It’s the very final article in our price-by-price, position-by-position Fantasy Premier League (FPL) series.
And it’s player pool that everyone is talking about… no, wait, it’s the £6.0m to £6.5m midfielders.
It’s not a vintage crop on paper but there could nevertheless be some gems lying hidden in plain sight.
MOHAMMED KUDUS (£6.5M)
Mohammed Kudus (£6.5m) flattered to deceive in his final year at West Ham but he’s looked reborn this summer, turning in some superb pre-season displays for his new club.
On set plays and impressing down the right (he even started through the middle in the Super Cup), he looks like being a key part of Thomas Frank’s set-up.
Nine attacking returns last season was poor but he actually improved on his underlying numbers from the previous stellar year, just failing to convert them into tangible FPL points:
| 2024/25 | 2023/24 | |
|---|---|---|
| FPL points | 106 | 137 |
| Goals + assists | 9 | 17 |
| Attempts | 75 | 67 |
| Shots on target | 21 | 17 |
| Big chances | 10 | 6 |
| Penalty area touches | 142 | 116 |
| Chances created | 31 | 28 |
| Big chances created | 4 | 5 |
| Expected goals (xG) | 6.90 | 5.14 |
| Expected goal involvement (xGI) | 9.60 | 8.81 |
You’d expect those numbers to go up in a side less plodding that West Ham’s, too.
As much as anything else, it’s the early fixtures.
Burnley at home is the stand-out match of Gameweek 1, while there are some really good games beyond the trip to Manchester City, too.
ILIMAN NDIAYE (£6.5M)
Iliman Ndiaye (£6.5m), we think, has the advantage of spot-kicks at Everton. He took and scored all three of the Toffees’ penalties last season.
Pens aside, he tends to get the better chances out of Everton’s wingers – as the below comparison with the now-at-risk-of-rotation Dwight McNeil (£6.0m) shows:
Above: The xG shotmaps of Ndiaye and McNeil last season, with bigger circles representing better chances. Green = goal
Occasional defensive contributions are a nice little bonus for Ndiaye, too: he’d have got 12 of those last season.
Jack Grealish‘s (£6.5m) arrival could be beneficial, as well, given his excellent creativity. That trademark short square pass across the box could be a boon for Ndiaye, who may dovetail with the new arrival in the ’10’, as could Grealish’s ability to draw fouls – could it lead to an extra penalty or two?
All in all, it should hopefully boost his output: Ndiaye only averaged a shot every 66 minutes in 2024/25, which was pretty poor in a wider context.
There is of course the slight nagging worry about minutes, with Everton now stocked with more attacking midfield options than before. There’d be further concern if the Toffees purchase a right-winger in the next fortnight, which would mean Ndiaye and Grealish could only be both accommodated in a 4-2-3-1 – not the 4-3-3 that Moyes has sometimes turned to in pre-season.
KAORU MITOMA (£6.5M)
While perhaps not as bad as his predecessors, Fabian Hurzeler does tend to tinker with his attack.
Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) is just about the most secure in normal circumstances: five of his eight benchings were his final five appearances of 2024/25 when he was suffering with heel issues. Another sub appearance came after an international break when he’d been away with Japan:
Assuming he’s over his injury woes, as the pre-season outings suggest, Mitoma is perhaps the most sensible medium-term Brighton midfield option.
With Simon Adingra (£5.5m) gone and Tommy Watson (£5.0m) a relative rookie and still to kick a ball for Albion, there really isn’t much competition on the left.
The Japanese winger hit 10 league goals in 2024/25, a tally that none of his teammates could better.
His minutes per expected goal involvement (xGI) was the best of any Brighton midfielder last season, too:
Georginio Rutter (£6.0m) has early-season ‘out of position’ potential up top. Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m) has looked sharped in pre-season and should start the campaign on the right. But just 20 starts for the latter underscores his relative insecurity, with Hurzeler fond of pointing out his deficiencies from time to time.
ISMAILA SARR (£6.5M)
Sarr’s appeal in this price tier can be summed up in two images.
First, he was top among all current £6.5m-and-under midfielders for big chances last season:
And, wouldn’t you know it, he was also first for big chances created (BCC) for others:
Unsurprisingly, that led him to having the best xGI figure (17.46) of any midfielder in this article – by quite some distance.
He’ll frustrate you at times, no doubt: he underachieved on the xGI front by -3.46 last season.
But in terms of the best underlying numbers, he’s a clear stand-out.
MIKKEL DAMSGAARD (£6.0M)
Mikkel Damsgaard (£6.0m) had a superb campaign last season, delivering 10 assists in his breakthrough year at Brentford.
With Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) gone, he should have even more control of set plays.
In terms of reliable Brentford attacking options (others may present themselves during the season), it’s the assist potential of Damsgaard versus the goal threat of Kevin Schade (£7.0m).
Schade actually racked up more open-play xG than Mbeumo last season, and averaged 5.0 points per start compared to Damsgaard’s 3.7 – although the Dane would have elevated that to 4.1 with defensive contributions.
Unlike a lot of the midfielders in this piece, he’s also pretty secure for starts – he was the Bees’ Player of the Year in 2024/25 and started 34 of Brentford’s final 36 fixtures. His only two benchings in that time seemed to be fatigue-led and came in three-game weeks.
THE LESS DESIRABLES?
INJURED
As we discussed in an article not long after the rule changes were announced, Rodri (£6.5m) could seriously benefit from defensive contributions (DC) points. In his last full season before injury, in 2023/24, he even supplemented that with 18 attacking returns.
Had DC points been around in that season, he’d been not far off 200 points in FPL. Remarkable for a defensive midfielder.
The problem is that he’s not as fit as we thought he would be. Pep Guardiola said recently that he’s not likely to be fully up to speed till after the September international break, so he’s a Fantasy non-starter for Gameweek 1.
Rodri’s teammate Mateo Kovacic (£6.0m), Brighton’s Solly March (£6.0m) and Spurs’ Dejan Kulusevski (£6.5m) also won’t be seen for a while.
SWITCHING PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS
You’ll most definitely want to avoid Dango Ouattara (£6.5m) in Gameweek 1, as he’s in the purgatory that exists between Brentford and Bournemouth (the M3?). He’ll consequently probably play for neither on the opening weekend.
He’s worth reassessing once he does make the move to west London, and it’ll be interesting to see how Keith Andrews utilises him in his new-look attack.
Jack Grealish (£6.5m) has already made his move to Everton, something we wrote about at length in the last few days. Long story short: he’s got some real potential once he settles in, especially if he’s more of a Villa-era talisman than another cog in the well-oiled Man City machine. But after no Club World Cup or pre-season friendly minutes, it’s probably worth seeing how fit he is first.
ROTATION RISKS
As a result of Grealish’s move, and with Everton repeatedly linked with right-wingers, it looks a bit bleak for Dwight McNeil (£6.0m), whose points-per-start average of 5.4 in 2024/25 was the third-best of the midfielders in this article.
Several names in this category are competing with similarly priced teammates for minutes and are rotation risks, so hard to recommend.
Estevao (£6.5m) and Jamie Gittens (£6.5m) seem to be tussling for one spot at Chelsea. The same with Jacob Murphy (£6.5m) and the higher priced Anthony Elanga (£7.0m) at Newcastle United. Harvey Barnes (£6.5m), meanwhile, will soon be grappling with Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) for one spot on the left – as soon as a striker arrives in the north-east.
Even Emile Smith Rowe (£6.0m) and Alex Iwobi (£6.5m) have occupied the same left-wing role in pre-season, with Josh King (£4.5m) shining in the hole. Callum Hudson-Odoi (£6.0m) and Dan Ndoye (£6.0m) are about to get more competition in the form of James McAtee (£5.5m) and Omari Hutchinson, too.
Above: Harvey Barnes was the leading £6.5m-and-under midfielder for minutes per xGI last season (min. 1000 minutes). He’s worthy of serious FPL consideration when given a run in the XI, as he was towards the back-end of last season when Anthony Gordon was injured, but right now, there’s too much competition – even more so with Jacob Ramsey (£5.5m) imminent.
Where do you start with Man City? Bernardo Silva (£6.5m), Jeremy Doku (£6.5m), Ilkay Gundogan (£6.5m) and Nico Gonzalez (£6.0m), as well as Rodri and Kovacic, can all be found in this tier. None of them made 30+ starts last season. None of them even reached double figures for attacking returns. Simply put, they just aren’t worth the headache.
Rayan Cherki (£6.5m) is someone who might be: an impressive showing against Palermo last weekend raised expectations a tad. Assists could flow, based on his time with Lyon. Nevertheless, after just one start in four games in the Club World Cup, it’s simply impossible to predict at this stage how much Pep Guardiola will use him on a week-to-week basis.
Elsewhere, Mathys Tel (£6.5m) isn’t assured of game-time at Spurs. Neither is Mikel Merino (£6.0m) at Arsenal after some central midfield summer arrivals. Mason Mount‘s (£6.0m) path to more minutes has just been made that bit harder with signing of three big-money attackers.
Federico Chiesa (£6.5m) and Hwang Hee-chan (£6.0m) are even more peripheral at Liverpool and Wolves.
It’s too soon to make a call on how integral Evann Guessand (£6.5m) is going to be at Villa, given that he’s only featured twice off the bench so far.
SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS
Alejandro Garnacho (£6.5m), Jadon Sancho (£6.0m) and Antony (£6.0m) are unwanted at Manchester United, while Christopher Nkunku‘s (£6.0m) future lies away from Chelsea.
NEITHER ONE THING NOR THE OTHER?
Joelinton (£6.0m) and Bruno Guimaraes (£6.5m) feature as ‘eights’ under Eddie Howe but they offer neither explosive attacking threat nor an abundance of DC points from those roles, and the fixtures make them even easier to ignore.
Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m) meanwhile has been shunted back to a deeper role in pre-season, where he’s potentially now competing with Alexis Mac Allister (£6.0m) instead of partnering him, thanks to the marquee summer signings further forward. Mac Allister, incidentally, got more DC points (20) in 2024/25 than any other £6.0m/£6.5m midfielder in this article.
James Ward-Prowse (£6.0m) is fresh from his worst FPL season in 12 years despite having set-piece duties at West Ham, while Tomas Soucek (£6.0m) isn’t even guaranteed a start – he was benched in the final pre-season friendly – despite a very decent nine goals in 2024/25. A rise to £6.0m kills his appeal further, especially as he rarely got DC points last season. And despite having penalties in his locker, Lucas Paqueta (£6.0m) has never scored more than four goals in a Premier League campaign. West Ham’s miserable attacking numbers don’t make for great reading, either.
Just when it looked like Enzo Fernandez (£6.5m) was to become a ’10’ again, he’s back in midfield against Milan in a more restrained role. He would have banked scant few DC points last season (six), too.
Declan Rice (£6.5m) used to be a ‘DEFCON’ monster at West Ham but no longer a ‘six’ or in a side that needs to defend, his DC offerings are more modest (18 in 2024/25). On set plays, he’s nevertheless vastly overachieved on the xGI front in recent seasons, when hitting double figures for attacking returns.
Finally, Youri Tielemans (£6.0m) was basically level with Rice last time out: 10 v 11 attacking returns, 18 v 18 DC points, 3.4 v 3.5 FPL points per game. He was pretty much nailed, too. Solid, not spectacular – which sums up the £6.0m-£6.5m price tier pretty well.
