It’s less than 48 hours after the launch of Fantasy Premier League 2018/19, but already some familiar names are dominating managers’ thoughts.
Mohamed Salah‘s £4.0m price rise hasn’t deterred many Fantasy bosses from drafting the record-breaking Egyptian into their squads, while a number of his Liverpool team-mates are proving popular buys in defence and attack.
Despite being the most expensive goalkeeping asset in the game this season, David de Gea (£6.0m) is the most popular choice between the sticks at this very early stage.
While we are still five weeks from the start of the Premier League season, the early market trends can give us a rough guide as to which assets will be popular ones come August.
Goalkeepers
De Gea was the highest-scoring shot-stopper in FPL last season, keeping 18 clean sheets and conceding only 28 goals in 37 league starts. A middling World Cup with Spain, in which de Gea saved only one of the seven shots on target he faced, and a price rise of £0.5m has not discouraged the 34.6% of Fantasy managers who have selected the United custodian in their early squad drafts.
Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m) made more saves last season than any other Premier League goalkeeper and would seem a good bet to rack up more save points, if not clean sheets, in the opening months of the campaign: West Ham United face all of last season’s top six sides in their first nine Gameweeks. The former Swansea City goalkeeper currently sits in 26.9% of our squads.
Manchester City face all six of the most recently promoted Premier League clubs in their opening seven fixtures, which would account for Ederson‘s (£5.5m) 17.6% ownership.
Martin Dubravka‘s price hike to £5.0m looks to have alienated potential investors, though Nick Pope has a double-digit ownership in the same price bracket.
Should Vicente Guaita (£4.5m) get the nod as Crystal Palace’s first-choice goalkeeper, the Spaniard could prove to be an early differential. Less than 1% of FPL managers own Palace’s new signing, despite the Eagles having a kind-looking start to the season (ful, LIV, wat, SOU, hud, NEW, bou, WLV, eve).
Defenders
Liverpool assets are prominent in the early defensive ownership stakes, with Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m) and Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) featuring in 20.7% and 17.3% of embryonic FPL squads.
Ryan Bertrand was the only defender who had more touches in the final third than Robertson in the second half of 2017/18.
Marcos Alonso (£6.5m) recorded a best-ever single-season total of seven goals in 2017/18 and sits just behind market leader Alexander-Arnold in 18.4% of Fantasy squads.
FPL managers have been quick to spot the potential £4.5m bargains: Charlie Daniels and Cedric Soares are both attack-minded full-backs who played in advanced positions when their managers switched to three-man defences last season.
Southampton’s first five fixtures (BUR, eve, LEI, cry BHA) have tempted 14.7% of FPL managers to take a punt on Soares, while Bournemouth meet just one of the “Big Six” in the first nine Gameweeks. Daniels features in 17.4% of squads.
Not a single defender from either of the Manchester clubs (or Arsenal) has an ownership of more than 10%, with many managers opting for the risk-free route of backing the clubs’ respective goalkeepers.
Jan Bednarek (£4.0m) is the early go-to bench fodder option, sitting in 11.6% of squads.
Midfielders
There is only one place to start. Sitting in 47% of fledgeling squads, Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) is the most-selected (and most expensive) player in any position.
Speculation that the Egyptian might have been reclassified as a forward proved to be unfounded, though there was no escaping the inevitable price rise after his record-breaking haul of 303 points last season. Salah remaining as a midfielder and retaining that extra point for every goal (and clean sheet) is some compensation for those swallowing the inflated price tag, at least.
One player whose appeal has seemingly been dented by a price hike is Raheem Sterling (£11.0m). The England international sits in just under 5% of Fantasy squads and is a less popular midfield option than team-mates Leroy Sane (£9.5m), Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m) and David Silva (£8.5m).
Henrikh Mkhitaryan could be a potential steal at £7.0m, certainly given Arsenal’s fixtures from Gameweek 3 onwards (WHU, cdf, new, EVE, WAT, ful, LEI, cry). The Armenian has been snapped up by 25.5% of FPL managers and is the second-most popular midfield option behind Salah.
Ruben Neves‘ budget price tag of £5.0m is an alluring one, though his deep-lying playmaker role (similar to Jonjo Shelvey at Newcastle) would account for his cut-price cost. Over a fifth of FPL managers have nevertheless chosen the Portuguese international in their squads.
Price hikes for last season’s budget gems, Pascal Gross (£7.0m) and Luka Milivojevic (£6.5m), haven’t diminished their appeal too much: the pair both sit in well over 10% of Fantasy bosses’ initial squads.
Forwards
Harry Kane is a “non-mover” at £12.5m and is the most popular forward in FPL, featuring in 39% of squads. Roberto Firmino (£9.5m), who is some £3.5m cheaper than Salah, is neck and neck with Kane as the go-to striking option.
The reclassification of Wilfried Zaha and Marko Arnautovic (both £7.0m) as forwards caused much discussion in the Fantasy community, but their appeal doesn’t appear to have been lessened as a result: the pair are the third and fourth-most popular attacking options at this early stage.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m), who scored on ten occasions and supplied four assists in his 12 starts for Arsenal last season, is almost twice as popular a buy as Sergio Aguero, who starts at the same price. Romelu Lukaku, the third forward option available at £11.0m, features in 17.2% of squads, meanwhile.
There appear to be a plethora of viable mid-priced striking options available to Fantasy managers this season, particularly with Zaha and Arnautovic’s re-categorisation. Olivier Giroud (£8.0m) and Cenk Tosun (£7.0m) are two other options in this grouping of forwards who have double-digit ownerships.
World Cup Data
We’re delighted to offer World Cup data as an early addition to our regular season offering to help those playing Fantasy games over the summer.
We’ve secured Opta data, not only for the tournament itself, but also from the Qualifying Rounds for Europe and South America and for international friendlies involving the participating nations. This includes all the matches played right up to the tournament kick-off.
Just to stress, this World Cup offering comes packaged with the regular Fantasy Football Scout membership.
Check out this new trailer detailing the World Cup content below…
McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy
Join our McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy league ‘FantasyFootballScout’ using the code: HEWJPVYR
Fantasy iTeam
Fantasy Football Scout is supporting Fantasy iTeam, a free World Cup game available on a number of mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch and Android. We have an official Fantasy Football Scout League open to UK users only, with a £1000 of Amazon vouchers to give out, split between the top three performers. There’s also the small matter of £10k worth of prizes available in the main competitions: Overall World Championship and Manager of the Gameround.
Click here for details and here to sign up.
Our League name is Fantasy Football Scout and the pin is 1887.
Please note, users must be over 18 and based in the UK to join our league.
