Possible Picks - 2026 [Pt. 2]

 

Following on from yesterday's post on the most promising goalkeeper and defender picks for the season ahead, I'll now try to provide a survey of the best prospects in midfield and attack. 

Midfielders

Bruno Fernandes is by far the most popular midfield pick at the moment, with an ownership of very nearly 50% - despite his eye-watering price-tag of 12 million pounds. Although there's not enough 'budget pressure' this year to make him strictly unaffordable, my feeling is that he's not 'worth' that price, when there are several others in that position who might do nearly as well as him for 4 or 5 million less. I think he's unlikely to do quite as well as last year, and might come up shy of 200 points; he might again be the top midfield points-scorer, but it won't be by that much of a margin this year. It's non-ideal to take more than one player per club in any one position, so there's quite a lot of competiiton for a slot from Manchester United. I would favour Mbeumo, who is probably the most nailed starter and an out-and-out goalscorer. Cunha (a little incnosistent, and might be a minutes-risk), Diallo (will probably mostly get minutes off the bench) and Dorgu (unfortunately reclassified as a 'midfielder' this year, which greatly reduces his possible points return) might all be worth having when they enjoy a run of regular starts and a nice spell of form, but Mbeumo is the more promising long-term choice.

From Liverpool, it's a toss-up between Szoboszlai and Wirtz. It looks as if Szobo is going to be played a bit deeper this year, as a 'second pivot' alongside Gravenberch; but he'll still have plenty of opportunities to push forward into the attack when they enjoy sustained spells of possession, and he's a major threat from set-pieces. Wirtz, as an advanced '10' and occasional box-crasher, should be the more regular source of attacking returns, but many might still have doubts about his consistency after the difficulties he had settling in last year. A steady drip of extra points for 'defensive contributions' and bonus points might swing the dial in Szobo's favour; I think he'd certainly get the nod if he were the designated penalty-taker too, but I'd guess that's probably going to be Isak.

Arsenal's midfield isn't very attractive because it has become so unproductive in recent years: a scant 71 goals last year, and so many of those coming from scrums at corners. On the plus side, that is going to have to change this year - so, we might see substantially more goals from them this time, more goals from open play, more goals from midfield. However, at the start of the season, I think they're all a bit too much of an unknown quantity to be gambling on. The arrival of Bruno Guimaraes has created some selection uncertainty (I doubt very much if he'll be an immediate starter, but he's a great utility option: versatile enough to deputise ably for Rice, Zubimendi, or Odegaard, though not quite as good as any of them at their specialist styles of play); Odegaard was outstanding in the Community Shield, but has had two very subdued seasons, which is causing many to continue to doubt him (and even to question his future with the club - although I think that's nonsense); Rice isn't worth having for his defensive points alone (his season haul last year, though it ranked him as the 4th best midfielder, was not quite enough to merit long-term inclusion in an FPL squad, and probably wouldn't have been enough to put him in the Top 10 in most years); Tzolis has looked impressive in pre-season, but that may not count for anything, and there is a huge doubt over his minutes (the left-wing position is the only slot in the squad that's not fairly well nailed, so it has to be used to give minutes to most of the back-up players: not just Martinelli and Madueke and Jesus, but also potentially Eze and Havertz, on occasion). Saka is the only Arsenal attacking player who carries a really high points-threat, but... there's still a question-mark over his fitness, as he was only given a run-out for the last half-hour in the Community Shield on Sunday.

Palmer might be worth a punt at Chelsea; he is the best goalscoring playmaker in the league, but his confidence might be dented after a couple of very difficult seasons, and it might take a while for a new style of play to take shape under Alonso. Rogers is a wait-and-see; he has great potential, but is also worryingly inconsistent - goes 'quiet' for long periods; and he's not guaranteed an immediate start (they really need to sell Neto or Enzo Fernandez to make room for him). Estevao could be a tempting option, but probably only for short runs of games - when he hits hot form and/or the fixture run looks especially favourable.

Semenyo is the most popular option from City at the moment: I have doubts about his consistency of output - to me, he's always looked like a player who relishes the limelight, who wants the responsibility of being the prime creative force in the team; obviously that's not often going to be the case at City, and so, last season, he tended to blow hot and cold in his FPL returns. But he's probably worth gambling on, in case he starts the season hot. My preference would have been for Doku, but he's got a calf-strain and is a doubtful starter for the opening weekend. Cherki and Foden are too inconsistent, and too uncertain of regular minutes to gamble on for Gameweek 1, and no-one else at The Etihad is very tempting; Anderson, like Rice, isn't worth having for defensive points alone - and he won't get nearly as many of those at City as he did for Forest, anyway.

Gibbs-White is the other tempting option in the upper mid-price range, although Forest are again likely to be down in the bottom third, and his 8-million asking price this year is, I think, just a little bit excessive. Things might take a while to settle down under Glasner, and they have a lot of tricky fixtures over the opening few months. He has a 12% ownership at the moment, but for me he's another wait-and-see.

There's a huge amount of value to be found in the 5.5-6.5 price range this year: Schade, Ouattara, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter, and Janelt at Brentford, Tavernier, Rayan, and Kluivert at Bournemouth, Okafor, Aaronson, Wilson, Ampadu, and Stach at Leeds (a pity about the selection uncertainties this abundance of talent creates!), McGinn, Buendia, and - most excitingly, when he gets fit again - Manzambi at Villa, Le Fee and Talbi at Sunderland, Mitoma, Ayari, Hinshelwood, Gomez, and Gross at Brighton, Sarr and Pino at Palace, Kudus (although he's suffered a serious muscle injury this summer and looks set to be out for a while), Maddison, and Tel at Spurs, Ndiaye and Dewsbury-Hall at Everton, Iwobi and Smith Rowe at Fulham, Barnes or Ramsey, or perhaps the newly-arrived Bamba or Touré at Newcastle, Hudson-Odoi or Ndoye at Forest, and maybe, maybe even Tchaouna or Hamer of Coventry. I think everyone should be taking at least two or three of these. And it's quite possible that five or more of them will out-perform all the more expensive picks over the first few weeks of the season!

This wealth of talent at the budget end of the midfield category is the reason there's no acute 'budget pressure' this year. If we load up on these guys, we can easily afford at least two - perhaps even all three - of the 'super-premium' players. I just don't think that Gabriel and Bruno Fernandes are sufficiently compelling options.

Forwards

The big question in FPL at the moment is not so much whether we want Haaland (of course we do; however dodgy City's form might be under Maresca, especially early in the season, he's the only forward who looks clearly capable of getting well over 200 points, and he might even be able to reach 300 in a really good season; no-one else is anywhere near that potential) as whether we want him now. He only returned to training in the middle of last week, and was pulled off shy of the hour in Cardiff on Sunday (although that looked like it was prompted by an excess of caution, rather than because he was too tired to continue). I don't have too many concerns about his physical fitness, but I do think he might get short-ish minutes in the first games, and might take a little while to recover his full sharpness. I said last week that I don't like the risk of being caught out by a sudden price-rise on him if all the fence-sitters suddenly come in for him in a rush (his ownership level has already fallen back slightly to 70%, and might dip lower; it will jump back to 75-80% the moment he scores his first goal!); and I don't like the idea of committing transfers - possibly even the Wildcard - to the major squad restructuring (that would be required to bring him in) so early in the season. I think we just have to commit to him - or not - and accept that he might miss a game or two, or be well short of his best in the opening month.

The other big conundrum is whether Isak can regain his best form - and stay fit all season (he has been worryingly injury-prone all through his career). At least he's got no competition for a place at the moment, with Gakpo said to be heading out the door imminently and Ekitike facing a protracted rehabilitation after his Achilles injury in April. I would say Isak is certainly the strongest alternative to Haaland, if you want to try going without the big Viking - and probably the strongest second forward pick; although Thiago, Calvert-Lewin and Joao Pedro are currently more popular options. For me, the Brentford man is much the strongest of those three, although his early fixture run doesn't look that inviting. Joao Pedro is a brilliant player, but not an outright centre-forward; for me, he doesn't really seem to thrive in that role, and has blown very hot and cold during his difficult first season at Chelsea (indeed, I wouldn't be that surprised to see the club try to acquire a proper No. 9, and start using JP more as a '10'). Calvert-Lewin had his first decent season ever last year - and it still wasn't that great; he has a long history of being both physically and mentally fragile, very injury-prone and woefully inconsistent; and he's got fairly strong competition for the start in Nmecha and Piroe. For me, he's not even the best option at the 6.0 price-point: Brobbey, Osula, Rutter (though less appealing now that he's been categorised as a forward rather than a midfielder), Igor Jesus, Richarlison, and Evanilson all look much stronger picks to me (especially the first two: Brobbey was sensational at the World Cup, and surely now ought to be a nailed starter with Sunderland; and Osula finished the season so strongly with Newcastle that he too surely ought to be geting a sttled start now); and Solanke, if he could stay fit, and Wissa, if he could recover his best Brentford form, and perhaps also Fulham's Spanish youngster Gonzalo Garcia might also come into consideration at some point.

It's going to be a great season: anything could happen!

GOOD LUCK!!!