In this article we are carrying on our review of the aftermath of the 24/25 season and highlighting five players we have our eye on for the 25/26 season.
In case you missed them, in our review articles I already wrote about some of our lessons learned and looked at stats in more depth.
Basically nobody is reading this stuff at the moment so this article serves three main purposes:
- I can use it to remind myself what I was thinking
- It’s fun to write about FPL
- You can all use it to remind me how stupid I am
Right, let’s get into it.
1. Luis Diaz
He finished the season on 183 points but wasn’t in my team once. Was he in yours?
He is probably a guy that you don’t want in your team when there is fixture congestion or when the European season starts because of rotation. But, he was playing striker for the best attack in the league for a lot of the time this year.
We know he wasn’t getting lucky too. He grabbed 13 goals and two assists from an xG of 12.02 and xA of 4.46. He seems to have stopped trying to constantly score worldies and Slot has him in the box more.
Of course, if he leaves Liverpool then this will all be moot…
2. Kevin Schade
Mbeumo is probably leaving in the off-season for a big pay-check. Yoanne Wissa is so obviously already a good pick that I cannot include him on this list. But, Wissa will need supply and Brentford will likely need someone to fill in Mbeumo’s role.
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.
Mikkel Damsgaard might also be an alternative to Schade that we have an eye on. He only got two goals last year but he did manage 10 assists over 34 starts and 2,911 minutes – all from an xGI of 9.82. As you can probably tell already, there seems to be much more potential for Schade to grow but Mikkel was worth a mention.
I also just trust Brentford to find and pick good players that others haven’t noticed. They and Brighton are great at that (the difference seeming to be that Brighton have a way bigger squad).
3. Marc Cucurella
I can hardly believe I am writing this but Cucurella outscored all the Arsenal defenders this year. He was only beaten by:
- Gvardiol
- Trent
- Milenkovic
- Virgil
- Munoz
- Kerkez
All these other guys feel too obvious to include in this list, particularly Munoz who was on this list last year. And, Kerkez may not start at Liverpool and Milenkovic may be useless if Forest cannot manage their European commitments.
Chelsea finished this season with 9 clean sheets and 5th best xGC in the league. Cucurella padded those stats with 5 goals and an assist from an xGI of 5.19. I personally think Chelsea should sack Maresca and move on but if he stays then I think we will see Chelsea continue to be a bit more defensively solid.
4. Aaron Wan Bissaka
What? Is it 2019 again? No. It turns out all you really need to do to be successful in football is not play for the toxic shithole that is Manchester Reds.
AWB was a stalwart of our teams when he played for Palace all those years ago. He was a defensive beast and nobody could get past him. Then United ruined him. And now Graham Potter has given him a new lease of life.
Wan B got two goals and six assists from 1.2xG and 2.7xA this year. The trouble is that he plays for a shit team/defence. But he should be 4.5. If they have a good fixture run or you can leave him on the bench a lot then you have a player who has a small chance of an attacking return for your 4th defender slot.
5. Bruno Fernandes
Speaking of retro picks that play for toxic teams…
Seriously, a lot of you hate this guy but the underlying stats do not lie. Be under no illusion, he will never be as good as that one year when he scored 244 points.
On the other hand, he consistently scores year on year. In his last three seasons he finished on 174, 166, 176 points. AND, Man United don’t have European distractions this year (lol). Bruno was never injured anyway but it does mean the rest of the team should be in better physical condition for the Premier League and obviously that affects his returns. According to Opta analyst Bruno created the most chances of any player in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season.
The only thing holding me back on this is very closely linked to the next point. Man United’s transfer policy is an absolute fucking joke. They have spent £65mn on a player they don’t need (Cunha) and are trying to sell probably their best young talent (Garnacho) for less money. Instead of reinvesting that money in an actual striker or a competent left-back who isn’t permanently injured they are apparently after Mbeumo – who isn’t that different from Cunha, Garnacho, Bruno, Hojlund.
Some Players To Avoid
I don’t think I have enough content to write a “five players to avoid” piece so here is my two cents – avoid the guys who most overperformed their stats this year. That is Wood, Cunha and Mbeumo.
I would not include Mbeumo in this list if he weren’t so heavily linked to Man United at the moment. He has shown he is consistently good for Brentford and if he stays there then I would happily pay 8.0 or 8.5 for him at the start of the season. But if he goes to Man United then he is losing pens and thats got to knock at least 1.0 off his price tag, maybe more.
Cunha is fine and a good player but he isn’t elite in my opinion. I expect he will get comparable numbers to this year if he gets the same minutes but we also don’t know what those minutes will be. Plus, if his price rises because he plays for Man Utd then I won’t want to go there.
And Wood. I had him pretty high on my draft list at the start of the season because he was being undervalued by many managers. Now I think the pendulum has swung the other way. The guy was scoring consistently from low xG chances that he finished with 20 goals off 13.35 xG. That’s just not sustainable and I said so all year after I sold him around gameweek 11 and missed out on all his points – so I win right?
That’s It.
Can’t wait to read this back later to see how stupid I sound.