Fantasy Football 2024: Crucial start sit decisions for Week 5

While Frimpong tends to hold his width and hover on the peripheries of attacks, Grimaldo has more freedom to glide around and get involved in the build up while still getting a sizeable number of penalty box touches. He may not always command the fanfare that others do, but few players are as universally respected and incredibly liked as Son Heung-Min, arguably Tottenham Hotspur’s greatest signing (if excluding academy products) in the last several decades. Another Chelsea export to Saudi Arabia, Kante signed for Al-Ittihad, also in the summer of ’23. The 33-year-old proved that he’s still one of the very best in the game during Euro 2024 and, like Koulibaly, is making a cool half a million quid per week over in Saudi. At the end of that season, Al-Hilal (more on them later) paid the Blues £20m for his services, and whacked a contract in front of him worth half a million a week.

Gibbs-White looks at home with England

One of the most underappreciated attackers in the modern game, Rodrygo has often been left in the shadows by his Real Madrid teammates. Whether it’s Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior or Jude Bellingham, the Brazilian hasn’t always claimed the plaudits he deserves. However, he remains an exceptional dribbler and scorer of big goals for Los Blancos, regularly popping up in the latter stages of the Champions League with crucial strikes. While criticism still comes in domestically, those on the continent are ready to anoint the right back as one of the best players in the world for his astonishing array of passing and attacking prowess. The relative mystique of foreign leagues can often inflate a player’s reputation as we are fed their many highlights and rarely see their 4/10s, the days they’d rather not remember, their misses, their failures.

Ranking the NFL’s best players at every position for 2024

• With searing speed matched with clinical finishing, Openda could earn a move to a European giant in the coming years.
• So good that even Sky Sports analyst and Manchester United legend Gary Neville is calling him the best in the world.
• Mahomes, two-time holder of the Top 100’s No. 1 spot, is seemingly chasing his otherworldly accomplishments of season’s past at this point.
• Unexpectedly helping Aston Villa to a Champions League push, manager Unai Emery’s high-risk high-reward tactics have left Martinez as a key last line of defence, and his one-on-one mastery is among the best in the world.
• After starring in Ligue 1 with Lyon, Ferland Mendy departed for Real Madrid in 2019 and made an immediate impact.
• They’re a potent blend of close-range finisher, playmaker and space creator for teammates around the box.

Bellingham’s all-action, dynamic presence saw him transform from teenage wildcard to instant starter for England at the World Cup 2022 and he has never looked back. His displays for Dortmund put them firmly in title contention against the Bayern Munich juggernaut, spurned only by goal difference, before making the move to Real Madrid where he has added an abundance of goals to his arsenal. The one trait all great strikers share is an ability to find themselves in great scoring positions with frequency. For the best part of half a decade, Alvaro Morata did that, but the ball just did not go in the net as often as it ought to. At almost every club he ended up at he would be the whipping boy, the player who infuriated a portion of the fanbase because so many big chances came and went. He had to overcome his own hurdles to keep his stock high nearly a decade after winning the World Cup, though.

READ THE LATEST EURO 2024 NEWS, PREVIEWS & PLAYER RATINGS

Making it this high on our list, considering his lack of minutes, speaks volumes about his quality. The towering former Chelsea man has been Real Madrid’s No. 1 goalkeeper since 2018, creating numerous iconic moments, with this latest achievement part of a long list of honors. In the last two UCL finals and one UEFA Super Cup, he has not conceded a single goal. After being omitted from the Belgium squad at Euro 2024, he should be well rested come next season when the expectations will be to repeat as  UCL winners, especially after adding Kylian Mbappe. He ranked fourth in the Premier League for passes played and completed an impressive 91.5% of them, but his comfort with the ball on his feet is just one of his many attributes. His physical presence was crucial as Liverpool earned 10 clean sheets in the league, while his potentially unrivaled excellence on set pieces meant he added another five goals to his account this season.

• He’s the epitome of a modern-day full-back.While there are physical shortcomings, Guerreiro boasts the defensive nous to ensure such drawbacks are minimised.
• The tricky left-footed Belgian has already produced over ten goal contributions in Eredivisie this season, adding to the ten he managed last term.
• In the four years since Bellingham traded the Black Country for the Ruhr Valley he has fulfilled that famed promise to his youth coach that he would be a 10, an eight and a four in one package.
• Haaland has been penalised as Norway did not qualify for Euro 2024, while Man City were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter finals.

Lionel Messi: £750,000 p/w

There are few better in Serie A than the Italy international, who played a key role in Inter’s run to the Champions League final in 2023. Beyond our fantasy football content, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. The Brazilian international has wonderful technique and strikes the ball so cleanly, https://st-bet.net/ both in open play and from set pieces. All six of Douglas Luiz’s league goals, including a brace against West Ham United, have come at Villa Park in the best season of his career so far. The best footballers in the world have made 2023 an incredible football year. These players are at the absolute top level and hard to compare to each other.

• If he racks up another couple of 20+ goal seasons, he will hit the 200 Premier League goals mark, an unbelievable achievement for any player, let alone a winger playing out wide.
• Freshmen receiver Drelon Miller lined up in the backfield for the first snaps of the season and actually got the ball on the first two offensive plays in the opener against North Dakota State.
• The skilful Portuguese is often seen tormenting Serie A full-backs with his speed and quick feet, and yet still has room for improvement.
• Fleet of foot and quick of mind, their ability to read the play and anticipate where the ball will be three passes before it gets there is what sets them apart.
• Phil Foden’s impressive haul of 19 goals and eight assists for Manchester City earned him the Player of the Season award, as his side clinched a record fourth successive English Premier League title.
• Use our waiver wire assistant to view optimal lineups, waiver and trade suggestions, and league analysis.
• On that occasion, Jhon Duran added yet another top quality strike to his list, and the Colombian is surely giving Emery food for thought with regards to being handed a starting spot.
• The Steelers’ star pass rusher resumed it in remarkable fashion, leading the league with 19.0 sacks — the third time in four seasons he’s been the NFL’s sack champion.

NBA Teams

The Bears allowed just two passing touchdowns to five interceptions on the season and the sixth-worst completion percentage. Purdy has played well this season but just hasn’t put up the fantasy points we’d expect for how well he’s played. He should start seeing a bit more touchdown luck and he’s also been running more, giving him a shot at more rushing touchdowns. And this week he gets a Cardinals defense that ranks 29th at pressuring quarterbacks and 29th in pass defense EPA.

NHL Teams

Despite being out of action since then, Erling Haaland remains the Premier League’s joint-top goalscorer alongside Mohamed Salah. He’s unlikely to match last season’s incredible tally but it won’t be for want of trying. “Sometimes, I score a goal and get an assist but I might still be unsatisfied with myself,” Sane said earlier in the season. “I have very high demands of myself there, which I always want to meet.” While he is a key figure for Bayern, it remains to be seen how he fits in for Germany this summer with Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz potentially their first-choice front three. These are your showboats, your certain goal scorers, your free-roaming forces of nature.

Meet the exciting Spurs teenager bringing back old-school wing play

And now that we are four weeks in, the data is getting better in helping us make start/sit decisions. Week 4 was the best week so far for this column, which is how it should work. While the Buffs haven’t signed a lot of high school players (there are 11 true freshmen on scholarship this season), they’ve found some gems from the prep ranks.

Lionel Messi

Cooper’s 37 targets rank sixth in the league and you can’t get a much better matchup. Questions were raised over Ben Chilwell’s viability as a £50m full-back when Chelsea signed him from Leicester in 2020. After a bumpy start, Seaton has played well in each of the last three games and is CU’s highest rated pass blocker among the regular starters on the line, according to Pro Football Focus.

Alexander Isak, Forward, Newcastle United

They’ve now held the Buccaneers and Jets to seven and nine points over the last two weeks. The Ravens are very much a pass-funnel defense, as they rank 21st in EPA against the pass, but sixth in EPA against the run. Last week they completely shut down James Cook, who had four touchdowns in his last two games. Moss is the receiving back here, which helps him, but Chase Brown is going to continue to cut into his work after putting up a great game against the Panthers last week.

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Comfort and precision crossing with the left foot is a rare commodity, too, but the top players will be at their best when on the overlap before curling in the perfect ball. How do we handle players who were injured for significant periods of the season? Assess them on the periods in which they were fit and their body of work before. And again, if they’ve been out a long time, decide whether you think the injury has had a long-term impact to the point that their performance will decline permanently. Sharma will be crucial to India’s chances as her nation’s highest-ranked bowler (2nd) and all-rounder (3rd) in the T20 format. The 27-year-old off-break bowler and left-handed batter has appeared 211 times for her country.

Freshmen receiver Drelon Miller lined up in the backfield for the first snaps of the season and actually got the ball on the first two offensive plays in the opener against North Dakota State. Donovan Edwards, RB, Michigan (No. 143)There were lots of red flags last year with Edwards’ lack of production, but then he looked like Walter Payton in the national championship. I thought this was his year to be the man, but Kalel Mullings has taken over as RB1 and looks like the bell cow on a Michigan offense that must be mind-boggling to their fans. They didn’t upgrade their offense by adding an elite quarterback through the portal after the spring, and now their passing game is virtually nonexistent. “All professional players have been affected by these illegal rules (in force since 2001!) and can therefore now seek compensation for their losses,” Diarra’s lawyers Jean-Louis Dupont and Martin Hissel said in a statement. The CJEU ruling could also lead to other players affected by the Fifa regulations seeking damages.

The 25 best left-backs in world football – ranked

What’s a list of top players in the world without the current Captain America on it? Possibly the best American soccer player ever produced, Pulisic has won a Champions Leauge title with Chelsea, a DFB Pokal with Borussia Dortmund along with multiple honors for the United States men’s national team. Now, entering the prime of his career with Milan, it seems like Pulisic is enjoying his soccer while also producing results with it.

Be sure to tune into Golazo Network, including Morning Footy to start your day with a breakdown of each batch of top players released every day. And, of course, make sure to check out the full breakdown and analysis of who was ranked where and why. In this article, as part of our 24 for 24 series, we’re going to focus on the latter – the best players at the tournament in Germany. The couple met while Robert Shiver was the Auburn University football team captain in 2007. Lindsay Shiver‘s ex-boyfriend Terrance “Adrien” Bethel was arrested alongside the mom of three and alleged hitman Faron “Faylo” Newbold in July 2023, when the trio was accused of attempting to kill former Auburn football captain Robert Shiver.

Harry Kane: £400,000 p/w

By his own high standards, last season was a disappointing one for Son Heung-min, who was suffering with a hernia problem for several months. No longer inhibited by fitness issues, he’s spearheading a Tottenham team that’s been reinvigorated by the appointment of Ange Postecoglou. The departures of Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane have given him even more responsibility as captain, figurehead and chief goal threat.

Golazo 100 Men’s List

If 2024 turns out to be as impressive as 2023, there’s a lot to expect from the young player. One of the most impressive individual performances in 2023 is that of the young Jude Bellingham. It’s hard to imagine any young player arriving at a club like Real Madrid and outshining most of his teammates from day one like Jude Bellingham has done. Before transferring to Real Madrid, he had made quite an impact at the German Borussia Dortmund. In the German League, he also achieved the title of Bundesliga Player of the Season.

Vigil van Dijk — Center Back, Liverpool

Don’t overreact to one bad weekAvoid overreacting to one bad week of performance by a player. Take a long-term view of their performance and evaluate their potential moving forward. Stay active in tradesBe open to trading players with other teams if it will benefit your team.

He has written for FourFourTwo, BBC Sport and When Saturday Comes among others. A Birmingham City supporter and staunch Nikola Zigic advocate, he once scored a hat-trick at St. Andrew’s (in a half-time game). He also has far too many football shirts and spends far too much time reading the Wikipedia pages of obscure players. He didn’t finish second at the Ballon d’Or, where he won the title of the world’s best footballer for the eighth time. This is an impressive record that makes very clear the impact that Messi has had on the global football scene. One of the things that made it clear that he deserved the Ballon d’Or yet again was his national team, Argentina, victory at the World Cup.

The 49ers are getting after the quarterback this year and aren’t bringing extra help to get there. It’s a perfect situation to keep Murray under wraps as both a runner and passer. So far, the 49ers rank 11th in pass defense EPA and are third at pressuring quarterbacks.

Fans are responsible for 50% of the votes cast, with a panel of football experts providing the other 50% to decide the eventual winner. Following the 1990 World Cup in Italy, FIFA decided to launch its own ceremony to celebrate the best player in the world every year. It slowly gained traction, incorporating a women’s award in 2001 alongside several other trophies. The biggest prize on offer is the Best Men’s Player of the Year award, but there are also several other big honours handed out every year, including the FIFPro World XI, the Puskas Award for the best goal scored and the Best Women’s Player. The twinkle-toed Portuguese continues to dazzle but doesn’t attract praise quite as easily as some of his Man City teammates.Silva is often linked with an exit from the Etihad Stadium but there is a reason Guardiola is so keen to keep him in Manchester. Here’s 90min’s ranking of the best players in the world right now – and this list is categorically accurate, so don’t even bother complaining.

Easily the best defensive midfielder in the world, he’s quickly become the best midfielder, and now best player. Haaland took the first season in the Premier League by storm and won it all along with scoring 52 goals. The English megastar has become a Galactico in record time at Real Madrid, and his 20 goals and eight assists are borderline beyond belief. Now Atleti’s all-time top scorer when he surpassed Luis Aragones’ 173, Griezmann has revealed he’s quite happy to see out his career with the team after a troublesome stint at Barcelona. Always one of the best with the ball at his feet, Alisson’s one-on-one ability is now elite, and this season he’s produced a number of jaw-dropping match-winning last ditch saves to keep Liverpool active in every competition. Technically sublime, Silva mixed his intelligence and endless creativity with a winning-mentality like no other, and will be the key man if City go all the way again, and Portugal cause an upset in the summer.

Though his feisty side might still shine through on occasion, Granit Xhaka, the once-hot-blooded former captain of Arsenal, was the cool head who guided Bayer Leverkusen beyond their wildest dreams last season. The player that Xabi Alonso wanted to set standards both on and off the pitch ended up breaking records, making and completing more passes while registering more touches than anyone else in a Bundesliga campaign. Soccer remains a global passion, uniting fans through riveting matches and unforgettable talent.

The Steelers have played four strong run defenses to start the season and their running backs have been shut down in the process. This week they get a much easier run defense on Sunday night against the Cowboys. Injuries to star defensive players Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence hurt, but even with them healthy, the Cowboys have been weak against the run. The Cowboys rank 28th in schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to running backs, as well as 31st in run defense EPA. Federico Dimarco’s breakout performances at left-back for Inter saw the Italian giants quickly ditch previous signing Robin Gosens.His searing pace has become crucial for Simone Inzaghi and his sweet left foot is a proven threat in the attacking third.

When he started to show all promise at Valencia a decade ago (how is he already 30 years old?), he looked destined for superstardom. Another Portuguese prodigy ripped from Benfica for big money, only to then play for Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona in a six-year span. He’s as fast as they make them, he can dominate you with his technical skill, and even though he’s a fullback, he’s an attack-minded player with all the potential in the world.

The Premier League, in all its hyper-exposed, tribal glory, is often not a place where rival fans can appreciate world class talent when they see it. When Kane moved to Germany and made such a mockery of the Bundesliga, everyone finally saw the plain truth. Mohamed Salah’s consistency remains remarkable with 31, 31, 30 goals in his last three seasons respectively across all competitions. He is rarely injured, rarely suspended and usually always available, proven by his 51 appearances in each of the last three campaigns. He has lost fractions of his blistering pace but his intelligence and manipulation of the football means his control over the result of games remains as strong as ever. He is not an all-action terrier, he won’t pitch in with the dirty work, but to count that against him is to miss the point entirely.

• Kelce, who sits fourth all-time in receiving for TEs, has put together an incredible Hall of Fame career that was once quietly preserved.
• And this week he gets a Cardinals defense that ranks 29th at pressuring quarterbacks and 29th in pass defense EPA.
• Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest footballer in history and naturally his salary reflects his status.
• The 19-year-old’s stock has risen over the past year as he continues to blossom in Boca Juniors’ first team, even featuring in the most recent Copa Libertadores final against Fluminense.
• Able to comfortably look like one of the best in the world at both centre back and right back, the Uruguayan is attracting interest from quite literally every big club in the world due to an expiring contract.
• After being omitted from the Belgium squad at Euro 2024, he should be well rested come next season when the expectations will be to repeat as  UCL winners, especially after adding Kylian Mbappe.
• The CJEU ruling could also lead to other players affected by the Fifa regulations seeking damages.
• He’s dealt with his fair share of injuries as of late, but when healthy, there is Ballon d’Or potential there for the Barcelona budding superstar.

On the season, Denver has allowed just one wide receiver touchdown, to Chris Godwin. And they’ve shut down DK Metcalf, George Pickens, Mike Evans, and the Jets receivers. Justin Fields’ second half against the Colts was truly a work of fantasy art. Overall he threw for over 300 yards and a touchdown while adding two rushing touchdowns and 55 yards rushing.

Luis Diaz was on the pitch more often than not to generate — and score — chances. In the four years since Bellingham traded the Black Country for the Ruhr Valley he has fulfilled that famed promise to his youth coach that he would be a 10, an eight and a four in one package. In his final year with Borussia Dortmund he was the tempo-dictating, ball-progressing player of the season in the Bundesliga. On his arrival at Real Madrid he plugged the great hole that Carlo Ancelotti had at center forward, weighing in with a big goal whenever required on his road to La Liga’s player of the season. When Vinicius Junior returned to full fitness and form, Bellingham became the man to bring balance to Madrid taking on a heftier midfield role. Sana, who made her debut in 2019 at the age of 18, is the rising star of Pakistan cricket and its great hope following its difficult recent run.

Inter are known for their stubborn defence under Simone Inzaghi and key to that rigidity is Alessandro Bastoni. Capable of playing in a centre-back partnership or as part of a trio, the lanky Italian isn’t blessed with pace but has the intelligence to find himself in the right spot at the right moment. An underappreciated elite central defender, few strikers get the better of Bastoni in Italy, on the continent or on the international stage. If it wasn’t obvious enough that he’s the best player for the best team in the world, the stats back it up, with all four of City’s defeats this season coming without their key man, while their win rate drops from 75 per cent with him, to 33 per cent without him.

The cool-headed Indian star was one of the leading performers at the Women’s Hundred tournament in England, where her monstrous six-off sealed the title for London Spirit. The Vikings defense is good, but they have allowed 22 receptions to tight ends, ranking them sixth-worst. Conklin isn’t going to blow anyone’s socks off, but he has caught nine of 15 targets over the last two games and should be in line for another shot at a decent workload this week. Cooper has had some bad drops this season, but he’s getting open and getting targets, which is about all you need when facing the Commanders secondary. Washington has allowed 10 passing touchdowns to wide receivers and intercepted no passes. The Jets defense is solid, but they have been more effective against the pass than the run.