Fantasy Premier League: Five promoted players to consider for your FPL 2023-24 team
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Once Fantasy Premier League managers sign in, settle on a witty team name and find the prices of their most-anticipated players, attention turns to the promoted sides in the quest for bargains.
In each of the last six seasons, one of the trio has survived comfortably. Fulham’s 10th-placed finish of 2022-23 follows recent top-half successes for Leeds United, Sheffield United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
So FPL managers will be hoping that the next Patrick Bamford (194 points), Raul Jimenez (181), Stuart Dallas (171), Ivan Toney (139) or John Lundstram (144) is hiding in plain sight.
We’ve picked five players who came up from the English second tier, without the £4.0m options of Beyer, Baldock and Bell – not a law firm, this is a case of all three teams seemingly having a starting defender at the lowest possible FPL price.
While great to have as a budget-friendly substitute, neither Jordan Beyer, George Baldock nor Amari’i Bell scored more than once last season.
Carlton Morris (£5.5m)
Premier League debutants Luton Town will be fairly pleased with their opening run of fixtures, hosting West Ham United and Wolves by Gameweek 6. However, not since Huddersfield Town in 2016-17 has a promoted Championship team scored on fewer occasions.
No Luton midfielder exceeded three goals, so the 20 of forward Carlton Morris makes him their standout attacking threat. The 27-year-old had never scored more than eight league goals until last season but he’s found team-mates who play to his strengths.
It should also be his turn on penalties, having seen Cauley Woodrow (£4.5m) and Elijah Adebayo (£5.0m) miss their previous two efforts from 12 yards. Although Morris has been handed a cheap price, 6ft 4in striker partner Adebayo saves another £0.5m and notched eight goals himself.
Connor Roberts (£4.5m)
The Burnley right-back collected four goals and six assists. He shared these numbers with Ian Maatsen over on the left but, not only has the latter returned to parent club Chelsea, eight of Roberts’ ten contributions occurred after the World Cup break.
The Clarets kept 16 clean sheets from their final 26 matches and this helped them bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Such momentum makes them the likeliest team to emulate Fulham, Leeds and Wolves – having £4.5m coverage of their backline could be wise.
One drawback is that a Blank Gameweek 2 and Nottingham Forest (a) are surrounded by five early meetings with last season’s top eight.
READ: Newcastle, Sunderland, Burnley – what happened next for the best-ever Championship teams
Alfie Doughty (£4.5m)
The Hatters’ promotion was based more on their defence, where only Burnley were better for clean sheets and goals conceded.
What could convince FPL managers to invest the extra half-million in Alfie Doughty rather than Bell is that he’s a wing-back on set-piece duties. Two goals and five assists came in the last campaign, while he ranked first for accurate crosses per game (2.4).
This is part of Rob Edwards’ tactical plan to pump the ball towards his two strikers. Since the manager was appointed in November, no Luton player had more touches per 90 than wing-backs Doughty and Cody Drameh. Furthermore, Doughty’s shot rate of one per 76.2 minutes compares well to the best top-flight defenders.
Anel Ahmedhodzic (£4.5m)
Moving onto Sheffield United, they have a defender who may not be misclassified in the way that Lundstram was but he still notched six goals and two assists from 32 Championship starts.
Bought from Malmo, this former Nottingham Forest youngster isn’t an overlapping centre-back like the Chris Wilder days – he simply ventures forward and does his thing.
An added benefit is that the Blades joined Luton in conceding the second-fewest goals in the second tier, although be warned that the Bosnian international picked up 12 yellow cards.
What. A. Tackle. 🇧🇦
Anel Ahmedhodžić. Impeccable challenge. pic.twitter.com/97a5eRAfSA
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) December 26, 2022
Oliver McBurnie (£5.5m)
And finally, a forward that flopped last time and went over one and a half years without a league goal. Sounds good?
Well, top-scorer and Player of the Year Iliman Ndiaye is being heavily linked with a move away as he enters the final year of his contract. 14 goals and 10 assists originated from him. James McAtee, who scored on nine occasions, has also returned to Manchester City.
If he doesn’t return to Bramall Lane and suddenly becomes FPL’s most appealing £4.5m midfielder, the attacking recommendation lands at McBurnie by default. In fairness, the Scot ended up with 13 goals himself in 2022/23, his second-best campaign.
McBurnie at least has the fixtures to make a storming start when facing Crystal Palace (h), Nottingham Forest (a) and Everton (h) between Gameweeks 1 and 4.
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