Wednesday's DraftKings showdown is a single game, CHE @ LIV, and it locks at 4:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. PT). The format includes a captain slot that scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary, all under a $50,000 cap.
One note up front: our projections are not built for this slate, so there is no model lineup or projection set to share. What the sheet does give us is DraftKings season averages, and those are the numbers to lean on here.
Federico Chiesa (LIV, F) has the highest DraftKings average on the board at 15.4, and he costs $8,600. Alexander Isak (LIV, F) is right behind at 15.1, though his salary is $10,400. Jamie Gittens (CHE, F) is the best Chelsea number at 14.0 for $8,800. Of the three, Chiesa offers the most average per dollar.
On the value side, Giorgi Mamardashvili (LIV, GK) stands out at just $5,000 with an average of 7.3, a cheap way to free up cap space for the pricier forwards. Hugo Ekitike (LIV, F) sits at $9,600 with an 11.3 average, a step down from the top group.
Some names carry bigger price tags than their averages suggest. Pedro Neto (CHE, M/F) costs $10,000 against a 9.3 average, Joao Pedro (CHE, F) costs $11,200 against 8.5, and Estevao (CHE, F) costs $9,800 against 6.8. Those are the salaries to be careful with when choosing a captain, since the 1.5x salary hit makes an expensive miss costly.
The sheet gives no ownership figures for this slate, so we can't say where the crowd is headed.
Because the captain slot multiplies both points and salary, the averages point toward Chiesa as the most efficient choice to anchor a build, with Mamardashvili as the cheap piece to balance the cap. With only one game and a single lock, there is no late swap to lean on, so settle your lineup before 4:00 p.m. ET.
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