Rahul SahaThere is no other position in Fantasy Premier League that scores more points than midfielders. This is why most FPL managers spend more on their midfield than anywhere else. With the fact that many essentially play as a forward anyway, and the increased point-scoring potential of midfielders, selecting the right profile of players is paramount to success in the Fantasy Premier League.
Budget midfielders are very crucial if you are going for the likes of Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes, or Heung-Min Son. They can offer great value and be dark horses with bucket loads of points. Here we will be looking at players in the £4.5m – £6.0m price range.
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Based on ownership percentages the best budget midfielder picks are Stuart Dallas, Yves Bissouma, and Tomáš Sou?ek. And while some of them made the cut for our top picks, the fight for the other spots had some big names missing, partly due to the fact that they are just not good enough FPL assets. So let’s take a look at the Top 5 budget midfielders for FPL 21/22 season:
#5 Stuart Dallas (£5.5m) – Leeds United
The Leeds defender was FPL’s surprise performer last season. Dallas managed to outscore the likes of Trent-Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson. However, he did spend the majority of the season deployed in the midfield, which further boosted his attacking outputs.
Dallas managed to score eight Goals and provided three Assists last season as a defender, and will be deployed further up the pitch this season and can improve his attacking outputs as a result. If you like stats, last season his xG+A/90 was 0.17 with 1.27 Sh/90. And another positive for the managers is he played all the games for Leeds last season.
After a tricky first month where they’ll face the likes of MUN (A), EVE (H), BUR (A), LIV (H), Leeds’ fixtures open up quite nicely especially with NEW (A), WHU (H), WAT (H), and SOU (A) to follow. With Marcelo Bielsa’s free-flowing attacking football, the Yorkshire team should score plenty of goals and Stuart Dallas is expecting to be in the thick of the action.
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#4 Ismaila Sarr (£6.0m) – Watford
The Senegalese winger announced himself on the world stage when he tore apart a Liverpool side that were on a 32 games unbeaten streak and gunning to match Arsenal’s Invincible feat. Since then, Watford were relegated into the EFL Championship and Sarr, in his first full season at the Championship, had a great season out there.
With 13 Goals and 4 Assists, Sarr was easily Watford’s best player in their promotion campaign. The right-winger was Watford’s top scorer and their most dangerous man going forward. Sarr also had 2.2 Sh/90 and 1.2 Key passes/90, he also created 10 Big Chances and won five Penalties for his team.
Watford’s first seven fixtures look very good from the attacking point of view. They start their campaign with matches against AVL (H) and BHA (A), followed by an away trip to Spurs. For their next four fixtures, they have WOL (H), NOR (A), NEW (H) and LEE (A).
#3 Emile Smith Rowe (£5.5m) – Arsenal
Despite being just 21-year-old, it looks like the Arsenal hierarchy and Mikel Arteta have full faith in the abilities of their academy graduate by giving him the iconic #10 jersey this season. After establishing himself in the Arsenal playing XI post-Christmas, the Hale End product has gone from strength to strength.
In his 1438 mins last season, Smith Rowe chipped in with two Goals and five Assists. Moreover, it was the drive and spark he brought into the stale Arsenal side that speaks volumes of his potential in years to come. If he can double his playing minutes, we certainly can expect Smith Rowe to contribute with at least 15 goal contributions this season.
Although Arsenal face CHE (H), MCI (A) and TOT (H) in their first six fixtures. The Gunners and Smith Rowe, in particular, have shown that they can produce their best in big matches and a relatively moderate batch of fixtures in and around means Smith Rowe is one to watch out for.
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#2 Jack Harrison (£6.0m) – Leeds United
Harrison was a menace down the left-hand flank last season and was the best budget midfielder by a country mile. The 24-year-old had 18 goal involvements last season. He scored six Goals and provided 12 Assists, at a rate of one goal involvement every 158 minutes. The Leeds midfielder recorded 1.42 Sh/90 and 1.86 Key passes/90 as well.
Just a mere £0.5m more than teammate Stuart Dallas, Harrison is undoubtedly the more attacking option. With a goal involvement percentage of 48.1% and 10 Big Chances created, Harrison also has an xG/90 of 0.20 and xA/90 of 0.24.
Leeds do have a tricky opening set of fixtures and by Gameweek 5 it eases out a little, but that doesn’t mean Harrison won’t be in the thick of the action as evident from his last season’s exploits.
#1 Tomáš Sou?ek (£6.0m) – West Ham United
The Czech midfielder was another surprise package in Fantasy Premier League last season. Despite being the second pivot alongside Declan Rice, Sou?ek managed to score 10 Goals and provide two Assists in the Premier League.
Should he be making the same runs into the box as last season, and finishing as well as he did when the ball came to his feet, he could well replicate last season’s total. Sou?ek managed 147 points last season and it wasn’t a fluke either as his xG at 7.89 gives a fair reflection of things to come, with another 14 Chances created and 29 Headed Goals attempted, three of which went in.
Except for LEI (H), MUN (H) and TOT (H), West Ham have a relatively straightforward batch of fixtures in their first 10 league games. Games against NEW (A), CRY (H), SOU (A) and BRE (H) should offer plenty of points to the managers.
