Here’s our article where we rank the top 49 midfielders using last seasons stats. There’s a schedule of stats and commentary on a some key players for your FPL team.
Best FPL midfielders – Pre-season Rankings
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The Key
I’ve converted their xG90 and xA90 in to raw FPL attacking points. No appearance points, Clean sheet points or bonus just raw attacking points. I’ve then ranked them from 1 – 49.
I’ve also included their FPL price, Last seasons Points per Match, average minutes played as well as an initial assessment on their starting potential. There’s also 2022 stats which actually is after the 31 January to cover form at the later part of the season.
The VFM column relates their potential returns from the stats to their price. A VFM factor of 10+ is desirable.
There’s also their fixture ease ranking. 1 being the best fixtures over the first 6 game weeks.
All stats are from the fantastic free site understat
I’ve not included last season’s relegated teams, any promoted teams or players who have left the PL otherwise. Also not included new players to the Premier League.
The key to the status is as follows. I will update this during preseason.
LS – likely starter
TBC – to be assessed through pre-season
UL – unlikely starter
UK – unknown
TRF – Transfer possible
The Schedule
Below is a graphic but you can get the google spreadsheet and filter it anyway you like on the FFGeek Patreon site version
For a player to qualify you needed to play 800 mins for the season ranking and 350 mins for the post 31 January Ranking
Remember the ranking isn’t adjusted for upcoming fixtures. It’s purely on performance.
Comments
Pedro Neto
A popular £5.5m pick is not in the schedule as he only played 451 minutes. He was also complicated as his average minutes played was only 34 minutes.
His xG90 was 0.33 and his xA90 was 0.30 which is excellent for the price. If you gave him average minutes of say 75 then he would rank an impressive 11th in the post January 2022 stats. He also would have had an impressive 13.5 rating which would be one of the highest value for money rating.
The caveats are that he only played 451 minutes and that he only started 5 games with 8 off the bench. His xG90 and xA90 are also considerably better than his 2 previous seasons with Wolves so there’s quite a bit of salt attached to them. He does have good fixtures though which is why he has had so much attention.
Premium Players, £8.0m and cheaper players
Premium
What you notice from the VFM numbers if that the £10m plus players performed well even at their price. Salah, Sterling and Son all shined and the criticism of Salah post AFCON isn’t born out by the numbers. Sterling’s problems were putting the ball in the back of the net not o the chances he had.
De Bruyne improved significantly and his finishing is so good he’s an anomaly in terms of xG with the VFM being a little irrelevant.
All of the above have great fixtures to start although Sterling at Chelsea is a different kettle of fish to Sterling at City I would think.
Fernandes was the main flop in the price range.
£8.0m range
This price range is littered with good value. Foden, Gundogan and Mahrez all could be great value and fixtures depending on their minutes. The Comm Shield a week before GW1 will be very interesting. Bowen, Diaz , Raphinha, Zaha and Mount also had good VFM rankings. Raphinha will depend on where he ends up and Mount on gametime. Zaha is a shame on opening fixtures and the same can be said for Bowen. Diaz and Mount have reasonable fixtures.
The lack of cheap options
Martinelli stands out here if he can nail the LAM spot and at least get 75 minutes per game. Pulisic is insane value if he can nail a starting spot and average 70 mins or so. There’s competition though for the attacking mids spot in Chelsea so he would have to be lucky to be in that position. Both have reasonable fixtures and are Preseason monitors.
Bruno Guimaraes surprisingly had good stats but his fixtures aren’t that great
Who could be a real option if they improve their average minutes?
There ae 3 players in particular to look out for:
Mahrez
If he could average 75 minutes instead of last seasons 52 when he was pretty much the forgotten man he would be 2nd in the rankings with an insane 15 VFM and a good set of opening fixtures. The Comm Shield will be interesting and with Sterling gone I think he has a chance.
Pulisic
If he went from 56 minutes to 75 he would move up to 9th in the rankings and a VFM of 13.5 which for £6.0m is some feat. The competition is heavy but not impossible with Mount, Sterling and Werner for possibly 2 spots.
Guimaraes
The fixtures aren’t great and it’s just the 1 season from a guy who mainly relies on late runs into the box or counter attacks. However, if he improves his 56 minute average to a feasible 85 then he would have a VFM of 13.5. It’s just the fixtures.
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