Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 1 – Midfielders

Welcome to Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 1 – Midfielders

I am a numbers man, always have been and always will be.

The numbers that shout out loudly to me and should be shouting loudly out to you are 3-5-2.

This is not just me saying this! This is the formation that you should be using this season according to the “Fantasy Experts”. Here more about that here:

https://www.premierleague.com/news/3586721

With almost half of your starting eleven potentially being midfielders, if you get these five right, then you are probably off and running on a nice start to the season, a decent overall ranking, green arrows aplenty and surely a saved transfer or two along the way. If you get these five midfielders wrong, the overall ranking plummets, red arrows (and red mist) aplenty and a few -4 transfers to sort out your poor pre-season midfield choices.

Getting the midfield right (or wrong) could be the difference between an early wildcard or the luxury of a wildcard up your sleeve to be used closer to the Christmas deadline.

The FPL Powers That Be have, in my opinion, been very generous in their valuations of the midfielders with a whole host of very good players detailed in the £7.0m to £9.0m price range. As you know, players who have done well from last season increase in price with players who had a poor season decreasing in price.

So which midfield players should you be owning?

(Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

No surprise that up first is the main man; Mo Salah (£12.5mln, with 23.9% ownership). Salah will score well this season – he always has and he always will. However, at £26.5m (over ¼ of your budget) owning him alongside Erling Haaland will seriously impact the quality of the rest of overall squad. Therefore some serious thought must be taken in owning both. An added complication is that Salah will not always be your caption choice, so any hauls won’t be doubled. SalaThe Egyptian has had a decent pre-season with 1 goal and 6 assists in his 210 on-field minutes. A very interesting fact I found is that he always scores in game week 1 (away to Chelsea this time) but has never scored in gameweek 2 (home to Bournemouth). Fellow Liverpool midfielders Diogo Jota (£8.0m; only 2.8% ownership) and Luiz Diaz (£7.5m with 5.7% ownership) will no doubt both be looking to avoid their injury plagued seasons of last year. Despite their limited minutes last season; Jota contributed 7 goals & 4 assists with Diaz managing slightly fewer – 4 goals & 2 assists. Both have had the same amount of pre-season minutes with Jota performing the better of the two with 3 goals and 3 assists compared to Diaz’s 2 goals.

Moving onto the Champions; Manchester City. With both Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez moving onto pastures new, dare I say that midfield Peptation may be a thing of the past (you’re joking right? – Ed). Pep has been quoted as saying that he is delighted with the young boys coming through the City academy. The game has been updated to reflect this with a number of £4.5m midfielders being added. With no major midfield signings to date, confidence should be greatly enhanced in owning either Phil Foden (ownership of 13.8%) or Jack Grealish (ownership of 7.4%) both costing £7.5m. After a difficult first season at City, Champagne Jack appears to have earned the trust of Pep and cemented a place in the City starting eleven and no doubt will be looking to improve on his 5 goals and 10 assists of last season. Foden has always been one of Pep’s favourites – he started and finished last season well with a difficult spell in the middle. Similarly, Phil will be looking to contribute more than the 11 goals and 7 assists of last season. Isn’t it strange I’m detailing Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m) as a bit of an afterthought? KdB has been flagged as injured for most of the pre-season and has not played in any of City’s pre-season friendlies. A remarkable 11.3% of the game have chosen the Belgian but he is very much a wait and see as far as I am concerned.

A new season, a new managerial change at Spurs. Ange “Big Ange” Postecoglou arrived in Scotland as a bit of a joke figure. Two seasons later, a domestic double and treble sees the Greek-Australian off to White Hart Lane to see if his fast tempo/high press approach can be successful in England. The main beneficiary of this style should be Son Heung-min (4.9% ownership). We have been led to believe that the South Korean was carrying an injury for most of last season which perhaps contributed to a less than successful (by his standards) 10 goals and 6 assists. A massive price drop to £9.0m may make Sonny a more attractive proposition this season. The added complication of the possible Harry Kane transfer to Bayern may make a few Spurs midfielders slightly more attractive; none more so than Richarlison (currently 2.5% ownership). At £7.0m, this is a transfer that may be considered closer to when the transfer window closes in game week 4. The Brazilian would certainly be a good “out of position” option if Harry decides to say goodbye to the Spurs faithful. Finally, James Maddison (£7.5m) has swapped an unsuccesssful relegation dog fight at Leicester for likely mid-table mediocrity at Tottenham. His 12.3% ownership will be hoping that his set piece prowess can result in more than the 10 goals and 9 assists from last season.

(Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Across North London, Arsenal have spent some serious transfer fees in bolstering their midfield. Kai Havertz (£7.5m) has joined from Chelsea. An injury to Gabriel Jesus may result in the German playing in a familiar number 9 role for a few gameweeks at the start of the season. His 5.1% ownership contingent, along with the Arsenal faithful, will be hoping a change of team and the quality of attacking midfield colleagues will improve on his 7 goals and 1 assist from last season. We FPL managers have a real dilemma in deciding which Arsenal midfielders we should own. The most popular midfielder with 55.2% ownership; Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) is surely the must-have – if he does well then you score well along with the masses. The England International has improved his performance in each of his four seasons and should be well capable of at least matching his 14 goals and 12 assists of last time out, especially as he is still on penalties and corner kick duties. Club captain; Martin Odegaard (£8.5m) managed to score more fantasy points than Saka last season and his 20.7% ownership will be hoping for more of the same this season – a very impressive 15 goals and 8 assists last season should be well achievable once more for the Norwegian. A substantial price increase of £1.5m for Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) has not put off some – he currently has a 13.5% ownership. He is again another Arsenal midfielder who should be well capable of breaking through the 200 points barrier (he managed 198 points last season with his 15 goals and 9 assists). Finally, Leonardo Trossard (4.6% ownership) and the cheapest of the Arsenal stud midfielders at £7.0m. Seems to be more of an assist player with 13 last season but still has an eye for goal with 8 goals last season – keep in mind that some of these goals and assists will be from his Brighton days. Trossard has enjoyed a successful pre-season with 3 goals. With a bountiful supply of Arsenal attacking midfield assets, is “Artation” now a concern to us fantasy mangers? (Have I just coined a new phrase??? – yep and we love it – Ed.). A word of caution, there is no doubting that Declan Rice (£5.5m) is a smashing player but please, please, please (unlike 6.4% of managers so far) don’t waste one of your three precious Arsenal picks on a player who is basically a defensive midfield player.

The proposed buy-out of The Glaziers is still rumbling on off-field but on the pitch Erik Ten Hag seems to be sorting out the mess that he inherited at Manchester United. With a best ever fantasy season of 205 points, Marcus Rashford (£9.0m) has seen his price increase by a whopping £2.5m from last season. With the option of playing in midfield or as a forward and his confidence appearing to be restored by Ten Hag, his 17 goals and 7 assists could well be matched again for the up-and-coming season. Rashford has the second highest midfield ownership with 42.3% with these managers. As newly-appointed club captain, Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) takes on more responsibility at the heartbeat of this United team. A price drop from last season’s £10.0m will make Bruno a much more attractive proposition in the game. His 26.7% ownership will be hoping that Bruno can revive his goal scoring exploits of a few seasons or so ago. Bruno will be able to pull rank and ensure that he remains on penalties and at least match his 8 goals and 9 assists of last season. Underperforming Antony and Jadon Sancho have both been priced at £7.0m with ownership of less than 2% for both. Neither overly performed in FPL last season and both should only be considered if their earl form merits it. They have to convince.

Moving away from the £9.0m – £7.0m priced midfielders and down to a handful of £6.5m midfield players. The King is dead; long live the King. Eberechi Eze (£6.5m) will be looking to become the main man at Crystal Palace with Wilfried Zaha leaving the Eagles for the Turkish league. An impressive end to last season saw Eze score 10 goals and 5 assists. With the possibility of more penalty, free kick and corner duties, there is no reason why Eze can’t improve on last season’s attacking returns; he has 13.2% ownership. The quality of the opposition has no doubt been weaker, but he has continued his fine end of season form into this pre-season with 2 goals and 4 assists. Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) looks the pick of the Brighton midfielders and had a respectable first season with 7 goals and 9 assists. A midfield player who passes the eye test, he has a mightily impressive 37.3% ownership. Moving onto a player who ended the season poorly but was deadly in front of goal prior to the World Cup break; Miguel Almiron (£6.5m) scored more goals (11) last season than his previous four seasons combined at the Toon. The Paraguayan also contributed 4 assists. Like James Maddison; Harvey Barnes (£6.5m) has swapped relegation with Leicester City for the giddy heights of European football. Supplying Callum Wilson and/or Alexander Isak should see the new signing add to his 2 assists of last season – the 13 goals, perhaps being a bit more of a challenge. A point to now consider; Newcastle United are a Champions League team (*Rosco lets out a bit of wee*). Let me say that again for Rosco; Newcastle United are a Champions League team (*floodgates open*). The demands of European involvement will impact on this Newcastle squad as a whole with caution advised on any Newcastle players that you may decide to own. Finally, we all like an Out of Position (OOP) player. With Ivan Toney on the Naughty Step for off-field misdemeanours, it will be up to Bryan Mbeumo (£6.5m) to step up and score the goals for Brentford. That extra point for a goal and clean sheet – along with assuming spot kick duties should keep his 21.0% ownership happy.

(Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

For those managers that decide to play 3-4-3, then you will need that cheap fifth midfielder who will sit third on your bench and perhaps chip in 2 points as and when required. Keeping with the Newcastle theme; Elliot Anderson (£4.5m) may be for you. The Scotland Under-21 International only managed 395 minutes last season posting 30 points, but an impressive preseason of 4 goals and 3 assists in 269 minutes might be tempting to you and his 5.2% ownership. Brentford’s Shandon Baptiste (£4.5m) played the most minutes (600) last season of any of the budget midfielders. BUYER BEWARE – as his ownership at 5.4% is quite high, a mass of managers wildcarding to reconfigure their teams may see Baptiste become a £0.1m price decrease casualty. Finally, Carney Chukwuemeka (£4.5m) has had impressive preseason minutes (235) with 3 assists. Again, serious consideration should be given if you intend to use up one of your 3 Chelsea player spots on a budget midfielder who will probably stay on your bench.

Attacking Midfielder – Summer Transfers

The following attacking midfield players have been signed and have done relatively well in pre-season. Caution as always should be given to new players as we all recognise that the English Premier League takes some players time to adjust.

(Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)

Aston Villa – Moussa Diaby (£6.5m & 5.7% ownership) last season at Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) – scored 9 goals in 33 appearances.

Bournemouth – Justin Kluivert (£5.0m & 0.9% ownership) last season on loan at Valencia (Spain) – scored 6 goals in 26 appearances.

Brighton – Simon Adingra (£5.0m & 0.4% ownership) last season on loan at Union Saint Gilloise (Belgium) – scored 13 goals in 36 appearances.

Chelsea – Ian Maatsen (£5.5m & 0.1% ownership) last season on loan at Burnley – scored 4 goals in 39 appearances.

Liverpool – Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m & 5.8% ownership) last season on loan at RB Leipzig (Germany) – scored 6 goals in 31 appearances

Double / Triple Ups

A huge dilemma is the double up or dare I say triple up of players from the same team. If a team wins handily on any particular game week then you are looking at a great score. Conversely if a team has a poor game week then obviously the double/triple up will contribute to a poor game week score. Personally, I don’t like it and much prefer to spread my midfield players across a good few different teams.

My Selections

Which five midfielders have I chosen I hear you ask? Well, I currently have Saka, Foden, Bruno, Eze & Mitoma but that could all change by the time the game week 1 deadline passes.

Summary

Most of the players will be fairly obvious picks to you but I hope that I have at least re-enforced your thoughts process.

To finish, continue to do your research! If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

Good luck for the season.

Jamie Mc

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 1 – Midfielders. This article was written by Jamie Mc.

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