Here’s our FPL new player profile article where we analyse the stats and prospects of 3 new players to Fantasy Premier League in Ibrahima Konate, Patson Daka, and Junior Firpo.
FPL New Player Profiles – We Look At 3 Transfers To The Premier League
Introduction
Here we look at 3 new players to Fantasy Premier League and assess their stats plus their prospects for the FPL season ahead
Ibrahima Konate – £5.5m Liverpool Def
Liverpool have paid a reported £36m for the 22 year old 1.94m (6’4″) right footed French Centre Back from RB Leipzig.
The Stats
These are his Bundesliga stats. He’s also made 13 appearances for the France Under 21 team
FPL prospects
Konate missed a decent portion of the season with an ankle injury last season for Leipzig but he was also on the bench for a decent portion of it including the 2 fixtures vs Liverpool in the Champions League. It’s surprising after Liverpool’s defensive injury problems last season that they sign another player with a recent injury history.
He also offers little attacking threat.
He doesn’t rate well on the whoscored Bundesliga rankings with 6.53 and 244th of all players in the Bundesliga. He doesn’t appear in the top 10 for any per game defensive stats such as interceptions, blocks or tackles.
Van Dijk (£6.5m) starting as a CB is a given. Konate will compete for a starting place with Gomez £5.0m and Matip £5.0m. Gomez is important for Liverpool given his speed which gives an extra dimension to the defence.
The Liverpool defence finished 4th in goals conceded with 42 goals against and 7th in xG conceded and 2nd in shots per game against. They were 5th equal in clean sheets with 12. Those are ok stats considering Phillips, Williams and Kabak were their CBs for a decent portion of the season
Liverpool have good fixtures to start the season.
It’s hard to say whether Konate will start and only pre-season games will give us a clue. If he secures the starting spot he could offer a cheaper clean sheet focused way into the Liverpool attack rather than the full attacking version of Alexander Arnold at £7.5m.
Patson Daka – £7.5m Leicester Fwd
Leicester have paid a reported £23m for the 22 year old 1.83m (6’0″) Zambian Centre Forward from RB Salzburg.
The stats
His Austrian Bundesliga stats in the last 2 seasons are nothing short of phenomenal. The obvious issue is that these stats are from the Austrian League and transfers from there to here aren’t exactly abundant. Minamino the obvious transfer from the same club and he hasn’t exactly been a roaring success although his stats weren’t anything like as good Daka’s. Daka’s stats for the last 2 seasons in the Champions League were pretty ordinary but that’s probably not a fair label and as much team related in that competition.
FPL Prospects
As far as his FPL prospects are concerned it’s hard to see him starting. Vardy maybe 34 but I can’t imagine this is an immediate replacement. Also it would be hard to see Iheanacho out of the lineup considering his form at the end of the season.
That assumes that Rodgers plays 2 up front. His 3-5-2 doesn’t really have a place for Harvey Barnes and in some ways was a reaction to Barnes’ injury last season. If Rodgers did default back to his previously favoured 4-1-4-1 then that lessens Daka’s starting chances even more.
I imagine Daka will be eased in. If that’s rotation in the Premier League for Vardy and Iheanacho then that’s not great for FPL managers. If he’s just being bought for the immediate need in the Europa League and the domestic cups that’s far more palatable.
Leicester’s fixtures are a bit mixed from an attacking perspective
Junior Firpo – £5.0m Leeds Def
Leeds have paid a reported £13m for the 24 year old 1.84m (6’0″) Spanish Left Back from Barcelona.
Stats
Firpo traded the very Next catalogue 2021 type green and white stripes of Real Betis of Seville for the famous Barcelona kit but things haven’t worked out as planned and with Barca looking to reduce their wage bill this is aprt of that process. The La Liga stats for last season are Barcelona’s. The all La Liga games are roughly evenly weighted between Real Betis and Barcelona.
They are very impressive from an attacking point of view although half of last seasons minutes were as a midfielder for Barcelona so hard to take much off that.
In 19/20 he pretty much only played LB for Barcelona and although his returns were good his underlying stats were pretty ordinary to say the least.
In 18/19 and 17/18 he was mainly a midfielder for Betis so hard to take that as being of use
FPL Prospects
Firstly Firpo should be fairly secure in his LB spot with Alioski leaving the club and no other LB really as competition. At £5.0m he’s more expensive than £4.5m Ayling.
Is he worth paying more for? That’s hard to say from an attacking point of view. Ayling had no goals or assists but his underlying stats weren’t a complete disaster. It’s hard to know what the real LB Firpo can produce.
Also I feel if you buy a defender for his attacking traits at more than £4.5m then you really should play him every game and although the Leeds defence improved significantly towards the end of the season I’m not sure they are in that category yet.
Lastly, I’m assuming he has been bought as a LB. That we will see in pre-season. It’s worth remembering that Dallas was an LB but then moved into midfield last season. For those considering Dallas as a cheap Mid (£5.5m) it will be worth monitoring his position in pre-season.
The fixtures are tough to start and allow us some time to see how things are set up
