Is Connor Gallagher a Good Pick in FPL?

Well, I guess the title says it all – in this piece I will be looking at Spurs latest addition Connor Gallagher to identify if he is a good pick in FPL.

Full disclosure, I am a Connor Gallagher fan boy. Ever since he graced the baggies with his presence I have been a big fan.

Every football fan loves a workhorse and Gallagher is that. Plus, he has played a more attacking role a couple of times in his career and Spurs probably need him to do that!

But before I get carried away, let’s dive in!

Is Gallagher nailed in FPL?

The first key question is is he nailed? At this time, the answer has to be no. We just don’t know. So, you can ignore everything else in this piece if you are planning to get him this week – just don’t do it.

I can’t imagine the notoriously stingy Spurs open the chequebook and pay £35mn for a bench player but I could be wrong.

He could just be the longer-term solution to Palhinha who is only on loan until the end of the season. Spurs have an option to buy him in the summer but he will allegedly cost £27mn and Spurs would probably have to match the two-year contract he will have left at Bayern. And the guy will be 31…

On the other hand, Betancur has a ‘big’ hamstring injury. So he could just slot right in.

Regardless, I am not going to tell you to buy him this week, I just want to examine whether he could be an option on your radar and on your watchlist.

The Scouting Report

Gallagher has been playing in La Liga for Atletico this past 14 months and this is what his fbref scouting report looks like.

As you can see, he is good for goal involvement v.s. midfielders and his defensive actions are good too.

You can’t see it in here but he has also averaged 4.67 ball recoveries per 90 which takes his Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions, Recoveries and Tackles or CBIRT (the underlying stat for defcons) up to 11.39 per 90. That’s just shy of the 12 defensive contributions he needs for those two valuable points.

Comparison to Current FPL Players

So, how does he compare to other similar picks?

Fortunately, I just rewrote about the DMs and CMs I think are actually good picks. So, I will compare to them.

These stats are per 90 in case not obvious…

Player	Expected Goal Involvement	Defensive Contributions
Rice	0.33	10.82/10.88
Gallagher	0.23	11.39
Elliot Anderson	0.15	15.26/13.67
Garner	0.12	12.39/11.61
Stach	0.3	11.93/9.59

For those players who are already in FPL we have their per 90 CBIRT from all their games (the first figure) and their defensive contributions in the PL according to FPL (the second figure). I suspect the discrepancy is caused by non-league games, like cup games.

How Does Gallagher Compare?

He looks pretty damn good. More attacking threat than two of the guys at his price – Anderson and Garner; and comparable defcons.

Of course, we don’t expect him to match Rice, particularly because of Rice’s set piece dominance but it looks like he can compete with the cheap guys. Gallagher isn’t really a set piece guy.

Will Gallagher Fit In In The Premier League?

In the past, at West Brom he played quite deep and was the guy breaking up attacks. As I understand it, this is how he has been playing in La Liga too – though he has struggled to break into the first team this season.

However, in the two full seasons he played for Palace and Chelsea in a more attacking role he got himself 11 and 12 goal involvements off 9.4 and 9.2 xGI respectively.

In that Chelsea season he averaged 12.6 defensive contributions per 90 and in that Palace season he managed 11.68 defensive contributions per 90.

So, we know he can play more attacking. And we know he is good at it in the Premier League. And we know that if he plays more attacking then he can still get defcons.

Will Gallagher Play More Attacking at Spurs?

I don’t know. Like I said above, I don’t even know if he will start at this point. But the BBC have done some helpful analysis for us.

To quote the beeb: “This season, Gallagher has scored more goals, taken more shots and completed more passes per 90 minutes than Frank’s current midfield options Rodrigo Bentancur, Joao Palhinha, Lucas Bergvall, Xavi Simons, Pape Matar Sarr or Archie Gray.”

In other words, Spurs are a bit desperate… That increases his chances of being more attacking.