The Overthinking Football 23/24 Superlatives
It's superlatives season here and the whole team have pulled together to hand out our Fantrax 2023/24 Fantasy season awards!
The specifics seem a very long time age, so we’ll save incorrect early-season take amnesties for another time. Instead, I (Gordon) have once-again dragged the whole Overthinking Football crew in to talk awards. Specifically Fantrax awards. It’s time to recognize those contributors who’ve really made this Fantasy season memorable.
Like last year, we did what any self-respecting Fantrax publication would do: we drafted our Superlative categories. So each of us will be handing out three awards, before attempting to come to some agreement on this season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).
So with no further ado… onto the awards!
Bargain of the season
Which player has delivered the most on their ADP value?
This whole article is going to be rather boring if I give every award to Cole Palmer, so I’m going to place some artificial constraints on this particular superlative. Limiting it to players who were close to universally drafted (sorry, Anthony Gordon and Alfie Doughty), I have to shout out Pascal Gross for his stellar campaign. Gross is no stranger to Fantrax success, but still found himself with an ADP of 37 coming into the season. Not one to be outdone, he surpassed most of his big-name rivals, finishing the year 5th overall in WAR and ahead of the likes of Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Martin Odegaard in xFpts. The Brighton man was simply fantastic, showing up nearly every match (82% Quality Starts), even when he was getting shuffled around positionally. We’ll see if De Zerbi’s exit from Brighton impacts Gross’s value moving forward, but the German has reminded everyone that he should be higher on draft boards next season.
-Andrew
The ‘Pete Maverick Mitchell, age is but a number award’ for best veteran performer of the year
Which player is defying logic to perform at a level well above their similarly aged peers?
Ever since Willian’s unceremonious departure from Arsenal in 2021 I assumed his fantasy career was finished, if not his global football relevance. When he surprisingly returned to Fulham for the 22/23 season, at the ripe age of 33, it felt like more of a curious footnote than a signing to make serious decisions around. This assumption was wrong, as Willian had a great fantasy season for an upstart Fulham side, netting 1.1 WAR across 25 starts, easily surpassing expectations. Could he catch lightning in a bottle again as a solid contributor to fantasy teams as an age 34 winger on a middling team? Turns out the answer was yes. While not as impressive as his previous year, he continued to provide good value at a low price, with a respectable tally of 9.45 xFpts per game and 0.62 WAR — a considerably better return than his age-34 peers — winning him the best veteran performer of the year award.
-Chris
The ‘Ke Huy Quan award’ for comeback player of the year
Which player has bounced back from a disappointing 2022?
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