That’s right. We are back BABY! This piece is all about the money. We will be looking through defence, midfield and strikers and identifying players in the correct price points that should interest us ahead of the 23/24 FPL season. I’ll then also look at possible team structures based principally on the price.

Prices

There have been lots of complaints about prices already as a number were released on FPL Twitter in the run up to the launch of the game. I have to say, I did think there were a lot of players that were a bit too cheap but it’s boring to complain about. It’s done now, so, let’s look at some interesting price points!

The heavy hitters

There are only two forwards more expensive than 8.0, two midfielders more expensive than 9.0 and 1 defender more expensive than 6.5. Here they are:

 FWD – Erling Haaland – 14.0

Thank god. Needs to be this expensive.

FWD – Harry Kane – 12.5

No surprises here. 12.5 feels fine to me.

MID – Mohammed Salah – 12.5

Weird that he has never been 14.0 but still, can’t fault this price really.

MID – Kevin de Bruyne – 10.5

He’s going to be injured from the start of the season anyway so it doesn’t matter too much but I do think this is too expensive considering how cheap other mids are. I’d be happy with it if others were more expensive but that’s just my view.

DEF – Alexander-Arnold – 8.0

It’s confusing but it makes sense. He has a great season two years ago and starts at 7.0 (?) and then he has a bad season this year and starts at 8.0… Regardless, this guy is capable of breaking 200 points which almost no defenders are.

Defence

There are currently 224 defenders in the game. 190 of them are 4.5 or below. 21 are 5.0 and 11 are 5.5 or more.

Basically, this is reflecting the fact that no defences were insanely good last year. You might say Newcastle but they got 18 clean sheets in the first half of the season and only two clean sheets in the second half of the season. So, on more recent form, they aren’t that good.

In other words, stacking your teams with 4.5 defenders seems like a great idea to me.

But for the rest of them…

6.5-5.5

Robertson and Van Dijk are much cheaper than Trent which makes them marginally interesting but I can’t imagine owning one of them instead. You can’t cover Trents potential output with any of them.

Cancelo is still a Man City player and rumours are Arsenal are interested in buying which would make him very interesting.

Trippier has certainly shown he can offer value at that price. As has Luke Shaw.

I’m not interested in the City defenders or the Chelsea ones. City defenders rotated like crazy last year and Chelsea are likely to go back to a back four and that makes James and Chilwell less interesting. Ben White is needlessly 0.5 more than Gabriel and Saliba.

5.0

Gabriel and Saliba are great picks. They both have goal threat and play for one of the best defences in the league last season. Zinchenko doesn’t play enough minutes for me.

Estupinian feels like a great pick for the price. 7 assists last year and a good defence.

Pedro Porro and Ivan Perisic could be great picks again this early in the season and with no European football to play. But I think that probably depends upon whether Spurs play five at the back. If they do, then I’m interested.

4.5

There are too many 4.5s to look at them all. Most likely we will rotate them in and out all season based on fixtures. However, these ones jumped out at me.

Matty Cash can bang. He scores some great goals and is attacking as a full back gets.

Sven Botman is a nailed on centre-back for last season’s best defence in the league.

Sub 4.0

There isn’t anyone nailed on in this spot but a couple of interesting options that you have probably never heard of.

Beyer – Burnley plays as a centre-back or right-back for Burnley and played 30/46 games last year in the Championship.

Bell – Luton plays as a left back for Luton Town and made 44 appearances for the team last year.

Gusto – Chelsea is theoretically the backup to Reece James with Loftus Cheek leaving. James is always injured.

Midfielders

9.0-7.5

The heavy hitters are covered above. But, there are a lot of interesting options between 9.0 and 7.5

I think that all the arsenal players (apart from Havertz) are viable to start the season with, particularly given their fixtures. I would probably favour Saka right now because he is on penalties and very much nailed. Bruno and Rashford are incredible too. Son could even get back to form and be a big weapon.

Personally, I hate the idea of owning a City mid because they rotate so often and I don’t think they’re cheap enough to take that risk. But, in theory, they are cheap if they play week in, week out.

I would be watching and waiting to see if Jota and Luis Diaz are nailed and waiting to see if Maddison performs as well for his new team as we think he could.

7.0-6.0

There are quite a few interesting options here too. And pretty much anyone below this price range are not really worth considering yet. Maybe a cheaper one will emerge but I doubt it. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

Raheem Sterling (7.0) has taken a BIG price drop from last season. It has been three years since he broke the 200 point barrier but he’s definitely capable of doing it. Chelsea won’t have fixture congestion from any European commitments and at 7.0 he feels a bit like Rashford did last year when he started at only 6.5.

Kulusevski (7.0) was incredible when he joined Spurs halfway through the season two years ago. He was not great last year but nobody at Spurs was… If he returns to previous form he will be a great pick for that price.

Mbeumo (6.5) is going to be on penalties with Toney banned until halfway through the season. He might play up front for Brentford and could be great. Equally, they could be dreadful without Toney but definitely one to watch.

Mitoma (6.5) was a great pick last year and hasn’t got a price rise this year. Brighton will likely look a bit different as they transition to a team without MacAllister and they also have a slight difficulty with some European football clogging up their fixtures.

Eze (6.5) finished the season incredibly strongly and if he can carry that form into this season then he will be an interesting pick.

MacAllister (6.0) will likely be less important for Liverpool than he was for Brighton and traditionally the centre-midfielders are not that important in FPL for Klopp’s Liverpool. But, he’s certainly a great player on what we expect will be a great team.

These guys all come with a BUT. You will need to look past that for at least one of these guys (or one of the guys at this price point) just because we don’t have unlimited funds.

Currently, there are no 4.5 midfielders of interest but one will probably emerge.

Forwards

Besides Haaland and Kane, who else is there? Well, all the interesting ones are at two price points:

 8.0-7.0

Gabriel Jesus (8.0) was incredible until he was injured last year. He was everyone’s second forward and he will probably be mine again.

Ollie Watkins (8.0) was a revelation under Emery and after the world cup. If he carries that form over he will be a bargain at 8.0.

Callum Wilson (8.0) is interesting but problematic. He was great towards the end of last season. However, he’s injury-prone. Plus, Newcastle usually only play one forward and they have…

Alexander Isak (7.5) who is less good than Wilson but I still like him.

Nkunku (7.5) has been attracting a lot of attention on Twitter. 16 goals and 6 assists in 25 games in the Bundesliga is pretty good. Potentially he is interesting but I would definitely wait-and-see as I usually do for new players.

Mitrovic (7.5) feels about 0.5 too expensive for me given who he plays for. I know he scored 14 goals in 23 starts last year but I am assuming Fulham will struggle this year and I expect him to not score as many this year – usually teams like this are found out in their second season.

Darwin (7.5) and Gakpo (7.5) don’t offer us much right now. We don’t know which one will start up top consistently but if Nunez nails down the spot then he will be valuable. I’m not sure Gakpo can offer the same value as when he was playing striker he acted more as a false-9 than a stiker.

Lukaku (7.0) is here mainly to annoy Joe and because I love him. I expect him to leave Chelsea before the season starts but if he stayed and nailed down the starting spot then he would be interesting.

7.0-6.0

Solanke (6.5). We had to start with him. The sixth highest scoring forward last year and only 6.5! I thought he was shit and that was an oversight on my part last year but he definitely makes the watchlist for this year.

Alvarez (6.5) is irrelevant whilst Haaland is fit but historically he hasn’t stayed fit for a whole season before last year. Alvarez is straight in our teams if Haaland is out.

Wissa (6.0) interests me whilst Toney is banned. Only 6.0 for a top ten starting forward feels pretty good.

Calvert-Lewin (6.0) also interests me. I think he is great and suits Dyche-ball. He has had horrible injury problems in recent years but I think he could do a job.

Initial thoughts on team structure

My thoughts on team structure are currently all focused on how many premiums/heavy hitters I can fit in. This is because these are the guys I will be thinking about captaining. Plus, at the start of the season its usually better to fit as many in and then get rid of them if you don’t like them. This is because it’s much easier to get rid of them than to bring them back in. So let’s consider a few structures here:

Double premium + Trent

My initial thought is that I will base my team on Trent, Salah and Haaland. I might not want to keep them all for the season, BUT it is way easier to start the season with them than to try to bring them in. That does make creating a team more difficult because you’ve spent 34.5 on three players. It’s possible to get something like this:

The biggest problem is you can’t afford a good 11^th man. Few cheap defenders have good fixtures at the start of the season. So, whilst there are lots of them, they are hard to pick at the start. Which is why I currently have Henry against Kane’s Tottenham Hotspur.

There are also a lot of compromises in the team. Veltman instead of Estupinian for example. Or, no Luke Shaw. Or a weak bench with a 4.0 defender and 4.5 striker.

Single premium + Trent

Just having Haaland and Trent makes it easier to pack your midfield with great players. Like this:

I know I said it’s boring to talk about prices but this is the problem. If the Arsenal mids and the United mids were 0.5 more expensive I wouldn’t be able to afford this team.

With all that said, I can see something like this becoming very much the template. The team is incredibly strong and fits the traditionally high scoring 3-4-3 much better.

No Haaland

And, as ridiculous as it might sound, I do think it is worth considering Kane, Salah, Trent and no Haaland. I can’t imagine I would ever do that because Haaland’s ownership will be enormous. And, don’t forget, that you are playing against other players so ownership matters. But here is a draft anyway:

Straightaway that 1.5 gained by not having Haaland doesn’t feel like its worth it. I’ve lost the great midfield and not gained much.

I think, right now, it’s pretty clear that the middle one is much stronger. If only because I won’t be rotating captaincy based on fixtures like any normal FPL year. I fully expect to permanently captain Haaland again.

What’s the new format!? What about new rules?

Who knows? There is nothing on the site about it yet.

I can’t see any new rules. Deadlines are still 90 minutes before the first match. The chips are all the same. The points for everything all seem to be the same.

That’s it.

A huge piece to kick off the FPL season and hopefully it gives you some food for thought.

What do you think of the prices? Or possible team structures? Get in touch on Twitter and tell us.