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In this piece I look at the best FPL midfielders priced between 14.5 and 6.0 and then a few more besides.
In case you missed it, we already looked Goalkeepers and Defenders and we will look at Forwards soon!
Before we dive in, we take a quick look at defensive contributions and the premium debate.
In case you have been living under a rock, or you have an actual life unlike me, defensive contributions have been added to the game alongside a suite of other changes.
That means that midfielders will now score an additional 2 points if they have 12 clearances, blocks, interceptions, recoveries and tackles (not Tackles won) – aka CBIRT.
For midfielders, recoveries are by far the easiest to get. So, if you have only got access to one stat or if you are feeling lazy then you can take recoveries pretty much as a proxy for whether a player is good for DC. Basically, if a player gets 6-7 clearances per game thats a fantastic base upon which to deliver DC points.
This piece is about best FPL midfielders but in the premium bracket we need to talk a little bit about team structure, and a little bit about Haaland.
It’s obviously Mo Salah. He scored 344 points last season and he has broken 200 points every year he has decent minutes.
He plays for the most attacking team and he is the key man in that attack too. The only slight niggle this year is that the team is going through a transition but we still believe in Mo. Oh, he also leaves for 3-6 weeks for AFCON but that’s a problem for gameweek 16.
This one is probably more of a debate. Personally, I think Cole Palmer is the second best FPL midfielder ahead of Bukayo Saka. I actually think that Palmer might even be slightly underpriced at 10.5 – that’s how good he is.
Palmer is better because he is more of a goalscorer and Saka is more of an assist merchant. Palmer is more selfish and just shoots constantly and Saka is handing off penalties to whoever is having a bad day. That penalties thing might even get worse with Gyokeres joining the club too because he might take them off Saka.
Of course, that leaves Saka as third best midfielder.
So now we have the question of how you squeeze them in. And that’s why we need to talk about Haaland.
I haven’t played around with team structures enough yet to say definitively but I don’t think you can have Haaland, Salah and Palmer/Saka. Of course, you can have them all but I mean that I don’t think your team will be very good. It leaves you with too little to get other good players and/or good price points.
The little tinkering I have done tells me that Salah and Palmer or Haaland and Palmer are very viable routes. There are lots of options for you to play around with you do this and its currently my preferred structure.
A Salah and Haaland structure does look viable but very tight. I think it closes you off from a good number of options and that worries me with flexibility. On the other hand, I started last season with both precisely because it gave me the flexibility to downgrade the one that wasn’t as good at one point in the future.
We will look at this more probably next week.
B. Fernandes is easily the best pick in this bracket even if he costs 9.0. I won’t hear anything else. He is on penalties; he is creative; he is the talisman; he never misses a game; he always plays 90; United don’t have European congestion AND he will now rack up DC too.
If you are confused why he went up in price after an average season it is because he is basically the only midfielder in this price bracket that would have racked up substantial DC last year. That’s because he was second in the league for ball recoveries last year. Of all players. Not just mids.
At the next price of 8.5 we have Wirtz, Marmoush and Son. Son has just agreed a move to LAFC. We are sad to see an FPL legend leave the league but think it is probably time.
Wirtz is a great player and a really intriguing prospect. 10 goals and 12 assists from 9.4 xG and 7.0 xA in the Bundesliga last year over 2351 mins is very good. Imagine what he could do with another 1000 mins in a full season! I think there is a serious possibility that he is underpriced by a million.
Obviously we always have questions around new players joining the league but this guy is elite. I am prepared to wait-and-see on the guy just because I am cautious but I also don’t think there is anything wrong with starting the season with him and I like the pick in draft format.
Marmoush and Foden (at 8.0) are both avoids for me. This Man City squad is now fucking enormous. And this is the manager that loves to rotate and destroy FPL managers dreams.
If you go into the season conscious of this fact, then I still think you can make a “good decision” and include one of them. You just need to make the rest of your team pretty safe and be happy to make a transfer in GW2 to potentially fix it.
The reason why I say that is that there is no Champions League until GW6. In our players to watch for next season piece, I called out Luis Diaz as the guy I would own at the start of the season because he would be nailed until CL starts. I think you could view these guys in the same light.
Following Foden at 8.0 we have his Manchester brethren Cunha and Mbeumo. In that same article looking at five players to watch I called out three players to avoid as they MASSIVELY outperformed their underlying stats in the 24/25 season.
Two of them were Mbeumo and Cunha.
Cunha at least has been reclassified as a midfielder so gets more points from goals and gets a point every time United get a clean sheet so that should improve his overall tally. If he ends up as OOP striker then even better. Mbeumo though has lost his penalties and has not been reclassified so he is definitely not a good pick.
Fortunately for us, these guys dont have a nice start to the season so I think we can watch and wait.
The final 8.0 is Odegaard. He only played 2300 mins last year and would have scored around 150 points if he played 3000 mins. That’s not great for that price.
However, his pedigree suggests he is capable of much more. He surpassed 180 points both years before that. He started last season at the same price as Bruno and was considered a similar boring guy who would just constantly tick over. I still think he’s that guy and with Arsenal actually signing a striker this year I am willing to believe his assist numbers will increase so I am super high on him.
We are on to the 7.5s and we have four to choose from. But before we talk about them I want to highlight that this price bracket will be very popular for forwards with 5 of them all looking very good. I don’t think we have as many options in the midfield so you might consider this when building your squad.
Firstly, we have Eze. He is a talisman, he is nailed and he has good attacking threat. He remains a great pick. I don’t think I need to say much more but he got 8 goals and 8 assists from an xGI of 15.06 and he missed 1000 mins. Top asset.
Next, we have Gakpo. I am really not sure about this guy. I don’t quite know if he starts week in and week out if Isak signs for Liverpool as Ekitike might be played out on the wing. I’d be waiting to see how that plays out but otherwise I think he’s an interesting pick. At least until CL rotation kicks in.
Gordon at 7.5 feels like a good price. He is the most nailed of Newcastle’s wingers and with Isak a constant injury worry and a complete lack of depth he could play OOP striker a few times this year. Of course, if Isak leaves I would be wary of starting the season with him.
Finally, we have Gibbs-White. I really don’t understand why he is 7.5. If FPL Towers just looked at overall points then you could say he is worth it. He basically plays all the minutes and consistently hits 145 ish points every year. That makes him a great draft pick.
But in regular FPL we can chop and change our picks more often and more easily. All these other guys at this price score more per game than he does. And if that’s not enough to make you avoid him then know you can have them striker on the same team for the same price. He should be 7.0 at the most.
In the same way I love Van Dijk in the premium defender category, I love B. Fernandes here. He can shoot, he can pass, he has pens, he gets DC – he is basically an FPL dream. The next four are tougher. I think I am taking Eze and Odegaard next because they are nailed stalwarts of their teams. Cunha and Wirtz definitely have higher ceilings than these other guys but it’s the start of the season and I am favouring safer picks.
We are entering what I like to think is traditionally the FPL midfielder fun zone! Let’s see if we can’t identify a bargain.
Let’s start with my favourite fun 7.0 pick. How about a guy who got 9 goals and 8 assists in 52% of the available minutes last season. He almost 10, 10-ed in basically half a season guys. If he continued at that rate for the whole season he would have got 17 goals and 15 assists in 100% of the minutes. For 7.0! Are you curious?
Okay, well his name is James Maddison and he plays against the newly promoted Burnley in gameweek 1.
The only trouble is that he is injured already… And he was stretchered off so I suspect he won’t be fit for the start of the season.
So, let’s look at a guy that can match Maddison if you give him 3000 mins. Morgan Rogers is a very reliable guy. He rarely misses a match and played 91% of the playing time in the PL last year. For your 7.0 you get a guy that delivers 8 goals and 11 assists from xG of 6.49 and xA of 5.24. As you can tell thats an xGI overperformance of 7.27. I love this guy in the draft but I am not 100% sure he is worth 7.0, particularly if Watkins leaves.
Last year, I was constantly chopping and changing Rogers with Semenyo. I was actually betting with a guy on Reddit that Semenyo would outperform Rogers because of his middling underlyings. In the end there was barely a difference (though I was right).
Regardless, I still like Semenyo more for his higher ceiling. The price is probably fair given he got 11 goals and 7 assists. He overperformed his xGI by about 4.5 but thats not too much. I think he is being overlooked because of the first fixture against Liverpool. After that, the fixture run looks great and I think we will all scramble to get him. I’m currently willing to suck up the bad first fixture.
But I wouldn’t do that for Kluivert at this price because he is so reliant on penalties. Half his goals last year were penalties as Bournemouth got the second most penalties in the league. He got three in one game for god’s sake. I don’t think that will happen again.
Speaking of people I don’t like at this price… I don’t like any of these guys for minutes:
Right, so now we are left with some interesting guys. Schade is another one that I am very interested in. I am gonna quote me from the end of last year here:
“Schade is a good player. He already got 11 goals and four assists off 9.96 xGI this year – that’s not bad. However, the key point is that he did that in 26 starts and 2,281 mins. For context, Mbeumo played another 1200 mins and started all 38 games.”
I’ll be honest – I am a bit pissed at this price tag, I wanted 6.5 but it’s okay and I will almost certainly be tempted at some point.
And then we have Elanga. Another guy who overperformed his xGI by a decent whack (7.07). In theory he will be playing on a better attack but at the time of writing it looks like the only striker Newcastle has is itching to get the fuck out of there. I would basically much rather buy Gordon for that 0.5 more if I want Newcastle exposure but I don’t really.
Let’s finish where we started and go back to Spurs and talk about Brennan Johnson first. You already know that I love Maddo and that’s who I would pick if I got the option. I think there is a chance that Johnson is nailed but right now I am not sure and so I am not paying this money for him. If he is nailed then I would be interested in taking him.
Lets stay at Spurs. They are the anchor for everything at this price point apparently…
I don’t understand the Kudus hype. He is fine. They have good fixtures and they are a good attack but his underlyings were woeful last year. People have said he had a bad year last year and he was better the year before. In terms of FPL points that is correct but his underlying numbers were pretty similar. He had an xGI per 90 of 0.33 last year and 0.31 the year before. Over the long run the stats say he isn’t very good… Kulusevski is injured and they didn’t even seem to want Tel last year so I am skipping them both for the time being.
Heading across north London and we find Declan Rice. He has been attracting a lot of attention. I think that is because he appears twice on Official FPL’s list of midfielders getting defensive contribution points. They’re deceiving you guys. He had both of those seasons playing at West Ham and he doesn’t actually play that DM role at Arsenal anymore. He is more box to box.
Rodrigo (or Rodri as everyone actually calls him) is far more interesting. Unlike Rice, he actually should still be playing that DM role for Man City. There is a question mark about whether he is fit for the start of the season but he’s the kind of guy I want to pick up in draft and hold all season long.
In the 23/24 season he got 159 points, 8 goals and 10 assists in 34 starts. Okay, he massively overperformed underlying numbers, but if there is a place you can do that it is City. The ball just hits you in the arse and Haaland finishes right? And now he gets defensive contributions too. That would have put him above 200 points in that 23/24 season. The only question mark is whether he is fit for the start of the season.
Sticking with Man City for a minute, Cherki will certainly tempt a few of you. He looks like an enticing prospect and he may even be the heir to KDB. But don’t go anywhere near him. We need to see consistent starts before we consider him. If he becomes essential then he will have only risen to 7.5 and you will happily pay that so don’t panic. Just ignore Gundogan, Grealish, Doku and Bernardo as none of them are good FPL options.
Mitoma is a good player and I am fine with paying 6.5 for him. 2600 mins last year with 10 goals and 5 assists is pretty good. I am slightly nervous about anyone who plays for Huerzeler because he never tells us whether someone is injured or not. Slighlty frustratingly, I suspect DC makes him worse of an option.
Enzo at Chelsea was an option for about five minutes last year. I don’t think he’s gonna be great this year. He will probably end up on 5 goals and 5 assists with a little bit of DC thrown in there. I am not enthused about him as a pick. I am avoiding Gittens and Estevao as I doubt they are regular starters.
We have similar issues at Liverpool. Mac Allister (am I the only one that didn’t realise it wasn’t MacAllister?) and Szoboszlai are both fine. I could be tempted with Szoboszlai because his per 90 xGI is pretty good. I think his actual output is also fine but when Liverpool have good fixtures you will most likely look to Virgil, Salah and another guy who is more attacking so you will probably never have him in your team. Plus, Wirtz’s presence likely means one of these guys drops out of the 11 (probably Szobo). Ignore Chiesa.
And again, similar issues at Newcastle. Barnes and Murphy should very much be understudies to Gordon and Elanga. Bruno G. is one of these guys that can tick over with goals and assists and the addition of defensive contributions should improve his output too. I’m curious and I definitely like the pick in FPL draft but I am not rushing out to get him.
Right. Things have got a bit down. Let’s finish this section on a high. Amad’s output last year was ridiculously good. 129 FPL points from just over half of the minutes. Of course that includes some overperformance but I like him. Obviously Garnacho is not an option. Iwobi was another guy who had fantastic output with overperformance of underlying numbers. I have my eye on him too but I’ll probably swerve him.
The guy that seems to be the favoured by a lot of people at the moment is Ndiaye. Again, he overperformed his underlying numbers but he is on penalties and has a nice start to the season.
Finally, we have Ismalia Sarr. He finished last season as the 12th best midfielder for xGI per 90 even beating out Mbeumo. He beat the guy who smashed 200 points. In a minute you will see my rankings but (spoilers) I think this guy is probably the best 6.5 out there. That will be even more true if Eze leaves and he becomes the guy at Palace.
Let’s start with Forest new boy and Anthony Elanga replacement Ndoye. He is new to the league but scored 8 goals and got 4 assists in Serie A last year in 2150 mins. That looks good but that is the best season he has ever had at 23 years old. By a long way. If you fancy a punt I don’t mind him at this price and with these nice fixtures to start the season. And I prefer him over Hudson-Odoi who was pretty lacklustre in actual and expected output. But I am not in love with him and I think there’s probably better options.
Starting with Damsgaard. I liked him already at the end of last season two goals and 10 assists from 2911 mins last year for Brentford and he should be getting decent DC this year. Alternatively, Tielemans at Villa should also be a good DC guy and may be on penalties because Rashford left and Watkins is dreadul at them.
McNeil is the assist merchant at the price bracket. Of course Everton suck at attack but this guy is in the 93rd percentile among attacking midfielders and wingers for assists and expected assists. And he has two massive forwards to aim his crosses at now.
There are only really two other options at this price tag in my opinion. Georgino at Brighton was a record signing and got 5 goals and 6 assists on half a season’s worth of minutes. And its almost the same for Minteh – 6 goals and 5 assists in 1831 mins.
As for the rest at this price bracket I don’t like them because:
This is a really tough ranking. Particularly as I had Maddison super high until the injury. FPL has priced these guys so well that I am struggling to see a bargain. To be fair, this is a price bracket that normally has some guys that look super good in one or two aspects but have a clear downside – for most of them it is xGI overperformance…
Anyway, I have Semenyo at 1 because he is super attacking. Sarr gets in here at 2 for his great underlying numbers at a ludicrous price. Rodri is a bit of a risk to start the season but I can’t see him not being a major feature for City this year given how bad they were without him. I love Schade and if he were 6.5 as I thought he was going to be then he would be a bargain. Fine, I will pay what he is worth. Finally, I have McNeil at 5th. I toyed with Rogers here – he is a fine pick but the xGI overperformance has me worried for the price tag. McNeil is so cheap and I think he is the standout option at his price tag.
We are almost there guys. I feel like I have been writing this article for a week… (which is probably because I have). I am not going to go over every single player at this price bracket or even rank them. These are your fifth midfielders, possibly rotating or even just sitting on the bench and frankly there are too many of them to name.
In this bracket we have a decent bunch of defensive contribution merchants. Elliot Anderson is the most interesting one and the guy that is currently sitting in my draft. He makes Official FPL’s list of the top 10 DC point scorers for last year in 6th place. But he is also likely on a bunch of set pieces. Unfortunately, Gibbs-White is staying otherwise he might have taken some more. Caicedo at Chelsea is actually second on that list but his other routes to points are quite limited.
Tavernier isn’t on that list but he had 119 recoverings in about 2000 mins. If he looks nailed he could be a good shout as he has attacking output with 3 goals scored and 7 assists during that time too.
If you want to take a little more risk then Simon Adingra has left Brighton and joined Sunderland where he is presumably nailed. We have seen his attacking potential before but never in a full season. Bellegarde might be an option too but the Wolves team are pretty poor in attack.
I’m really struggling in this bracket. Besides Baleba who is a bit of a CBIRT beast, there isn’t much to pick from. Carvalho at Brentford could be a good option as we have seen excellent underlyings and potential but he never nails down a spot. Ryan Christie at Bournemouth is another good CBIRT guy with questions over his nailedness.
I’m currently unsure who the 4.5 FPL midfielder options are. If and when they become obvious I will be sure to highlight them because I think having a nailed guy who gets 2 points every week is a perfectly good addition to your bench.
I think I just talked about over 80 midfielders. Wanna tell me why I am wrong about every single one? Come and argue with me on Reddit.
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