Well, Erling Haaland thanks for breaking the game with that ridiculous 15.0m price – this has been the general sentiment in the FPL community since his price reveal. With him being an essential pick, many draft teams are struggling to get that third option in attack. But Southampton is bringing in that option as they’re on the verge of signing Sami Zayn.
Wait what? That was a running gag on FPL Twitter after the news of Ben Brereton DÃaz’s impending medical broke. An X user posted a picture of the WWE superstar with the name of Diaz in a price reveal meme. The price for the former Sheffield United striker showed £5.5m compared to his £5.0m last season. Diaz scored 6 goals and chipped in with an assist in the 14 games he played. That’s 0.43 goals per game, which is very good for a third-choice striker. Southampton are yet to make an official announcement about the new signing, so we’ll have to wait sometime before he shows up in the FPL search bar again.
Another interesting takeaway from the week is from the midfield position. Liverpool is transitioning from the Jurgen Klopp to the Arne Slot era. That raises questions about what system they are going with. Who’ll start? Where will they start and so on. Well, one answer seems pretty clear, and that is Dominik Szoboszlai will play as the No.10 in a 4-2-3-1.
The FPL community is already salivating at the prospect after the Hungarian scored the only goal during Liverpool’s friendly game against Betis.
At £6.5m, Szoboszlai looks an enticing option for those looking for a cheaper Liverpool cover. Szoboszlai’s eye for goal will certainly come in handy if deployed further forward on the pitch. In the 91 games he played for RB Leipzig, Szoboszlai had 41 goal involvements (20 goals + 21 assists). To have a better perspective of how impressive that is, a comparison with Martin Odegaard might be a fair starting point.
Focusing on league games only from the 2022/23 season to 2023/24 season, Odegaard has a G+A of 0.5 per 90. On the other hand, Szoboszlai has 0.63 in the same category, according to Fbref. So unleashing the 23-year-old higher up the pitch might be something Slot is already considering, which could only be good news for the FPL managers. Liverpool will open their fixtures against Ipswich away and Brentford home in the first two weeks, so avoid Szoboszlai at your own risk.
Another risk for you would be to trust defensive assets from Chelsea. In the two friendly games so far, they’ve conceded 6 goals, including a shambolic defensive performance against Celtic in the 1-4 loss.
New boss Enzo Maresca has a lot to ponder about cementing the gaping holes in the Chelsea defense. The bigger issue is that Chelsea allowed 12 shots from inside the box in the Celtic game with 11 of them finding the target. If not for Robert Sanchez, things could’ve been hideous and the FPL community fears it would be that ugly against Manchester City. The Blues will open their Prem season against the reigning champions with a fresh Haaland. The Norwegian is in scoring form as he has found the net 2 times already in two friendly games.
‘The first came from one bounce, we lose a duel and then we concede the goal. For sure, we are going to concede goals this season playing out from the back,’ Maresca said in the Wrexham post-match press conference. In the footage above, the same happened with Benoit Badiashile giving the ball away in his attempt to play it to Wesley Fofana. Reece James and Levy Colwill remain favourite picks for the managers due to their budget-friendly prices (5.0 and 4.5 respectively) but things like this will repeat throughout the season. So managers, steer clear of Chelsea defenders – you’ve been warned!
