FPL best midfielder picks: Gameweek 3 Budget, differential and premium tips

If you’re looking for tips for the best midfield options ahead of Gameweek 3, you’re in the right place.

Among the higher point-scorers in FPL are the players who pull the strings from the middle of the park, whether they excel in making or taking goals.

Our FPL rating system — Squawka Score — has been engineered to identify the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League, judging a player’s output per 90 minutes for a group of specifically selected stats.

What is the Squawka Score? You can learn more about how we devised our fantasy football ranking system here. 

If you think you can beat our FPL boffins, you can join the Squawka Challenge League here.

Best FPL midfielders
Top midfielder pick for Gameweek 3
Best cheap midfielders for Gameweek 3
Best midfielders with easy fixtures

Best FPL Midfielders

Here are the top 10 Premier League midfielders based on their FPL Squawka Score from the 2023 calendar year.

Top midfielder pick for Gameweek 3

Every week, we will bring you a Differential Duel to highlight a player who both ranks well according to our Squawka Score system and isn’t being picked by the vast majority of FPL managers.

We will then crunch the numbers and pit the chosen differential against a comparable asset who is proving popular — it is then on you to choose your fighter.

This week, we are comparing Aston Villa’s Moussa Diaby (9% ownership) and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford (44.8%).

A huge price difference of 2.4m is the biggest eyecatcher here, with Rashford costing 9m compared to the 6.6 that Diaby will currently remove from your budget. Digging a little deeper though, we can see that Rashford has massively underperformed so far this season, picking up just 5 points, half of the total that Diaby has put up for Villa this season.

Here’s how their stats compare on our Comparison Matrix. 

Best cheap midfielders for Gameweek 3

We all want to load up on premium picks, but your £100million budget must always be in the back of your mind.

This is where bargains come in handy to balance out your squad. Using our Squawka super computer, we have picked out some budget midfielders for consideration who fare best according to the key fantasy football metrics. Where a Squawka Score cannot be provided, players did not reach the minimum Premier League minutes threshold for the calendar year 2023. Scores will be available from Gameweek 6.

The best 4.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Shandon Baptiste, Brentford (23%)
2. Elliot Anderson, Newcastle (N/A)
3. Pape Sarr, Spurs (N/A)

The best 5.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Jacob Murphy, Newcastle (66%)
2. Alejandro Garnacho, Man United (56%)
3. Harvey Elliott, Liverpool (49%)

The best 5.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Julio Enciso, Brighton (71%)
2. Leon Bailey, Aston Villa (52%)
3. Willian, Fulham (48%)

The best 6.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Saïd Benrahma, West Ham (58%)
2. Morgan Gibbs-White, Nottingham Forest (49%)
3. Bruno Guimarães, Newcastle (38%)

 Best midfielders with easy fixtures

Is your midfield almost set and ready to go? Hold fire for a moment — we have only more factor for you to consider before submitting your team.

Below, using our Squawka Score system and the FPL’s official Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR), we have the identified the top selections from each of the Premier League clubs deemed to have an ‘easy’ fixture in Gameweek 3.

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