Eliteserien Fantasy: Gameweek 16 Preview

FK Bodø/Glimt’s talisman Amahl Pellegrino is in the form of his career after scoring in his last five consecutive Eliteserien games for a total of nine goals including a hattrick last week against Jerv, making him an indispensable part of Jacob Silkstone’s Fantasy Eliteserien TOTW for gameweek 16.

Eliteserien Fantasy GW15 Recap

Magnus Grødem struck the bar on his way to a blank against Sandefjord, but the rest of our Team of the Week tips struck gold. The double gameweek brought a points haul our way, with five goals, six assists and two clean sheets (and one defender subbed just before clean sheet points kick in… Even in the good weeks, it’s tempting to dwell on those small moments of bad luck) as we racked up a three-figure total for the second time this season. Amahl Pellegrino was the undoubted hero: early on Saturday morning, his wife gave birth to their second child (“Today has been total chaos, right from the moment when I woke up and my wife was giving birth on the bathroom floor… not the best preparation for the match,” according to the man himself); a few hours later, superdad was scoring a hat-trick against Jerv (with three bonus points for good measure). With a full night of uninterrupted sleep, who knows what he might be capable of?

Gameweek 16 brings us another double/blank combo: Kristiansund and Tromsø play twice, while Viking and Haugesund will get some respite from the packed summer schedule. With another double on the horizon in GW20, Tromsø players are top of the list for potential investment.

Eliteserien Fantasy GW16 Picks

Goalkeeper

According to the xG stats, only four teams have been stronger at the back than newly-promoted HamKam this season. With hapless Kristiansund the latest visitors to Briskeby, we’re looking at Guatemalan international Nicholas Hagen (4.5M) as a reasonably priced keeper with a more than reasonable shot at a clean sheet.

Defence

Bodø/Glimt’s season has finally ignited, with the 5-0 thumping of Jerv followed by an 8-0 annihilation of Linfield in the Champions League. Alfons Sampsted (5.8M) returns to our Team of the Week, mostly because we’re wary that Brice Wembangomo is carrying a knock at the moment and may be set for reduced minutes again. Bodø/Glimt have the second strongest defence in the league in terms of xG conceded, while opponents Aalesund have just sold their two key players to the Danish Superliga.

Injury concerns are on our mind with the choice of Molde defender too. Kristoffer Haugen sat out the midweek European game; he has a chance of being back in time for the home match against Strømsgodset, but Martin Linnes (7.3M) has been the dependable choice over the last few weeks and gets the nod again here. Linnes’ total of five big chances created is only one behind Haugen’s and compares favourably to every other Eliteserien defender.

Lasse Nilsen (5.5M) is our first selection from Tromsø as we look ahead to their double gameweek. Nilsen has created four big chances this season, outperforming the rest of the Tromsø defence for xA. He can consider himself unlucky to have just one assist, and the stats point to him as the most likely DGW defender to haul this week.

Aleksander Melgalvis (5.1M) completes a HamKam defensive double up. Vegard Kongsro has very similar stats and is available for the same price, so the choice of HamKam full-back is very close to a coin flip. We prefer Melgalvis for the security of minutes, although there are plenty of arguments for going the other way.

Midfield

Will he play anything close to the full game? Will it matter if he doesn’t? Amahl Pellegrino (now 11.9M) has racked up a fairly astonishing 35 fantasy points, even with just 75 minutes on the pitch over the last two games. He’s Eliteserien’s in-form player, and the one every team around you is rushing to buy if they don’t already own.

For the first and almost certainly last time this season, we present a Tromsø midfield double-up. August Mikkelsen (7.7M) burst onto the scene last year, but has been enduring the footballing equivalent of the difficult second album. He has 0 goals and 2 assists so far, but the numbers point to that turning around soon (if he isn’t transferred away from the league first). We’re willing to take a huge gamble and back him with the captain’s armband this week.

Eric Kitolano (7.3M) is our second Tromsø midfielder, although there are some cheaper options worth consideration in Sakarias Opsahl and Ruben Yttergård Jenssen. Kitolano had four shots in the box in last week’s match, and has looked sharp ahead of a favourable pair of double gameweek fixtures.

Bendik Bye (6.9M) was a late entry in our Team of the Week last time out, replacing the injured Alioune Ndour Badou. Bye rewarded us with his fourth goal of the season. Kristiansund have been in miserable form, but if anyone can restore some hope for them then Bye is the man.

With our three Tromsø slots taken and space open for a midfielder from the bargain basement, Amidou Diop (4.5M) gives us a rare Kristiansund double-up. We’re not expecting much over the four appearance points, but Diop loves a shot and already has a couple of goals this season. He also has four bonus points from the man in the stand system, more than any other Kristiansund player.

Attack

Molde will be on a high after a crushing victory over Elfsborg in Europe, and David Datro Fofana (11.2M) has been in excellent form recently. With Veton Berisha gone, Fofana now has the highest xG total of any forward in the league.