Fantasy Premier League: The underpriced FPL bargain players of 2023-24

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Having looked into newly-promoted names and players that have changed position, it’s time to focus on Fantasy Premier League (FPL) bargains for the 2023/24 season.

The team at FPL Towers do a marvellous job at setting up the game, maintaining it and making it interesting. However, as human beings (we think), they sometimes accidentally give players an overly generous starting price.

By quickly identifying who these are, managers can have a strong start to mini-leagues and accelerate bragging rights over mates.

Here are a few names that we think are underpriced.

Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd) – £8.5m

With eight goals and nine assists helping the playmaker finish as the seventh-best FPL midfielder, it was a surprise to see a large price fall from £10.0m.

Rarely rested and seemingly on penalty duty, nobody created more chances than Fernandes last season (119). By surrounding him with new signings Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund, there’s a hope that such quality additions will provide better finishers for these chances.

As well as this, he ranked fourth for shots amongst midfielders. The Portuguese maestro has multiple strings to his bow and is backed to make a mockery of such a price tag.

🚨 #FPL PRICE REVEAL 💰 

⭕ Odegaard x Fernandes 👹 

Are either of these two a lock in your GW1 team? 🔐 pic.twitter.com/yl5E2xvfsg

— Fantasy Football Scout (@FFScout) July 3, 2023

Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) – £8.5m

One of six players to exceed 200 points last time, the only player to have more penalty area touches than Saka was Mohamed Salah. In fact, no other asset reached double-digit totals for both goals and assists like these two did.

Therefore, it’s strange that Saka’s price boost was so small. He and Arsenal team-mates Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli were split by a mere 14 points when Saka cost considerably more.

They’re now separated by just £0.5m, meaning managers may as well opt for the nailed-on starter who likely remains their penalty taker. That last point may need confirming though, seeing as Saka missed one in a recent friendly.

Gabriel Magalhaes (Arsenal) – £5.0m

Let’s stick with the Gunners, whose opening run of fixtures looks ripe for investment. Four of their first six games are at home, starting with last season’s worst travellers Nottingham Forest.

Centre-back Gabriel scored the joint-most goals from a Premier League defender last term, netting on three occasions. He also accumulated the leading expected goals (xG) tally with 5.08.

It feels harsh not to reward this with a higher price but the Brazilian somehow remains a £5.0m option. Grabbing a goal-scoring centre-back from one of the best defences is hard to resist, especially with such attractive early matches.

READ: Fantasy Premier League: Five promoted players to consider for your FPL 2023-24 team

Sven Botman (Newcastle United) – £4.5m

It’s not quite the same for Newcastle’s Dutch defender – a goalless 2022/23 alongside a nasty run of initial opponents. However, it should be noted that the Magpies have a fixture swing from Gameweek 5 that long-term planners may want to address now, rather than use a valuable future free transfer on.

That’s because Eddie Howe’s side conceded the joint-fewest goals of last season (33) and ranked joint-second for clean sheets (14). Furthermore, those stats seem disappointing when you see how things were after Gameweek 21. They were already on 12 successful shut-outs, having conceded just twice in 11 matches.

Despite the late regression, it’s still fair to state that Newcastle have one of the league’s best defences. To have a guaranteed route into that backline for just £4.5m is almost scandalous.

And particularly when he’s due a goal: no defender had more shots in the box (22) without scoring than Botman.

Destiny Udogie (Tottenham) – £4.5m

New Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has the incredibly attacking Pedro Porro at right-back and could prefer Destiny Udogie to be his starting left-back.

Priced cheaper than £5.0m Porro, we’ll need more clues that Udogie is favoured over the likes of Ivan Perisic, Sergio Reguilon and Ben Davies. If that happens, FPL has an exciting new name fresh from contributing three goals and four assists at Udinese last season.

The 20-year-old has already bagged a pre-season goal and the fixtures get juicy from Gameweek 3. It’s just the small, tiny problem of Spurs’ defensive incapability. Only five teams conceded more often and even 17th-placed Everton let in fewer.

Phil Foden (Man City) – £7.5m

Finally, the high-risk high-reward strategy of investing in Phil Foden. Of the 25 players who ended on at least 16 attacking returns, nobody did it in fewer minutes than the Man City midfielder’s 1,886. 

And that’s the problem. If Pep Guardiola decides to give Foden an extended run in his starting XI, we could have a phenomenal FPL asset at a bargain price of £7.5m. It was hinted at when he started the first ten games of last season, grabbing six goals and four assists, before randomly being benched for five of Pep’s next half-dozen. 

His 6.78 points per 90 rate was bettered by only four regular starters (a minimum of 15 starts) and optimistic managers may see the departures of Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan as a way of Foden finally being reliable. 

Possessing a second Man City attacker for their tasty opening matches could be needed, such will be the dominant ownership and captaincy of Erling Haaland.

READ NEXT: Fantasy Premier League: 11 players that have changed position for FPL 2023-24

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