From Lundstram to Michu: The underpriced and misclassified FPL XI

FPL Focal has been playing Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for over 11 years and spent some gameweeks ranked number one in the world in the 2021/22 season.

Oscar makes FPL videos on his YouTube channel and in this latest of a summer series looking back at some cult Fantasy figures, celebrates some underpriced FPL gems from yesteryear.

Every year we start the FPL season wondering who the next hidden gem is, waiting to be unearthed. There are always a few to varying degrees and you only get the chance to capitalise once before their prices are corrected the next season.

Here I’ll be looking at the most extreme cases of misclassification ever, when FPL got the player price, and sometimes even the position, completely wrong. The team is packed with cult heroes and some of the most memorable individual seasons we’ve ever seen.

EMILIANO MARTINEZ (2020/21)

• Starting price: £4.5m
• End price: £5.3m
• Points: 186

Emi Martinez made the move from Arsenal to Aston Villa just a few days before the start of 2020/21.

The Villa defence had been unconvincing in their previous campaign, conceding 67 goals, but Martinez had a significant impact, going on to keep 15 clean sheets and accrue 27 bonus to finish on 186 points.

The all-time goalkeeper record was set by Brad Friedel all the way back in the 2002/03 season, with the American racking up 187 points. Had Martinez not picked up his only yellow card of the season in Gameweek 38, he would have tied with Friedel.

JOHN LUNDSTRAM (2019/20)

• Starting price: £4.0m
• End price: £4.6m
• Points: 144

Lundstram cemented himself as an FPL cult hero in 2019/20.

Sheffield United’s promotion-winning campaign the previous year saw the now legendary figure feature sparingly, only starting a few times all season.

As a result, he was priced at £4.0m, though this wasn’t the biggest mistake that FPL made. They’d classified the box-to-box midfielder as a defender, despite him having never played there in his life, and he went on to deliver five goals, four assists and 144 points in his debut FPL campaign.

In Gameweek 11 of 2019/20, he scored twice, kept a clean sheet and picked up maximum bonus for a 21-point haul.

STUART DALLAS (2020/21)

• Starting price: £4.5m
• End price: £5.5m
• Points: 171

Dallas joins the defence, although he barely played at the rear in the 2020/21 season.

The versatile Northern Ireland international played at full-back, central midfield, on the right flank and even as an attacking midfielder in Leeds United’s first campaign back in the Premier League, registering a very respectable 12 clean sheets but, crucially, also scoring on eight occasions and assisting a further three goals.

The following season he was reclassified as a midfielder and got a price hike to £5.5m. Many rookie FPL managers were initially caught out by his positional change after seeing he’d scored 171 points the previous campaign, unaware that he’d been incorrectly categorised as a defender.

TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD (2018/19)

• Starting price: £5.0m
• End price: £5.8m
• Points: 185 points

Alexander-Arnold is now one of the most expensive defenders in FPL history but in his breakout season back in 2018/19, he was initially priced up at £5.0m. This was also Virgil van Dijk’s first full year at Anfield and the same campaign in which the recently signed Alisson went on to win the Golden Glove with 21 clean sheets.

Alexander-Arnold played 29 times, scoring once and getting 13 assists, finishing strongly with six assists in his final half-dozen games.

The following year he got a £2.0m price hike to £7.0m and the rest, as they say, is history.

DELE ALLI (2015/16)

• Starting price: £5.0m
• End price: £5.9m
• Points: 166 points

Although Dele Alli’s career has declined dramatically, he was a brilliant player when he first broke into the Premier League and an excellent piece of business by Spurs.

Signed for an initial fee of £5m from MK Dons and priced identically by FPL, he went on to score on 10 occasions, assist 12 goals and sign off with 166 points.

He got a hefty £3.5m increase the following season but even a £8.5m price tag proved to be something of a bargain as he went on to bag 18 goals and 11 assists en route to a tally of 225 points.

MICHU (2012/13)

Next up is a true FPL cult hero, Michu. He was most FPL managers’ favourite midfielder for 12 months, taking the English top flight by storm in the season of 2012/13.

The Spaniard arrived in Wales as a virtually unknown player and was listed as a £6.5m midfielder by FPL. Very few picked him up from the beginning but he exploded onto the scene with four goals and two assists in his opening three games. As it turned out, ‘midfielder’ was also the wrong classification, as he played the majority of his games as a centre-foward.

He went on to score 18 goals and pick up three assists in 35 appearances, which resulted in a 190-point season. He even earned himself an international cap for Spain during that year, though he never hit the same heights again and sadly the remainder of his career was hindered by injuries. He retired aged just 31 after coming full circle and spending his final year at his boyhood club Real Oviedo.

RIYAD MAHREZ (2015/16)

• Starting price: £5.5m
• End price: £7.2m
• Points: 240

Leicester City’s title-winning success under Claudio Ranieri will go down as one of the greatest achievements in sport, never mind the insular world of English football. And Riyad Mahrez was pivotal in that memorable 2015/16 season.

Leicester had barely survived relegation in 2014/15, with Mahrez contributing a modest four goals and five assists and subsequently being priced up at £5.5m.

The Algerian exceeded all expectations in the following campaign, scoring 17 times and picking up 11 assists as Leicester did the seemingly impossible, winning the Premier League as 5000/1 outsiders.

MOHAMED SALAH (2017/18)

Salah broke numerous records in his debut Liverpool season back in 2017/18.

His starting price was a now-unthinkable £9.0m and while he is by far the most expensive player in this article, he was still an absolute snip.

The Egyptian went on to net 32 times, a record for goals in a 38-game English top-flight campaign, and also set a record for the most games scored in (24). In fact, he even became the first player to outscore three entire Premier League teams in a season.

He also picked up 12 assists and 26 bonus points for a record-breaking total of 303 points.

HARRY KANE (2014/15)

• Starting price: £5.0m
• End price: £6.0m
• Points: 191

One of the biggest ‘hindsight’ pricing mistakes in FPL history came in the 2014/15 season when 20-year-old Harry Kane was listed at £5.0m.

The previous season he’d netted on just three occasions from 500 minutes played but in his breakthrough campaign, he scored 21 goals and assisted a further seven.

Starting as meant to go on, he was involved in 48% of Tottenham’s goals and finished the campaign with 191 points.

Truly one of the biggest value players in FPL history for points per million.

PATRICK BAMFORD (2020/21)

• Starting price: £5.5m
• End price: £6.6m
• Points: 194

In the same season Dallas scored 171 points, Bamford also surprised everyone.

Off the back of promotion from the Championship, Bamford had only scored one Premier League goal in his career and was an unproven player at the top level.

2020/21 saw him plunder 17 goals and 11 assists for a 194-point season. He started the campaign at only £5.5m, going on to beat Kane’s points total above.

JAMIE VARDY (2015/16)

• Starting price: £6.0m
• End price: £7.4m
• Points: 211

We complete this XI with another player central to Leicester’s title-winning season, Jamie Vardy.

He’d netted just five goals the year before that unforgettable campaign and was consequently priced up at £6.0m.

But 2015/16-era Vardy was lethal, instinctive, rapid and, in November 2015, he broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record by scoring in 11 consecutive games.

You simply had to have him in your FPL team and his popularity ensured that he was subject to one of the biggest in-season price increases ever, rising from £6.0m to £7.4m.

HONORARY MENTIONS

Raul Jimenez (2018/19)

• Starting price: £5.5m
• End price: £6.9m
• 181, points 2018/19

Joshua King (2016/17)

• Starting price: £5.5m
• End price: £6.2m
• 178 points

Can you think of any other bargain-bin or woefully misclassified players who you can recall from previous seasons? Let me know in the comments section below.