Welcome back for another article

Next up in the pre-season series we're taking a look at the best budget picks in the game. This is THE budget players guide. Every team needs cheap enablers to allow for more expensive players elsewhere. You must have at least 1 or 2 of these players.

Last season's success stories included the likes Mukiele with a 17 pointer and Rodon 13 pointer. Who are this season's budget gems that we can all benefit from? I've gone through all the super cheap players in the game to identify the best ones to save you the trouble.

So let's break it down nice and simple by position, let's do the 4m defenders first because there's some fantastic options and we'll look at the underlying data. What we'll do is split it out, centre backs and full backs.

Centre backs are a more reliable source of points in terms of defensive contributions, albeit just +2 points if they have 10 contributions in a game. Fullbacks can of course get defcon points too, but typically get fewer. However the fullbacks got a slight buff this season because they're not punished -1 bps for getting tackled anymore, and defenders need more defcons to gain bonus. So there is some balancing at play this season. My preference is the centre backs because promoted teams are going to have to defend a lot, last season the promoted team centre backs generally were better.

That aside if you look at the top scoring defenders the top 5 are all centre backs.

Who are the best budget defenders?

• So the players from Coventry are Thomas and Van Ewijk.

• From Ipswich Diop, O'Shea and Davis.

• From Hull Hughes, Egan and Giles.

There are other defenders for these teams obviously, however I've left them out because they're not as solid picks as these.

Who's the best defence first of all?

Coventry conceded the fewest goals with 45, Ipswich conceded 47, Hull 66.

As far as xG conceded Ipswich were top of the 3 with 46.6 xGC, then Coventry with 50.2 xGC, and shockingly Hull were 2nd worst in the league for expected goals conceded with 80.1. So the takeaway is that Hull's defence was significantly worse than the other two. Coventry and Ipswich both kept 17 clean sheets, Hull kept 11.

So the Hull CBs were by ar the busiest in terms of defensive contributions per game, 11.8 per 90 for Hughes is top of all defenders here. Only 22 years old and won their young player of the year the last 2 seasons. They may massively struggle for clean sheets though, so I would look at a Coventry or Ipswich defender. Down to preference but my favourite is Thomas.

Van Ewijk, Davis and Giles put up good attacking numbers but were very poor for defcon.

Let's take a look at a table comparing them all. Centre backs at the top, full backs bottom. 7 goal involvements for Thomas in CB, with 8.6 defensive contributions per 90, we can predict that to be more this season facing better oppositions. Diop got limited minutes it's worth noting, at Fulham. Though he was first choice for Morocco at the world cup and is a really good signing for Ipswich. O'Shea managed 8.7 defcons per 90, played 46 games as well.

The fullbacks offer good attacking numbers, Van Ewijk registered 9 assists for Coventry, just 6.4 defcons per 90. Davis and Giles even worse for defcons so they will probably very rarely get you those points, but 7 goal involvements for Davis, 2 goals 5 asssits. Giles didn't score but registered 8 assists.

Which defender is your favourite?

How many of these should you own in your team?

2 at a maximum, and if you own 2 then you need your other 3 defenders to be really solid picks. It's great having these budget players available since they let us afford big names elsewhere, but they are cheap for a reason and should be used sparingly.

Lastly let's take a look and compare the fixtures, whereabouts can we use them?

This is just the fixture ticker tool on fpl.page or in the FPL Focal app, let's remove all other teams so we can just compare these 3. And let's look at a longer gameweek range, the plan isn't to sell 4m defenders they are long term holds so let's try the first 8 gameweeks.

Ticker: https://fpl.page/fixture-ticker

So Ipswich defenders are startable in GW1 home to Sunderland, Coventry in GW2 home to Hull. You could get away with playing a Coventry defender playing home in GW4, 6 and 8 depending on how convincing they look as well. Ipswich have a few grey fixtures plus Fulham home.

Just having a look at rotations, Ipswich goes nicely with Spurs and Man Utd so Van Hecke or Shaw and Diop for example. For Hull they pair well with Crystal Palace, perhaps Canvot, Man Utd also work well there.

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Let's have a look at the goalkeepers

Currently there are no 4m keepers that will play and it looks unlikely we'll get any, so it's not like last season where Dubravka was the default pick.

Should you rotate goalkeepers?

It can definitely work, but as a word of warning what can often happen is you'll bench one of your keepers in a more difficult game, they'll keep a surprise clean sheet, which happens every gameweek for some teams, and they'll make a load of saves, get some bonus and you've benched a 9 pointer with a 2 pointer in your starting 11.

So after many years playing the game I always have a 4m bench keeper, whether they will even play or not. The only risk is if your starting keeper gets injured you'll need to spend a transfer there, but keeper transfers are generally rare.

So Verbruggen, Kinsky, Leno and Petrovic is the shortlist, all 4.5m.

And we've got the projected clean sheet data below, where Verbruggen is marginally top over the opening 8 gameweeks, then Leno, then Kinsky, then Perri, then Petrovic. How horrendous is that Bournemouth keeper by the way, what were they thinking with the main kit and keeper kit this season? Maybe that alone is a reason to avoid Petrovic so you don't have to look at that atrocity every week.

Projections: https://fpl.page/projections

Looking at which teams were the best defences last season, Arsenal were absolutely miles ahead unsurprisingly with 28.3 xGC, then City, Liverpool, Man Utd. As far as these cheap keepers ranking, it goes Verbruggen, Kinsky, Leno, Perri, Petrovic. So Verbruggen is a winner in a couple categories. Data table here is from Fantasy Football Scout, go to https://s.id/FPLFocal to become a member and access all my data tables!

Something that is worth noting is that De Zerbi took charge of Spurs in GW32 last season, and from then until the end of the season they ranked best in the entire league for expected goals conceded with 5.6 xGC. That is seriously impressive, they only conceded 10 big chances, also fewest of all teams. Add the fact that they've bolstered their squad heavily this window, Kinsky could be a sleeper pick for 4.5m

So, looking at the midfielders and forwards.

There's a significant lack of 4.5m and 5m, even 5.5m mids this season. We've been spoiled with the likes of Anderson and Rogers in recent years for 5m. Slater is a 4.5m mid playing for Hull, occasional defcon, just 5.5 per 90. Not nailed but might be the best bet right now if you really need a 4.5m mid.35 starts, 42 appearances last season, 2 goals, and provided 2 assists.

Gomes and Gross are two potential 5.5m mids to look at, Gomes very much a defcon pick, averaged about 12 defcons per 90, card magnet as well with 10 yellows. 3 goal involvements. Gross is the heartbeat of Brighton, his playstyle suits the bonus points system very well, so those games where he gets an assist he can be on for bonus easily. 7 goal involvements in 18 starts last season. Garner and Ndiaye are both valid 6m options, Garner is more of a defcon pick, he was one of the best in the league in that metric last season among mids and chipped in with a few returns as he has some set piece share, Garner averaged 1.1 DC points per start and Anderson was the only mid who could better that. So his floor is 3 points really, or 4 when keeping a clean sheet. Do not underrate defcon, it's a powerful mechanic.

Ndiaye actually didn't do too badly either but you're hoping for goal involvements with him. He's on pens, can be very streaky. Can put in a world class performance and go missing the next 5 games. Fernandes is a really interesting pick to me, only 22, signed for huge money and managed 7 goal involvements for West Ham last season, 135 points and will probably improve on that this season. Absolutely tireless player, he averaged 0.9 extra defcon points per game, same as Gomes by the way. I think he'll be worth the extra 0.5m if you can find it.

There is Schade for 6m, though they've signed Anthony and he needs to show more form to get consistent starts and good minutes. Caicedo is worth a mention for 5.5m as well, what will this Chelsea team look like under Alonso? He could be a beast, probably more of a defcon pick with the occasional worldie as we've seen before from him. A fair share of yellows. There's Wilson as well who has joined Leeds on a free transfer, was brilliant for Fulham last season, if he can carry that over to his new club he'll be a top pick. New signings are always a question mark but he has shown he can do it in the Prem.

Lastly a quick review of the budget forwards. Who is this season's Thiago? 22 goals from 6m!?

It's slim pickings as far as the 5.5m and below forwards, pretty uninspiring list, Georginio probably the best of the bunch, Coventry have got Thomas-Asante, Wright and Simms but when it comes to 5m and 5.5m forwards you're better off finding a way to get the extra money.

Igor Jesus has 2 goals in 2 pre-season friendlies so far. 6 goals 6 assists in his first season, Wood is getting on a bit so he could be set to improve on those numbers. Calvert-Lewin is the top scoring 6m forward and probably the best choice, 142 points, on pens, 90 minutes every game. Welbeck had his best goalscoring season last year with 13 goals, he's 35 though and I'd go elsewhere. Evanilson just isn't a great goalscorer, that's not really his game, 6 goals 7 assists last season.

Brobbey is worth looking at for 6m, the first half of the season he barely played, but did much better second half the season once he was getting the minutes, 5 goals 1 assist in 17 games.

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