Ivan Toney (£6.5m) is now the highest-owned forward in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), sitting in 30% of pre-Gameweek 1 squads at the time of writing.
But is the hype surrounding the 31-goal striker justified?
Having previously taken a more general, statistical overview of Brentford’s midfielders and forwards in our Promoted series, we wanted a fan’s perspective on the former Newcastle United and Peterborough United hitman.
We asked Fantasy Football Scout user and Brentford fan Jamie (aka Belisha Beacon) a few questions on what FPL managers can expect in 2021/22.
What is Toney’s playing style – could you liken him to any other forward in terms of physicality/pace/hold-up play etc?
“His speciality is finding the tiniest bit of space away from his marker and finishing first time (something that should hopefully bode well in the top flight, with chances likely to be at more of a premium), as well as being a taker of a string of very cool penalties.
“He’s a real team leader and surely a future captain. He is also invaluable when it comes to helping out in defence at set pieces; he certainly prevented a few goals each season for us and for Peterborough, which is not something you can say for every number 9!
“A striker talisman with the physical presence to win challenges at both ends… the top-knot Drogba?!”
Does he have any weaknesses to his game?
“There’s not much to report here on the evidence of last season. He picks up a few yellows for dissent; he gets fouled a lot but needs to control his temper in tough situations.
“He’s also a player who can seem to drift off the radar for spells in games but he has the patience to keep working for the team.”
Having seen the likes of Bamford, Mitrovic, Pukki etc in the last few years, where does he stand in the high-scoring pantheon of recent Championship strikers? Is 31 goals a fair reflection?
“I’m not an expert on the strengths of all the other players you’ve mentioned but the goal record speaks for itself.
“We lost a lot of creativity last season with the departures of Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma, so it said a lot for him to step into our team and break the goalscoring marks set by Neal Maupay and Watkins in the two prior years.
“I suppose you have to separate the penalties (11 out of 31) without ignoring them, as I doubt we can win that many in the Premier League.”
Do you have any concerns that Brentford won’t create enough chances for him in the top flight?
“That is the number one question for the club this summer, of course. We’ll have to get used to having less of the ball than we had in many games in the Championship.
“I may regret this prediction but I think some Premier League defences sit back and afford a little more space to opponents to play a pass than some of the more bruising Championship sides, who we often struggled against in the past. And we acquitted ourselves well in several cup matches against Premier League teams last season (beating Fulham, Southampton and Newcastle to nil and West Bromwich Albion on penalties, scoring eight goals in the process), so I’m hopeful that we’ll make a decent number of chances in the majority of games. There’ll be some hard days, though, for sure!”
It’s a bit of an impossible question but what do you think is a realistic target for him, goals and assists wise, in 2021/22?
“If we’re going to not only survive but try to excel amongst the bottom half teams this season, which I think we will, we’ll be aiming for 40-50 goals as a team.
“I think Toney will want to surpass what our past players Andre Gray, Maupay and even Watkins managed in their first seasons in the Premier League and aim to score about 15, including a few penalties, and maybe supply eight assists. It might sound optimistic but given his 50%+ goal involvement last year, it’s not too outrageous.”
Will you be starting with him in Gameweek 1 in FPL?
“Yes. £6.5m is not cheap for a promoted team striker, but I am confident he’ll look like a bargain when in form and it may only take one goal against Arsenal for people to be clamouring to sign him for the following weeks.”
