With Gameweek 4 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) nearing, we’ll be getting some top insight from our team of pundits and Hall of Famers.
Here, three-time top 200 finisher Lateriser discusses the best replacements for Ismaila Sarr (£6.5m), who suffered a grade two hamstring tear in Gameweek 3 and has since withdrawn from international duty.
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SEASON SO FAR
I am surprisingly calm regarding the start I’ve had in FPL, which has been just about alright. I guess that comes with playing this game for a ridiculously long time and just enjoying the pricing and variance in the game this season.
I’ve had my fair share of bad luck as well as good jam so far. I had Cole Palmer (£10.4m) as my captain in Gameweek 2, and I am confident that it would have been a monster haul given how Chelsea dismantled West Ham United. But I also had Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) as my five-point vice-captain and a Pedro Porro (£5.6m) five-pointer auto-subbing in, so not much damage was done. That said, there was definitely a higher points ceiling I missed out on, in my opinion.
In Gameweek 3, my captain Matheus Cunha (£8.1m) got injured after playing just 30 minutes, but I also had Patrick Dorgu (£4.5m), who didn’t play a minute, and I got Daniel Munoz’s (£5.5m) nine-pointer as an auto-sub instead. Again, I missed out on a high-ceiling captain (we had 25+ shots!) but had my share of good luck too.
All I really want now in FPL is for my captain to play 30+ minutes and my transfer-ins not to get immediately injured. I’m trying to be more patient in FPL this year and use transfers in branches of 2-3 instead of single ones, as I’ve come to the conclusion they are more potent when used in clusters. Obviously, the FPL Gods haven’t allowed me to do that, and both my transfer ins last week, Cunha and Sarr, currently have injury-based question marks around them (it was Palmer the week before).
It is what it is, and one thing FPL has taught me (to be implemented in life as well) is to control the controllables and keep looking forward. It looks like Cunha’s injury isn’t too serious and he might just miss the Manchester City game (if at all), but we’ll have more clarity when Ruben Amorim talks to the media later this week.
Sarr, on the other hand, has a grade two hamstring tear and could be out for a while. I am of the mind to replace Sarr and have been scouring the midfielders available. I’ve looked at a wide variety, and these are my thoughts at the moment. For context, I am not set on a Gameweek 13 wildcard, and I’m open to a Wildcard sooner. I also want to transfer in Erling Haaland (£14.1m) in Gameweek 6, so I don’t want to spend too much on a replacement. Let’s talk about the wide variety of players currently on my mind.
ANTOINE SEMENYO
As of Sunday, he’s the likeliest to come into my midfield. I have my doubts and scepticism about Antoine Semenyo (£7.4m) because the variety of possibilities for a pick like him is very wide, because he’s got a very high ceiling, but he’s also capable of looking better in real life than he is as an FPL asset, sometimes flattering to deceive.
He’s started the season on fire and is looking like he’s playing on steroids. My initial worry with him is that while he tends to fall into some big chances, they’re mainly on transition and his starting position is quite wide. I did notice that due to the narrowed pitch at the Vitality Stadium, he does tend to come centrally a lot more often and is more involved. I also worry about his shooting technique a little because he does have a tendency to scuff/sky them.
That said, he just looks like he’s gone up a level this season with a lot more big chances compared to potshots from unsustainable positions. Only Haaland has more shots in the box and big chances than him so far this season, so I’m slowly beginning to get convinced. I also looked into the Vitality Stadium feeling, and it did check out. When I filtered his performances last season by non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI), his highest NPxGI hauls were at home, as you can see below, including nine of the top 10.
This really turned my head and substantiated what I see with the eye-test, which is basically that he’s a home beast and comes a lot more central due to the narrow nature of the Vitality Stadium. He has home games against Newcastle United (his best NPxGI performance last season), Brighton and Hove Albion, Fulham and Nottingham Forest in his next four home fixtures. All four are decent defences, but it helps that Bournemouth are playing at home. It also helps that Bournemouth are a little bit Klopp-Liverpool in the sense that they start the season much better than they finish due to the physical demands of Andoni Iraola. Semenyo is also a 90-minute monster.
BRYAN MBEUMO
Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m) has had a good start to the season and is actually the outlet ball for Manchester United in transition moments. He’s got the highest NPxGI amongst all midfielders so far and takes (really good) set pieces from one side of the pitch (we’ve gotten very decent at offensive corners from his side). The next two games being against Manchester City and Chelsea really suit him as the transition outlet for United, and I do expect him to do well for a long time. He’s got enticing games against Brentford and Sunderland after. I already own Cunha, so I’m a little wary about owning two United midfielders.
CODY GAKPO
If I was in the market for a short-term punt, Cody Gakpo (£7.7m) would be high up my list as he’s a flat track bully of sorts and an output merchant. I already own Salah and Florian Wirtz (£8.4m), who I think is going to do really well in high possession games against low blocks, so I might go in this direction if I am definitely Wildcarding in Gameweek 6 because his minutes look a bit sketchy in the long term.
MORGAN ROGERS/HARVEY ELLIOTT
A part of me looks at the fixtures for Aston Villa and thinks Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) is the perfect ‘buy the stock when low’ pick. I trust Unai Emery to sort it out, and with the obliging fixtures coming up (eve, sun, FUL, BUR), he definitely looks like he could be involved, provided Villa sort it out.
FFScout’s article on Harvey Eliott (£5.4m) really impressed me as some numbers jumped off the page, including three goals in five appearances in the Champions League and five goals in the European U21 Championship, where he was player of the tournament. He also had three goals and nine assists in Klopp’s last season in 11 starts and 23 sub appearances. The problem is there’s no way to know whether Emery will immediately throw Eliott into the mix (which he should in my opinion).
EVERTON MIDFIELDERS
There is an excellent article on them here, which I recommend reading. Due to some tough upcoming fixtures, though, they fall into long-term picks for me. The heart says Jack Grealish (£6.7m) on this one, but the head says Iliman Ndiaye (£6.5m) will be the output merchant, especially with penalties, but I am a little spooked by that 63rd-minute sub in the Brighton game with Carlos Alcaraz (£5.4m) and Dwight McNeil (£5.8m) as bench options.
LUCAS PAQUETA
‘Paq10’, as we like to call him on our Discord, is the £5.9m Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m), and he ticks a lot of boxes. Playing No 10 in a team that could be improving soon, on penalties, good for defensive contributions (DefCon) and is genuinely a really good player who’s had a release of pressure taken off him. He even scored for Brazil during the international break. His short-term fixtures aren’t the best, though, so he’s one I would consider if I were Wildcarding Gameweek 13. He’s definitely going to offer a lot of value at his price, which is really cheap.
YEREMY PINO/XAVI SIMONS
Scout have done excellent articles on both Yeremy Pino (£6.0m) and Xavi Simons (£7.0m).
What stood out to me was the fact that Pino produced three of his four goals and three of his eight assists for the 2024/25 season in his final seven top-flight appearances. He looked bright in his cameo against Aston Villa as well, but with slight doubts about his fitness, his minutes are a worry. If he’s cleared fit, he’s a great short-term punt with Sunderland and West Ham next. If you’re on a Gameweek 6-7 Wildcard, he’s an enticing option.
With Simons, we don’t quite yet know who the best picks at Tottenham Hotspur are going to be, and with Europe upcoming, this is a wait-and-watch for me. But he is a quality player who Thomas Frank likes:
“He’s a player who has proved his ability over the years to provide goals and assists from both the 10 position and the left wing, Xavi can play in both positions.” – Thomas Frank
Simons being a 10G/10A sort of player in that Spurs team would mean he will offer a lot of value, and I expect him to be on a fair share of set-pieces as well.
OTHERS
Eberechi Eze (£7.5m) is somebody we’re all interested in, and we know what he’s capable of. I do think though that with their upcoming fixtures, which involve games against Forest, Manchester City and Newcastle United in the next three, we can take our time to watch and assess this one before jumping in.
A player who had my considerable interest until the time Eddie Howe spooked me with his line-up against Leeds United is Anthony Elanga (£7.0m). I do think he’ll be a decent option this season, but given the risks right now, he’s just a wait-and-watch.
One that has flown under the radar in my opinion is Yankuba Minteh (£5.9m). He does get into a lot of good positions in games and has a similar trajectory to Semenyo in terms of a potential breakthrough season. But the fixtures aren’t easy for now and Brighton have a lot of attackers. He should just be on our Watchlists at the moment as a result.
As things stand, the four that I am considering are Semenyo, Rogers, Ndiaye and Mbeumo, with Semenyo the likeliest transfer in. I still haven’t fully made up my mind, though.
