Fantasy Football Tips: 5 Important Players To Observe In Gameweek 31

5. Martin Demichelis

Team: Manchester City (vs Manchester United, away) Position: Defender Value: £5.9m Selected by: 0.4% Total score: 80 I admit, I got influenced by the damn press. Even when the ponytailed defender was playing well, he was still flamed by the press for being too slow, too clumsy, and they use a bunch of outdated examples to demonstrate his lack of abilities. Sure, he may not be playing well in the UEFA Champions League, or the FA Cup, but his contributions in the Premier League have so far been ignored by journalists worldwide, who chose to focus on his occasional errors instead. Talk about ponytail discrimination. Demichelis has been a beast at the heart of the City defence so far, making an average of 10 defensive actions per game, majority of them being clearances. No one in the squad has more defensive actions per match, with Matija Nastasi‡ and Vincent Company both coming close at eight. His average passing accuracy of 90% is only bettered by, excluding midfielders, forwards and goalkeepers, Dedryck Boyata (96%) and Nastasi‡ (92%), the former having experienced only 54 minutes of gametime this season while the latter has been out with injury with an expected date of return set on the 5th of April. As a matter of fact, in the midfield department, only Samir Nasri and Javi García (both at 91%) have better passing rates than Demichelis. Normally, before judging whether an in-form player is worth purchasing, we take a look at his past four results and benchmark it with a bunch of statistics. A more in depth explanation will be provided in future editions, but right now, let's just focus on the 33 year-old. Demichelis, a supposed wreck in defence, has scored a mind-numbing 36 points in his last four games. That comes up to nine points per game, and for the price of £5.9m, it represents a good deal. The closest defender to match his point tally would be Martin Skrtel with 30 points, and a tad bit cheaper at £5.7m. Hull City's Liam Rosenior is also close, coming in with 27 points at a price tag of only £3.9m. For the Manchester derby, I'm predicting that City will let in one goal, but Demichelis will contribute on the offensive end and rack up some bonus points along the way. Should he perform well against United, he should automatically be drafted into your squad. The reason why I chose him over Skrtel to observe would be because City looks more reliable in defence, conceding only 27 goals compared to Liverpool's 38. Plus, a charge for the title means that City players will be extremely focused, knowing that being runners-up wouldn't be an option. City wouldn't let their nerves get the better of them in the final months of this campaign, while Liverpool, who have been struggling for the past few seasons, will find it hard dealing with being surprise title contenders, and the pressure will eventually get to them, making Demichelis a more viable, long-term option. Reporters have been jumping on the "Demichelis is rubbish" bandwagon, and at this stage of the game you can only be smart and stray as far as you can from the supposed trend. If I haven't been listening to the press, I would have remembered to transfer him before Gameweek 31 starts. I could have had 14 points, and probably a lot more after the United game. Sigh.