Yahoo! Fantasy Football: Liverpool to enter international break with a bang

This weekend’s Premier League action coincides with the FA Cup quarter finals, which has wiped out nearly a full round of fixtures. Nevertheless, there are still four matches going ahead in the league and the WhoScored Expert is back to pick out the best XI from the eight teams that will be on display on Saturday.

Think you have what it takes to beat the WhoScored Expert and win big on Yahoo! Fantasy Football this weekend? For new users, enter the promocode ‘Fantasy50’ when you deposit £5 and get a £50 bonus to use in any cash games. Now, here is our XI for Saturday’s matches:

Goalkeeper – JACK BUTLAND (STOKE)

Fresh from getting his England call-up, Jack Butland will be looking to enter the international break with one more big performance with Stoke.

The 25-year-old has a good chance to be England’s starting goalkeeper at the 2018 World Cup and he will want to most the most of his opportunity against Holland and Italy later this month.

The Stoke goalkeeper is the highest WhoScored rated goalkeeper in the Premier League in 2018 (7.18), while only Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski (105) has made more saves than Butland (104) this season.

Defender – NATHAN AKE (BOURNEMOUTH)

Bournemouth are looking to get back to winning ways when they host bottom of the league West Brom on Saturday. The Baggies have only won one Premier League away game all season and have the joint-worst attack on the road in the division (seven goals scored).

Nathan Ake, who is a Yahoo! Top-20 form player, is Bournemouth’s second highest WhoScored rated player in the Premier League this season (6.93) and has even played a direct hand in four goals from centre-back.

Defender – VIRGIL VAN DIJK (LIVERPOOL)

The first of five Liverpool players in our Yahoo! Fantasy XI is club-record signing Virgil Van Dijk. The Netherlands international is starting to rediscover his best form for the Reds and will eye another clean sheet this weekend.

Only two Premier League teams have conceded fewer goals at home than Liverpool this season (10), while Watford have failed to score in seven of their last nine away games in all competitions.

Defender – AARON WAN-BISSAKA (CRYSTAL PALACE)

20-year-old defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka has really impressed since making his Crystal Palace debut at the end of last month. Introduced to the team at a time when Palace are battling relegation, the novice has flourished at right-back .

Wan-Bissaka has even established himself as a Yahoo! Top-20 form player from his first three Premier League appearances, averaging an impressive 3.2 tackles and interceptions combined per game.

Midfielder – WILFRIED ZAHA (CRYSTAL PALACE)

Wilfried Zaha’s early return from injury is a huge boost for Crystal Palace as they have still not won a Premier League match he has not started this season.

The Ivory Coast international is unsurprisingly Palace’s highest WhoScored rated player (5+ apps) in the Premier League this season (7.19) and will be out to terrorise Huddersfield this weekend.

Zaha has one goal in three previous meetings with the Terriers and will be looking to buid on that here.

Midfielder – EMRE CAN (LIVERPOOL)

Another Yahoo! Top-20 form player, Emre Can will be tasked with coming out on top in the physical battle with Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure this weekend.

The Germany international has a marginally better WhoScored rating (7.35) at Anfield compared to matches on the road (7.30) in the Premier League this season.

Midfielder – ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN (LIVERPOOL)

The 24-year-old has been in tremendous form for Liverpool in recent months and Jurgen Klopp will hope his performance against Manchester United last weekend was just a blip.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has played a direct hand in eight Premier League goals this season and six of them have come at Anfield. In fact, only Mohamed Salah (6) has registered more assists in home league games than Chamberlain (4) for Liverpool this season.

Midfielder – ERIC MAXIM CHOUPO-MOTING (STOKE)

Stoke are still in the bottom three but only one point from safety and can make use of this weekend to climb out of the relegation zone as Southampton are involved in the FA Cup.

The Potters have only lost two of their last seven in the Premier League but need to start converting draws into wins, having tied four of the games in that sequence.

Back on home soil, they will be looking to do exactly that against an underwhelming Everton side. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has struggled for consistency this season but no Stoke player has scored or assisted more league goals at home this season than the 28-year-old (8).

Utility – SADIO MANE (LIVERPOOL)

The penultimate Liverpool player in our Yahoo! Fantasy Football XI is Sadio Mane, who will look to turn in a strong performance following last weekend’s disappointment.

Jurgen Klopp’s side can climb to third and cut the gap on second place Manchester United to two points if they beat Watford on Saturday, who haven’t won at Anfield since 1999.

Five of the eight Premier League goals Mane has scored this season have come on home soil.

Striker – CALLUM WILSON (BOURNEMOUTH)

Looking to heap further misery on West Brom is Callum Wilson. The Bournemouth striker has seven league goals this season but will be desperate to reach double figures in a single campaign for the first time since the 2014/15 season.

Five of those goals have come at Dean Court this season and he won’t have many better chances to add to that when Eddie Howe’s side welcome basement club West Brom.

The Baggies have the joint-worst form (six matches) in Europe’s top five leagues heading into this weekend (0 points).

Striker – MOHAMED SALAH (LIVERPOOL)

Rounding off our Yahoo! Fantasy Football XI is Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. Now that Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero are both injured, Salah has a real chance to take the lead in the race to finish as this season’s golden boot.

It’s been a sublime season for the Egypt international, who has been one of the standout performers in Europe’s top five leagues this season. In fact, no player has scored more goals than Salah in one of the aforementioned leagues.

Incredibly, he has only failed to score in two consecutive league games once this season, which tells you he should get back to scoring ways here.