It’s that time of the year again! Of course, we’re talking about the Fantasy Premier League, where everyone selects their go-to FPL forwards. So, it’s time to get the spreadsheets out (don’t worry, you’re not alone) and get noting down some of the cheaper picks from this season’s selection.
How to find Cheap FPL Forwards
Just like everything else worth doing in this world, it’s an art form.
For the newbies out there, the prices given to players directly correlate to the number of points the researchers believe they are going to amass by the end of the season.
Points are distributed in a number of ways, the most common and significant of which are: goals, assists, cards, clean sheets, chances created, game involvement etc. So, it stands to reason that regular goal-scorers and creators will be the money-maker – hence their inflated price.
Therefore, in order to ascertain value in the FPL forwards world, you basically need to speculate that a player will perform better than their perceived value – or at least, better than they did the previous year (which would impact their price). This list will go into 5 options with a wide variety of reasons to decide their price. Beginning with a player who many are surprised is cheap to start with!
Christopher Nkunku (£7.5m)
It promises to be a magnificent season of Premier League football – with so many teams adopting new-look attacking lineups compared to the previous years; Liverpool, Arsenal & United included.
But for painfully obvious reasons, Chelsea are going to be an intriguing watch this year.
In relation to the other FPL forwards on this list, Nkunku will be one of the few that will be arriving from a different league, so there’s always going to be that added risk of the unknown with a player like him.
Truth be told, even Chelsea fans needn’t look far to find a striker that promised much in FPL coming from abroad only to fall well beneath expectation. The names ‘Romelu Lukaku‘ and ‘Timo Werner‘ come to mind – and Nkunku will be coming from the exact same place as the latter!
In a team as large as Chelsea’s (though things are changing with this whole Saudi expansion), Nkunku’s versatility is going to hold him in good stead throughout the course of the season.
And with 31 G/A in 36 games last season, some of that must carry over? Surely!
Apparently, nearly 20% of the FPL community agree according to their site today.
Julian Alvarez (£6.5m)
Apparently, there’s another Manchester City player that most people are going to select this year, but he’ll cost something like £14m, so it might be a bit of a risk, who knows!
Meanwhile, World Cup winner Julian Alvarez is a fair addition to any FPL team.
As far as FPL forwards go, it’s worth mentioning that he might have to play out of position like he’d done for most of this season to make up for the monster that is his teammate, Erling Haaland.
But with injuries to Kevin de Bruyne coming more common, and that whole behind the striker needing a filler, Julian Alvarez suddenly becomes a worthy pick among the traditional FPL forwards. I’m sure he’ll be determined to add to his tally of 10 G/A in the Premier League last season.
That being said, more than 60% of his appearances in the league came off the substitutes’ bench – presumably to get him acclimated to the league and recover from the World Cup.
Well, he’s clearly good enough. A mid-season tournament won’t be an issue, and currently only 2% of players have decided to go for him, so…
João Pedro (£5.5m)
I’m personally gutted that my Manchester United didn’t go in for a player of Pedro’s ability.
Working off the back of three seasons graduating up to become a first team player with Watford, it’s easy to forget that he’s only 21 years old at the time of the season kicking off.
He hit double figures in the Championship last night in an underperforming Hornets side, but we saw a real breadth of his abilities in the second tier. Where his work in the build-up play and creative portion of the game has clearly improved since his earlier days in Hertfordshire.
This is an aspect of his game that may have been the deciding factor in moving to Brighton – who have been exhibiting a brilliant, expansive type of football under manager, Roberto Di Zerbi.
But considering the Seagulls’ evident lack of a clear striker in recent years, it’s easy to assume that Pedro will form the focal point of Di Zebra’s attack. Hoping for a lucky streak with injuries – which he has been so far in his career, Pedro could prove a snip at under £6.0m in the FPL forwards realm.
At the time of writing, only 4.1% of people have picked him! So it’s an opportunity, that’s for sure.
Folarin Balogun (£4.5m)
From the outside looking in (as a Manchester United, and not an Arsenal fan), I’ll be very surprised if Mikel Arteta wasn’t planning his season with Balogun at the forefront of his mind.
Thus far, their transfer activity has been tremendous in other areas of the pitch.
Beginning with the somewhat controversial move for ex-Chelsea forward Kai Havertz, if he were to be re-imagined as a midfielder in Arteta’s system, he could be a pretty decent pick-up himself. We will be doing a feature on midfielders here at Hobby FC, so clear here to stay tuned in for that.
Only days ago, they’ve confirmed a huge transfer for West Ham’s Declan Rice, and Fabrizio Romano has today confirmed that Jurrien Timber is on the way, too. Two midfielders and one defender.
With Gabriel Jesus only joining last year, one would think that he would stake a rightful claim to be the No.1 striker, and with the amount spent so far, few expect any further expenditure for another top striker. So, it’s going to be between Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun for that No.2 spot up front.
Nketiah filled in very well last season – and he featured in our article on the Topps UCL Living Set for that very reason. But 21 goals in 2 assists in Ligue Un last season might be too much to ignore.
Time will tell to see if it’s a risk worth taking. Which only 2.3% of players are doing so far with their selection of FPL forwards for the 2022/23 season…
Darwin Nuñez (£7.5m)
With a significant price drop of £1.5m from the beginning of last season, it hasn’t been the story many fans thought and hoped it would be for Darwin Nunez in a Liverpool shirt.
But because of that, it could make him one of the most modest FPL forwards of the year!
9 goals and 3 assists in 30 games isn’t an awful return, but given his record-breaking price tag of a package soaring north of £80m, it was pretty underwhelming. But then again, so were Liverpool!
Though the latter end of the season saw a huge uplift in form, fear among supporters grew that they might fall out of the higher European spaces altogether. As it turned out, they did fall our of the Champions League spots, but that hasn’t much affected their pull in the transfer market.
Not only did they somehow manage to pull off a brilliant £35m move for Brighton’s Alexis MacAllister, but they’ve also brought in the hotly-tipped Dominik Szoboszlai for almost twice that.
Most FPL forwards would dream of having two creators like that behind them, and Darwin Nunez is no different. So, if he’s able to get in ahead of the likes of Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo up front, then it could be a very fruitful season for the tireless forward in a Liverpool shirt.
At the time of writing, 6.6% of players agree with me. And I expect that to grow!
Summary
You’re going to change your FPL forwards a lot throughout the season.
Only in the days of Robin van Persie and Sergio Aguero would you probably be able to stick with two or more strikers and rest easy knowing that they were going to provide the goods for you.
But times have changed, and the Premier League has changed.
Rarely have we ever seen such a broad depth of quality in the forward positions, and it may need a bit of calculated risk and Haaland-shaped formality to get you ahead in your league.
Who did you end up picking and why?