Here’s our fantasy premier league cheap midfield player rankings article for those players at £6.5m or under. There’s a range of stats plus commentary on each and their early fixtures
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE CHEAP MIDFIELD PLAYER RANKINGS – PRE-SEASON
This is the 3rd player rankings article. Here’s links to the 2 others:
Midfielders at £7.0m and above
Firstly there’s a table of stats. Then there’s a bit of brief commentary on each player. After that there’s a list of players on a watchlist where more pre-season info is required
STATS DEFINITIONS
Fixt Ease: The ease of the mentioned fixture range from an attacking perspective. See our GW1 fixture ease article
Mins per FPL pt: How long it took to earn an FPL point in 16/17. The lower the better
Mins per G/A: the amount of time it took to get a goal or assist in 16/17
Consistency %: The percentage of games that the player obtained a goal or assist in 16/17. Subject to a minimum minutes threshold
SOT per 90: The shots on target per 90 minutes from 16/17. Info from whoscored.com
Value rating: My assessment of their value for the points earned in 16/17 for the minutes played for the 17/18 price. The lower the better 1.54 is the average
THE TABLE
I’ve ranked the players in the order that I see them. However there’s enough info for you to make an assessment. Remember if they’re not on the table they could well be in the monitor list below
Tadic
Great fixtures and he should have good set piece representation in the Southampton team as well as playing in an attacking midfield role. It’s just a case of promising so much and delivering so little that has to make every FPL manager wary. This is a fixture and not a form play
First 6 fixtures:
Swansea (H)
West Ham (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Man Utd (H)
Townsend
Palace have new manager who’s supposed to value possession. Townsend doesn’t really fit that bill and can look like Yosemite Sam when it comes to shooting style. I did think about sticking him in the monitor list but have ranked him. However he will need to be assessed for gametime. Seems likely to play on the left of a front 3 or in the attacking midfield of 4-2-3-1. Largely good fixtures but fairly spasmodic form. Townsend did feature in my potential improvers for 17/18 article due to the fact that his shot accuracy of last season fell off a cliff compared to the last 2 previous seasons
First 6 fixtures:
Huddersfield (H)
Liverpool (A)
Swansea (H)
Burnley (A)
Southampton (H)
Man City (A)
Phillips
The WBA right winger who has some set piece responsibility had a massive purple patch followed by a patch where he couldn’t hit a barn door. Again good fixtures dictates this pick rather than any consistent form.
First 6 fixtures:
Bournemouth (H)
Burnley (A)
Stoke (H)
Brighton (A)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Ritchie
It’s difficult to assess whether players will provide returns after being in the Championship. It’s usually best to wait and see how they perform. However Ritchie took the vast majority of penalties last season, has a good amount of set piece responsibility and good fixtures to start. If you’re going to roll the dice then that’s a pretty good combination. He is currently injured after a groin operation but is expected to be fit for the start of the season
First 6 fixtures:
Spurs (H)
Huddersfield (A)
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Stoke (H)
Brighton (A)
Redmond
I’ve currently got Nathan Redmond in my FPL team based on the fixtures and the amount of shots he got in the box last season. It’s a big fixture rather than form gamble. Out of 83 shots last season (57 which were in the penalty area) he scored 7 goals. An 8% conversion rate which is just plain terrible. Over the last 3 seasons he has managed the unique feat of increasing his shots in the box at an excellent rate while halving his conversion rate. Going with Redmond is based on the theory of surely the tide has to turn at some stage. If there was ever a time to believe this it’s now with these fixtures
First 6 fixtures:
Swansea (H)
West Ham (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Man Utd (H)
Tom Ince
Ince has joined Huddersfield after a successful season with Derby last season. He posted very good actual and underlying stats. Whether he can translate this to the premier league in a team that really could seriously struggle remains to be seen but he has the basic material to do so. He maybe forced to play on the left rather than his preferred right due to the existing relationship between RW Kachunga and RB Smith
First 6 fixtures:
Crystal Palace (A)
Newcastle (H)
Southampton (H)
West Ham (A)
Leicester (H)
Burnley (A)
Capoue
The £4.5m cheapie of last season is now £5.5m. However he did finish the season in a fairly advanced midfield position and that’s where the attraction is this season as the fixtures are a bit mixed.
First 6 fixtures:
Liverpool (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Brighton (H)
Southampton (A)
Man City (H)
Swansea (A)
Shaqiri
This is a tricky one. Really didn’t perform at all last season. A 13 point FPL haul in GW33 was followed by 5 straight blanks to finish the season. Thats what you’re dealing with. The fixtures to start off with aren’t great at all. Does have quality though under there somewhere though and that’s what you’d be hoping for here
First 6 fixtures:
Everton (A)
Arsenal (H)
West Brom (A)
Man Utd (H)
Newcastle (A)
Chelsea (H)
Albrighton
Finished the 16/17 season relatively strongly with 2 goals and 3 assists in the last 9 games on the left flank. Fixture’s aren’t great though. Would be a big leap of faith
First 6 fixtures:
Arsenal (A)
Brighton (H)
Man Utd (A)
Chelsea (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Liverpool (H)
Carroll
Carroll is the £4.5m 5th midfielder with the most attacking potential on the current information. He also started 16 of the last 17 games last season which is important for a 5th midfielder. Has potential to do better if gets some set pieces should Sigurdsson leave. However the main attraction seems to be gametime security and the fact that he’s possibly the only £4.5m defender who’s not a DM
First 6 fixtures
Southampton (A)
Man Utd (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Newcastle (H)
Spurs (A)
Watford (H)
PLAYERS TO MONITOR
Here’s a few players which need more monitoring over pre-season for gametime or positional reasons
Gametime monitors
There are a number of players who could become options should they be able to show a secure start for GW1 over pre-season. These are
Mirallas Everton
Chadli WBA
Ward Prowse Southampton (mentioned in Joseph Crilleys budget players article)
Snodgrass West Ham
Fraser Bournemouth
Fer Swansea
Puncheon, McArthur, Loftus Cheek, C Palace
Gray D Leicester
Positional monitors
Allen Stoke if he can take the CAM position rather than the CM.
Injury monitor
Gundogan Man City – Looks too late with 9/9 the target
Pereya Watford – no return date
Buy our 57 page Ebook “a guide to fantasy premier league 17/18” with loads of graphics and detailed stats on 150+ players from last season. Only £3.00
The FFGeek league code is 5379-1967
Try the new way of playing fantasy premier league football by clicking DraftFantasyFootball.co.uk here or on the banner below. It’s free to play.
Follow us on twitter and facebook for article updates and news
