Fantasy Premier League tips: The best 4m to 4.5m signings to ensure you can afford Salah AND Haaland
The countdown to the 2022/23 Premier League season is on and you have less than 24 hours to get your FPL teams in order.
Even at this late stage, there is still so much to decide and changes to be made as you try to get as many superstars in your team as possible. The big dilemma still facing people will be picking between Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland, priced at £13.0m and £11.5m respectively. But what if we told you that you could have both players in your squad ahead of the new season? And what if you could do it without hampering your squad?
Everyone knows how to accommodate big-money signings with a cheap player that will never get used, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are £4m and £4.5m options you could look to that are more likely to build up the points than others this season.
We’ve picked out a few below that should definitely be in consideration for your teams.
READ MORE:
- 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League: The goalkeepers to pick and who to avoid
- 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League: The defenders to pick and who to avoid
- 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League: The midfielders to pick and who to avoid
- 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League: The forwards to pick and who to avoid
- 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League: The best challenges to enhance your season
£4m
Neco Williams
Team: Nottingham Forest
Position: Defender
2021/22 points: 4
Neco Williams amassed four points in last season’s FPL but we can bank on him getting a lot more than that in 2022/23. Williams spent the second half of last season on loan in the Championship with Fulham as they pushed for the title and played 1,198 minutes, averaging 1.65 touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes. With two goals and two assists, Williams also got involved in the Fulham attack from an xG of 1.01 and xA of 1.73.
Now at Nottingham Forest, Williams will definitely get the game time that was missing at Liverpool, likely to feature heavily at right-wing-back if pre-season is anything to go by. He might not be your starting defender but he’s a decent option to come on to cover an injury without having to look to the transfer market.
Danny Ward
Team: Leicester City
Position: Goalkeeper
2021/22 points: 3
There aren’t actually many options for £4m players, restricted to goalkeepers and defenders. And normally for goalkeepers they will be the second or third-choice options, so aren’t really worth the points. Danny Ward was that last season, collecting just three points across the campaign as back-up to Kasper Schmeichel at Leicester City.
But now there’s a chance he could be No.1. Schmeichel has left Leicester to join Ligue 1 Nice and the Foxes haven’t brought in a new goalkeeper this summer (or any new players for that matter).
Brendan Rodgers is confident of Ward’s abilities though, hinting he could be first choice going forward.
“Danny Ward is an exceptional keeper. I’ve always said we’ve got a number one keeper there,” Rodgers said of Ward.
“He’s had some issues around his knee but that looks to be behind him now, he’s been training well. He’s looked good. If Kasper is to go, he’s a big possibility for us.
“I worked with Danny and I knew his talent from Liverpool. He’s been really unfortunate here in that Kasper has never been injured. He’s been a really loyal and supportive number two.
“It’s a what-if scenario so if Kasper was to move on, we saw him [Ward] against Watford, how he comes for crosses, how he takes the ball. He can deal with the ball at his feet.”
£4.5m
Adam Forshaw
Team: Leeds United
Position: Midfielder
2021/22 points: 38
Things do get a little more expensive the higher you go up the pitch for finding value, so sometimes you want a cheap option that will purely get you minutes on the pitch. At least a point or two every matchweek. Of midfielders that cost £4.5m, only two players played more minutes than Adam Forshaw’s 1,526 in the Premier League last season (using FPL’s minutes). Billy Gilmour at the most with 1,852 but he is still at Chelsea right now and won’t get the same playing time as he did while on loan at Norwich City, while second-placed Jakub Moder is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury.
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Sam Greenwood
Team: Leeds United
Position: Forward
2021/22 points: 15
If you’ve got an FPL team there’s every chance that Sam Greenwood is in there, with the Leeds man picked by 24.9% of all players. But we’re here to back that decision up with some numbers. Greenwood only got 15 points in FPL last season but that was because he was a late breakthrough to the Leeds team, and he’s expected to play a bigger part this year. In his limited time on the pitch last season, Greenwood averaged 2.33 touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes and had 0.78 attempted shots from inside the box.
Halil Dervisoglu
Team: Brentford
Position: Forward
2021/22 points: N/A
Halil Dervisoglu is one of the new arrivals of the Premier League this season, coming from Galatasaray, so is a bit of an unknown quantity among English fans – which will also explain why he costs £4.5m on FPL. But he’s a decent option. In the Turkish Super Lig last season, Dervisoglu averaged 6.66 touches in the opposition box per 90 and attempted 2.16 shots from inside the area per 90. He also had an xG of 0.45 per 90, scoring 0.25 goals.
Malcolm Ebiowei
Team: Crystal Palace
Position: Midfielder
2021/22 points: N/A
Malcolm Ebiowei has “got enormous amount of ability,” according to Wayne Rooney who managed him at Derby County last season, with the former Manchester United striker adding: “he is not afraid to take players on, to get tackled, to make mistakes. So he has got a really bright future.”
In the Championship last season, Ebiowei had 0.26 xA but was a danger in the opposition box with 5.18 touches and 1.23 attempted shots. It will be interesting to see where he fits into Patrick Vieira’s system at Crystal Palace, and he could be the man to help you afford Salah and Haaland.
