Last updated on July 18th, 2023
Written by Keiran Trotter, follow him at @fpl_del
Goalkeepers
Slim pickings here unfortunately. With Burnley likely to sign to James Trafford from Manchester City I’d expect him to be priced at £4.5m when he joins the game so he’ll be competing with established Premier League Keepers such as Jason Steele and Bernd Leno. That makes him unlikely to be an option, initially, with Burnley facing City, Villa, Spurs, Man Utd and Newcastle in their first 7 games. The same can be said for Wes Foderingham at Sheffield United, however they do have a slightly friendlier start with Palace, Forest and Everton in their first 4 games. Luton’s first choice Keeper from last season, Ethan Horvarth, has returned to Forest after a successful loan spell, so it remains to be seen if #2 James Shea steps up or they look to bring someone else in. Again at £4.5m, it feels like Jason Steele at Brighton is a significant upgrade on all of these.
Defenders
Now we are starting to talk. There are some seriously good options to be considered here and I expect some of these players to feature regularly for a lot of teams throughout the course of the season. Getting the right one(s) early could be key to making a fast start. I feel like, in order to assess these players properly though, we need to look at what their price gets you elsewhere from the established Premier League teams.
£4.0m
Let’s put this into context. There isn’t currently a £4.0m player in the game that scored more than 25 points in FPL last year. Tariq Lamptey has potential to be a star at £4.0m but having played an average of less than 900 minutes per season over the last 4 years, he really isn’t
someone Brighton (or you) should rely on. Compare this to what you can get for £4.0m from the promoted teams and there are 6 defenders at £4.0m that played at least half of their teams games in the Championship last season. The picks of those 6 are George Baldock at Sheffield United and Jordan Beyer at Burnley.
Baldock picked up a goal and 3 assists in 36 appearances in the Championship playing predominantly as a Right Wing Back. He’s also logged and assist in his 3 appearances for Greece in European Championship qualifying. He averaged 0.8 key passes per game in the Championship last season and as mentioned earlier Sheffield United face Palace, Forest and Everton in their first 4 games so there is clean sheet potential there. They kept 21 clean sheets in 46 Championship matches last season. His big competition comes from Jayden Bogle but with his Premier League experience from the past I expect Baldock to be first choice initially.
Jordan Beyer also picked up a goal and 3 assists in his 30 appearances last season and averaged 0.3 key passes per game playing exclusively as a Centre Back. Burnley kept 24 clean sheets in 46 games but do have that tough start. I expect him to start, assuming no other incomings in that position, especially considering Harwood Bellis has returned to Manchester City but he will face stiff competition from Sweden International Hjalmar Ekdal and Belgian International Ameen Al-Dakhil. Connor Roberts and Charlie Taylor can also play at CB.
£4.5m
Competition stiffens a little at this price point given you could now afford one of 8 defenders who scored 100+ points last season including Tyrone Mings and Sven Botman. You could also look at Kenny Tete who notched up 5 assists in 29 starts or the undoubted quality of Matty Cash at a vastly improved Villa. That said, I still think there is value to be had in the below players.
Connor Roberts notched up 4 goals and 6 assists for Burnley in the Championship last season and with an average of 1 key pass per game he’s clearly a creative threat going forward. He notched 1 goal and 1 assist in 21 appearances for Burnley last time out in the Premier League.
Anel Ahmedhodzic notched 6 goals and 2 assists from Centre Back for Sheffield United last season in 34 appearances topping the goals chart for defenders in that league. The Bosnia Herzegovina International averaged 1.1 shots per game and 0.6 key passes per game.
The third player I want to highlight in this bracket is Alfie Doughty who made 18 of his 31 appearances for Luton on the Left or Right or Midfield and even played as a forward once! He notched 2 goals and 5 assists and averaged 1 shot per game and 1 .9 key passes per game. He could be an early contender for the Stuart Dallas / John Lundstrum award. His drawback may be his versatility in that other more specialists may be preferred to him but he started all 3 of their playoff games highlighting his importance to Luton. His career stats currently sit at 6 goals and 11 assists from 91 starts, which is decent going for a defender, plus he is listed as one of Luton’s set piece takers.
Midfielders
This is a really tricky area, and personally, promoted midfielders are something I am going to be avoiding. There is so much value available in established Premier League players such as Bryan Mbuemo (£6.5m) Eberechi Eze (£6.5m) and the Brighton trio of Karou Mitoma (£6.5m), Solly March (£6.5m) and Pascal Gross. At £6.0m there is even more potential in players like Morgan Gibbs-White and Alexis MacAllister after his move to Liverpool.
This coupled with the reasonably priced big hitters such as Bukayo Saka (£8.5m), Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m), Marcus Rashford (£9.0m), James Maddison (£7.5m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) I don’t think you either need or should have room for any budget midfielders.
The only possible scenario I can envisage for needing a budget midfield option is if you are looking at having 3 Premium Players, possibly Kane, Salah/De Bruyne and Haaland all in the same team. In this instance you have 4 possible promoted budget Midfield options.
Manuel Benson at Burnley delivered 11 goals and 3 assists in 33 Championship appearances last season. He averages 1.8 key passes and 1.1 shots per game but at £5.5m, you could have Andreas Pereira from Fulham who logged 4 goals and 10 assists last season or Dwight McNeil who amassed 7 goals and 5 assists in a struggling Everton side. These are proven Premier League players.
Benson’s team mates Anass Zaroury (7 goals, 5 assists), Johann Gudmundsson (4 goals, 6 assists) and Sheffield United’s Sander Berge (6 goals, 5 assists) all provide good value at £5.0m but given the options available at a slightly higher price, I genuinely think investing in proven Premier League quality in the Midfield is definitely worthwhile. These promoted players should be kept on the watchlist though in case they break out and become genuine enabling options.
Forwards
There are 2 standout options here both priced at £5.5m and I am currently considering both of these players as rotatable second striker assets. Both are nailed first choices having played 46 and 47 of Championship games respectively last season.
Luton Town’s Carlton Morris was the more prolific of the two weighing in with 20 goals, 7 assists and a staggering 10 MotM performances in their play-off winning promotion campaign. Sheffield United’s Illiman Ndiaye is the second option who logged 14 goals and 10 assists with 8 MotM performances as Sheffield United finished 2nd behind Burnley. At the same price point there is no guaranteed established Premier League starting forward.
Crystal Palace (H)
Burnley (H)
Chelsea (A)
Everton (H)
Fulham (A)
Wolves (H)
Everton (A)
Hopefully the above has given you some food for thought and a great intro into the best options from the promoted teams. Thanks for reading!
