Here’s our article where we rank the best 40 midfielders for GW1 using last seasons stats. There’s a schedule of stats and commentary on a some key players for your FPL team.
Best midfielders for GW1 – The rankings Schedule
Additional content on the FFGeek Patreon site
£2 plus Vat per calendar month
* All the articles on www.fantasyfootballgeek.co.uk advert free
£2.50 plus Vat per Calender month (plus the above)
*access to Joseph Crilleys Transfer Planner and points projection tool plus FPL team run by it. 3k OR 21/22
* access to the FFGeek Contributor tracker team incl live transfers (OR 8k 20/21. 96k 21/22)
*The FFGeek team including live transfers and the early thoughts article will this season be on the Patreon site 4 of last 6 seasons top 21k. Also 3 top 10ks
* Imaginary wildcard articles
*Bandwagon and Sinking Ships articles
*Slack Channel access
* Following the teams of 10 top FPL managers who’ve finished in the top 10k OR the last 3 seasons
NEW £3.00 plus Vat per Calender month (plus all the above)
*team reveals from 6 FPL expert FFGeek Contributors Rob, Rick, Kev, Kris, Andrew and Joe. Live Transfer alerts and final team lineups
All Tiers – No Commitment beyond 1 Calender month although 16% discounted annual membership available
https://www.patreon.com/fantasyfootballgeek
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 – 40.
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
PS – possible starter
See my potential lineups article
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.
The best players to choose
I’ve picked the players with the best value for money ranking down to 9.5 and good fixtures. Here they are by value for money factor
Martinelli
It could really be his season as he seems to have nailed the LAM/LW position ahead of Smith Rowe. I’ve projected 75 minutes per game. Has good shooting and assist volume stats as well. Form did drop off at the end of last season is the only concern
Salah
You don’t even need to factor in captaincy for him to be good value. The supposed end of last season dip in form was only about not putting the ball in the net as opposed to his underlying numbers
Foden and Mahrez
They are 3 AMs playing for 2 positions plus Alvraez. So there will be some rotation. Foden and Alvarez shone as su s with Mahrez and Grealish especially looking ordinary. I think Grealish will be the fall guy personally but you put either of them in and take your chances. Interestingly Fodens stats were similar as a false 9 and as an left or right sided forward so we shouldn’t see a post Haaland drop off.
Diaz
The underlying stats say he’s fairly priced rather than massively underpriced although you’d expect him to improve after adjusting last season. Fantastic stats and incredible volumes to back it up.
Son
Is value for money again without the captaincy and that’s without factoring in his ability to overperform his stats with incredible finishing. Last season also got him back to provide reasonable volumes as well
Neto
Didn’t play enough minutes to qualify for the schedule above but on the minutes played he would have finished 10th behind Bruno Guimaraes in the 2022 stats. Plus Wolves have the best fixtures. It’s worth noting that his underlying numbers of last season were far ahead of previous seasons but he did play as a striker effectively which will be similar to this season to start.
It’s just the small data set and Wolves poor attack overall of last season
Leon Bailey
Didn’t make the minutes to qualify due to injury and the numbers he did produce were poor. Far off his Leverkusen numbers of the previous season. His inclusion is just because he at least has some attacking potential for £5.0m as opposed to the Rice’s and Dewsbury Hall alternatives. He does have some issues if Gerrard changes formation to 4-3-1-2 and plays Watkins and Ings upfront with Coutinho behind and he also will be a sub magnet
£4.5m Mids
These players are to minimise cost on your FPL bench rather than produce points. There’s only 2 that I think will start and unhelpfully both play for Fulham.
Andreas is the best pick and potentially has some attacking ability. The other if you need 2 is Harrison Reed
The Fixture Ease Schedule
Other Posts
Improvements for the 22/23 season
The FFGeek Fixture Ease Schedule
Assessing the 3 Promoted Teams
New Player Profiles – Haaland and Nunez
New Player Profiles – Vieira, Awoniyi and Botman
New FFGeek Contributor Pete Allaway
FPL Ownership – Analysing the Popular Picks
Rob Reids Picks for each PL team part 1
Rob Reid’s picks for each FPL team Part 2
New FFGeek Contributor Ori Gal
Preseason update and potential lineups
Joseph Crilley’s Transfer Planner and Points Projection Tool is live
The Transfer Planner Team 3k last season
The FFGeek Contributor Tracker Team
Andrew Whitfield’s latest team
Preseason update and every PL teams potential lineups
Follow us on Social Media and autojoin the FFGeek League
Follow FFGeek on twitter for article updates and news
Auto Join the FFGeek League
