Home » Fantasy Football Tips Pre Season Differentials For Fantasy Premier League 2016/17 Pre Season Differentials For Fantasy Premier League 2016/17

We’re finally back! Fantasy Premier League has been live for a week now and managers are already busy tinkering away with their lineups. Yet we can’t help but get the feeling that this season will be no ordinary season. There has been a huge influx of talent arriving in the Premier League and it looks like the days of every FPL manager owning the same 2-3 stars could be over.

With the number of premium players at our disposal, it has become rare to see two teams that look the same. But with the likes of Aguero, Payet and Zlatan still at the forefront of the conversation, it has given room for an abundance of vastly talented and established players to become differentials in your fantasy team.

Here are Sam Horbal’s top 10 players who have slipped under the radar for the 2016/17 season.

10) Jonathan Leko

Position: MID

Club: West Brom

Ownership: 1.0%.

FPL Price: £4.5m

It’s not often that we’ll hear about an exciting attacking prospect in a Tony Pulis team. Granted there was Saido Berahino, but we’ll get to him later. The player who is now on the rise for the baggies is right-winger Jonathan Leko. Leko was the first player born in 1999 to appear in the Premier League and made sure to impress on his short run at the end of the 2015/16 season. Leko started the last three matches of West Brom’s season and showed everyone that he was able to inject some creativity and excitement into a typically rigid Tony Pulis side.

Come the end of the season Tony Pulis had nothing but praise for starlet, yet the manager still decided to sign winger Matt Phillips during this hectic summer transfer window. Signing Phillips is enough to turn away most fantasy managers, but perhaps we should give that a second look before acting so quickly.

First off, Phillips hasn’t exactly been convincing. The Scottish winger was decent in the Championship last season, accumulating eight goals and five assists in 44 appearances. Phillips also had moderate success in the Premier League two years ago collecting three goals and eight assists, however, one of those goals and three of those assists came over a two game stretch. Secondly, the signing of Phillips doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t enough room in the starting 11 for Leko. Not only does Leko possess the ability to start over Phillips if need be, but Phillips also has the ability to play on the left where his only competition would be James McClean.

How exactly West Brom will exit from the tunnel August 13th is uncertain. But we do know that Pulis is not a fan of waste and has said that a loan-spell in the lower leagues is far more beneficial than playing in the U21 division. So if Pulis elects not to loan out Leko it would be a clear signal that the winger has a place in his manager’s plans for the upcoming season. With the high-ceiling and miniscule price tag that Leko carries, it would be difficult not to at least consider him for your fifth midfielder spot.

9) Jay Rodriguez

Position: MID

Club: Southampton

Ownership: 1.4%

FPL Price: £6.5m

Jay Rodriguez, seemingly the forgotten man at Southampton, finally has a chance to re-establish himself as a regular at Saint Mary’s Park. The Englishman was one of the breakout stars during Southampton’s incredible 2013/14 season, racking up 15 goals and three assists. Unfortunately his meteoric rise came crashing down when he suffered from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee. The injury kept him sidelined for the entirety of the 2014/15 season and stopped him from making a return to competitive football until August 2015.

Even when Rodriguez did finally return to the pitch, he was far from his best, suffered from nagging injuries and faced new competition from Graziano Pelle, Sadio Mane and Shane Long. The recovering Rodriguez was never quite able to get out from under the shadow of his new teammates and as a result spent most of his time playing as a late sub or not at all. However, Rodriguez may have a reason to smile this summer since Pelle left for China to chase money and Sadio Mane departed for Klopp’s Liverpool project. Pelle and Mane were the leading goal scorers for Southampton, as well as tied for the second most assists behind Tadic. This means the Saints will have to find a new source of goals and we don’t expect it to be Steven Davis.

Rodriguez has been given the green light to go ahead and reclaim his centre-forward role. He can play just behind Shane Long where he’d receive lots of excellent service from Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond. With a clear path back to the starting 11, and more importantly a path back to Premier League glory, Rodriguez can be back amongst the goals immediately. Priced at just £6.5m, Jay Rod could prove to be a bargain for your fantasy team.

8) Kevin Mirallas

Position: MID

Club: Everton

Ownership: 1.3%

FPL Price: £6.5m

Under Roberto Martinez, Kevin Mirallas was perhaps the most underutilized player in the Premier League for the past two seasons. The Belgian winger was only given 28 starting appearances over that time. He was thought to be benched due to his lack of defensive contribution, which is ironic considering no one contributed defensively in Martinez’s last season in charge.

Putting bitterness aside, Mirallas did start to receive more playing time towards the end of last season. Every time the winger stepped foot on the pitch he was absolutely electrifying. While Mirallas wasn’t necessarily rocketing up the goal or assist charts, he was always a threat to the opposition. He’s a menace on counter-attacks, he can score some beauties directly from free-kicks and he’s always up for a goal when he cuts in from the wing.

Luckily for Mirallas, new Everton manager Ronald Koeman already appears to be a fan of the midfielder. He’s been given plenty of minutes in Everton’s pre-season tour and scored a lovely free kick in their 3-0 victory against Barnsley. If Koeman’s time at Southampton is any indication, it is clear that the manager likes his wide-players to be heavily involved going forward. Assuming Aaron Lennon is relegated to the bench, Kevin Mirallas can create a formidable midfield trio with Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu. Mirallas has the ability to score plenty of goals and provide lots of assists if given consistent playing time.

7) Max Gradel

Position: MID

Club: Bournemouth

Ownership: 1%

FPL Price: £5.5m

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries appear to be a common theme on this list and they were even a more common theme throughout Bournemouth’s first Premier League campaign. Bournemouth lost three players to the injury throughout the season, one of them being Ivorian winger Max Gradel.

Gradel sustained his injury in late August and was fortunate enough to fully recover in time to rejoin his teammates come March. For all intents and purposes, Bournemouth were safe from relegation during the final stretch of the season, so Gradel was eased back into action. He would typically only receive about an hour of game time per match, but that didn’t stop him from showing some flashes of greatness. In less than 900 minutes of playing time last season, he still managed one goal and five assists.

As a man who scored 17 goals the season prior, we know that Gradel has the talent to become a fantasy star. He now has some Premier League experience under his belt, a fully recovered Callum Wilson filling the striker role and Jordan Ibe replacing Matt Ritchie. Eddie Howe has always promoted attacking football, so Gradel could slot right into a dangerous front three that will be hungry for goals. Whether he’s putting the goals in himself, or laying the ball off to his teammates, the fantasy return will be well worth the £5.5 million price tag.

6) Saido Berahino

Position: FWD

Club: West Brom

Ownership: 2.2%

FPL Price: £6.5

Woah! Hold on there! Before you keep scrolling down give us a chance to explain myself a bit.

Now we know Berahino’s antics and behavior last season has been more than enough to ruin his reputation, but we’re not ready to give up on the English striker just yet. After a move to Tottenham fell through last summer, Berahino came out publicly and said, “I can officially say I’ll never play (for) Jeremy Peace” – not the best thing to say about the sitting chairman.

Berahino was benched for his comments, and for a time looked as if he’d never play another game for West Brom. However, as the season went on Berahino grew restless and eventually apologized for his actions. He started to receive pockets of playing time, but it never appeared as if his head was really in the game. We know we’re not really selling Berahino right now, but we’ll get there…

There are two reasons why we’re excited about Berahino this season:

We don’t think Berahino will be a West Brom player come the beginning of the season. It’s rumoured that he is at the centre of a bidding war between Stoke City and Crystal Palace, but West Brom are waiting to secure the services of another striker before they let Berahino go. He’s a year older and a little more mature. One can hope that last season serves as a lesson to Berahino. His value dropped, he wasn’t playing regular football and when the camera was on him it was of him looking miserable on the bench. However, West Brom’s preseason match against PSG even showed some signs of progress for the striker. His work rate never dropped, he provided excellent width (one of his crosses was turned in as an own-goal by David Luiz) and he came close to scoring a few times himself.

So even if Berahino doesn’t get his move away from the Hawthorns it looks like he still has a role to play under Tony Pulis.



5) Leighton Baines

Position: DEF

Club: Everton

Ownership: 5.7%

FPL Price: £5.5m

As we crack into our top five players we get to our first and only defender to make the list. After a long season of struggling with injuries Leighton Baines is back and ready to push Everton forward under new manager Ronald Koeman. Baines has been nailed onto Everton’s lineup since 2009 where he has been a consistent producer year in and year out, with the exception of last year.

Last season was the first time the left-back hadn’t reached 31 caps in seven years and his extended absence was sorely felt. He’s a leader on the team, he helps organise the back line, he gets forward to great effect and he always provides a threat from set-pieces.

In the last four games of the season we saw some of the old Baines. He went out and scored two goals for an attack that had largely fizzled out around April and helped moderately improve a defence that had struggled the entire year. The defender showed us all that he still has plenty left in the tank.

With Koeman re-organising Everton’s back line and supposedly gunning after a new holding midfielder, Baines can get back to his attacking roots as well as picking up some extremely valuable clean sheets along the way.

4) Callum Wilson

Position: FWD

Club: Bournemouth

Ownership: 6.8%

FPL Price: £6.5m

At a time not too long ago, Callum Wilson was one of the hottest commodities in FPL. A cheap striker of newly promoted Bournemouth was knocking in goals left and right. He’s strong, fast and a good finisher. What’s not to love?

If you guessed anterior cruciate ligament tear then you’d be correct! It appeared to be a terrible injury and it was thought to be the end of his season. Yet somehow, someway the striker fought his way through treatment and recovered in time to make a handful of appearances for Bournemouth at the end of the season. It was surely a feeling of relief to see Wilson recovered and running around on the pitch. His time on the pitch was limited, however, and as a result so was his impact.

While Wilson did not exactly come crashing through the gates upon his return, we at least know that he’s healthy and fully recovered. We also know that the return of Gradel and the addition of Ibe should help boost Bournemouth’s attack for the upcoming season. Don’t be surprised if Wilson hits the ground running this season and gets right back to where he was.



3) Dusan Tadic

Position: MID

Club: Southampton

Ownership: 4.3%

FPL Price: £7.5m

Dusan Tadic was easily one of the most underrated players in the league last season. He was tied for third most assists at 12 and he beautifully orchestrated Southampton’s attack for the latter part of their season. Not to mention, he picked up eight goals himself! So why are people not sold on the Serb?

Maybe it’s due to the departure of Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane? Or perhaps it’s due to the departure of Ronald Koeman? Either way, those shouldn’t be such huge deterrents. A good player makes their teammates around them better and that’s exactly what Tadic does. Pelle is no superstar and Mane is good, but he’s not irreplaceable. You could even argue that Tadic was the one who elevated both of their games.

Tadic creates loads of chances (73 last season), takes penalties for the Saints and can masterfully manipulate all of the space on the field. So whether it’s Pelle, Long, Mane or Redmond, Tadic is still going to produce. The midfielder will have an even bigger role to fill this season for the Saints. So even with the departures mentioned before, Tadic has the tools available to step up and lead his team to another strong year.

2) David Silva

Position: MID

Club: Man City

Ownership: 3.8%

FPL Price: 9.0m

The little Spanish magician of Manchester City has nearly slipped under the radar completely. His exclusion from most fantasy squads can probably be chalked up to his poor 2015/16 season, but ‘poor’ is a relative term. Even while under performing, Silva still tallied up 11 assists in 24 matches. He then followed up his Premier League season with a decent showing at the Euros. While Silva didn’t record a goal or assist, he did manage an impressive 3.3 key passes per game, which is higher than the 2.8 he averaged during the PL season.

Silva has already taken some positive steps to recapture his best form but what is likely the key to getting him back to his best is the appointment of Pep Guardiola as manager. Whether it be with Barcelona or Bayern Munich, Guardiola has show he knows how to get an attack to click into full gear.

With the likes of Aguero, De Bruyne and Nolito marauding forward for City, it shouldn’t be all too difficult to get Silva involved in the fun. We all know that the Spaniard is capable of doing some truly remarkable things with a football, and Pep can be the one to get that back out of him. With some minor adjustments and guidance, Silva can be one of the main men who is providing all the goals for City’s explosive attack.

1) Daniel Sturridge

Position: FWD

Club: Liverpool

Ownership: 5.5%

FPL Price: £10.0m

At our number one spot it’s the man with the paper hamstrings: Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge has become all too familiar with the physio room throughout his career but he is finally putting together an injury-less stretch. Exciting news for FPL managers as the striker is one of the best goal scorers in the league when he’s healthy. However, a dark cloud always seems to loom over Sturridge and this time it appears to be his opening fixtures.

While Liverpool do have tough opening fixtures, they may not be as bad as you thought. The Reds face Arsenal the first week, but with Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista already being ruled out, an inexperienced Rob Holding or Calum Chambers will likely have to fill in for the Gunners. Second week is against Burnley, which should be fairly straightforward. Third week is against a Tottenham side that collapsed at the end of last season and may still be missing Jan Vertonghen. Then they will face a Kante-less Leicester followed by Chelsea before being in the clear.

On his day, he’s one of the best in the business. So honestly, the team he faces shouldn’t be your prime concern regarding Sturridge. The man is able to score goals from absolutely nothing. He has mastered turning up at the right space at the right time and defenders know that if you give him the slightest bit of space, you’ll likely turn around to see your net bulging and Sturridge off doing his dance.

Liverpool now have a wealth of talent in the midfield, which means there should be plenty of chances for the English striker to tuck away goals. When he’s healthy, Sturridge is one to consider for every FPL team.

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