fantasy premier league budget midfielders GW2 – player rankings

Fantasy Premier League, Player Rankings

Here’s out fantasy premier league budget midfielders GW2 article for those midfielders under £7.5m.  We also look at the £5.0m ish midfielders emerging and the £4.5m FPL bench sitters

fantasy premier league budget midfielders GW2 – player rankings

This is the 3rd of the player rankings series with defenders and GKs plus premium midfielders

Methodology

With the cheaper midfielders in this price range my focus has been more on fixtures than it is with the premium midfielders.  Midfielders in the cheap price range over the season could provide a goal or assist in only 1 in 3 games so I’ve always tried to look for fixtures as a way of maximising the chances of improving returns.

Unfortunately finding players with good fixtures and decent form or history isn’t always easy.  You’ll see from the schedule that there are only 5 players 2 of which are purely there for the fixtures and one that you would question how good their fixtures are.  I’ve also mentioned a few not on the list due to fixtures and or lack of PL history.

This season is promising to be the season of the £5.0m mid.  The £4.5m mid has always been seen as someone on your bench who you pick to minimise your budget take and hope for no yellow card and 2 points when they take the field.  This seasons crop of £4.5ms is no different but what is different is the emergence of some £5.0m mids who offer a whole lot more than you’d expect for such a minimal price increase.  I’ve taken a look at a few at the end of this article.

Player ranking schedule

Here I have concentrated on players with good fixtures although I have also included Pereyra who’s fixtures are more questionable but has a reasonable history



fantasy premier league budget midfielders GW2

Richarlison

In my mind the best of the cheap mids at the moment even allowing for his complete lack of returns at the back end of last season.

For Watford last season he scored 5 goals and 8 assists in 32 starts plus 6 as sub. A great start to this season season with 2 goals although it felt a little like the bad luck or just bad finishing of last season was finally on the turn.

Great advanced position with an attacking coach and great fixtures.  This is all about whether you think he can finish off the chances he undoubtedly will get.

Southampton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Huddersfield (H)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Fulham (H)
Leicester (A)

Walcott

3 goals and 3 assists in 13 starts last season although it’s difficult to judge any attacking player in the Everton side under Big Sam who went around setting new records for lack of attacking activity.  Did nothing v Wolves but they were playing with 10 men for a decent part of the game.

Southampton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Huddersfield (H)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Fulham (H)
Leicester (A)

Pereyra

Did post decent underlying stats last season and finished the season with 3 goals and an assist in his last 6 games.  Like Richarlison it was a 2 goal start to GW1.  Played in a central attacking role.

However he is on this list more because of last season as the fixtures are pretty mixed

Burnley (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Spurs (H)
Man Utd (H)
Fulham (A)
Arsenal (A)
Bournemouth (H)

Gudmundsson

Only in because of the fixtures and because he should have some set piece responsibility.  His returns of PP90 of 3.7 last season were pretty poor to say the least, as were his underlying stats.  The distraction of the Europa League assuming Burnley progress isn’t helpful either.

Watford (H)
Fulham (A)
Man Utd (H)
Wolves (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Cardiff (A)
Huddersfield (H)

Fraser

5 goals and 3 assists in 23 starts plus 3 as sub for a points per 90 mins of 4.4 in 17/18 isn’t too bad although his underlying stats are pretty ordinary.  The returns though are even better when you consider he was being managed by the man who just can’t leave a team sheet alone and played him as a RWB at times.

Still this is about price and fixtures not about any confidence that he can consistently return

West Ham (A)
Everton (H)
Chelsea (A)
Leicester (H)
Burnley (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Watford (A)

Other players

Most of the other players I’m going to mention here are new to the league and don’t have the best fixtures so they don’t follow the form/history test in the PL or the fixture test.  That doesn’t mean they will be bad picks they just have some of the unknown attached.

Diogo Jota of Wolves is a £6.5m mid and a 21-year-old attacking midfielder who last season started 43 games plus 1 sub appearance for 17 goals and 5 assists with a goal or assist every 165 minutes in the Championship. Those are excellent stats.  He had a very quiet day in GW1 with no attacking output of consequence (I think his assist must have been being fouled for the Neves free kick?) against a 10 man Everton defence.

Leicester (A)
Man City (H)
West Ham (A)
Burnley (H)
Man Utd (A)
Southampton (H)
Crystal Palace (A)

Sessegnon and Schurrle.  For Fulham the 2 wide men are last seasons Championship player of the year and the former Chelsea player respectively,  both with pedigree of different sorts.  Both did virtually nothing in the way of attacking output in their opening game against Palace

Spurs (A)
Burnley (H)
Brighton (A)
Man City (A)
Watford (H)
Everton (A)
Arsenal (H)

The West Ham wide man Anderson is a 25 year old Brazilian  RW/LW who joined West Ham from Lazio for an £33.5m.  He played 12 (9) games in 17/18 for them for 4 goals and 7 assists with a goal or assist every 104 minutes. That’s an incredible stat.  Difficult to judge on an away game to Liverpool but the next fixture home to Bournemouth should be more enlightening.  Fixtures after that are more mixed

Bournemouth (H)
Arsenal (A)
Wolves (H)
Everton (A)
Chelsea (H)
Man Utd (H)
Brighton (A)

James Maddison is another player who came to the PL from the Championship with a good record and looked lively v Man Utd.  I’ve put him to one side at the moment as I’m not sure when Vardy starts whether Iheanacho starts as CAM or Maddison does or Maddison goes to the wing or is benched.

I’ve also put aside Pedro until the RW position of him vs Willian is established

The £5.0m players





There are a number of good players cheap enough not to have to play every week in your FPL team but could be effective when called upon.

Milivojevic showed the benefit of having a cheap player who has set pieces and pens and now £5.1m Wolves CM Reuben Neves could do similar with set piece and potentially penalty duties.

The Newcastle LM Kenedy at £5.0m also has potential.  He scored 2 goals and 2 assists last season at a reasonably good PP90 of 4.5.  Has poor fixtures but that’s less relevant when your confined to the FPL bench except when needed

The Watford CAM Hughes seems to be one of the managers favourites.  2 goals and 3 assists at a PP90 of 3.8 last season.  Disappointing against Brighton though

The Burnley RW Aaron Lennon also looks a possible at the price.  4 assists in alot of minutes last season for a poor 3.1 PP90 but still has potential.

Lastly there’s James McArthur of Palace the CM who can get into the box.  5 goals and 2 assists for a PP90 of 3.8 last season.

The £4.5m mid

Burnley’s Westwood, Southampton’s Romeu and Everton’s Schneiderlin are all possibles who will offer you little in comparison to the above apart from yellow cards.  I’ve not mentioned the popular Stephens as Brighton have invested decent cash in competition for his place so I worry how much longevity he has.

Follow us on twitter and facebook for article updates and news

Geek League links and details

fantasy premier league 

Sky Sports fantasy football

Enter PIN: 8367679

Sun Dream Team

League PIN is SGDKX9Y3

Telegraph free to enter £100 prize League PIN 8000919 Passcode 0417
Telegraph £2 cash league League PIN 8161359 Passcode 0050

 

You may also like to read one of these too: