As we count down to the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 1 deadline, we’re welcoming back our team of guest contributors.
This time, we hear from FPL Meerkat, who talks us through five low-owned players have caught his eye in pre-season.
Pre-season has now finished, with each Premier League team giving us a good number of games to assess them.
Here are five players at below 5% ownership who caught my eye over the summer.
1. Martin Odegaard (Arsenal) – £6.5m midfielder – 4.3% owned
Arsenal completely coasted past Manchester City in their 3-0 triumph in the Community Shield.
At the heart of their impressive display was captain Martin Ødegaard (£6.5m). He was at the centre of everything Arsenal did, grabbing himself a goal. He also provided the ‘pre-assist’ for the Gunners’ opener, supplying a delightful cross to Christos Tzolis (£6.5m), who headed it back for Kai Havertz’s (£7.5m) close-range finish.
The Norwegian was even close to bagging defensive contribution points (DefCon), racking up 11 in 84 minutes:
This followed a World Cup in which he turned in some impressive displays for Norway, at odds with the sub-par showings we got from him in 2025/26.
Arsenal have a favourable fixture against Coventry City in Gameweek 1, and many teams are struggling to fit in a Gunners attacker. While the Tzolis bandwagon is picking up some serious momentum, could Odegaard be the one?
His place in the team looks secure right now (which we may not be able to say about Tzolis in the medium term) and, unlike the England and Spain contingent, he was eliminated early enough in the World Cup to get more than 1/2 pre-season matches under his belt.
2. Ferdi Kadioglu (Brighton) – £4.5m defender – 3.1% owned
The technically gifted full-back has had a promising pre-season for Brighton.
We saw different facets of his game in the two recent kickabouts.
Against Roma, he recorded seven defensive contributions in just 60 minutes. We didn’t see much of those in 2025/26, of course, and he’s more known for getting forward. That’s something we witnessed much more of on Saturday against Bologna.
With Albion short of fit wingers, fellow full-back Maxim De Cuyper (£4.5m) was the one entrusted with the ‘out of position’ (OOP) tag on the left flank. However, as noted in the Scout Notes, Kadioglu got forward as much as De Cuyper, providing ‘underlaps’ and bombing on past his fellow defender. The Turkish international registered just as many penalty area touches (three), and twice went close to scoring, hitting the woodwork with a sitter and nearly squeezing in a cross-shot.
Above: Ferdi Kadioglu’s heatmap on Saturday, via Sofascore
Brighton were one of the strongest defences last season, data-wise, and Kadioglu is on an unbroken run of 34 starts in the Premier League, too!
3. Kevin Schade (Brentford) – £6.0m midfielder – 2.8% owned
Saturday’s football saw one fixture in particular raise some eyebrows as Brentford demolished Frankfurt 7-0. The biggest contributor to that was Kevin Schade (£6.0m).
He registered two goals and two assists in the game, having nine touches in the opposition box and creating the most chances (three).
Schade, surprisingly, has been priced £0.5m cheaper than his counterpart Dango Ouattara (£6.5m), but from watching their pre-season games, Schade looks to be the more goal-hungry, inverting into the centre time and time again.
It’s worth noting that no FPL midfielder had more big chances than the German last season (eight):
There is the lingering threat of Brentford’s new signing Jaidon Anthony (£6.0m), but Anthony is also capable of playing on the right and on paper, he’s likely a backup option for both wingers. Think Reiss Nelson (£5.5m) from last season. Perhaps Anthony’s arrival is the kick up the backside Schade needs, after a sub-par 2025/26.
Schade is capable of massive points potential. Managers may recall his hat-trick against Bournemouth in Gameweek 18 last season, while he delivered 15 attacking returns in 2024/25 despite making just 26 starts.
At a competitive price point, he may be that extra midfielder you’re looking for.
4. Sindre Walle Egeli (Ipswich) – £4.5m forward – 2.0% owned
Speaking of cheap enablers, Sindre Walle Egeli (£4.5m) has really caught my eye in pre-season. He has started the last two friendlies for Ipswich and in those run-outs, registered three assists!
This season we are very limited when it comes to the cheap striker bracket, with no guaranteed £5.0m starters and only a couple at £5.5m. So, a genuine option at £4.5m feels too good to be true.
And in the medium term, it might be. Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) only missed out at the weekend with a knock, while Julio Enciso has now signed. Those two occupy the positions that Egeli has played in pre-season.
He should still get minutes, however, and there’s still a good chance of a Gameweek 1 start if Enciso/Fatawu aren’t ready for anything other than cameos. All eyes and ears on Gary O’Neil’s presser.
If he does look like starting, he could be a nice option for players Bench Boosting on the opening weekend – the Tractor Boys have a decent fixture against Sunderland at home – and then he doesn’t waste any budget as bench fodder thereafter.
Promoted teams tend to fare pretty well in their first home game back in the Premier League, and as we saw last season, forwards haven’t offered the same kind of points potential that midfielders and defenders have since the addition of defensive contributions.
So a “cheap as possible” third forward is one possible way to go.
5. Jeremy Jacquet (Liverpool) – £5.0m defender – 1.6%
Liverpool’s new centre-back made his first appearance for the club against Como on Sunday and looked like he’d been there for years.
Not only did he put in a Man of the Match-worthy performance in the 45 minutes he played, but he also scored a debut goal. Joe Gomez (£5.0m) can’t be too happy about that, nearly 300 games into a goalless career…
More impressively, he also managed to record six defensive contributions in just one half. Extrapolate that over 90 minutes and he’s well past the threshold:
Above image from Sofascore
Now the sample is obviously small, but a performance like that on your debut certainly leaves an impression.
At a low price of £5.0m, a defender from one of the top backlines in the league that has defensive contribution and goal potential sounds exciting!
