The Pre-season Stars

FPL GW17 Scout Picks - Bus Team

Verbruggen

O’Reilly
Senesi
Hincapie

Semenyo
Saka
Wilson
Foden

Ekitiké
Haaland
Thiago

Kelleher
Rodon
Clyne
Kroupi

GW17 Chip Poll

Price Change Predictions

Risers

Fallers

Player	Team	Price	Progress	Tonight
Calvert-Lewin	LEE	5.6m	86.7%	Likely
Van Hecke	BHA	4.5m	95.4%	Likely
Rúben	MCI	5.6m	92.0%	Likely
Palmer	CHE	10.3m	94.9%	Likely
Matheus N.	MCI	5.3m	93.6%	Maybe
Gusto	CHE	4.9m	85.0%	Unlikely
Bowen	WHU	7.5m	84.0%	Unlikely
Watkins	AVL	8.5m	86.8%	Unlikely
Marc Guiu	CHE	4.2m	83.9%	Unlikely
Gvardiol	MCI	5.9m	73.2%	Unlikely
Truffert	BOU	4.5m	77.7%	Unlikely
Tavernier	BOU	5.5m	63.2%	Unlikely
Keane	EVE	4.6m	69.0%	Unlikely
Andersen	FUL	4.6m	68.3%	Unlikely
Verbruggen	BHA	4.4m	66.6%	Unlikely
Casemiro	MUN	5.5m	72.2%	Unlikely
Mitchell	CRY	5.0m	66.9%	Unlikely
Raya	ARS	6.0m	68.2%	Unlikely
Livramento	NEW	4.9m	65.7%	Unlikely
Ballard	SUN	4.6m	61.5%	Unlikely
Tete	FUL	4.5m	61.6%	Unlikely
Dalot	MUN	4.4m	57.2%	Unlikely
Cullen	BUR	5.0m	56.8%	Unlikely
Petrović	BOU	4.5m	55.1%	Unlikely
Haaland	MCI	15.0m	51.4%	Unlikely
Dúbravka	BUR	4.0m	56.2%	Unlikely
Romero	TOT	5.0m	52.7%	Unlikely
Cash	AVL	4.9m	51.0%	Unlikely
Semenyo	BOU	7.5m	27.4%	Unlikely
Van den Berg	BRE	4.5m	48.1%	Unlikely
James	CHE	5.6m	48.2%	Unlikely
Flemming	BUR	5.3m	47.7%	Unlikely
Igor Jesus	NFO	5.8m	46.0%	Unlikely
Foden	MCI	8.8m	30.0%	Unlikely
Ekitiké	LIV	8.6m	30.2%	Unlikely
Pickford	EVE	5.5m	42.4%	Unlikely
Dewsbury-Hall	EVE	5.1m	49.7%	Unlikely
Wilson	WHU	5.8m	40.6%	Unlikely
Leno	FUL	4.9m	38.3%	Unlikely
Guéhi	CRY	5.3m	30.5%	Unlikely

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Player	Team	Price	Progress	Tonight
Anthony	BUR	5.3m	101.0%	Very Likely
Minteh	BHA	6.2m	100.6%	Very Likely
Longstaff	LEE	4.9m	100.3%	Very Likely
Nallo	LIV	3.8m	100.2%	Very Likely
Muniz	FUL	5.4m	100.1%	Very Likely
Rodon	LEE	4.1m	100.1%	Very Likely
Gudmundsson	LEE	3.9m	100.1%	Very Likely
Jordan	BUR	4.0m	99.7%	Maybe
Neave	NEW	4.4m	99.9%	Maybe
Elanga	NEW	6.6m	96.8%	Maybe
Mayenda	SUN	5.3m	98.3%	Maybe
Eze	ARS	7.8m	76.7%	Maybe
Ndiaye	EVE	6.4m	86.5%	Maybe
McKenna	BOU	4.0m	94.2%	Maybe
Morgan	BRE	4.4m	96.1%	Unlikely
Lammens	MUN	5.1m	85.7%	Unlikely
Okafor	LEE	5.5m	94.2%	Unlikely
Balcombe	BRE	4.0m	93.1%	Unlikely
McAtee	NFO	5.1m	88.5%	Unlikely
Kulusevski	TOT	6.4m	93.1%	Unlikely
Irving	WHU	4.4m	90.0%	Unlikely
Barnes	BUR	4.3m	93.3%	Unlikely
Broggio	AVL	4.5m	92.6%	Unlikely
Colwill	CHE	4.8m	92.2%	Unlikely
Bentley	WOL	4.0m	90.8%	Unlikely
Piroe	LEE	5.0m	90.5%	Unlikely
Tasker	BHA	3.9m	91.1%	Unlikely
Nørgaard	ARS	5.2m	89.8%	Unlikely
Yarmoliuk	BRE	5.0m	92.0%	Unlikely
Worrall	BUR	3.9m	88.0%	Unlikely
Webster	BHA	4.4m	88.7%	Unlikely
Jair Cunha	NFO	4.3m	90.0%	Unlikely
Fitzgerald	MUN	4.4m	90.0%	Unlikely
João Pedro	CHE	7.3m	78.7%	Unlikely
Sels	NFO	4.7m	82.6%	Unlikely
Benitez	CRY	4.0m	86.5%	Unlikely
Danso	TOT	4.3m	85.2%	Unlikely
Coleman	EVE	4.3m	84.3%	Unlikely
L.Guilherme	WHU	4.9m	83.8%	Unlikely
Toti	WOL	4.3m	87.2%	Unlikely

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FPL Fixture Ticker

Watchlists

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Raya Martin	ARS	C
No Change	Alisson	LIV	C
No Change	Donnarumma	MCI	C, Sus
Up	Kelleher	BRE	C, Vs
Down	Ramsdale	NEW	C
No Change	Dubravka	BUR	C, £

Last updated: 13 Dec, 2025 10:16am

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	van Dijk	LIV	C
No Change	Jurriën Timber	ARS	C, Inj
No Change	O’Reilly	MCI	C
Up	Andersen	FUL	C
Up	Marc Guehi	CRY	A
Up	van den Berg	BRE	C, Vs
No Change	Thiaw	NEW	A
No Change	Milenkovic	NFO	C
No Change	van Hecke	BHA	A
No Change	Mukiele	SUN	C, £

Last updated: 13 Dec, 2025 10:28am

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Saka	ARS	B
No Change	Bruno Fernandes	MUN	A
No Change	Foden	MCI	A
No Change	Semenyo	BOU	C
Up	Szoboszlai	LIV	C
No Change	Minteh	BHA	B
No Change	Bruno Guimarães	NEW	A
No Change	Schade	BRE	C, Vs, Sus
No Change	Anderson	NFO	B, £

Last updated: 13 Dec, 2025 10:34am

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Haaland	MCI	B
No Change	Thiago	BRE	A, Vs
No Change	Mateta	CRY	C
Up	Ekitiké	LIV	B
Down	Welbeck	BHA	C, Rest
Down	Woltemade	NEW	B

Last updated: 13 Dec, 2025 10:43am

Community Submissions

11 August 2014 25 comments

Mata-Is-The-Juan

Pre-season provides Fantasy managers with an interesting conundrum. On one hand, the games are friendlies at best and, for most people, utterly meaningless. However, when a player starts displaying some sort of form over a period of games, pre-seaon or not, we do have to pay some attention to him. Here’s a quick guide to spotting the stars of this summer’s pre-season schedule.

Spotting a Pre-season Star

I started this exercise after I succumbed to the Bojan Krkic bug that’s been going around and suddenly saw myself out of reasons not to have the Stoke forward in my team. Tottenham’s Erik Lamela is another whose pre-season form has divided Fantasy managers. Does his pre-season form suggest he can tear it up this season for Spurs or are we just being sold a false hope? As I am relatively new to Fantasy Football myself, I cannot in good faith advise others to either pick X-player or avoid said player as I am still trying to figure it all out myself. I reasoned that the best thing I could do for this community is to share the data I have for the pre-season games thus far and you can all help make sense of this.

The only criteria to make it to the final list was that a player had to have scored a minimum of two goals or at least have contributed an assist to his solitary strike. The data below takes into account friendly games up to August 8.

Quick Findings

Manchester City’s Stevan Jovetic, Crystal Palace’s Glenn Murray and Burnley’s Lucas Jutkeiwicz are leading the pack with five goals from pre-season games.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is the closest to the pair with four goals and an assist.
Lamela and Manchester United’s Ashley Young are the most productive midfielders. The Spurs man has three goals. Young tops that by having an assist to his name.
John Terry leads the defenders with three goals, his newly signed Chelsea teammate Kurt Zouma has two goals as does Manchester City’s Aleksandar Kolarov.
With respect to assists, Manchester City winger Jesus Navas leads with four assists. Chelsea forward Diego Costa has three assists.

A full table of my findings can be found here.

The table also includes a helpful suggestion on which players are nailed on until Gameweek 6. If anyone has the data for the number of minutes each player has played in pre-season, I have included a second sheet with a ‘Minutes Played’ column that I hope to update.

25 Comments Login to Post a Comment

J0E
11 years, 4 months ago
Really good summary of the summer pre season stars. Now to see if they can deliver in the Premier League this season.
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1. Mata-Is-The-Juan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Thanks Jonty ----
  
  I think pre-season form for some players could carry over into the season. At least for the first couple of games.
  Jovetic + Lamela especially seem to fit this criteria. Plus, both players have the added bonus of having a forgetful debut season and being on a mission to prove their worth.
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Frank Black
11 years, 4 months ago
Ashley Young is not reliable but at 5.5 he could be a pretty decent option IF United doesn't sign someone like Di Maria. Sure, Di Maria would still play on the right while Young would play on the left but we can't forget that there's Januzaj too and Van Gaal has no problems playing the youngsters. So, it'd be Young, Januzaj and Kagawa for a single spot since Di Maria would be pretty much unmovable from that right wing.
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1. Mata-Is-The-Juan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  I'm a bit weary about picking Young. A great option but not guaranteed starts. Should the Di Maria rumors lead to a transfer, he will certainly present an alternative United pick behind RVP/Rooney and Mata.
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Keyser Jose
11 years, 4 months ago
Not sure if Jovetic is "Nailed on" as in the table myself, after week 1-2 anyway. I always take pre-season form players with a massive pinch of salt after being stung over previous years. Better looking at fixtures ahead
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1. Mata-Is-The-Juan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Fair point.
  
  Changed Jovetic's 'nailed on-ness'. I still suspect Pelle will ease Aguero in. Thinking cameo appearances from GW2, and probably a full-start in GW4/5.
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Bøwstring The Carp
11 years, 4 months ago
Excellent article, cheers Mata.

Strongly considering Costa and Sterling over Hazard and 9.5 ATT 😕
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1. Mata-Is-The-Juan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Personally drafted Sterling in myself. Keeping Hazard and looks like I'll be keeping Lukaku.
  
  If it helps, Sterling+Costa should score more than Hazard.
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Sadio
11 years, 4 months ago
Dan Morgan of Leicester has 3 goals this preseason as well.
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1. Mata-Is-The-Juan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Thanks for the update!
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tommygoodwin
11 years, 4 months ago
Great article and table. Really helpful stuff. Thank you.
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fantasyfootballmaniac
11 years, 4 months ago
Thanks mate.. That's all I needed to replace Mata with Sterling!
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The Woyzeck Warriors
11 years, 4 months ago
Nugent has also been on fire pre-season. LEI has difficult fixtures to start with but def one to keep an eye on.
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snakeheart42
11 years, 4 months ago
Who'd you have as your third striker, Nugent, Bojan, or Jutkeiwicz?
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1. Koolswan
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Bojan...think more likely to play plus couple of easier fixtures.
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  1. robcfowler
    11 years, 4 months ago
    Agreed - I have Bojan in - rotates well with Sigardsson if Stoke continue their poor show on the road and swansea's form is hit-and-miss
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    1. snakeheart42
      11 years, 4 months ago
      So who would you have on GW1? Siggy or Bojan?
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      1. jerseyboy
        11 years, 4 months ago
        Bojan for me
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robcfowler
11 years, 4 months ago
Would you have Eriksen or Lamela?
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1. jerseyboy
  11 years, 4 months ago
  Eriksen
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  1. Finnexer
    11 years, 4 months ago
    But there are rumours that ponchetti said he would prefer Lamela over Erikson in behind the striker/s. And given the pre-season form i wouldnt blame him if he did chose Lamela over Erikson.
    
    If you are stuck between both, watch a few spurs interviews and pre-season friendly match reports and maybe it will clear your head on the decision. 🙂
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    1. robcfowler
      11 years, 4 months ago
      thank you that's helpful. I've always steered clear of Spurs players in general. in fact its been my golden rule and one which has done me well until now. but i rate this new manager
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cklessa
11 years, 4 months ago
Who do people think will be the most prolific 6mn or below striker this season?
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Dazzaom
11 years, 4 months ago
This is my sun dream team

Howard (EVE)
Jones (MUN) Cahill (CHE)Coleman (EVE) Davies (HUL)
Coutinho (LIV) Young (MUN) Fabregas (CHE)
Van Persie (MUN) Sanchez (ARS) Bojan (STK)
Currently debating whether to swap RVP for Rooney and swapping Sanchez
for Costa? And possibly bringing in Lamela? Where can I improve ?
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BallsInNets
11 years, 4 months ago
Any help is appreciated:

KRUL - MANNONE

BAINES - TERRY - WARD - CAMERON - BRUCE

YOUNG - DAVIS - NOLAN - HAZARD - SANCH

ROO - COSTA - BOJAN

Plan is to get a cheaper (9) mid eventually and cheaper Striker ....

Thoughts???? aking this in to account....
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