End of Season Awards – Forwards

Having checked out the season’s top Goalkeepers, Defenders and Midfielders from a Fantasy perspective, we switch our focus to 2017/18’s best forwards.

Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku are the returning names from our Team of 2016/17, while the third forward to feature in that line-up, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, departed Manchester United in March after only 103 minutes of Premier League football this campaign.

Last season’s team:
Goalkeeper – Tom Heaton
Defenders – Marcos Alonso, Gareth McAuley, Seamus Coleman
Midfielders – Dele Alli, Alexis Sanchez, Christian Eriksen, Joshua King
Forwards – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Harry Kane

Our poll, which can be found on the right column of the homepage, allows each site user to vote for up to two attackers.

Harry Kane

Despite frustrating Fantasy managers with blanks in favourable Wembley “home” fixtures against Burnley, Swansea City, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Hove Albion and West Ham United, Kane actually upped his goal output for the fourth successive season to record only seven points fewer (217) than he mustered in 2016/17.

No striker had more big chances than Kane (39), whose total of 184 shots was almost double that of any other forward. Sergio Aguero, with 94 attempts, was the next highest.

Kane’s 31 bonus points was also the most accrued by any striker, as was his total of 805 on the Bonus Points System. Interestingly though, Kane’s record of 71.7 minutes per Baseline BPS was lower than all but three other strikers (Alvaro Morata, Glenn Murray and Oumar Niasse).

A league-high total of 60 shots off target coupled with 18 big chances missed – only Christian Benteke (20) spurned more – would account for that discrepancy.

The highlight of Kane’s season was undoubtedly back-to-back hat-tricks against Burnley and Southampton over Christmas, with two successive 17-point returns punishing the 100,000+ FPL managers who jettisoned the Tottenham striker in the preceding weeks, including Hall of Fame leader Jay Egersdorff .

Kane didn’t post one double-digit score from Gameweeks 24 to 37, a period in which he also suffered a five-match goal drought – his longest of the season.

He also ended the campaign priced at a season-high of £13.1m and as the most-selected FPL forward: 37.7% of Fantasy managers owned the England captain in Gameweek 38.

Romelu Lukaku

Lukaku began the season as FPL’s most-owned forward, having been selected by over 1.9 million Fantasy managers going into Gameweek 1.

Thirteen points in Manchester United’s 4-0 win over West Ham on the opening weekend was as good as it got for Lukaku, with the Belgian forward subsequently unable to score more than one goal in a match for the rest of the campaign.

A pair of 12-point returns in home fixtures against former clubs Everton and Chelsea were Lukaku’s only other double-digit tallies in 2017/18.

Lukaku’s total of 16 goals was his fourth-lowest as a Premier League striker, having hit a career-high of 25 goals last season. Lukaku’s cumulative score of 162 was also 59 points down on his total in 2016/17.

The opening two months of the season was Lukaku’s most productive spell, with the Belgium striker topping the scoring charts with seven goals following the culmination of Gameweek 7. A run of one goal in nine games then followed, during which time Lukaku’s price fell by £0.5m.

All 16 of Lukaku’s goals came from inside the box, demonstrating his predatory instincts, though it should be noted that he missed half of the 22 big chances that were presented to him this season.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Roberto Firmino were the only classified forwards who provided more assists (seven) this season.

Jamie Vardy

Vardy’s total score of 183 points meant that he finished second behind Kane in the overall forward standings.

The Leicester City striker provided a steady drip-feed of attacking points throughout the season, bookended by two 13-point returns in Gameweeks 1 and 38. Vardy never went more than four matches without scoring, though didn’t register more than one goal in a game outside of his braces on the first and final days of the season.

Ending 2017/18 on 20 goals, all of which came from inside the box, Vardy scored two-thirds of his 21 big chances, a better ratio than any of the featured forwards in our poll. Only Ayoze Perez offered better value in attack this season, with Vardy returning 20.8 points per million spent

Vardy’s meagre total of two assists was, however, his lowest in four years as a Premier League striker.

Roberto Firmino

The Brazilian striker, in his first season as an FPL forward, is ironically nominated as much for his all-round teamwork and creativity than he is for scoring goals.

No forward supplied more assists (eight), made more key passes (57) or created more big chances (11) than Firmino this season. The ex-Hoffenheim star also completed more passes in the opposition half (642) and final third (403) than any other recognised striker.

Those statistics go a long way to explaining how Firmino ended up with 29 bonus points this season, a total second only to Kane among FPL forwards. The Liverpool attacker’s average of 9.2 minutes per BBPS was also the best mean among strikers who played more than 1,000 minutes in 2017/18.

That ability to earn bonus allowed Firmino to collect additional points in 12 of the 13 matches he scored in.

Though his total of 15 goals was less than half of Mohamed Salah (32), it represented the Brazilian’s best return in a Liverpool shirt.

The high point of Firmino’s season undoubtedly came in Gameweeks 18-20, when he racked up three double-digit scores and a total of 36 points in fixtures against Bournemouth, Arsenal and Swansea.

Sergio Aguero

The Argentinian forward scored 20+ goals for the fourth consecutive season, despite his 2017/18 campaign effectively being cut short in Gameweek 30.

Aguero hit hat-tricks in wins over Watford and Newcastle United, but the highlight of his season was undeniably the four second-half goals he scored in Manchester City’s 5-1 win over Leicester in Gameweek 27.

The City striker’s average of a goal every 93.8 minutes was the best in the division among FPL forwards with more than 1,000 minutes to their name, while his mean of 6.8 points per match was unsurpassed by any other frontman.

No striker created more big chances this season than Aguero (11), whose total of 40 key passes was second only to Firmino among those classified as a forward.

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang

Given that the former Borussia Dortmund striker only made his Arsenal debut in Gameweek 26, it seems a little odd to factor Aubameyang into any end-of-season awards discussion.

But the statistics speak for themselves.

Despite being occasionally used from the left flank, the Gabonese striker only failed to produce attacking returns in three of his 13 league appearances for Arsenal, scoring ten goals and providing four assists.

Aubameyang’s average of 6.7 points per match was only 0.1 short of Aguero’s season-high among FPL forwards, while his goals conversion rate of 32.3% was better than any FPL player who attempted more than ten shots this season.

Aubameyang also accumulated 12 bonus points in his 15 appearances, a total that wasn’t bettered by any Arsenal midfielder or forward in the whole of 2017/18.

Glenn Murray

In a season where budget options fail to impress, Brighton’s veteran was the only forward who started at a cost less than £8.5m to score more than ten goals.

Although Ayoze Perez was the top value (22.5) forward, six of his eight goals came in the final eight matches. Meanwhile, Jordan Ayew, the most bought (1.5m) budget forward, netted just one goal in the opening 18 Gameweeks and notched just seven overall.

Arguably, Murray was the only reliable cut-price candidate over an extended period, with 11 of his 12 efforts (four penalties) scored between Gameweeks 9-29.

Indeed, he was more clinical in front of goal than Kane, Aguero and Firmino, with shot accuracy (45.3%) and goal conversion (22.6%) statistics bettering that trio of counterparts.