With Gameweek 1 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) just days away, we’re getting team reveals from our team of pundits and Hall of Famers.
Here, three-time top 200 finisher Lateriser shares two drafts that he’s narrowed down to – one with Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) and one without.
Make sure you sign up for the new season to get all the Member-only articles, tools and features to make 2025/26 your best FPL campaign yet!
We’re getting closer and closer to the end game and I find myself narrowing down my decisions – or I hope so, anyway.
On Sunday, I was debating two Gameweek 1 drafts: one which involved Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) and the other which didn’t.
BRUNO DRAFT
The one that involves Fernandes looks like this:
I was objectively thinking very, very hard about Bruno on the weekend.
PROS
- He’s an absolute minutes machine, a 90-minute man who does a lot of good work in the final 20 minutes.
- He’s on penalties and I expect us to win a lot more spot-kicks this season due to the runs of Amad Diallo (£6.5m), Matheus Cunha (£8.0m), Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) and Patrick Dorgu (£4.5m).
- Even if he plays deeper, he’s pretty decisive in many moments because he’s Bruno Fernandes. He’s built for output.
- We are a lot better at set pieces compared to six months ago and he takes them from one side. Mbeumo takes them from the other side
- The presence of Benjamin Sesko (£7.5m) means Fernandes might get a few more assists as he places himself in the half space on the right side a lot for a whipping cross inside the box.
- He’s got high defensive contribution (DC/DEFCON) potential for an attacker, registering DC points in 33% of his outings last season. This gives him a very high floor with minutes, penalties, set pieces, DEFCON and open-play potential.
- He’s playing with better players this season. Better utilisers of the ball and better finishers, which means that he should get more assists. There might be some more cut-backs from the likes of Cunha and Mbeumo, instead of the likes of Alejandro Garnacho (£6.5m), who just cuts in and shoots.
All in all, he’s a really good asset with a high floor.
CONS
- He’s pretty expensive. That £9.0m price tag is a slightly odd one for someone who plays relatively deeper compared to others in that price bracket.
- The fixtures at the start of the season are pretty difficult for United with Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea in the first five games. Even Fulham are pretty good defensively. How many goals will the Red Devils score in these games? The ceiling doesn’t seem that high.
- Given the above two points, it does feel like you can take him on, given you’re only likely to captain him in Gameweek 3 against Burnley.
- The goals might be spread around a little bit this year with Sesko, Mbeumo and Cunha added to share the load.
Now, with the draft above, I realised that my defence felt really light. I could go for a bigger downgrade and opt to lose Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) instead but he’s had a fabulous pre-season and Aston Villa have good fixtures at the start of the campaign. Below is very encouraging as well:
“Pre-season is crucial for yourself as a player. It sets the foundations for you going into the season. Last season I didn’t have that. I didn’t play in any pre-season games so I was trying to play catch-up. For me, it’s massive to play these games, feel good, get your confidence up and go into the season all guns blazing.” – Ollie Watkins
So I played around with downgrading Bruno Fernandes to one of Ismaila Sarr (£6.5m)/Georgino Rutter (£6.0m)/Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) and this is what I built.
DRAFT WITHOUT BRUNO
Before I finish, let me point you in the direction of a recent video we have done with Josh Williams, who does excellent work for The Anfield Wrap and LFC TV (and is one of the best when it comes to Liverpool). He discusses the nuances of the Reds, which you can view below:
