Here’s our fantasy premier league midfield player rankings article for those £7.0m and over. There’s a range of stats plus commentary on each and their early fixtures
fantasy premier league midfield player rankings – £7.0m plus
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 explaining why they’re not on the list
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
SOT per 90: The shots on target per 90 minutes from 16/17. Info from whoscored.com
ATGS – the bookies anytime goalscoring odds for GW1
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 list below
Dele Alli
Fantastic season in 16/17 playing what was most of the time a support striker role. He’s also a pretty reasonable price.. The only thing that can stop him this time is the Wembley factor and the bigger pitch. However they did take a step towards overcoming that that with the win over Juventus.
A crucial factor will be whether you can have him as well as Harry Kane or whether you choose to sacrifice Kane to save the cash. I’m not sure he’s as reliable or as explosive as Kane for the captaincy. Spurs have some attractive home games which will test non Kane owners. Not everyone agrees with me though as he currently is 38% owned compared to Kane’s 37% owned. Hasn’t had the preseason that Eriksen has but I’m not counting that against him.
First 6 fixtures
Newcastle (A)
Chelsea (H)
Burnley (H)
Everton (A)
Swansea (H)
West Ham (A)
De Bruyne
Man City’s creator and set piece specialist. Will probably play in midfield 4 of 4-1-4-1 or the 2 of 4-1-2-3 . De Bruyne has also featured in my 17/18 improvers article as last season he had a way below his normal shot accuracy stat. A rectification of that will hopefully see him score more. Rotation is the main issue for any player in Peps team
First 6 fixtures:
Brighton (A)
Everton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Liverpool (H)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Eriksen
Spurs creative player with the vast majority of set piece responsibility. Will get assists it’s just how many goals he can get is the unknown. Has had a couple of years of low consistency returns which is unusual for assist based players.
First 6 fixtures:
Newcastle (A)
Chelsea (H)
Burnley (H)
Everton (A)
Swansea (H)
West Ham (A)
Mane
Mane will play in the front 3 for Liverpool and his incredible pace helps stretch defences and create room for him and his team mates. His returns when on the pitch last season were excellent. Like all the Liverpool players will be rotated but Coutinho looking like he will move back into the midfield 3 should avoid a direct weekly rotation with Salah. One negative is after coming back from a serious injury is that we might see his minutes carefully managed and a few 60-70 minute substitutions. The UCL qualifiers are an important unwarranted distraction as well which may exacerbate that from an FPL perspective
First 6 fixtures:
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (H)
Man City (A)
Burnley (H)
Leicester (A)
Salah
Salah stats for Roma last season were fantastic. His minutes per goal or assist ratio was one of a top striker . However, there’s still an unknown factor of translating Serie A to the Premier League. His previous time with Chelsea saw 500 odd minutes with a goal or assist every 178 minutes which is extremely poor. The UCL qualifiers are an important unwarranted distration and extra games from an FPL perspective
First 6 fixtures:
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (H)
Man City (A)
Burnley (H)
Leicester (A)
Willian
A beneficiary of Hazards injury until GW5. Should get some set piece responsibility and an outside chance of penalties. Fixtures and a potential short shelf life are the issues. Has had an excellent pre-season as well. Great value for the price which was highlighted in my best and worst value players article
First 6 fixtures:
Burnley (H)
Spurs (A)
Everton (H)
Leicester (A)
Arsenal (H)
Stoke (A)
Pedro
Not banned for his sending off in Community Shield. Pedro’s return last season when on the pitch were excellent. Should get an uninterrupted start to the season with Hazard injured. A much quieter preseason than Willian although his facial injury hasn’t helped.
First 6 fixtures:
Burnley (H)
Spurs (A)
Everton (H)
Leicester (A)
Arsenal (H)
Stoke (A)
Mkhitaryan
Tonights Super Cup against Madrid might give more data but an excellent pre-season should see him in pole position for an attacking midfield spot either in a front 3 or in a 3 behind Lukaku. Premier league gametime is the unknown quantity after a disastrous start to his Premier League career last season. Hopefully that Bundesliga season of 11 goals and 20 assists plus player of the season in 15/16 is still in there.
First 6 fixtures:
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Leicester (H)
Stoke (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
Pogba
Again tonight may tell us more. With Matic joining should get the chance to go into the 2 of 4-1-2-3 or the 3 of 4-2-3-1. At the moment the former seems more likely. At least we’ve established a base stat for him to improve on, albeit a not very impressive one. However hopefully Lukaku should increase the assist rate and the forward position the goal rate.
First 6 fixtures:
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Leicester (H)
Stoke (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
Zaha
Palace seem to playing 3-4-3 which should suit Zaha in one of the forward flank positions. Isn’t the most consistent returner. Last season he got a goal or assist in 34% of his games. However these are the fixtures to roll the dice with him as he is capable.
First 6 fixtures
Huddersfield (H)
Liverpool (A)
Swansea (H)
Burnley (A)
Southampton (H)
Man City (A)
Those not in the list
Injured or lacking match fitness
Sanchez, Ozil, Lallana, Ramsey, Bernardo Silva
Positional/Gametime
Sane
Transfer Speculation
Coutinho – I have been thinking I may have been too harsh. Liverpool are saying not interested and he’s been playing in pre-season. He looks like he’ll move back into the midfield 3 which could do with some monitoring.
Siggy – hasn’t played pre-season really and looking like he will go to Everton.
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