Who to pick as your cheap Fantasy Premier League (FPL) forward can be a hard decision, so let’s look at the six highest-owned options.
Costing no more than £6.0m, we start with Joao Pedro (£5.5m). Last season, he started 19 times and collected 104 points.
“Joao Pedro is also back in training so that is also fine and also Billy [Gilmour] I think will be back on the pitch next week, so everything is going step by step.” – Fabian Hurzeler on some notable absentees against QPR
He didn’t travel with Brighton and Hove Albion on their pre-season tour to Japan due to a minor injury and, with team-mate Danny Welbeck (£5.5m) fit, there remain doubts about Pedro’s minutes. Until we have more concrete information, my advice is to avoid him.
The next most popular is Jamie Vardy (£5.5m), who helped Leicester City’s quick promotion back to the top flight by netting 18 times in 35 appearances. However, he’s not aged 37, raising huge questions about his fitness. For me, Vardy is a wait-and-see.
Over at Fulham is Rodrigo Muniz (£6.0m), their new number nine. I reckon this means he’ll be their first-choice forward. The shirt number matches his goals record for 2023/24 and surely he’ll improve on that tally during this whole campaign.
They face Leicester and Ipswich Town in their opening three matches – teams expected to have a weak defence. That’s why Muniz is in my latest draft, he looks a good pick.
Meanwhile, Nathan Fraser (£4.5m) is the cheapest player on this list, someone who hasn’t made a single pre-season appearance for Wolverhampton Wanderers. He only started one league game last time and the only reason to have him is to allow 3-5-2 line-ups.
The penultimate player on the list is Chris Wood (£6.0m). Last season’s top scorer for Nottingham Forest with 14 goals has bagged two of them during these friendlies. With pleasant opening fixtures versus Bournemouth, Southampton and Wolves, he’s a very shrewd option.
Speaking of Southampton, we end with their main man Adam Armstrong (5.5m). He ended the 2023/24 Championship with 37 attacking returns in 49 matches. When the time is right, I can certainly see him being in my team.
But will any of these budget-friendly players start in yours?
4 months, 16 mins agoThanks for doing that, Oliver.