Our third article looking at the Sky Sports player list pinpoints the top targets in midfield.
Due to the bonus points system in this game rewarding completed passes, tackles and shots on target, the forgotten men of FPL and other Fantasy games become viable options. Suddenly, a whole host of often-overlooked holding midfielders now present us with an “unsexy” but very efficient way of picking up points.
Midfielders in general also come in at a cheaper price than forwards, yet their end of season returns are often very similar, making their points per million value very high.
In fact, of the top 25 value players from last season, 12 of them were midfielders, and just four were forwards.
On top of this, midfielders are generally favoured for the Man of the Match (MoTM) award and therefore offer great captain choices – more on that in our coming article analysing the Sky reporters’ favourite players.
It, therefore, makes sense to try and pack our midfield with either a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 formation, which has proved optimal in previous seasons. Here are our top contenders pre-overhaul.
The Picks
Kevin de Bruyne – 11.5 – 12.6% – Fixtures: bha EVE bou
A strong finish to the campaign and an impressive pre-season make the Belgian a form pick.
Manchester City scored 15 goals in their final four matches of last season, in which De Bruyne played a key part. Thirty-three starts, six goals, five MoTM awards and a league-high 20 assists helped him to 197 points last time out – just five less than Sergio Aguero, who cost considerably more.
The playmaker also looks to be one of Pep Guardiola’s trusted servants and is expected to start all of City’s opening three matches.
Planning your captains in advance is also a key reason to turn to De Bruyne. Pre-overhaul fixtures have made a Man City asset desirable due to their home tie against Everton in Gameweek Two.
Philippe Coutinho – 11.3 – 17.6% – Fixtures: wat CRY ARS
The Brazilian earned an impressive 231 points last season, making him the sixth highest-scoring player overall. What’s more, he managed it despite starting just 28 fixtures due to injury.
A total of 13 goals and seven assists helped his cause, but Coutinho’s real appeal is a penchant for picking up the MoTM award, having earned it nine times. That makes him an armband candidate, as often one assist or goal will be coupled with the five-point award. On top of that, the Liverpool playmaker is one of the few attacking midfield options who also flirt with bonus occasionally, having earned 27 points mainly via passing and shooting on target.
All of this means you will rarely get a two-point return from him and therefore he offers both a safe and explosive captain pick – a rare thing.
Of course, the caveat here is the speculation surrounding his future. With persistent reports speculating on a move to Barcelona, we need to be mindful of that distracting Coutinho, or even limiting his starts over the opening Gameweeks.
Paul Pogba – 11.2 – 12.2% – Fixtures: WHU swa LEI
Five goals and four assists don’t immediately stand out and scream ‘pick me’, but the Frenchman does have more to offer in the shape of bonus points.
The all-action Pogba picked up 58 points in bonus (the equivalent of 9.5 midfielder goals), and was one of the few players to regularly earn tier two passing bonus.
There is a strong theory that Pogba will benefit from the arrival of holding midfielder in Nemanja Matic, allowing him more freedom to burst forward and improve those attacking returns. He did also manage to hit the woodwork six times, suggesting he was a tad unlucky not to boast stronger returns.
This potentially puts Pogba in the rare and extremely sought after-category of a bonus-point magnet who also gets attacking points.
The fixtures also offer a fantastic platform and should act as a guide to his potential post-overhaul.
Mohamed Salah – 9.4 – 18.1% – Fixtures: wat CRY ARS
Such is Salah’s potential value I felt I had to include him in addition to Coutinho.
The Egyptian comes in at the same price as team-mate Georginio Wijnaldum at 9.4 – a full 1.6m cheaper than fellow winger Sadio Mane.
Salah has been quick to maintain the form that harvested 15 goals and 13 assists at Roma last term, scoring four times for Liverpool already in pre-season. A sizable 18.1% have already acquired the summer signing as he looks to atone for a disappointing spell with Chelsea in the Premier League.
Roberto Firmino, meanwhile, is now a forward at 11.6m, which should bring him to our attention if he regularly features in an attack that managed 78 goals last campaign.
Cesc Fabregas – 9.4 – 2.6% – Fixtures: BUR tot EVE
The Spaniard has been a force in Sky Sports whenever he has graced the field due to a penchant for picking up bonus points and the MoTM award to go alongside his regular attacking returns.
Fabregas started just 13 matches last season (16 sub appearances) but still managed a respectable 136 points. He produced five goals, three MoTM awards and 11 assists to go alongside 24 points earned mainly for completing 70 passes.
It’s his lack of a consistent starting spot in Chelsea’s XI that made us turn elsewhere in the previous campaign, but with Matic leaving for United and new signing Tiemoue Bakayoko (8.7m) still recovering from injury, Fabregas should be safe pre-overhaul, and that’s all that matters at this stage.
Attacking midfielder Willian 9.3m offers an alternative to Fabregas. Similar to the Spaniard, he suffered from rotation in 16/17, but with Eden Hazard (11.8m) not expected to be fit for the start of the campaign, Willian should slot in and may even carry a set-piece threat.
Wilfried Zaha – 9.3 – 12% – Fixtures: HUD liv SWA
The Palace flier is all flicks and tricks no more, although clearly, they helped as the Sky Sports reporters awarded him with seven MoTM awards.
Zaha also grabbed seven goals and 11 assists, contributing to his impressive 184 points. A price rise has ensued – from 8.2m to 9.3m – but I feel that the Ivory Coast international still warrants our attention with some promising opening fixtures.
Home clashes with Huddersfield and Swansea in the first three hand him the chance to kick on from the goal and two assists garnered over the summer.
Granit Xhaka – 8.7 – 3.3% – Fixtures: LEI stk liv
The holding midfielder picked up a whopping 71 points in passing and tackling bonus last season, the equivalent of 14 clean sheets or forward goals.
Xhaka averaged bonus every 35 minutes on the field, meaning he regularly returned four to eight points a match. The Gunners’ change of shape towards the back end of last season also seemed to aid his cause in this area, having returned tier two passing four times in their eight league fixtures post-formation swap.
On the other four occasions, he received tier one passing twice and tier one tackling once.
Xhaka did struggle for attacking output, netting and assisting only twice in the league, and so many may turn to team-mate Aaron Ramsey at 9.1m. The Welshman also regularly flirts with bonus, although not quite as often, but carries more of an offensive threat. The security of returns offered by Xhaka just about tips the balance in his favour, particularly when coupled with a 0.4m saving and Ramsey’s injury doubt.
Matt Ritchie – 8.3 – 1.9% – Fixtures: TOT hud WHU
We’ve been here before with Ritchie. But on the back of a stellar Championship campaign that produced 12 goals and seven assists, he again looks one to consider.
This time, however, he has experience of the Premier League and boasts penalty kicks and set-pieces for the Magpies. Ritchie does have another potential avenue for points – a propensity for shooting at goal meant he fired an effort on average every 31 minutes last season and we could, therefore, see a shots on target bonus on occasions.
The opener against Spurs doesn’t look great, but a trip to Huddersfield and the visit of West Ham should see Newcastle register a goal or two. With his monopoly of dead-ball situations, you’d expect Ritchie to be involved.
Matt Phillips – 8.3 – 1% – Fixtures: BOU bur STK
The fixtures are obviously the main appeal here, with West Brom afforded a very kind three matches to get in the swing of things.
Phillips does bring more than just fixtures to the table, though. He picked up four MoTM awards to go with four goals and eight assists last season. Likely to be entrusted with corner-taking duty adds another string to his bow – the Baggies scored 16 goals direct from corners last season, a league-high total.
Aaron Mooy – 7.5 – 2.3% – Fixtures: cry NEW SOT
Check out our Scout Report on Aaron Mooy and your attention should immediately be drawn to the quote by the Terriers manager David Wagner that ‘Aaron was right at the heart of our team. When he played well, we usually played well’. He’s clearly MoTM material, and has statistics to back it up – Mooy averaged 69.3 passes and 2.4 tackles a match in 2016/17.
If he can come close to those numbers, he could turn out to be great value, particularly if he can somehow match or improve on his four goals and seven assists in the Championship.
New signing Tom Ince (7.4m) also offers an alternative for Huddersfield’s tasty opening fixtures. He scored 14 goals and assisted six times for Derby County last season and notched four times in the summer friendlies.
Weekly Articles and Podcast
There is still one player list article to come before we also analyse the Man of the Match awards and bonus points in the build up to Gameweek 1 on Friday.
Also, I’ll be talking through the week’s action and upcoming plans with FFS posters Buffrey and Lewis on our regular podcast – the latest episode can be found here.
We have the dedicated RMT community article to exclusively deal with Sky Sports Fantasy teams. Those looking to get involved should click this link.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
We’ve already set up our Fantasy Football Scout League and, after winning the League of Leagues for each of the last four seasons, we’re looking to defend our crown in 2017/18.
Get your teams in – the name is FFScout and the pin number to join is 8300422.
