Here’s our FPL premium midfielders GW1 article where we rank the midfielders from £7.0m and upwards. There’s a table of stats to help you make a transfer choice plus some narrative on each player afterwards and their fixtures
FPL premium midfielders GW1 – player rankings for midfielders £7.0m upwards
This is our 2md player rankings article. You can see defenders and GK rankings here
Methodology
I’ve started with all the midfielders at £7.0m and above that I think will start GW1 and have some longevity in the team. That would rule out the likes of Martial who may play GW1 but could lose his place when Sanchez shifts over on Lukaku’s return
I’ve then taken their expected goals and assist information and converted it into projected points through adjustments for minutes played bonus and fixtures. For fixtures I’ve taken a longer view of 8 games. This is mainly due to the fact that alot of my transfers were reactive due to injuries etc so I wanted a longer view of a player. If you’re looking for a shorter view then you may want to be more earlier fixture focused.
The players are then ranked by projected points over 8 games and value for money.
Whatever the case there’s plenty of info to make your own decision.
Players who weren’t considered due to being late back were mainly English, French and Belgian. These included Sterling, De Bruyne, Alli, Hazard, Pogba, Willian and Lingard
Stats definitions
Pts per 90: the FPL points earned per 90 minutes played
Fixture ease ranking so you can see who has the best fixtures from GW1-4 and GW1-8. See our fixture ease article
Underlying stats ranking is from our underlying stats article where projected goals are turned into raw points. Info from the excellent free site understat.com article
The schedule by projected points
The schedule by value for money
Player Commentary and fixtures
Salah
There’s no surprises that Salah tops the projected points list but that he tops the value for money table at the price of £13m shows that he isn’t reliant on a place in our teams just as a captain option.
The question is obviously whether he can repeat last season. For me though he is now owned by over 50% of FPL managers and will be a captain favourite during those early weeks. Managers who go without him are taking a big risk with their rank on that basis.
West Ham (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Spurs (A)
Southampton (H)
Chelsea (A)
Man City (H)
David Silva
I’m as surprised as you reading this that David Silva features so high in this. The fact was that his xG/xA ranking was only less than Salah, Sterling, Son and Mane and of the players in the schedule only Salah and Sane had a better points per 90 minutes played. I’ve even downgraded his points projection on the basis that he does tend to underperform that xG.
The eye test though does show a greater desire to get into the box than in previous years and this is why we’ve seen an increase in goals last season to 9 from 4 the previous season even on less minutes.
The risk area though is minutes. Pep has already said he will play less this season which isn’t a great start and he is 32. It’s in what competition that he plays less games in is the key. He can play no games in the EFL Cup, the FA Cup and some easier Group games in the UCL as far as I’m concerned it’s how many games he doesn’t play in the PL that is the question.
Starting in the Community Shield on Saturday will be a key factor.
Arsenal (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Fulham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Brighton (H)
Liverpool (A)
Sadio Mane
So easy to be ignored when you’ve got Salah in your team but make no mistake Mane’s pace and ability to stretch defences are crucial to Liverpool. 27 starts plus 2 as sub for 10 goals and 8 assists is no mean feat.
However 2 things cause Mane problems. The first is that he seems unable to accrue bonus points. 8 bonus points given his returns and 147 total points is a major issue. Also he tends to be a bit of a sub magnet for Klopp. In 14 starts he didn’t get to 80 minutes.
West Ham (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Spurs (A)
Southampton (H)
Chelsea (A)
Man City (H)
Sane
Sane has had the big advantage of not going to the World Cup although I’m sure he didn’t see it that way. However he seems to have taken too much advantage of that fact and has been criticised by Pep for not being in good enough physical condition. Should he not start in the Community Shield then that could even start getting us concerned about GW1.
There is also how he fits in with Mendy being back. Last season in the premier league Mendy only started 3 games. Sane didn’t start either of the 3. What makes it even worse is that 2 of those games were with a back 4 so no matter how Pep sets up it seems Mendy is the width on the left hand side.
Arsenal (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Fulham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Brighton (H)
Liverpool (A)
Christian Eriksen
With Eriksen you pretty much know what you’re going to get. Set pieces, a pretty decent stream of assists and at or around 10 goals. Last season he did the “double double” with 11 goals and 10 assists and started 37 of 38 games only playing less than 80 in 5 of those starts.
However if I told you Mkhitaryan had the same PP90 you’d be pretty shocked considering how you would naturally compare their seasons. Now that’s a pretty unfair comparison when Eriksen got 199 points and Mkhitaryan 107.
There are negatives though. Too many times (9 in fact) for me he played that De Bruyne CM position where he was slightly deeper and was always going to be the assisting the assister. Then there’s his underlying stats data which to be honest is pretty ordinary. Even Ozil’s was better albeit slightly. Now we all know he can over perform it through trade mark screamers and Kane’s lethal finishing but as a platform it’s not ideal.
He also has the issue of no Kane for some unknown early part of the season and virtually no first teamers as Poch ended up with his nightmare World Cup of England and Belgium going deep in the competition.
Newcastle (A)
Fulham (H)
Man Utd (A)
Watford (A)
Liverpool (H)
Brighton (A)
Huddersfield (A)
Cardiff (H)
Sanchez
There is literally no point in me going over Sanchez’s data from last season although obviously that’s the basis for his ranking as I find it difficult to add some intangible potential booster to his stats.
If you’re thinking positive you’re thinking, last season was an outlier, he’s an FPL heavyweight, pre-season rest with no World Cup, could play striker in early games and has had a good pre-season. I’m even convincing myself.
If you’re thinking negatively you’re thinking of last season with Man Utd, a defensive coach and a team without a number of first teamers due to the World Cup
The one definite thing is that he offers a price in your midfield which makes an easy move to De Bruyne, Sterling or Hazard when they return.
Leicester (H)
Brighton (A)
Spurs (H)
Burnley (A)
Watford (A)
Wolves (H)
West Ham (A)
Newcastle (H)
Ramsey
I’m not really a fan of box to box players but Ramsey is different.
Having said that I’m going to start with a load of negatives. He’s got a new manager who we don’t know how he will play Ramsey, he’s a constant injury risk, the first 2 fixtures are Man City and Chelsea and he’s in a contract wrangle which can only be a distraction especially as Arsenal are trying to resolve it before the transfer window closes. Lastly there’s his minutes in a position with a decent amount of competition in the club.
On the positive side his ability on the counter and in a structured attack to find goal scoring chances is unique to Arsenal, he’s had no World Cup and his underlying stats are excellent. The real positives are the price which seems fairly generous in the current landscape.
Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Watford (H)
Fulham (A)
Ozil
If ever there was someone with something to prove after a disastrous World Cup it’s Mesut Ozil.
On the positive side last season only De Bruyne had better assist related underlying stats when on the pitch than Ozil. If he can fit into the Emery system he has Lacazette and Aubameyang to finish off his chances although we didn’t really see that last season at all.
Unfortunately there are a load of negatives, firstly his FPL points are weighed down by an inabilty to score goals. Last season he scored only 4 goals in 24 starts plus 2 as sub and 9 assists. We’ve seen Emery wanting to implement a pressing system and if ever there was a player you wouldn’t associate with that it’s Ozil. Now Emery has said plenty of positive words but he wouldn’t be the last manager to say one thing but act in a completely opposite way.
Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Watford (H)
Fulham (A)
Mahrez
If you’re wondering why Mahrez is so low it’s because this ranking is based on his Leicester stats. Cue alot of eye rolling I know but there’s no way for me to project what he’ll do in Man City so at least there’s a base line to start at.
While he’ll surely get more chances when on the pitch he’ll surely be on the pitch less and won’t have the set pieces he did with Leicester and won’t be allowed to shoot from wherever whenever. It’s just how does this all plays out. It’s a gut feel play really as to how things will change.
Mahrez is an interesting one as his underlying stats are pretty ordinary. What he did last season was massively over perform them. However the season before that he massively under performed them so that’s the tricky bit.
I think with Mahrez that you’ve got to be hoping that he can land a few screamers here to get his points up. Last season 4 of 12 of his goals were from outside the box and 3 from a pretty tight angle but this is really all about the Man City effect.
Arsenal (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Fulham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Brighton (H)
Liverpool (A)
Mkhitaryan
I expect Mkhitaryan will lineup as an RW in a 4-3-3 or as a RAM or CAM in 4-2-3-1.
Last season with Arsenal he started with a bang with 3 assists in the 5 goal hammering of Everton. What followed though was 6 blanks and 2 returning games in the 8 starts after. His underlying stats of last season are good as an assister but hopeless from a scoring point of view.
The new coach and in particular one that wants to press plus his inconsistency make him a bit of an unknown plus there’s the first 2 fixtures of Man City and Chelsea. However at £7.0m in an Arsenal team with his ex partner in crime Aubameyang and Lacazette on the end of his chances created there’s potentially alot of upside
Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Watford (H)
Fulham (A)
Gross
The Brighton midfielder has a lot of positives. He dominates set pieces, will start every game and plays in a pretty advanced position. However he plays for a pretty conservative team. Especially away from home. While he creates chances he produces little in the way of goal threat and had no right to score anything like the 7 goals he did last season.
Can he repeat it is the question?
Watford (A)
Man Utd (H)
Liverpool (A)
Fulham (H)
Southampton (A)
Spurs (H)
Man City (A)
West Ham (H
Sigurdsson
Unless you’re someone like Andy Carroll no attacking player should be judged on a season with Big Sam as manager. This is a guy after all who said after Everton had set all sorts of negative records for shots on target that they should tighten up on defence.
It was a truly awful season for Siggy with 4 goals and 4 assists from 24 starts and 2 as sub at a rate of a goal or assist every 282 minutes.
To look at Siggy you have to see him as the player who in the season before that got 9 goals and 13 assists for Swansea at a goal or assist every 151 minutes. You’d have to take into account Marco Silva as a far more attacking manager and then think about the additional set pieces and maybe even pens he will get from Rooney having left.
And of course the fixtures are excellent
Wolves (A)
Southampton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Huddersfield (H)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Fulham (H)
Leicester (A)
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