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.Join our Discord community to talk trades, share waiver-wire tips and get involved with Fantrax & Football. Come for the fantasy advice, stay for the football chat! https://discord.gg/8curj8d8EV

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: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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 trivia04:00 Spurs v Coventry07:45 GW7 headlines38:40 Can Forest find their goals?43:15 Liverpool set pieces without Szoboszlai45:55 Overreaction or real?53:50 Waiver wire: defenders, midfielders, forwards1:13:05 OutroJoin the conversation in the official Fantrax & Football Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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.Join the community through the Discord and r/DraftPL: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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.Join the community through the Discord and r/DraftPL: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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.Join the community through the Discord and r/DraftPL: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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.Join the community through the Discord and r/DraftPL: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA⚠️ 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.Join the community through the Discord and the new r/DraftPL subreddit: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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.Everything runs through draftacademical.com and the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA