If you are trying to accommodate both Erling Haaland (£15.2m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) in your Fantasy Premier League (FPL) team, you’re going to have to find a few budget players across the other positions in your squad.
Here is a list of three of the best options in each outfield position.
We’ll be looking at defenders currently priced £4.5m and under, along with midfielders and forwards available for less than £6.0m.
DEFENDERS
| Player | Club | Price | Fixtures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ezri Konsa | Aston Villa | £4.5m | EVE | WOL | ips | MUN | ful | BOU |
| Leif Davis | Ipswich Town | £4.5m | bha | sou | AVL | whu | EVE | bre |
| Vitalii Mykolenko | Everton | £4.4m | avl | lei | CRY | NEW | ips | FUL |
Aston Villa face Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town in the next three Gameweeks. Beyond that, they are at home to Manchester United and Bournemouth and away to Fulham.
There aren’t many weeks in which you’d want to play a Villa defender in Gameweeks 10-13 (Gameweek 12, perhaps), but the schedule looks much better from Gameweeks 14-16.
At the back, Ezri Konsa costs only £4.5m.
The start of the UEFA Champions League brings with it the usual threat of rotation, but Konsa is about as nailed as you can get, having started every Premier League game he was available for in 2023/24. That’s despite a run to the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals.
Konsa offers much less attacking threat than left-back Lucas Digne (£4.5m), but the Frenchman faces competition from summer signing Ian Maatsen (£4.9m).
Of the three promoted clubs, Ipswich look like the team who are most capable of staying up.
After a difficult start – Liverpool at home and Manchester City away – a more favourable run of matches now follows.
Clean sheets might be in short supply, but what Leif Davis (£4.5m) offers to compensate for this is creativity and set-piece duties.
The attack-minded left-back, who delivered a remarkable two goals and 18 assists in the Championship last season, highlighted his upside in Gameweek 3 with an assist and two bonus points.
He was second for final-third touches (27) and crosses (five) in this match against Fulham, with three chances created.
Above: Leif Davis’ touch heatmap v Fulham in Gameweek 3
Everton haven’t won a Premier League point this season but with Jarrad Branthwaite (£4.9m) expected to return soon, now might be the ideal time to invest in Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.4m).
Sean Dyche normally does his best work at the back so you’d expect him to shore things up after the international break.
There are meetings with the three newly promoted clubs in the next seven Gameweeks, plus Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and Fulham at home.
While he’s no Leif Davis in terms of overall attacking potential, Mykolenko does offer a bit of threat, having chipped in with two goals and an assist last season.
For the real bargain hunters, Jacob Greaves (£4.0m) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£4.0m) look like the most secure starters from the £4.0m bracket, at least with a few playable fixtures on the horizon.
It remains to be seen if Sepp van den Berg (£4.0m) can become a regular starter for Brentford, but he was signed for big money from Liverpool so is one to monitor.
Yerson Mosquera’s (£4.0m) fixtures don’t pick up until Gameweek 10, however.
MIDFIELDERS
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