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 few 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% this week, 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 such a major squad restructuring (as 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 settled 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.

I initially forgot to mention Sesko and Gyokeres at all. I think they'll probably come into consideration at some point, but they're just too expensive to consider for the initial squad - given Sesko's unfortunate record of being repeatedly injured, and not trusted with a regular start even when fit last season, and Arsenal's unfortunate recent record of just not being very prolific goal-scorers.

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

GOOD LUCK!!!

Possible Picks - 2026 [Pt. 1]

I've always maintained on this blog that I will generally avoid giving direct recommendations for or against any specific player (and I certainly won't be sharing anything about my own squad; not in advance, anyway; maybe occasionally retrospectively, just to share a few 'war stories' for general enlightenment and mirth - and acknowledge my fallibility), but.... since The Big Kick-Off is finally drawing near again, everyone is becoming obsessed with polishing up their opening squads.... and casting around for additional sources of advice.

So, I'll attempt a brief-ish rundown of who I think are the players most worthy of consideration in each position.

Goalkeepers

David Raya is once again the runaway favourite in goal, with fully one-third of the 5.5 million managers who've signed up for the new season so far having picked him. I've said a number of times before that he - or indeed, any premium-priced keeper - is probably a bad pick. I've gone into particular detail with the Raya example - it having a lot to do with the pressure of club quota; that there are often other Arsenal players who'll probably give you more of a differential advantage than him; but at the start of the season, it applies to any keeper priced at 6.0 or higher; and arguably, this year, since so many of the keepers have been priced down, to the 5.5 options as well. (Raya might just about have been worth it last year, because his record-breaking number of clean sheets put him well ahead of the rest of the field by the end of the season. But that could not reasonably have been anticipated before the campaign started; and he only pulled out that gap with a remarkable run of 5 or 6 straight clean sheets near the end of the season; prior to that, he'd been mostly neck-and-neck with the other leading keepers, as I'd anticipated. Moreover, you'd usually expect that other players from a title-challenging team would give you a bigger advantage than the keeper; but none of Arsenal's attacking players were consistently productive for very long, and they suffered so much injury disruption in defence that only Gabriel posted a large number of starts at the back.) Now, Raya is an excellent goalkeeper; and he probably will end up as the top keeper in FPL again. (And perhaps once again Arsenal won't be a high-scoring enough team to make anyone else an attractive long-term selection from them, apart from a regularly-starting defender [or two!].) Even so, I fear 6.0 million is a bit too much to spend on a keeper at the start of the season. Later on, when you've grown your budget a bit, and a lot of the more premium-priced players have got injured or proved to be in disappointing form, you can splash out on a player like Raya; in the initial squad, when budget is a bit tight, it is rash, unnecessary. 

I am a firm believer that two good mid-price keepers, with effective rotation around their more difficult fixtures, will almost always - and often quite substantially - beat the top-price keepers, anyway. Here's the list of the home/away rotation pairings for the coming season (apparently not yet published in a single list on the Premier League's own site, so this is courtesy of Brentford FC's website!). However, it's often better to look at the likely fixture-difficulty (obviously, you're quite likely to take a battering from one of the top clubs even when you have 'home advantage'): AllAboutFPL has this useful list of the most promising fixture pairings through the early part of the season, along with some possible selections.

Kelleher/Henderson look probably the most appealing pairing just on the home/away rotation, although Roefs/Horníček (if he takes the start from Pope; many seem to think he will) and Sels/Rushworth might also be appealing, though considerably riskier, punts. However, Jamie Trafford is a very tempting option now that he's moved to Leeds, and he enjoys a rather fortuitous rotation with Brighton's Bart Verbruggen - who was outstanding for much of last season - with it being possible to avoid pitting either of them against a top four club until the end of January!

The alternative strategy you could try for the early part of the season (though I wouldn't recommend it, as it leaves you unable to deploy your Bench Boost chip at short notice; and it's almost certainly not going to produce as many points for you as a good rotation pair) is to save some money by relying on a sole keeper while taking the cheap back-up from his own club (so, at least you always have a guaranteed starter between the sticks if your primary ever misses a game for some reason): Kinsky/Dubravka is the popular selection under this heading, with 20% going for this pair (probably only because they're so cheap, at just 8.5 for the two of them!); but I'd prefer Verbruggen/Steele as a slightly stronger - um, less Spursy - option at the same low price; and Lammens/Darlow, or perhaps Roefs/Ellborg, would, I think be much better, if you can rake together another 1 million for the goalkeeper budget; although, for that money, you can get two starters, which is surely going to be the preferable option.

Defenders

I already said last week that although Gabriel will probably again be the best defender for FPL,... I just don't think you can justify spending 8 million on him. (Not at the start of the season, anyway. As with a premium keeper, you can usually more comfortably afford that sort of luxury in the second half of the season...) Moreover, I doubt if he can match last season's exceptional points total; I imagine he'll only be in the 170-190 range this time, which probably won't put him far ahead of the rest of the field. With Saliba likely to be out for a few months, after needing surgery on a troublesome back problem, Mosquera seems likely to be his regular replacement in the centre-back pairing, and at just 5.5 million, offers quite tempting value for some representation in Arsenal's formidable defence. Calafiori and White are also tempting at the moment at the same price, but both have been injury-prone in recent seasons, and have been strangely in-and-out of favour with their boss too; and they face competition for their starts from Timber (when he's fit again; should be less than a month?) and Hincapie - so, they both seem rather too risky to me for opening squad picks.

With unclear selection and significant rotation-risk, probably none of City's defenders should be in contention for selection just yet - even more so after they leaked like a sieve in the Community Shield game the other day! Once they find their feet under their new coach (I'm assuming they will...), Gvardiol will probably be worth having, especially if he starts regularly at left-back again. Nunes would probably have been my favoured City pick for the start of the season, but he picked up a muscle injury in the warm-up in Cardiff on Sunday, and might now be out for a few weeks.

Manchester United ended up with a pretty impressive defensive record last season; and of course, after Carrick took the reins in January, they were in fact the best team in the league over the remainder of the season. Shaw (very impressive last season, though linked with moves away this summer, as the club searched for a new left-back) and Maguire are currently the most popular picks from Old Trafford, though I'd be a little nervous about their age and injury record; Martinez (although he hasn't featured in pre-season, because of his late return from the World Cup) or Dalot would be my preferred options. It's a bummer, though, that Dorgu has been reclassified as a midfielder.

I think it will take Liverpool a while to adapt to Iraola's style of play, and that is likely to leave them often vulnerable on the counter-attack - so, their defence could at times suffer even worse than last year, at least in the early weeks of the season. Van Dijk is aging quickly, getting visibly slower and making far more mistakes over the last season or so; some of his defensive performance numbers were actually pretty terrible last year, but his FPL total was buoyed by an exceptional number of goals/assists, which isn't likely to be repeated (quite a few of them were very generously attributed to him in the first place; and improved defending and changes in the refereeing will probably mean we see far fewer of these melee goals this year). Jacquet looks promising, but it's a risk to go for new players in the initial squad; we should give him a few weeks to see how he beds in, and if he's getting a regular start. I suspect we'll want Kerkez, Frimpong, or Bradley at some point this season - but again, they're probably wait-and-see prospects at the moment. 

Likewise at Chelsea, James is too much of an injury-risk, Palestra looks promising but might not be assured of an immediate start, and everyone else is probably too much of a rotation risk. Colwill, if he's fully fit again, is probably the best option there at the moment. And while Villa should be comfortably in the top third again, they've rarely looked that consistent or convincing at the back under Emery; Cash, or perhaps Maatsen, if he's finally going to get a regular start, after Digne's departure, could be worth having at some point - but they're not ones to bet on in Gameweek 1; in fact, their early run of fixtures doesn't look all that amenable.

Palace and Bournemouth had very impressive defences last season, but they've again lost key members of their back-line - Lacroix to Chelsea and Senesi to Spurs - and there's a danger that they'll suffer a rocky transitional period under their new managers. With Palace, in particular, I fear there's a distinct chance they could slump towards the relegation zone this year. Daniel Munoz has been outstanding for them for the past couple of seasons, but is rumoured to be about to leave; FPL managers have just woken up to the fact that his left-wing counterpart Tyrick Mitchell returned almost identical points last year, but costs 1-million pounds less - so, he's proving a popular pick. But I think I'd avoid any Palace players for now. There are similar misgivings about Bournemouth, but I'm a bit more optimistic about the overall strength of their squad, and Marco Rose's compatibility with the existing style of play. Truffert is likely to be the best bet from them.

The Spurs defensive roster looks very impressive; but we just don't know what the preferred selection is going to be at the moment (unless they play a back-five, Senesi, Van Hecke, and Van de Ven can't all start regularly; even if they do play that system, Robertson and Davies are also in the mix as options for the left side of the central three), or how well it will work in practice. Porro is always a popular pick at the start of the season, but almost always disappoints those lofty expectations. There are so many changes going on at that club that I think it will take a while for things to settle down, and we'd probably do better to steer clear of them for the first few weeks, at least.

I'm hoping Sunderland can kick on from their tremendously impressive debut season (although playing in the Europa League will be a drain on them, and we're likely to see a dip in their Premier League performances following midweek European games). Alderete, Ballard, Reinildo and Mukiele were all worth having in spells last year; the latter is my particular favourite, for his attacking threat down the right flank - and his tremendous long-throws. Leeds also started to look much more robust in the second-half of the season, although they suffered a lot of injuries at the back which has made Farke's selection preferences there unclear. Rodon, Gudmundsson, or Bogle could be tempting budget picks.

Brighton and Brentford are both too inconsistent to be very attractive defensive options for me. Kadioglu or De Cuyper would be tempting, if they weren't competing for the same starting slot; Brentford's Michael Kayode is probably one of the more promising 4.5-million-pound options. Nottingham Forest, under Oliver Glasner, could bounce back from their chaotic 25-26 season, making any of their previously formidable back-line appealing again (and presumably there'll be five of them to choose from now!); but with Glasner liking to progress his full-backs into the attack quite often, Aina and Williams are likely to be the best options.

Livramento and Hall are two of the best full-backs in the league; but they've both been linked with moves away in this transfer window. And with Newcastle having already lost three of their best players this summer, there's a danger they could suffer a complete collapse - at least for a while, until Jaissle gets a grip on things.

Everton and Fulham, although they have some good defenders, are quite likely to be in relegation trouble this season, I fear; so, I'm hesitant about going in for any of them at the start of the season. Tarkowski was one of the top performers for 'defcon' points last year; and Branthwaite, if fully fit again, might be almost as good for half a million less; but they might have a bit of a torrid time in the first couple of months, with only two 'soft' fixtures in the first eight gameweeks.

I'm wary of going for anyone from the promoted clubs at the start of the season. Even if they do get their shit together and start making a decent fight to stay up, history tells us that this usually takes at least a few weeks, if not a few months. And picking one of their defenders just because they're cheap usually turns out to be a dangerous false economy; a defender who takes a battering every week can end up with an average points return below 2 per week - which is absolutely worthless. You will at some point, probably sooner rather than later, need to draw on your bench; and if you're going to spend money on a player, you should be spending the money for something rather than nothing, for some actual worthwhile points-potential. I'm sceptical as to whether any of this year's promoted trio will manage to survive, and I suspect only Coventry have a fighting chance. Thus, their 4.0-million-pound defensive options, centre-back Bobby Thomas and full-backs Milan van Ewijk and Luke Thomas, might be justifiable picks for an ultra low-cost 'budget enabler' - though, for me, very risky ones. They've probably only achieved their rather high early ownership levels of 8%, 14.5%, and just under 8% respectively because they face Hull in Gameweek 2.

So, that's it for the defensive half of the equation....

I'll try to get around to a 'Part Two' on the more attacking options tomorrow.