With one thing and another it feels like we’ve barely had a break from FPL, but apparently we have and it’s back again. Millions of players across the world are building their teams, a key part of which is analysing last season’s data. But what of the players that weren’t in the Premier League last season? How do we handle the options that have never picked up so much of a single point in FPL? I’ve challenged myself to build a team entirely of players who lack an FPL record.
Goalkeepers
Daniel Bachmann
Watford conceded just 0.652 goals per league game last season, not only the lowest of any Championship side, but the lowest of any of England’s top 92. In fact, it was the lowest of any team in Europe’s top 5 league’s except for French Champion’s Lille.
Bachmann kept 13 cleans sheets in 23 games last season, if he manages just half that ratio in the Premier League, he’ll pick up 120 points merely for appearances and clean sheets. Chuck in some save and bonus points and we have ourselves one of the highest scoring keepers of the season.
Over the first 7 Gameweeks no team ranks better for fixture difficulty according to Fantasy Football Scout’s season ticker. It’s also worth mentioning that Bachmann can be paired with teammate £4.0m Ben Foster, creating a very budget friendly goalkeeping arrangement.
David Raya
Raya made 3 or more saves on 16 occasions last term and Brentford had the lowest total of expected goals conceded (xGC) in the league. Thomas Frank also likes to pass the ball out from the back, which could mean bonus points.
Defenders
Ibrahima Konate
In an effort to prevent a repeat of their centre back injury nightmare that was 2020/21, Liverpool have done the sensible thing a brought in a man who due to injury has only managed 14 starts in his last two seasons. Even when he’s fit he offers very little in attacking return.
That said Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, and Virgil van Dijk are all returning from injury this pre-season and Konate set LFC back £36 million, so there’s a good chance he’ll be in the first team for the season’s start. His price of £5.5m offers a cheapish way into Liverpool’s backline and they do have very favourable opening fixtures.
Andrew Omobamidele
Due to injuries, Omobamidele played the last eight games of the Championship season for Norwich, if he can push his way into their starting line-up this season at £4.0m he’d be one of (if not the only) starting £4.0m player.
Rico Henry
Henry is a young and talented left-back, who was Brentford’s most creative defender last season creating 25 chances.
Nuno Tavares
Rumour is that Tavares will be employed as a left wing back, with Kieran Tierney being used as a left-sided centre back. If that’s the case Tavares offers a cheap way into an Arsenal backline that conceded the 3rd fewest goals of any team last season along with the attacking return potential of a wing-back position.
Junior Firpo
Firpo has presumably been brought in by Bisela to be Leeds’ first choice left back, certainly he should start most if not all their games in that position, however, for most of his career he has been deployed as a midfielder, giving him some out of position potential.
Marc Guehi
It remains to be seen what Palace will be like under Vieira, but Guehi should bolster their defence, and hopefully the Eagles can do better than their 8 clean sheets last season.
Midfielders
Jadon Sancho
The only stat you really need to know about Sancho is that he’s had 114 goal involvements in 137 games for Dortmund. That is an astonishing record for a player of 21. With Rashford set to miss the start of the season, we can be fairly assured Sancho will start most games and Man Utd have decent opening fixtures.
Leon Bailey
Another young winger who has just swapped the Bundesliga for the Premier League is Leon Bailey. At 23 he’s a little older than Sancho and not surprisingly his record isn’t quite as good. However, 9 goals and 8 assists in 30 games for Bayer Leverkusen is not to be sniffed at. The seemingly certain and imminent departure of Jack Grealish, combined with Bailey’s ability to play on the left or the right, suggests he’s got a good chance of plenty of minutes for Villa.
Editor’s note – This was submitted right before Grealish’s transfer was confirmed
Milot Rashica
Rashica’s record isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. Over the last 3 Bundesliga seasons in 78 appearances, he’s scored 20 goals and provided 11 assists. That means on average he blanks 3 out of every 5 games. More concerning are Norwich’s dreadful opening fixtures. His redeeming feature would be his price of £5.5m but then again that’s the same price as teammate; Todd Cantwell.
Kieran Dowell
Okay so yes Dowell did pick up 4 FPL points after playing 72 minutes for Everton in the 2015/16 season but those substitute appearances as a teen aside, he’s an unknown quantity when it comes to FPL. Like Rashica his opening fixtures are awful but his £5.5m price is attractive. I can’t claim Dowell has a better record than Rashica but he is used to playing in England, he did score 5 times in his final 10 games last season and offers some set piece potential.
Philip Zinckernagel
Zinckernagel is unproven at the top level, yes he did rack up 37 attacking returns in Norway’s top flight before his January move to Watford but let’s be honest that doesn’t really mean much. He’s cheap at £5.5m, he should be a regular starter for the Hornets and as mentioned they have very favourable fixtures.
Editor’s Note – Zinckernagel has since departed to Nottingham Forest on loan
Forwards
Ivan Toney
Toney had a great campaign with 31 goals and 10 assists in the Championship. And when you look at his underlying numbers it’s no huge surprise; he was third in the league for goals attempted, created more big chances than any of his teammates and averaged nearly 3 shots in the box per game. After their opening fixture against Arsenal Brentford have good run of Palace, Villa, Brighton and Wolves. (Also played 12 minutes of FPL football in 2015/16).
Patson Daka
At just 22, a return of 51 goals and 10 in assists in 59 league games for Red Bull Salzburg, there really aren’t any question marks over Daka’s quality. The issue is how much game time he’ll get. If Leicester continue playing 2 up front and if he can muscle his way into one of those slots ahead of Iheanacho and Vardy, he could be a very interesting FPL asset indeed.
Joao Pedro
Highly rated, Brazilian teen Pedro was Watford’s leading striker as they secured promotion earlier this year. He can play across the frontline, versatility that will boost his minutes. Again Watford’s opening 7 games are very favourable, at just £5.5m and 1.2% ownership he’s a cheap differential.
Honourable Mentions
In order to make a legitimate FPL team, I couldn’t squeeze in these two Brentford players but they’re better options than some of the players that made the team, so I couldn’t leave them out entirely.
Sergi Canós
Canós played a significant role in the Bees successful season with 9 goals and 9 assists. He featured in every league game, averaging 2.1 shots. (And I know this is another fudge due to a 9 minute appearance for Liverpool 5 years ago).
Bryan Mbeumo
Listed as a midfielder Mbeumo often plays on the right of a front 3 or even alongside Toney as part of a front 2. Although not first choice, we can expect Mbeumo to take some free kicks and corners. If his form in the Championship even partially translates, which is reasonable for such a young player, then at £5.5m he’s a very tempting option indeed.
