With Aguero looking out for a month here’s our fantasy premier league best strikers gameweek 9 article where we outline the best strikers. There’s a table of stats with a key underneath which gives enough information to help you make a choice over which striker you may want to transfer in as a replacement. It’s important though to read the narrative with the next 6 fixtures coming up as this is where I highlight there prospects and cautionary factors. I’m personally planning on replacing him as £13 million is too much on the bench and hamstring injuries never seem straightforward. I’m also not planning on doing a transfer until at least the Friday before GW9 to get a clearer picture of Aguero and the injury position. Please note this post was written on Sunday but posted on Monday.
fantasy premier league best forwards – GW9 “ones to watch”
| PPG Rank | Name | value | Minute per FPL point 14/15 | Consistency 14/15 | % of 10pt + | Fixture ease | Last 4 games | undlyg stats rank |
| 1. | Pelle | £8.1 | 13.1 m | 5/8 63% | 2/8 25% | 3/4 | 37 pts | 1 |
| 2. | Vardy | £6.7 | 13.7m | 7/8 88% | 1/8 13% | 15/17 | 33 pts | 3 |
| 3. | Bony | £8.2 | 19.8m | 1/6 17% | 0/6 0% | 5/3 | 5 pts | 2 |
| 4. | Martial | £8.4 | 11.4 m | 3/4 75% | 1/4 25% | 16/16 | 25 pts | 9 |
| 5. | Lukaku | £8.3 | 14.2m | 4/8 50% | 2/8 25% | 7/13 | 27 pts | 5 |
| 6. | Costa | £10.9 | 28.8m | 1/6 17% | 1/6 17% | 6/12 | 14 pts | 8 |
| 7. | Sturridge | £10.5 | 14.2m | 1/3 33% | 1/3 33% | 19/19 | n/a | 6 |
| 8. | Ighalo | £5.3 | 13.5m | 4/8 50% | 1/8 13% | 11/10 | 33 pts | 4 |
| 9. | Sakho | £6.7 | 21.9m | 4/8 50% | 0/8 0% | 14/9 | 17 pts | 7 |
Key:
Minute per FPL points: This is how many minutes it took to get an FPL point. The lower the better
Consistency: the % of games that a player returned a goal or assist. Sub appearances are counted
10+ point %: The % of games 10 FPL points or more are scored
Fixt ease: The ease of attacking fixtures coming up. Next 6/next 3
Last 2 games FPL pts
Undlyg stats rank: I’ve ranked the players according to their underlying shooting and creating chances stats
Leaders in key stats
Minutes per FPL point
- Martial
- Pelle
- Vardy
Fixtures
- Mitrovic
- Pelle
- Bony
Consistency
- Vardy
- Martial
- Pelle
History
- Sturridge
- Costa
- Bony
So Pelle is in 3 of the 4 tables. Martial (limited data though), Vardy and Bony with 2.
Individual players
Pelle
The man of the moment and ticking all the boxes that you want for a striker who’s leading the line for Southampton with 5 goals and 5 assists in his 8 games. This is no fluke as apart from arguably Aguero he’s top of the overall underlying creating chances and shooting stats. Also has good fixtures in the short term and over the 6. Good gametime as well seeing out the full 90 minutes in most games. Probably the only negative you can say at the moment is that he’s vastly overperforming last year where he finished up with an FPL point every 22.0 minutes which is way behind his current impressive 13.1 minutes. It’s possible this is down to an adjustment to the premier league with last season being his first. Also the growing influence of the pace of Mane is stretching defences as well to help him. Also last year he still had very good shooting stats it’s just that he had that patch where nothing would go in which affected his overall score
Leicester (H)
Liverpool (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Sunderland (A)
Stoke (H)
Man City (A)
Vardy
It’s something to go from non league 3 years ago to England player but that has been the remarkable rise of the Leicester forward. There’s no question of his current form and he’s part of a Leicester side that has relentlessly attacked in the face of a failing defence which also helps. His underlying stats prove that the 7 goals and 1 assist are no fluke either. The negatives are the fixtures which could be better and the resultant doubling up with Mahrez if you’re sticking with Mahrez after being benched for tactical reasons in GW8. Like Pelle as well you have a player who’s remarkably improved his minutes per FPL point from his debut season last season at a point every 18.7 minutes to it’s current 13.7 minutes. Again like Pelle that could be explained by an adjustment to the premier league in his first season after playing in the Championship.
Southampton (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
West Brom (A)
Watford (H)
Newcastle (A)
Man Utd (H)
Bony
A choice not for the faint hearted as it does come with risk. On the positives you’ve got a guy who has proven himself as a ruthless finisher in the premier league with Swansea as a lone striker. An FPL point every 14.8 minutes and 15.6 minutes in his previous 2 seasons with Swansea is testament to that. Lets not forget that in the season before that he scored 33 goals in the Dutch league for Vitesse. This is a natural born goal scorer. He will also have behind him the assist monster that is Kevin De Bruyne although it seems that Silva maybe injured for at least some of the games prior to Aguero’s return. In a free scoring City side he has massive potential. He also has some excellent fixtures in the short term with Bournemouth and Norwich at home and Villa away in the next 4. Despite only 1 assist to date his shooting stats are very good so that bodes well. Ok so where’s the risk? Firstly there’s a couple of gametime issues. He seems the logical replacement for Aguero who seems to be injured for a month with a hamstring injury. However there seems no doubt that when Aguero returns in a month or so it will be back to the bench and the domestic cups with Pellegrini favouring a lone striker system at the moment. If your team is like mine a replacement that will defintely need ditching in a few game weeks is a bit of a luxury to say the least. There’s also the question as to whether he will definitely line up for Aguero. Pellegrini has played Sterling as a striker this season and has made some negative comments about the fitness of Bony. You’re also assuming that he can just step up and show match sharpness when he hasn’t really played much this season. Certainly 1 asssist in 200 odd minutes maybe shows that. Pellegrini Friday press conference will be vital for information. May get pens over YYT in Aguero’s absence?
Bournemouth (H)
Man Utd (A)
Norwich (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Liverpool (H)
Southampton (H)
Martial
The Man Utd 19 year old has started the season fantastically with 2 goals and an assist in his first 3 games. Despite having a limited record in Monaco he’s certainly looked like a good all round striker to lead the line for Man Utd. However there are a number of cautionary aspects. Firstly there are little in the way of underlying stats to back up his goal scoring feats so far. However if you’re looking for justification there are theories that Man Utd’s possession based football creates limited but good quality opportunities. However, there are strikers that buck the underlying shooting stats but they are in the definite minority. However we are still judging on a limited database. Secondly the fixtures could be easier which doesn’t help the case. This is about whether you think the great start he’s made and quality he’s shown in those games over comes the lack of underlying stats and mixed fixtures.
Everton (A)
Man City (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
West Brom (H)
Watford (A)
Leicester (A)
Lukaku
The Everton striker has certainly made a good start to the season despite having difficult fixtures. Although I don’t have the data to prove it, it seems that he struggles with the lower ranked teams rather than the higher ranked teams although that is just an impression from prior seasons when he’s been a captain favourite and failed. His underlying shooting and creating chances stats are certainly good considering the opposition faced and the fixtures are slowly beginning to turn before a good run around GW11. He certainly showed in the 2013/14 season what he could do with an FPL point every 15.5 minutes although that preceded a disappointing season last year of an FPL point every 21.3 minutes. There’s no doubt he has the talent and potential which he’s shown in abundance this season and the fixtures are certianly coming to continue that. It’s just whether this is the real Lukaku or last seasons in disguise. Should also have pens.
Man Utd (H)
Arsenal (A)
Sunderland (H)
West Ham (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Costa
The Chelsea striker like all the team has struggled this season and only 1 returning game in 6 games played shows that. The positives are that last seasons 13.8 minutes per FPL point was a phenomenal debut season with 20 goals and 3 assists. We also don’t need reminding about his goal scoring for Athletico Madrid prior to that. There’s also some excellent fixtures coming up. It’s just that last season and this seem light years away and the Chelsea team is a shambles at best so far this season. Also like Hazard there’s no underlying shooting stats to think it’s going to come right. It’s whether you think the quality he undoubtedly has and the good fixtures coming up outweigh the lack of stats and poor start to the season he and Chelsea have had
Aston Villa (H)
West Ham (A)
Liverpool (H)
Stoke (A)
Norwich (H)
Spurs (A)
Sturridge
There’s alot of cautionary things to put forward for the Liverpool striker so lets get that out of the way first. He’s just coming back from a long injury so his minutes will be managed I expect. There’s also a tricky set of fixtures coming up. Thirdly there’s the unknown of the Klopp factor. A high tempo pressing from the front style of play doesn’t go well with someone recently coming back from injury. Fourthly this injury isn’t the first and history would show that there’s every possibility he will be injured again. So if you’re still reading what are the positives? An FPL point every 16.3 minutes last season and every 11.5 minutes prior to that in the Suarez season. He has the quality it’s just whether the cautionary factors are too much risk for the price
Spurs (A)
Southampton (H)
Chelsea (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Man City (A)
Swansea (H)
Ighalo
The Watford striker has certainly taken his 20 odd goals from the Championship last season and hit the ground running in the premier league. He also has the shooting stats to show it’s been no fluke. The fixtures haven’t been easy as well which also bodes well. Like all players new to the league though it’s whether it’s sustainable. Mixed fixtures
Arsenal (H)
Stoke (A)
West Ham (H)
Leicester (A)
Man Utd (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Sakho
The West Ham striker has started the season reasonably well goal wise but seems unable to generate bonus points even when scoring which is a drawback. Therefore his minutes per FPL point is rather poor and behind last years of a point every 17.9 minutes. His shooting stats are good though which give hope. The fixtures don’t look quite as rosy though as earlier in the season. Would you choose him over Payet though or double up on West Ham?
Crystal Palace (A)
Chelsea (H)
Watford (A)
Everton (H)
Spurs (A)
West Brom (H)
ALSO
Gomis
After stating off the season with 4 goals in 4 games the Swansea striker has gone 4 without although his minutes per FPL point are exactly those of last year so you would hope for some improvement. With Eder as a back up he’s also not a very reliable 90 minuter. The positives are that what does give some comfort is that he’s still producing a reasonable level of shooting stats in those last 4 games. Also as a back up he should have pens. The fixtures coming up are good as well.
Stoke (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Arsenal (H)
Norwich (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Liverpool (A)
Mitrovic
The £6.2m Newcastle striker is a gamble solely on fixtures as shown little form to date with 1 goal in 300 odd minutes. Does have very good shooting stats though which is another bonus. It’s whether you want to roll the dice based on good fixtures and some good shooting stats despite little form. Had an ok recrd in Belguim.
Norwich (H)
Sunderland (A)
Stoke (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Leicester (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
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