Here’s our fantasy premier league prices article where we look at the biggest price falls over the season in each position and see whether the fall has created someone of value for our FPL teams.
fantasy premier league prices – the biggest price drops in each position
Forward – Haller £6.8m (£-0.7m)
West Ham centre forward Haller came with a ton of hype from the Bundesliga and big price tag. He was also very much an all round forward who could assist as well as score which is enormously helpful for an FPL forward as Wolves’s Jimenez has shown us. Hallers underlying stats from the Bundesliga were very good. He was one of the strikers outside of the top 6 teams who appeared high up in the betting odds before the 19/20 season started
He certainly started well. It was 3 goals in his first 3 starts. However, 4 goals and 3 assists in 20 starts later plus being only a sub in 4 gameweeks was surely not in the script.
There is hope though if West Ham can apply a system to get the best out of him. Haller’s problems are theorised as being due to him playing as a lone striker rather than him as a forward partnership. This is put down as the principal reason for his success at Frankfurt. Here he had strike partner in Jovic who is now now at Real Madrid.
The other factor is that he is West Ham’s record signing at £45m. That’s alot of money to have sitting on your bench. Although, this has to be set against West Ham’s relegation threat as that would be an even bigger financial problem so West Ham won’t be able to stick with Haller if this risk doesn’t abate, in part, due to his poor form.
West Ham’s fixtures are a bit mixed but they have a good run to finish starting in GW33+ as a potential entry point.
Midfield – Hudson-Odoi £5.2m (£-0.8m)
Chelsea’s veteran attacking midfielders Pedro and Willian have yet to sign extensions to the end of the season and new signing Ziyech is not eligible to start for Chelsea until next season. If Lampard were to play 4-2-3-1 then suddenly there is only Mount, Pulisic and Hudson Odoi to fill the attacking midfield roles although I guess Loftus Cheek could also play there at a push. However, it’s worth noting that before his hamstring injury prior to GW26 Hudson Odoi had played 90 minutes in the 4 preceding games.
A goal and 4 assists in 768 minutes of gametime is a goal or assist every 154 minutes which is hugely impressive. This is also backed up by good underlying stats. In fact, his xA90 is better than Willians. £5.2m for an attacking Chelsea midfielder with his stats is a great option if he can land a regular spot.
The risk is that he will be a gametime gamble in a condensed schedule with him coming back from a serious ACL injury. That’s as well with the contract situation to Willian and Pedro as well as the natural inclination for Lampard to tinker. Lastly there’s a potential rape charge in the background. How that affects him or Lampards perception of him remains to be seen.
Apart from Man City in GW31, Chelsea have a good set of 4 fixtures to start with and the time to gamble, unfortunately, will be straight away in GW30+ with a game against Villa.
Defender – Otamendi £4.9m (£-0.6m)
With Laporte the number 1 Manchester City centre back and injured, surely Otamendi and Stones both at £5.5m could have provided reasonably priced options for a team that last season managed 20 clean sheets. Otamendi also did have scoring form in 17/18 with 4 goals.
However, it wasn’t to be and with 29 gameweeks gone Manchester City only have 10 clean sheets and the error prone Argentinian has only managed 15 starts plus 4 sub appearances where somehow the aging defensive midfielder Fernandinho has become the number 1 centre back.
The thing not to forget though is that City have the least expected goals conceded at this point of the season and also conceded the least amount of shots per game. Those underlying stats will surely come home to roost for clean sheets at some stage. With the games coming thick and fast and City still in the FA Cup he surely will get a reasonable amount of gametime. At 35 years of age Fernandinho won’t physically be able to play every game. Otamendi has also started 4 of the last 5 games whereas Stones has started none of the last 5. That surely gives Otamendi an edge. Also, at £4.9m he is surely cheap enough to have the odd missed game. Pep wanting to blood young 19-year-old CB Eric Garcia is the only other risk although Garcia has only started 2 matches and none since GW21.
The time to gamble will be now as City have 2 great home games in double gameweek 30+
Goalkeeper – Adrian £4.0m (£-0.5m)
The cut price Liverpool £4.5m reserve GK was sure to attract attention if Adrian got injured and that certainly was the case when he came on as a sub in GW1 for the injured Alisson and stayed in the team until GW8. However, he was never going to replace Alisson who is regarded as one of the top GKs in the world. This was reinforced by a few rather less than perfect performances by Adrian. Once Alisson returned to the team Adrian’s price dropped to £4.2m by GW14 and then slowly cruised downwards to £4.0m
Adrian did start 2 more games and make 1 further sub appearance. One of the starts was due to an Alisson injury in GW29. However, Alisson is now fit and poised to return to the team in GW30+
His price does offer an option for FPL managers in a position where they don’t want to or can’t Bench Boost or Free Hit in GW30+. In this instance you could use the new unlimited transfers to have him as a reserve GK in case of another Alisson injury or just general rotation. You would have to be confident you only ever wanted 2 further Liverpool players though.
