Eliteserien Fantasy: Gameweek 14 Preview

Rosenborg’s Carlo Holse has been in red hot form in Eliteserien Fantasy. Despite a tricky fixture against Aalesunds FK away, tipster Jacob Silkstone is backing him to continue his good run in gameweek 14.

Eliteserien Fantasy GW13 Recap

One disadvantage of making Eliteserien predictions a few days ahead of the deadline is that news tends to break quite late. Premier League fans might be used to scrutinising training pictures for signs that a star player might be absent, or hearing a comprehensive list of exactly who has arrived at the team hotel, but in Norwegian football we’re often relying on paywalled local papers for news. Confirmation that Stefano Vecchia wouldn’t be in the Rosenborg line-up last weekend only arrived a few hours before the gameweek started; if we’d known in advance, Carlo Holse was a natural alternative in the Rosenborg midfield, but we’ll take the 0-point captaincy on the chin with an apology to any readers who rushed to follow our advice.

At the time of writing, Vecchia has been ruled out for at least another week, Sæter is feeling the effects of a concussion that should have seen him subbed much earlier in the win over Jerv, and Sebastian Sebulonsen (owned by nearly a third of fantasy teams) is about to be sold to Brøndby.

Mohamed Ofkir, Kristoffer Haugen and (despite being reduced to a late cameo off the bench) Victor Boniface were the double-digit haulers in our latest Team of the Week, as we scraped up to a total score of 56 points, still comfortably ahead of the overall average even with the captain blank and lack of autosubs.

Eliteserien Fantasy GW14 Picks

Goalkeeper

Fantasy managers received an unwelcome surprise last week when popular pick Jacob Storevik was relegated to the bench and the Sandefjord goalkeeper’s jersey was handed to former Arsenal youth player Hugo Keto (4.4M). With the local paper reporting that the number one spot is suddenly Keto’s to lose, he becomes an enticing budget option ahead of a game with shot-shy Jerv. Bear in mind that Sandefjord also have a double gameweek on the horizon, with two home games in GW15.

Defence

With Linnes likely to be sidelined for a couple of weeks, Kristoffer Haugen (7.5M) is once again our route into the Molde defence ahead of a home game with Haugesund. Haugen is now third in the entire league (and comfortably first among defenders) for expected assists, marginally underperforming his stats despite a double-digit haul in the last round.

Viljar Vevatne (4.7M) is on a run of four consecutive starts for Viking after struggling to cement his place in the team earlier in the season. He stands out as a budget pick as they prepare to face rock-bottom Kristiansund, and his aerial threat has seen him score five goals over the last three seasons.

Odd have failed to score in two of their last four games, so Lillestrøm’s generally solid defence shouldn’t have too much to fear from their latest away game. Vetle Winger Dragsnes (5.5M) has been playing an increasingly attacking role in recent weeks, and remains favourably priced.

Midfield

Although he has been outshone by other Sarpsborg midfielders over the last couple of weeks, Jonathan Lindseth (8.5M) looks to be statistically the best option from his team, sitting second in the league for expected assists and outranking most of his teammates for expected goals too. Opponents Vålerenga have conceded seven goals in their last three away games.

We’re doubling up on Sarpsborg this week with Anton Saletros (6.6M) as our second midfielder. Saletros leads his teammates for expected goals and has double-digit scores from both of his last two home games, with 31 fantasy points in total.

Rosenborg’s Carlo Holse (9.3M) has been in coruscating form recently, reflected by seven bonus points across his last three matches. An away game against Aalesund might be a tough one for Rosenborg, but we’re backing Holse to play a central role for them once again.

Budget Bodø midfielder Elias Hagen (5.0M) comes back into our thinking despite a run of disappointing scores. Hagen outranks all of his teammates for expected assists, and has now started seven consecutive games.

Attack

No doubt irate over his last-minute omission from the Fantasy Tipsters Team of the Week, Molde’s David Datro Fofana (now 11.0M) delivered one of the performances of the season in a 5-1 win over Tromsø last week. He now has four goals in his last three starts at home, and we’re giving him the captaincy against Haugesund.

With some doubts over the fitness of in-form Mohamed Ofkir, our Sandefjord attacking slot goes instead to Alexander Ruud Tveter (6.7M). Ruud Tveter started the season spectacularly, smashing a hat-trick past hapless Haugesund, but has just three goals since. Still, two of those have come in the last two away games, and he remains comfortably ahead of Ofkir in the expected goals stats.

Our biggest punt of the week is a striker who hasn’t played more than twenty minutes in any game all season. Fans of safe picks should feel to look away now, but Mai Traore (5.9M) has more expected goals per 90 minutes than any other player in the league and came off the bench to score a crucial winner away at Lillestrøm in GW13. The local press are tipping him for a first start of the season at home against Kristiansund, and we’re willing to bet that they might just be right.