New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2019/20 – Wan-Bissaka, Ayoze Perez and Ndombele
It’s been a relatively quiet summer here at FF247, tempered somewhat in recent weeks by the unexpected early release of the FPL game. As the site starts to awaken from its slumber with a slew of not too dissimilar RMT’s (we can all sink or swim together yeah?) its time for us to start looking at new signings. First up we have two players you’ll be familiar with who have now moved on to pastures new, and finally a look at a shiny new player, who whilst he may not be considered as an FPL asset (just yet), his recruitment may pay dividends for his team-mates in both the real world and the FPL one. So which, if any, should be in your GW1 squad and who should we keep at arms length? Read on for my two penn’orth!
Wan-Bissaka
Manchester United
FPL price: 5.5mln
AWB (you know I love a good abbreviation) was GW1 gold last season; a £4.0m starting defender who lived up to the hype. Starting 35 of Palace’s 38 games, AWB racked up 120pts over the season. When Palace kept a clean-sheet (which they did 12 times) AWB was on the pitch, and whilst he may have lacked attacking returns (3 assists 0 goals), he was partial to a bonus point or three. Indeed, no defender priced sub £6.0m accrued as many as AWB’s 18bps over the season.
A price rise was inevitable this season of course, although given that for £5.5m you could snap up his more attack-minded teammate PVA (3 goals, 2 assists and 140pts), he seemed a little over-priced. Within days of the game’s launch, however, he was off to Man Utd, a whopping £50m changing hands.
So, does that make his £5.5m price tag any more palatable? Ordinarily, a move to a top-six side and it would be a resounding yes to that question, but there was nothing ‘top six’ about Manchester United’s defence in 2018/19. Whilst AWB picked up points in all of Palace’s 12 clean sheets, over at ‘United’ they managed just 7, with just a solitary clean-sheet in their final 11 matches of the season. Grim.
Whether or not AWB becomes a solid option in FPL once more this season, may largely be influenced by Manchester United’s recruitment plans between now and the close of the transfer window. Leicester’s Harry Maguire is next on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s hit-list with a reported £80m price tag being bandied about. There is no denying that ‘Blockhead’ will represent a marked improvement on ‘United’ stalwarts Jones and Smalling but will it be enough to see an upturn in their clean-sheet prospects?
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s recent reassurance to fellow right-back Diogo Dalot that he has a bright future at Manchester United should not be ignored, however you have to presume that any team that pays £50m for a player surely intends to play them more often than not.
AWB is currently the third-highest owned defender in the game (32.3%), we’ll likely see regression on this figure come GW1, but he’ll likely still be highly owned and a favourite amongst casuals, those with a penchant for nostalgia and all those ‘United’ fans we’re always hearing about.
It seems this year is once again being touted as the year of the full-back, with many FPL managers considering four or even five at the back. However, with plenty of better options at just £0.5m more and mixed fixtures that don’t look all that promising until GW10 I’m not sure I’d recommend a ‘United’ defender… just yet.
Should AWB be part of your FPL side? Whilst there is no denying his ability, it’s the defence as a whole that needs to massively improve to make me look to ‘United’s’ defensive assets. It’s a wait and see for me.
Ayoze Perez
Leicester
FPL price: 6.5mln
Ayoze Pérez is a player I know all about, having watched him plié his trade at St James Park over the last 4 seasons. He has been at times been frustrating, occasionally brilliant and overall we’ll be a worse side for his loss. Screw you fat man.
The departure of Rafa Benítez from Newcastle at the start of July was swiftly followed just days later by compatriot Pérez as he sealed a £30m move to Leicester City. Manager Brendan Rogers was quoted as saying ‘‘I think Ayoze will be a wonderful addition to the squad. He’s quick, has a good eye for goal and he’s experienced in the Premier League too. I think he’s a player who will excite our supporters, and his style is one that I believe complements the options and quality that we already have here at the football club.” I can’t argue with any of that.
Pérez is one of the handful of players reclassified in FPL this summer. Where often players are moved to a position that is to the detriment of their FPL output, Pérez’s move from a forward to midfielder only adds to his appeal. Had Pérez been classified as a midfielder in the 2018/19 season he’d have finished on 164pts and 8th in the list of top-scoring midfielders in FPL.
Last season Pérez flourished when moved out to a wider position, he benefitted from playing off Salomon Rondon’s physical hold-up play, with Rondon assisting half of Pérez’s 12 goals. Should he operate in a similar position for the Foxes, he will have to adapt his game as Jamie Vardy is a very different player to Saloman Rondon. Before you all start whacking him in your GW1 draft, a note of caution, Pérez historically starts the season badly. Last season he scored just 2 of his 12 goals in game-weeks 1 to 19, the season before he scored just a solitary goal in the same period.
With similarly priced teammates Youri Tielemans (£6.5m) and James Maddison (£7.0) also vying for our attention, it’ll be interesting to see who the masses favour. Maddison is currently the highest owned of the three (16.1%) with Pérez not far behind (12.1%), a few more goals in pre-season could see that figure increase dramatically.
Should Pérez be a serious contender for your GW1 squad? At £6.5m Pérez was already an intriguing option in FPL. His positional reclassification, a move to a more attack-minded side and no longer relying on the support of the rag-tag group of bargain-basement picks and the occasional loan signing only adds to his appeal. If he can avoid his usual early season jitters then it’s a brown thumbs up from me!
Ndombele
Spurs
FPL price: 6.0mln
Winger Jack Clarke may have been Spurs first senior signing in over a year (they then immediately loaned him back to Leeds) but it was club-record signing Tanguy Ndombele (£53.8m rising to £62.8m with incentives) from Lyon that has captured the headlines and the imagination of the Lillywhite faithful.
Like me, you may not have heard of Ndombele prior to his move to North London, no surprise given that as recently as 2016 he was playing in the fifth tier of French football with Amiens’ reserve team. After graduating to the first team, his performances caught the eye of Lyon who took him on loan at the start of the 2017/18 season and then exercised an option to buy him (€8 million) after impressing in his debut season in the top-flight.
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas compared Ndombele to former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien; powerful with the technical ability to be effective in both attack and defence in the mould of a traditional box-to-box midfielder. In 2018/19 he played 34 league matches for Lyon, scoring once and picking up 7 assists, decent but hardly prolific. The consensus is that if he can improve his finishing he could make the transition from a very good to a great player.
Ndombele is expected to take on the spot formerly occupied by the now-departed Mousa Dembélé, with many saying he’s an almost like-for-like replacement. Whilst Mauricio Pochettino’s men may have made the Champions League final last season, they finished their league campaign 15pts worse off than their record 86pts recorded in the 2016/17 campaign. It was during that season that Mousa Dembélé was in imperious form, at one stage he went 6 months without being dispossessed in the Premier League. Crikey.
Whilst few will have memories of owning Dembélé in FPL that year, its no suprise that this period coincided with record FPL points tallies for his three more attack-minded teammates; Harry Kane(224pts), Dele Alli(225pts) and Christian Eriksen(218pts).
At just 22 there is every chance that Ndombele will only get better, if he can add goals to his repertoire then his £6.0m FPL price-tag will seem like a comparative bargain, it’s a wait and see on that front. However, if he can fill the Dembélé roll as is hoped, then we could see the likes of Kane, Son, Dele and Eriksen (if he stays) reap the rewards for both Spurs and our FPL teams.
Thanks for reading New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2019/20 – Wan-Bissaka, Ayoze Perez and Ndombele. This article was written by Rosco
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I’m suddenly doubting the idea of Coleman and Digne. Zouma staying at Chelsea and Gueye strongly being linked with a move away surely significantly reduces Everton clean sheet prospects but then there’s still three weeks to go anyway
I think people got him in their team in terms of his return going forward.
Ey smash, hows your team looking overall?
I’d only be going with 1 myself. CP away it’s a cert for a CS. If you have the funds go Digne, his attacking returns look better. Have you looked in to westham new lad yes Sébastien Haller (7.5) hes in watch list too
There’s a school of thought that Coleman matches – maybe even betters – Digne, if one concentrates on the final games of last season.
Hey kralin, Coleman before his leg break was always 1st on my team sheet and due to funds hes their now too. I just feel with Digne taking the odd free kick he wins it their alone for me.
Coleman has more fpl points this calendar year. If you desperately need to find 0.5m then Digne->Coleman isn’t a bad idea.
This currently. But I might go two 4.5s instead of Coleman so I can have Robbo instead of VVD
Kane & KDB or Sterling & Vardy? The former is 0.5m cheaper but that’s pretty much what I have to decide between now and GW1… Currently leaning on the latter
I’m in the classic dithering phase about them – especially if Zinchenko is looking relatively nailed and I then go for someone like Dunk to make up the defensive quartet. I’m fairly set on doubling on Liverpool so it’s a question of one or two more premiums. I may still start with Ake as a sort of compromise – see which way the wind is blowing and maybe move him (Ake) out in GW3 for either an Everton or Chelsea defender.
Everton have the fixtures, though, which makes it less risky (to me).
I read something startling (the BBC football gossip page, which is the only gossip I look at) about Everton being interested in Zaha. Whatever ‘interested’ may mean.
I think Ayoze is good asset. I have him in my team.
Am I right in saying is was a forward last year? If so if he did the same this time out hed have an extra 23 i have Maddison in the team now, for .5 less might be worth the swap
Article tells all Gavy ^^
Haha ya cought me out GP 😛
Read it. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Sometimes do you wonder why we bother?!! Haha
Rosco
Great work mate. Perez, at least to begin with, is the only one of those three on my potential list.
I have Tielemans just now but that’s subject to further homework to be done. I wouldn’t rule out any of us actually having double Leicester at some point.
Hope you have a great FPL season.
I also have Tielemans! I haven’t ruled out doubling up but probably not from the get go!
Tielemans position will be interesting. Will he be deeper with Pérez playing. Quality player though
Perez was upfront for the Scunthorpe game with Tielemans deeper, but Tielemans had some chances and if you look at Perez’s goal you can see Tielemans in the box as well so I just think we need to keep an eye on the rest of preseason.
Well seeing as I’ve told you 1/15th of my current squad …..
Here’s the rest FYI.
*shrugs* (rate it or whatever….)
Morning GP this is a good team very well balanced Sterling & Salah really good picks but I can’t get away from Kun over Sterling at present
Wol not great fixtures interesting that you have no Pool or City at the back unless Maguire ends up there
I thk the three fwds are excellent I thk with King being well priced people are overlooking Wilson Bou fixtures are great
Good team
Thanks Silvers, thanks for commenting.
I agree with you on one thing, it is the most balanced squad I’ve come up with so far.
I’ll see how Wolves treat their European matches starting on Thursday but I think Jonny starts the league matches and he’s assisted a couple of times in preseason so far.
Still working away.
It’s refreshing to see something different. Can’t fault the choices generally though Jonny is overpriced I think. Only two players though they are the best two players from the top two teams would be a concern
I would definitely have Robbo/TAA/VVD over Giroud, probably over Wilson as well, definitely over Tielemans and Brooks, Jonny is overpriced as is Maguire if he doesn’t move (even if he moves imo), I would prefer 4 at the back as the wingers Robertson and TAA are easily better picks than those similarly priced attackers imo
Okay, I’m happy with the mids and forwards, although the defence makes me want to cry.
Any suggestions for improvement?
Gear,
OK I’ll leave the attacking area as I agree, it is very decent. Grealish could be gold. Pogba would be the one I’d downgrade IF you needed the cash but….
On the defence itself you could downgrade TAA to VVD retaining your Liverpool coverage and saving 0.5. I would downgrade Ederson to a 5.0 (Pickford) or 4.5 (Ryan).
Dunk would be good if the Leicester move comes off so let’s say it does, you could have him, VVD and Ake to begin. What about Simpson up to Boly of Wolves who scored four goals last season?
Also, if you did the above changes, you could get Zinchenko for Simpson if you dropped Pogba to Sigurdsson.
Cheers GP, looks like this ..
I just have a feeling Pog is going to to something this year.
In complete fairness, Pogba did something last year – 13 goals and ten assists – so it isn’t as bad as some have you believe. Maybe it’s just the aura around ‘United’ just now but let’s see how they finish pre-season and start the league.
Robertson got 31 returns last season and TAA got 30 (including clean sheets as, of course, they get points for those), Pogba’s 23 returns isn’t enough in comparison, especially as Pogba is 1,5m more expensive
I need some help please,
I have a issue with my team, I have gone for Everton GK’s, Pickford £5.5m and Stekelenburg £4.0m but Everton have signed Lössl so he will no doubt be the 2nd GK if Pickford is injured, Lössl is not in the FPL yet but he will surely come in at £4.5m taking me £500k over budget, so do I go with two rotating GK’s at £4.5m this Fabianski (WHU) and Ryan (BHA) ?
I don’t like the idea of running with both BHA GK’s to be honest, my other option is both Begovic £4.5m and Boruc £4.5m from BOU ok they also have Travers but he is on loan.
Fabianski is 5.0 this season mate.
I think Ryan and whoever the Burnley goalkeeper looks like being is your best bet. Probably Pope but follow Burnley preseason to check.
Yes sorry, he is £5m.
I can go with a £5m GK and a £4.5m GK or two £4.5m GK’s the latter would free me up £500k to spend elsewhere, basically I have £9.5m to spend on two GK’s.
Looking at the pre-season Burnley are using all their GK’s.
Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion rotate the best, so Schmeichel and Ryan?
Schmeichel should play every game for Leicester.
He and Ryan seem the most secure two at those price points.
You could just leave it like that. I mean, nobody picks Ederson and Bravo. They pick Ederson and a random 4.0.
That is very true.
I worry about the GK’s getting injured or ill and having to change other players to afford a GK.
I wouldn’t worry too much about that Terminators. I’d be more worried about having 0.5 on the bench that could be spent on improving the main XI.
Re Burnley we should, hopefully, get a clearer picture as the season approaches. If not then Brighton is an easy plan b. I was talking yesterday to a Brighton fan – I asked him innocently who he considered were Brighton’s best players* – and he was worried that the new attack minded manager may lead to an even leakier defence.
* in no particular order – Dunk ‘n’ Duffy, Ryan, Stephens, Groß**, Knockaert.
** made jokes about Groß’ creakiness.
My bench is, Cathcart, Kelly, Greenwood and Ryan.
I would not worry about a back up keeper. If one gets injured or dropped always unlikely just make a transfer.