Here’s an excellent article from regular commenter on the site Joseph Crilley on 3 fantasy premier league value players. He also outlines his latest draft team. Joseph finished with a 13k overall rank last season
fantasy premier league value players – Joseph Crilley gives 3 options and his draft FPL team
The powers at FPL opened the game on Wednesday, giving us managers the opportunity to search through the player list to create our optimal team. In order to make this team, of course, we will look to premium players such as Kane and Sanchez. However, to help us afford these expensive assets we will need a few players at the lower end of the price spectrum. In this article, I shall be mentioning a few of these more affordable players who could make a great option in your team for GW1.
James Ward-Prowse, Southampton (midfield £5.5m)
We start with the England under 21s captain who lead his team to the semi-finals this summer only to keep up the tradition of losing to the Germans on penalties. This season the midfielder comes in at a lowly £5.5m. This could prove a bargain if he can cement a place in the Southampton team under their new manager, Mauricio Pelligrino. Having made 30 appearances in the league last year (starting the last 10 games of the season), it seems he is establishing himself well within the first team picture.
Last season, he scored 4 goals last year and laid on 4 assists. These are figures he could easily improve on, especially given the standard of his set-piece delivery. He is well-known for his dead-ball quality and should be on the majority of Southampton’s corners and freekicks. This could help him prosper in terms of improved fantasy points. He whipped in an impressive 143 crosses during the season, enough to place him 14th in league for this statistic. However, for the players above him, only the departed Dimitri Payet played less minutes with all the rest playing at least 300 mins more . The ability to regularly provide crosses highlights another potential source of points for Ward-Prowse.
Another positive factor is Southampton’s opening fixtures which are extremely favourable as noted in the FFGeek fixture ease article. Due to work on West Ham’s London stadium, they open with two homes games against Swansea and West Ham. They then go to Huddersfield and Crystal Palace either side of another home tie against Watford. Considering the fixtures, his crossing ability and his set-pieces, I believe Ward-Prowse can be a great 4/5th midfielder option.
DeAndre Yedlin, Newcastle (defender £4.5m)
As a Spurs fan, I have fond memories of using Yedlin’s explosive pace during my career modes on FIFA and as such, I have always had a soft spot for him. I’m glad to see him back in the Premier League with Newcastle.
He used his pace effectively last season to record 1 goal and 5 assists in just 27 appearances. That means only Kyle Walker provided more assists out of the FPL defenders. He is priced at just £4.5m which is seemingly the standard for newly promoted teams. However, his attacking edge could help make that price tag look very attractive. He was rotated with Vernon Anita last season. Anita has now moved on to Leeds which should help to keep Yedlin’s place safe.
Newcastle play Spurs on the first day but follow this with games against Hud (A), West Ham (H), Swansea (A), Stoke (H) and Brighton (A) giving Yedlin an opportunity to pick up some early points. Newcastle had a good record for keeping clean sheets in the Championship, recording 19 in total. It’s worth noting that 11 of these were away from home. Therefore, those away fixtures mentioned previously should encourage you to save a slot for DeAndre in your back line.
Junior Stanislas, Bournemouth (midfield £6.0m)
Now to the player who spent a fair few weeks on my bench last season in the hope that he would finally be fit again. The midfielder was rather a forgotten man by the end of the season due to the form of a certain Josh King. However, after King’s reclassification to a forward I think Stanislas can emerge from his shadow as a key asset this season. When the player list came out, he was one of the first players I looked for so I could assess his price. Admittedly £6.0m is a little higher than I was expecting but when looking at some of his stats from last season, not only is it an acceptable price, but one that I would be more than happy to pay. He still ranks highly in the FFGeek article calculating the players with best returns for the price
Stanislas made 21 appearances, scoring 7 goals and recording 5 assists which helped to accumulate 107 points. This means a record of just over 5 points per game which is extremely impressive. It’s actually slightly higher than King’s. It’s also worth noting that Stanislas oversees a decent percentage of Bournemouth’s corners and freekicks. He also scored 2 penalties last season so there’s a slim chance of him taking these again. However, I would imagine Jermaine Defoe will take over these.
If that isn’t enough to convince you of his credibility, it’s also good to know that he finished the season strong with 3 goals in the last 3 games and he has a 50% goal involvement when he is on the pitch. Adding all of this up, he could prove a welcome addition to your squad at that friendly price.
My squad
I’ve spent some time working on my team and below is a screenshot of the current draft that I have settled on. You can see it involves a couple of the players mentioned in this article. I am currently utilising the classic 3-4-3 formation though I am rather tempted by 4 at the back considering the strong performances of defenders last year. I have chosen not to double up on any attacks to ensure as much coverage of the top teams as possible.
Goalkeepers
The £8.5m combo formed from a Tony Pulis defence was just too good for me to turn down especially considering their favourable opening fixtures. I always seek to have a representative from the Pulis defence in my team and with all the defenders costing £5.0m this seemed like the best route in.
Defenders
With the sale of Kyle Walker, Trippier’s place seems assured and I believe he could prove to be fantasy gold this year with his crossing ability and a striker like Kane on the end of these deliveries. With Milner changing to a defender this year and Liverpool’s tendency to receive penalties (average of 7 over the last 5 seasons), he could be in line for a strong return of fantasy points. He has already scored a penalty in pre-season and he also averages over 6 assists per season.
Cedric should prove great value bearing in mind his great fixtures, his underlying attacking stats and a new manager who organised a team with a decent defensive record last year in La Liga. Southampton had the 4th most clean sheets last year so I’m hopeful Cedric can bring in some early points. Holgate and Yedlin are the £4.5m defenders chosen with fixtures that rotate quite nicely for when they are required with both seemingly secure, at least until Coleman returns from injury.
Midfielders
Coutinho and Sané are the players chosen to cover two of the best attacks who often start strongly in the league. Coutinho produced his best FPL season in 16/17, finishing strongly and producing good returns even in a slightly deeper role. Sané also finished the season well and seems to be a favourite of Pep’s so I’m hopeful that he will avoid the dreaded City rotation and prove good value at £8.5m.
Willian should be the player to take Hazard’s place while he recovers and looks a great early season option at only £7.0m. He stepped up in the FA cup semi-final in Hazard’s absence, scoring a penalty and a free kick, and he produced some decent returns and underlying stats last season, despite limited minutes. Stanislas is in the team for the reasons stated previously and Loftus-Cheek looks the best option in the £4.5m bracket after his loan move to Palace. I’ll be keeping an eye on him in pre-season and can easily be replaced by Tom Carroll if it looks like he won’t be playing.
Forwards
With his ownership already approaching 50%, it’s extremely difficult for me to leave Lukaku out the team. This is especially so looking at the fixtures and I’m sure that he will be highly captained in some of these games. Kane had the highest points per game last year out of the regular players and I wanted him in my team despite the high price and the Wembley factor. As mentioned previously, Newcastle have good opening fixtures and Gayle was the most potent striker in the Championship last year with a goal or assist every 86 mins. He scored twice yesterday in a friendly and he could prove to be the great £6.5m option that we struggled in find last year.
General thoughts
I’m pretty happy with this team at the moment but I’m sure that it will change before the first game. I would have liked a Man Utd defender but Trippier and Milner look like such great options; I could always go 4-3-3/4-4-2, replacing Stanislas/Gayle and Holgate with Bailly and a 4.5mil. No Arsenal coverage is obviously a worry but as of now I’m willing to wait to see how Lacazette settles in and how the Sanchez situation develops. My method of taking one attacker prevents me from having the likes of Alli, Jesus and Pogba but unfortunately you can’t have everyone.
I hope there’s some information in there that can help you with your team and I’ll post another article or two with my updated team further down the line.
Thanks Joseph. Some really interesting thoughts there
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
Join our FPL league Code is: 5379-1967
Follow us on twitter and facebook for article updates and news
This season were playing draft fantasy football. Try this new way of playing by clicking on the link here www.draftfantasyfootball.co.uk
