After thinking that their kind had died out, we’ve got a handful of budget attackers in our differentials section this week.
Options at Southampton, Watford and Fulham have remained under the radar and are currently around the five percent ownership mark.
We’ve gone over the case for their investment ahead of Gameweek 3.
DANNY INGS (£5.5m)
Ownership: 4.3%
Danny Ings (£5.5m) has been posting some impressive numbers in the first two Gameweeks and could offer real value in the budget forwards bracket.
No striker has recorded more shots in the penalty box than the Southampton man in the first two Gameweeks, which is particularly impressive considering he has played fewer minutes than the two individuals he is level with at the top of that statistic.
Sergio Aguero (£11.2m) and Callum Wilson (£6.1m) have started every match for their respective teams so far, the Man City man registering eight penalty box shots in 155 minutes and Bournemouth’s top-scorer achieving the same amount in 179 minutes.
Having arrived on the south coast late on transfer deadline day, Ings featured only as a second-half substitute against Burnley in Gameweek 1, meaning his eight penalty box shots were collected in just 124 minutes of football, that’s one every 15 minutes.
Of the forwards currently available in FPL, only Aguero and Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.5m) have had more total shots than Ings, and only Man City’s Gameweek 2 hat-trick hero is offering better minutes per chance from players who have been involved twice this season. Aguero has averaged a shot every 12.9 minutes, Ings not far behind on 13.8.
Furthermore, Ings also offers some creative potential too, with no striker bettering his five chances created so far this season.
A home match against Leicester City is the perfect opportunity for Ings to reward the 128,000+ managers who have signed him for Gameweek 3. The Foxes were particularly poor on their travels in 2017/18, ranking second bottom for clean sheets (three) and goals conceded (38).
Not only is Ings likely to deliver this week and probably in a Gameweek 5 home match against travel sick Brighton, he should also prove a great FPL squad player. Priced at just £5.5m, he will allow greater spending elsewhere and it will also be much easier to bench him for alternative options when Southampton face Liverpool and Chelsea in Gameweeks 6 and 8 respectively.
TROY DEENEY (£6.0m)
Ownership: 3.2%
Troy Deeney (£6.0m) looks the headline goal threat for Watford and his 3.2 percent ownership, and is one of a few potential differentials at Vicarage Road for the coming weeks.
No Hornet has had as many shots on goal as Deeney so far, who has averaged three per match and boasts 66.67 percent accuracy. Three of those have been inside the box and he is averaging a chance every 29.8 minutes. That makes him more dangerous than Roberto Pereyra (£6.1m) who has shot just four times this season, admittedly more often in the box though.
Will Hughes (£5.0m) also deserves consideration as he is another player to have had more efforts on goal than the popular Pereyra. Only David Brooks (£5.0m) and Mario Lemina (£5.0m) have shot more times than Hughes among players in the £5.0m bracket. However, only two of his efforts have been in the penalty box.
The difficulty of Watford’s fixture run should keep the punters largely away from these assets but they are still capable of delivering. The fact that Deeney and Hughes were able to join in the three-goal scoring fest away against a typically tight Burnley defence suggests Watford offer great threat this season. So three home matches in a row against Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Manchester United, who boast just one clean sheet in a combined six matches so far, should not be overlooked.
RYAN SESSEGNON – £6.4m
Ownership: 7.4%
Despite the pre-season hype around him, Ryan Sessegnon (£6.4m) has gone under the radar a little since the start of the campaign, already sold by 118,000+ managers ahead of Gameweek 3.
According to the Opta data, the only midfielders ranking higher than the Fulham man for expected goal involvements are big names such as Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), Sadio Mané (£9.8m), Paul Pogba (£8.1m) and James Milner (£5.5m). Given the company he is keeping in that respect, he should not be discounted.
He is clearly an important player for manager Slavisa Jokanovic, who signed additional left-backs over the summer to allow him the freedom to be deployed in attacking midfield – on either flank. His versatility should keep him very much in Fulham’s first-team plans as he has played in three different positions already in 2018/19.
The form of Mitrovic helps Sessegnon’s case considering that only Aguero has shot more times than the Whites’ forward. With a striker like that ahead of him, Sessegnon should be soon adding to his first assist of the season picked up against Spurs in Gameweek 2.
Fulham host an out of sorts Burnley this week before travelling to a Brighton side breached four times in their first two matches. After a trip to Manchester City, it’s another home match in Gameweek 6, this time against Watford so the fixture list should not be too off-putting for the newly-promoted side.
In fact, they may well finally earn some clean sheets in that run. No goalkeeper has made more saves than Fabri (£4.5m) so far this season and defender Maxime Le Marchand (£4.5m) is currently top for recoveries and Clearances, Blocks and Interceptions combined among defenders as well as minutes per baseline Bonus Points. Neither player has more than 0.4 percent ownership so both have the ability to be extreme differentials.
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