SOCCER

Premier League: 4 FanDuel Value Plays for Matchweek 34

Douglas Smith  —  @DFresh39 Apr 12th, 2018
Swansea hope to move farther away from the relegation zone this weekend due in part to the return of Jordan Ayew, who is one of this week's best value plays.

Matchweek 34 in the Premier League is a double game week for some teams with a schedule stretching over six days. The FanDuel main slate will focus on six of Saturday's seven games.

Matchweek 34
Saturday, April 14th
Leicester at Burnley
Brighton at Crystal Palace
Watford at Huddersfield
Everton at Swansea
Bournemouth at Liverpool
Manchester City at Tottenham


Mohamed Salah is the most expensive player on the slate at $12,500. A total of 17 forwards or midfielders are priced at $9,000. Four defenders, two from Liverpool, are priced at $7,000. A total of 29 defenders are priced at or above $6,000. The expected starting keepers are priced between $5,500 and $4,500, the norm for this season.

With the lay of the land complete, let's see where the value lies.

Forward

Jordan Ayew ($7,500) -- There is a sense of relief around Swansea with Ayew completing his three-match ban.

He received the red card against Huddersfield in the 11th minute, but he had scored in his previous two matches for Swansea. In the match against West Ham, he finished with over 42 FanDuel points as he padded his stats with seven defensive actions. Despite playing up top, he will get back to defend with his non-stop engine.

Swansea's opponent this week, Everton, are one of the worst-rated defensive teams in the league. They allow 14.5 shots and commit over 12 fouls per match. Everton only have two clean sheets over their last 14 matches and one came with the opposition down a man. Ayew should take advantage of the poor Everton defense and the oddsmakers agree.

Midfielder

Adrien Silva ($6,000) -- There is a good chance that Silva is not on a lot of people's radar as the Leicester midfielder has not seen much playing time. However, he is coming off his best performance of the year in which he scored 11.5 FanDuel points due in part to five defensive actions.



That just happened to be his first full match of the season in the center of the park for the Foxes. Leicester gave him a chance following his call-up to the Portuguese National Team, and he played 45 minutes in a friendly. Silva finished the match against Newcastle with a near 85% pass success rate and tied for the team lead in interceptions. He also completed four of six long passes.

While Silva will rack up defensive action points and act as the pivot to accumulate passing stats, there is a chance he could get more involved offensively this week. On average, Burnley own less possession than Leicester as they prefer to play a defensive game. But they also allow the most shots per game to their opponents in the league.

Defender

Charlie Daniels ($5,000) -- Daniels is expected to start at left back against Liverpool this weekend as Bournemouth travel to Anfield. It will be a special day as Liverpool will mark the Hillsborough anniversary during play, but Bournemouth and Daniels may be catching their opponent at the right time.

Liverpool just secured their place in the Champions League semifinal, and their place in the top four of the Premier League is fairly secure. If there was ever a time for squad rotation from Jurgen Klopp, this is it. Bournemouth are the team that gets the luck of scheduling against one of the league's best teams.

Daniels averages over 14 FanDuel points per game. Even with squad rotation, Daniels should have no trouble matching his average of 4.6 defensive actions per match. He has 14 defensive actions over the last three matches, and he will come forward on set pieces as well.

Keeper

Jonas Lossl ($4,500) -- Huddersfield are not on good form, but they are not being blown out. They have allowed more than one goal only once in the last four games and they have a shut out in their ledger, too.



Lossl is averaging 11.9 FanDuel points per game, but he is coming off a 14-FanDuel-point performance. He has nine saves in the last three matches and will face a Watford team that have lost three of their last four games, failing to score on two occasions.

Lossl should have low ownership as the overall appeal of this match is minimal.


Douglas Smith is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Douglas Smith also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username aquemini03. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.