver wire ahead of GW8.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro and xG trivia
• 04:00 Spurs v Coventry
• 07:45 GW7 headlines
• 38:40 Can Forest find their goals?
• 43:15 Liverpool set pieces without Szoboszlai
• 45:55 Overreaction or real?
• 53:50 Waiver wire: defenders, midfielders, forwards
• 1:13:05 Outro

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GW5 is in the books and, before a three-week international break, Karl's back from his travels and long-time Discord member Ian joins for his first appearance. A get-to-know-you on the Brighton-supporting American opens things up before the lads dig into the weekend.

They run the headlines. A 41-point masterclass in a City goal-fest, Doku back off the bench and the rotation questions his return reopens, and a proper look at whether the summer's big-money winger move to Liverpool is already a bust. Then a new segment for the season: Hold, Trade or Drop, a Fantrax spin on the old snog-marry-avoid, run through a stack of names the Discord has been agonising over, from a stalling Brentford man to a Chelsea defence nobody can trust and a winger or two worth cashing in on now.

It closes with the GW6 waiver wire across every position (Gary's now writing the weekly article over at draftacademical.com), and a rundown of the packed international-break slate: early-season awards with Sean summoned to answer for his crimes, the usual Gazettes, and the first-ever Gazette for the podcast league.

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GW4 is in the books, Gary's back for a second week while Karl's still off travelling, and a sniffling Tim soldiers on through the school-run cold. It's the last regular pod before the international break, with special episodes to come.

The lads run the weekend's headlines. The City sending-off that reopened the whole rotation debate, a couple of low-owned defenders emerging as genuinely trustworthy holds, and the honest question of whether a red-hot Bournemouth midfielder is a genuine top-ten asset or a sell-high trap once the goals dry up.

Then the mini-mailbag, aimed once again at the one host who'll happily disagree, and closing out with the usual waiver wire and start of the week picks.

Full waiver breakdown and data at draftacademical.com.

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Gary's finally back on the show, and with Karl off on holiday, three win Ricky B steps in to review Game Week Three, just as his beloved Man United throw one away at Everton.

The lads run the weekend's headlines. The rat finally shows up at Liverpool to haunt Ipswich, Tyrique George may have had his breakout game, and there's honest debate over whether a couple of hot starts are real or a mirage worth selling high on. Then the centrepiece: a not-so-mini mailbag aimed squarely at Gary, the one man on the show who'll happily disagree. When exactly do you hit the panic button on a good draft gone cold? What's a fair return in a two-player package deal? And with the City's Maresca Merry-go-round, is any of their attack outside Haaland worth holding? The Discord's questions get proper, occasionally combative answers.

It closes with a twist on the usual waiver segment, a quickfire "drop or not" on the highly owned names driving everyone mad, before the pickups worth chasing for GW4 and each host's start of the week. Full waiver breakdown and data at draftacademical.com.

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A first for the podcast: our debut cross-pod collaboration, with Keefe from Draft Offsides joining Tim and Karl.

The lads open with the transfers that have landed since last week, including Barcola to Liverpool, and how much you should spend on him in FAAB leagues. From there it's a full review of GW2, before the three of them get into their over- and under-reactions from the opening fortnight, with an outside voice in the mix to keep everyone honest.

It wraps with the GW3 waiver wire across every position and the start of the week picks. Full waiver breakdown and all the data at draftacademical.com.

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⚠️ Quick heads-up: some faint background audio (what sounds like a radio broadcast) bleeds into parts of this episode. It's audio interference from the virtual studio we use to record, not your device — not a rogue tab, and nothing you can fix by skipping ahead. We're chasing down the cause. Apologies, and thanks for bearing with us.

Football's back and Game Week One is in the books, so the lads sit down for the first proper in-season review, with Duncan back on the mic for the weekend wrap. The season format takes shape here: performance reactions, waiver targets, and a start of the week pick to round things off.

They run the GW1 talking points. Brighton dismantling a dismal Villa, whether Everton are a right-back away from a top-ten side, Brentford making Spurs look ordinary and the Rolls-Royce debut of the summer's most slept-on signing, plus a sober look at Man United after an opening-weekend shock. Then the first Believe It or Not of the year, where they over- and under-react to week-one showings: a certain nineteen-point winger's debut (and a well-earned victory lap), the two Brighton names everyone's chasing, whether you buy into the promoted-team defenders, and which reactions to keep and which to bin. There's a genuinely useful waiver-wire deep dive across every position, complete with the Luke Shaw Index for deciding who's rosterable and who's wire fodder, and honest debate over the set-piece merchants worth a claim.

It closes with each host's start of the week for GW2 and a reminder that it's about how you finish, not how you start. As always, the data comes from draftacademical.com, where the waiver-wire article now lands before the waiver deadline.

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A big first for the podcast: this one's recorded live, on video, with the community watching and chatting along. Tim and Karl (faces finally attached to the voices) run a season-opening Gazette while the last of the seven listener leagues drafts in real time in the background.

They go league by league through the six drafts already done, armed with ruthless verdicts sent in by each commissioner. The best and worst picks, the surprise steals, the stacks, the manager who tanked his whole season in round five, and the running joke of certain players following certain hosts around every single year. Sean's in the live draft too, so he gets no mercy. Between rounds, the lads take a stack of mailbag questions from the Discord: whether blowing your entire FAAB budget on one post-draft signing ever works, how to think about the no-defenders-early principle, where Doku's injury drops him now, which players' stock has risen and fallen most since the club-by-club series, and how to set a multipositional player's slot. Plus the horse-sized-duck question a Newcastle-heavy chat had no business answering.

It wraps with score predictions for opening weekend and the small matter of how you seed placement leagues when a seventh one throws off your perfectly balanced maths. Recorded live on August 20th, the night before kickoff.

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The season is days away and the drafts are done, so the lads sit down to review how their own boards played out and plant their flags for the year ahead. Gary's back in the UK and can't join live, but he's sent voice notes with his draft, his plant-a-flag pick and his fade, which the crew react to in real time.

First, a quick word on last-minute moves, including the deadline-day injury that sparked the great Doku bail (and the community's ruthless verdict on it). Then the draft reviews: three leagues, three very different boards, and a running theme that ADP was close to useless this year once the middle rounds hit. The lads work through their own hauls, the picks they'd defend to the death, the ones they already regret, and the wildest decisions their league mates made, up to and including a manager who drafted four goalkeepers.

It closes with the return of the Plant Your Flag segment: each host names a player going outside the top fifty they're backing to smash their ADP, and, new for this year, waves a white flag on a top-fifty name they think is badly overpriced. Whoever's fade finishes highest come May has to answer for it.

Draft still to come, or want the in-season tools? Everything runs through draftacademical.com and the Discord:
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The first mailbag of the season lands fresh off the back of twenty club episodes and the best part of twenty hours in the recording chair. Fifteen listener questions, answered raw with no prep, as the lads and the community count down to draft weekend.

They dig into the questions that matter before you draft. How to play the turn and whether you sweat positional balance early, the Nico O'Reilly versus Ait-Nouri debate and a genuinely useful tangent on how multipositional eligibility can swing a player's value by ninety points. Then the fun ones: each host's biggest reaches versus ADP and their absolute avoids, the "is Palmer over Saka at three actually insane" question, and everyone's single most underrated, under-drafted name. There's the zero-defenders-early philosophy put under proper scrutiny, the case for taking a forward early to avoid the positional run, and a closing question on how your whole strategy shifts in smaller leagues.

Plenty of names get a round attached and a few get a warning, all filtered through the hard-won lesson that draft day is still, in the end, a bit of a vibe. Recorded the week before the season, so good luck to everyone drafting this weekend.

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The Club x Club series takes on the summer's second-biggest spenders, Tottenham, and it's a minefield: a raft of new signings, a pile of injuries and returning players, and a stack of transfer rumours the lads have no answers to yet. Lots of question marks, and a De Zerbi side that could go either way.

They work the board. The one defender all three would break their rules for and take in the second round, the returning winger the group is buying on vibes and one-game-a-week appeal despite the ghost-point worries, and the most polarizing name of the episode, a former star with no recent data whose entire value rides on getting fit and staying fit. There's a proper breakdown of the crowded, unsettled centre-back picture and who actually starts, the run on Spurs players the hosts predict and pinpoint to a specific round, and the striker question, a rental-priced option versus an injured higher pick. Plus the left-wing sleeper the lads love if no winger arrives, and a couple of late fliers.

It closes honestly: more questions than answers, one elite asset, one high-upside gamble, and one potential steal if the stars align. Recorded on August 12th, so expect the rumours to resolve fast.

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The Club x Club series turns to Nottingham Forest, and Karl, who volunteered for this one, thinks their assets are about to be badly undervalued. Glasner ball at Forest, with better players than he had at Palace, sets up a wing-back-and-defender goldmine that the lads reckon most drafters will sleep on.

They map it out. Where the first-round midfielder lands and the live debate over whether a deeper role dents his value, the wing-back the group would happily reach for and rates as the best of the rest at the back, and a run of centre-backs going almost undrafted that could all return value under a sit-deep, whip-it-in system. There's the Palace blueprint applied throughout, you want the defenders and the number tens, not the strikers, plus the eternal "who starts up front" question that all three would rather just avoid. Deep sleepers get their moment too: the World Cup breakout with numbers that don't back the hype, the returning loanees, and a couple of last-round fliers worth a watch-list slot.

The takeaway: any Forest defender is value this year, and the smart money is buried late in the draft. Timestamped to August 12th.

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The Club x Club series gets to Fulham, and Tim doesn't hide the sarcasm: this is a squad he fancies for the drop, now run by a rookie manager fresh off a rough Real Madrid stint, having lost their set-piece taker, their striker and more. Not a lot to work with, but the lads go hunting for value anyway.

They run the handful of names actually being drafted. The unproven Real Madrid striker who could be a Michu-level bargain or a total bust, and exactly when you'd gamble on him. The former Mr Reliable creator whose position under the new boss is a genuine mystery, the two "first-name" wingers going late that split the room, and the returning full-back the group rates highly on his best form but can't trust to hold down a starting spot. Plus the late-round dart throws worth a punt only if the price is basically free, and a running theme of Tim's about why the real value at these rounds sits with defenders, not Fulham's forwards.

It closes on a blunt hot take: the new manager is gone by Christmas and Fulham join two of the promoted sides on the way down. Everything's timestamped to August 10th.

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The Club x Club series reaches Sunderland, and with three Newcastle fans on the mic, Sean draws the short straw of researching the enemy. Last season's surprise package are back in the top flight and into Europe, and the big question hanging over the whole episode is whether a squad that punched miles above its weight can do it again with two games a week.

The lads work through the assets that matter. The number ten the group would happily take if he keeps that role, weighed against the Europe risk and the same cluster of names that comes up every episode. Then the defenders that won people cup ties last season: Tim's beloved ghost-point machine, the more consistent alternative going a round or two later, and the deep-cut third option that carries the least risk of all. There's a genuine disagreement over the goal-dependent striker everyone will want to draft, a would-you-rather run on an aging set-piece midfielder, and the returning full-back the hosts can't quite decide on.

It closes, as these Newcastle-heavy episodes tend to, with a full-blown rant about why you should never draft a big-club goalkeeper, plus the first proper plug for the newly launched Draft Academical portal and the save-percentage data behind the argument. Everything's timestamped to August 10th.

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With Gary safely absent, the podcast becomes a fully biased Newcastle fans' cast, and resident Geordie Karl leads the way through a summer of upheaval and, somehow, renewed optimism. Eddie Howe gone, a young high-press manager in, Tonali, Gordon, Trippier and Bruno all out the door, and a raft of young signings in. Fast, direct, heavy-metal football that the lads think could reshape a lot of Fantrax values.

They dig into the assets that matter. The back four the group rates as the strongest part of the squad, headlined by a centre-back the hosts are convinced is one of the outright steals of the draft given where he finished last year versus where you can get him now, and a full three-way comparison of the players around him. There's the returning striker Tim stakes a bold twenty-goal prediction on, the pacey wide men who could feast in a get-in-behind system, and the rental-for-five-weeks winger who might lose his spot after the first international break. Plus a genuinely under-the-radar multipositional sleeper Karl didn't even want to name on air, and the usual reminder about not drafting a goalkeeper.

It closes where every Newcastle episode should: wildly optimistic, faintly deluded, and already counting down to game week one. As always, everything's timestamped to August 3rd.

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The Club x Club series takes on Manchester United, with Sean leading a squad he calls the most confusing to line up of any team he's researched. A first full season under Carrick, a settled roster on paper, and yet almost no certainty about who plays where once you get past the top three names.

The lads work through it. Where the world's-best-when-he's-on midfielder goes at the very top of the board, the two ghost-heavy wingers whose entire value hinges on whether they actually start, and a proper "would you rather" that lands one of them as one of the most undervalued players in the draft. There's a clever handcuff idea borrowed from the City episode, pairing a risky starter with his positional understudy so you're covered every week, and a real disagreement over an old-favourite centre-back the group can't decide is a bargain or a hard pass. Plus the late-round defender Sean thinks might be the single best value on the whole team, and a run of do-not-drafts built around a hard rule: proceed with extreme caution on strikers carrying an injury into the season.

The honest through-line: the upside here is enormous, but take one risky pick, not all of them. As always, everything's timestamped to August 3rd.

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The Club x Club series answers a flood of Discord requests and gets to Bournemouth, a side with another Iraola-style presser in Marco Rose picking up where the old boss left off. A quiet squad rebuild, a key injury in midfield, and European football all factor into how the lads value a team that keeps producing Fantrax bargains.

The central debate is price versus value on the shiny new attacker everyone fell for last season, and whether his ghost numbers justify a second-round pick or whether the uncertainty makes him a stay-away. From there it's Tim's all-time favourite Fantrax player and set-piece merchant the group calls a steal a round or two below his ADP, the goal-dependent number ten whose starts and ceiling both worry them, and the serviceable-but-uninspiring late-round striker options. The real gold, as ever, is at the back: two near-identical budget defenders going almost back-to-back, one of whom the hosts think belongs in the elite tier and would break their punt-defenders-late rule to grab. Plus the deep sleepers and last-round fliers worth a punt before your league mates spot them.

Everything's timestamped to August 10th.

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The Club x Club series turns to Leeds, and the framing question is simple: is Harry Wilson a must-draft or not? Tim says yes, Sean says no, and that split runs through the whole episode. A quiet window, a settled Farke setup, and a set-piece picture that could make or break a couple of valuations give the lads plenty to chew on.

They dig into the disagreements. Whether the free-transfer creator is worth his rising ADP or riding a run that won't repeat, the set-piece merchant the group thinks is badly overpriced at his current cost, and the managed-minutes striker who might be a real discount in single-position leagues. Then the part Tim gets most animated about: a cluster of late-round Leeds defenders with ghost numbers that mirror players going a hundred picks earlier, the kind of waiver-wire gold that won people cup ties last season. Plus the in-and-out winger who's a nightmare to hold but worth having when he starts, and the annual reminder about not drafting a goalkeeper.

The takeaway: be cautious up top, because the real Leeds value is buried deep in the draft. Everything's timestamped to August 6th.

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The Club x Club series heads to Anfield, with Karl on research duty for a Liverpool side he genuinely thinks could be special under Iraola. A first season without Salah, Robertson and a raft of old leaders, a busy-but-unfinished window, and the intensity of Iraola-ball across two games a week set up a squad the lads are excited about but wary of.

They map the board. The three back-end-first-round names and the debate over which carries the least risk, a set-piece-enabled midfielder with a hidden multipositional edge, and a striker the group would take over some very big names purely on guaranteed minutes. There's a proper "would you rather" on two of the most consistent defenders in Fantrax history in different shirts, and a real disagreement over a returning-manager reclamation project the hosts can't agree is back to his best or a trap. Plus the pacey full-back sleeper coming at a steep discount, the perennially-owned midfielder Karl thinks should go undrafted, and the injured striker worth stashing on your IR if you fancy playing the long game.

It closes on the eternal question every Liverpool episode must ask: is this finally the year for a certain winger's breakout? As always, everything's timestamped to August 3rd.

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