Fantasy Football: 10 Players Who Are Ruining Everyone's Teams

9. Stephen Whittaker

The Expectation Whittaker should be a dependable defensive option for the bench - last year, he scored less than half of Sebastien Bassong's points - and his low price makes him appealing to fill up the quota, so bigger cost players can start every week. The smartest way to score points in Fantasy Football would be to overload your team with attackers, in a 3-4-3 formation, combining high-scoring, goal-scoring defenders where possible (Leighton Baines is invariably a must) with forward-thinking midfielders. That means more conventional defenders like Whittaker tend to get overlooked, apart from as the best defender to sit on the bench, thanks to his price. The Problem The Fantasy Premier League only has him as the highest points scoring defender at the lowest price level, and all other leagues suggest he won't be a points scoring option. Clearly, noone told Whittaker the script, as he currently ranks as the highest Norwich City player, having raced out of the traps with an uncharacteristically attacking start to the season. The problem is, Whittaker is the king of bench-warmers, and his annoyingly high score will be turning heads in this notoriously twitchy stage of the season, and suggesting he should be in a starting berth ahead of the "bigger names." And chances are, he won't be keeping up the scoring, so that decision won't be rewarded in the long term.