We follow up our Polls on this season’s top Fantasy Football goalkeepers and defenders by looking at the candidates for the best midfielders.
The poll is on the right of the page, with each player analysed in detail.
Before we dig into this year’s options, let’s look at the four midfielders chosen as last season’s top performers.
Last season’s team:
Goalkeeper – Tom Heaton
Defenders – Marcos Alonso, Gareth McAuley, Seamus Coleman
Midfielders – Dele Alli, Alexis Sanchez, Christian Eriksen, Joshua King
Forwards – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Harry Kane
Christian Eriksen was the only midfielder from last term to claim a place on this year’s shortlist, although his Spurs team-mate Dele Alli hardly had a poor campaign, despite falling 50 points short of matching his previous tally of 225.
The 2017/18 campaign was another unsettled one for Alexis Sanchez, who spent the first half of it in and out of the Arsenal team. Doubts over his future and fitness continued to affect manager Arsene Wenger’s team selection and despite a winter move to Man United, the Chilean managed just 152 points, over 100 below his table-topping score of 2016/17.
When it was confirmed that Josh King would be re-classified as a striker and receive a price hike to £7.5m, it already seemed as if his days as a Fantasy asset were well and truly over. However, the main reason his popularity plummeted was more down his performances than tweaks in FPL. The Norwegian forward followed up last year’s total of 16 goals and three assists with just eight and four respectively in 2017/18.
Mohamed Salah
Could we start the shortlist anywhere else other than the all-time top-scoring player in FPL? It was a record-breaking 303 points for Salah as he finished 2017/18 as the Golden Boot winner with 32 goals.
Starting the season at £9.0m, Salah was a fixture-proof bargain buy, considering his incredible reliability for points returns. The Egyptian delivered attacking returns in a staggering 80.56% of his 36 fixtures, only failing to get attacking returns on nine occasions.
Number one player for double-figure hauls (15), with his most eye-catching haul of 29 points earned for four goals and an assist in a 5-0 thrashing of Watford in Gameweek 31.
Come the end of the season, Salah was the most owned player in FPL, sitting in 56.7% of squads. Transferred in 4,223,518 times across the season, only Harry Kane earned more buyers (5,323,924) over the 38 Gameweeks.
A substantial price rise is expected next term, which could see Salah valued anywhere between £12.0m and £14.0m.
Raheem Sterling
It has been a break-out season for Raheem Sterling in 2017/18 as he set a new personal best FPL score of 229 points, which is 71 better than the 158 recorded in 2014/15.
With 18 goals and 17 assists, the winger took part in 35 of City’s 106 strikes. Salah was the only player involved in more of their side’s goals in 2017/18.
What made Sterling so successful as a Fantasy asset at the start of the season was a cut-price value of just £8.0m.
Despite registering 50 points across the first eight Gameweeks, he was only in 7% of squads at that time. A goal and two assists in a 7-2 thrashing of Stoke City finally put Sterling on the wider FPL radar for the first time and soon his ownership swelled. By this point it had become clear that the winger had managed to gain Guardiola’s favour for league matches and he was rotated just five times in the whole of 2017/18.
We’ve said this many times before but, were it not for the exceptional performances of Salah, Sterling would have probably been the FPL player of the season. A hike in value is also expected, to around the £10-11m mark
Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne taught many FPL managers a lesson in patience at the start of 2017/18. After occupying a deeper role in the first three matches, blanking in all of them, the Belgian went on a fantastic run of points-scoring form from Gameweek 4 and 18. Six goals, four of which came from outside the box, and eight assists saw him register an impressive seven points per match.
While some had snubbed him due to a starting price of £10.0m, that streak of consistent returns justified it easily, and by Gameweek 19 he had risen to £10.3m.
Most importantly, De Bruyne proved a stable route into the City attack which saw plenty of rotation. With both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus alternating starts, it made sense to cover the eventual champions in midfield with many Fantasy managers opting for De Bruyne and Sterling. Guardiola built his title-winning side around the Belgian, enabling Fantasy managers to do the same. None of De Bruyne’s colleagues made more appearances in the league (37), with only Ederson (36) running him close.
In the end, the City man had the third best total score among midfielders (209) and looks likely to remain one of the premium assets in that position next season.
Leroy Sane
De Bruyne took a lot of the credit for Man City waltzing to their third Premier League title this season, but Leroy Sane’s contribution to the team’s goal tally was very similar.
Playing five games fewer than the Belgian, Sane’s 10 goals and 15 assists brought him to 25 involvements, just one less than De Bruyne’s 26. The fact that he began the campaign priced £1.5m cheaper than the Belgian made him very popular once his place in the side was assured.
Just one start in the opening five Gameweeks put most Fantasy managers off initially, even if he did score a brace in just 33 minutes as a substitute against Liverpool in Gameweek 4.
Gameweek 6 was when Sane came into his own as an FPL asset. Between then and Gameweek 13 he started every match and averaged 7.88 points from four goals and six assists. After that run both output and starts dipped off, but he returned to the FPL spotlight from Gameweek 28 onwards when he was rotated just once, recording a further three goals and five assists.
Those two very strong purple patches meant that only Salah and Sterling earned more transfers in than Sane among midfielders this season (2.8 million).
David Silva
David Silva rounds off our Man City contingent in a season that proved very challenging for him personally. The Spaniard missed several matches in order to spend time with his son Mateo, who was born prematurely and required a five-month stay in hospital.
Despite those difficult circumstances, Silva still managed to involve himself in 20 of City’s goals and amassed an FPL score of 169. In fact, he actually boasted the second-best points per match score among City midfielders (5.82), behind only Sterling (6.94).
Before his family-related absences, Silva was a consistent figure in the City side starting 16 of the first 17 matches. In those fixtures he was involved in 13 goals (five his own, eight assists). His propensity to pick up bonus points for completed passes (he ranked second only to De Bruyne during this period), combined with his price, only further added to his appeal. Had he been able to see the season out, he would have outscored Sane in FPL and given De Bruyne a good run for his money.
Christian Eriksen
The only member of last year’s selection to make this shortlist, Eriksen at the very least won the three-way battle for FPL dominance in the Tottenham midfield this time around. He out-scored both Son Heung-min and Dele Alli with a final total of 199 points, having played more minutes than his team-mates.
Eriksen’s creativity took a turn for the worse last year, with his assists dropping from 20 to 10 in 2017/18. However, the Dane improved his goal threat and accuracy in particular. A total of 97 shots (second only to Salah’s 144 among midfielders) is significantly fewer than Eriksen’s 2016/17 tally of 133, but this time around he was firing them off with 59% accuracy compared to 33% recorded last term.
That meant Eriksen scored 10 goals – his joint-best tally in the Premier League, contributing to his second-best ever FPL total score. Considering the 218 points he pulled in back in 2016/17, owners will have wanted a little more return on their investment following a price hike to £9.5m, but Eriksen still had 19.4% ownership at season’s end, the fourth-best among midfielders.
Son Heung-min
Eriksen may have beaten Son’s season total of 175 FPL points but the South Korean’s much lower price and consistency when playing at home still afforded him huge appeal. With the exception of Harry Kane, nobody was involved in more league goals at Wembley Stadium for Spurs this year than Son (15), combining nine of his own with six assists.
Coming in at a whole £1.0m cheaper than Eriksen and Alli, Son was an excellent way to invest in Spurs’ attack, particularly between Gameweek 15 and 23, where he averaged 8.33 points per match. That run included two fixtures with a goal and two assists, a 5-1 thrashing of Stoke in Gameweek 16 and the Boxing Day 5-2 win over Southampton.
Later in the campaign, he filled in up front for an injured Kane and netted consecutive braces in Gameweek 29 and 30, against Huddersfield and Bournemouth respectively. That saw him become a leading signing for Wildcard squads in Gameweek 32.
Unfortunately for the 222,107 Fantasy managers who brought him in ahead of the double Gameweeks, he only made four starts in the remaining eight matches.
Riyad Mahrez
Despite another season of uncertainty over his future, Riyad Mahrez recorded his best FPL total since piling up 240 points in the famous 2015/16 campaign. Sane, Son, Alli, Hazard, Sanchez are just a few of the big names who finished below Mahrez in the 2017/18 standings, while only Salah, Sterling, De Bruyne, and Eriksen scored more points than him among midfielders in 2017/18.
Crucially, doubts over the Algerian’s commitment to the club and, later on, his level of consistency, made sure his ownership spent most of the campaign underneath 10%.
The season started very well for Mahrez as he provided three assists in the opening two matches but it was not until Gameweek 8 when he hit real form. Between then and Gameweek 22 he was involved in 14 goals in 15 matches, averaging 6.73 points over that extended period.
Few of Mahrez’s owners at the time will forgive him for handing in a transfer request just hours before the midweek Gameweek 25 deadline. After a deal with Manchester City fell through he ended up skipping training and missed two matches. He was soon back on the pitch, though, and put himself on the Wildcard radar after two goals and an assist across Gameweeks 29 and 30.
After disappointing between Gameweeks 32 and 35, Mahrez ruthlessly trolled the FPL community by putting up 25 points in the final four matches, after suffering from 144,608 sales.
Sadio Mane
Sadio Mane may not have matched his total score from the previous two campaigns but did remarkably well considering he played fewer minutes than usual. Suspension the winger out of Gameweeks 4 -6 before a hamstring problem kept him out from Gameweek 8 to 10.
However, when the Senegalese international was fit and firing, he was an excellent way of covering Liverpool’s attack outside of the incredible Salah. Involved in 18 goals over 28 starts, made him an important player to own when the Reds were finding the net regularly.
Mane scored in each of the first three matches of the season before being sent off for a foul on Ederson against Man City. His best run was between Gameweek 21 and 34 when he averaged 5.92 points per match from six goals and five assists.
Wilfried Zaha
Crystal Palace’s talisman proved an efficient mid-range midfielder to own for the end of season run-in. In the last nine Gameweeks, priced at £6.9m, only Salah (eight) scored more goals in this classification than Zaha (five). He backed that up with three assists, averaging 7.11 points per match and earning three price rises in that time, too.
Deployed as a striker by Roy Hodgson, Zaha ranked joint-second for big chances with Sterling (eight) between his injury comeback appearance in Gameweek 30 and the end of the campaign.
It remains to be seen whether he can retain that role up front for the Eagles or, indeed, whether they can hold onto their prize asset amid reports of interest from the likes of champions Man City.
Marko Arnautovic
After an indifferent start to life at West Ham, midfielder Marko Arnautovic had two impressive spells as an effective differential from a Fantasy perspective. After David Moyes took over from Slaven Bilic, the Austrian was deployed as a striker, making his price of £6.9m a bargain.
Arnautovic’s first run of success was between Gameweek 16 to Gameweek 24 when he registered six goals and four assists, averaging 7.75 points per match. During that run, his ownership never eclipsed 12%, and it was under 10% for most of it.
After a few weeks out with a hamstring injury, Arnautovic was back, involved in seven goals in his final eight matches of the season. Between Gameweek 32 and 38 he has as many shots on goal as Salah (26) and proving more accurate than any other FPL midfielder (11 on target) over that time too.
Pascal Gross
Brighton’s summer signing offered incredible value this season (27.8), with only Salah bettering it among midfielders. A total of 164 points from a starting price of £5.5m was hugely satisfying for those who owned the Brighton man in 2017/18.
After a quiet few opening weeks, Gross exploded onto the scene with an 18-point haul in Gameweek 4, registering two goals and an assist in a 3-1 win over West Brom. While some thought he was just a flash in the pan, 188,139 Fantasy managers made the smart decision to sign him for Gameweek 5. He rewarded them immediately with an assist and a bonus point in the 2-1 away defeat to Bournemouth and remained a shrewd investment for some time.
Between Gameweek 4 and 12 Gross scored or assisted in six matches from a possible nine, rising in price to £5.9m. A particularly memorable moment was picking up maximum bonus points despite not being involved in a goal during a 1-0 defeat to Man United at Old Trafford.
The German experienced something of a hiatus from the FPL spotlight between Gameweek 14 to 25, where he provided just one attacking return. But a goal and an assist in the 3-1 win over West Ham in Gameweek 26 triggered a rush to buy him back. Over 1,000,000 FPL managers owned Gross between then and season’s end and were rewarded with an average of 4.38 points per match.
Jesse Lingard
It was a break-out season for Jesse Lingard in 2017/18 recording a personal best FPL score of 128 points, which is 52 better than his previous top total. Starting the campaign priced at £6.0m, and looking likely to be an impact sub at Man United, he was far away from anyone’s Fantasy plans.
In Gameweek 14 Lingard turned our heads by scoring 12 points from a goal, assist and two bonus in a 4-2 win at Watford. It was just his second start of the season, making him a risky option still. A place in the team not yet guaranteed, his ownership remained in the region of 14,000 Fantasy managers until he started again the following week and scored twice against Arsenal to bring in 15 points.
Between Gameweek 14 and 22 he featured from the beginning in all but one of the nine matches, scoring or assisting in six of them for an average of 7.78 points. That boosted Lingard’s price from £5.8m to £6.1m and encouraged an increase in ownership by 577,079. It was perfect timing from a Fantasy perspective as this run came soon after fellow budget midfielder Gross, similarly priced, dropped off in terms of output.
Luka Milivojevic
In a season where very few bargain-bin strikers warranted a place in our squads, Luka Milivojevic became the budget enabler we all sorely needed. It is very rare that a midfielder who began the campaign at £5.0m ends the season involved in 12 goals for his team, his set-piece responsibilities at Crystal Palace paving the way for 144 FPL points.
Only Gross and Salah offered better value than the Serbian international across the season, excelling particularly after Gameweek 22. Between then and the end of the season, only Liverpool’s Golden Boot winner (15) scored more goals than Milivojevic (seven) among midfielders. He was helped by the exploits of Zaha who won 33 fouls during the Palace captain’s purple patch, third only to Hazard and Alli.
That run of form saw Milivojevic’s price rise to £5.2m, with an ownership of 13.5%, suggesting he could be valued around the £6.0m mark next season.
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