FPL is a game of balancing budgets and maximizing returns. The midfield is often considered the engine room of a successful FPL team, the highest scorers in FPL are usually midfielders as they earn an extra point for a goal and a point for a clean sheet. With price tags of £8.5m or more, these players command a significant portion of the £100m budget. But are they truly worth the investment this season? Apart from Salah, none of the premium midfielders have delivered so far. The highest scoring midfielders before the Newcastle vs Liverpool fixture are all cheaper/budget picks.
Bruno Fernandes was the safe route into the Manchester United team. His cost being £9.0m and still being selected by 21.1% of teams shows that managers had faith in him to deliver and earn them points. After a great summer for the Red Devils revamping their entire attack it was surely a no brainer. Unfortunately the Portuguese maestro has so far being playing like a defensive midfielder, playing very deep in midfield and rather than him delivering attacking returns it has so far only been Defcon points. He also went on to miss his penalty and only has 4 points to his name right now. It is rather the Brazilian Matheus Cunha who looks like a much better option at £8.0m and could be on penalties after that Bruno miss.
Cole Palmer was in the fact the most selected player at one point being owned by over 55% of managers. After an incredible pre season and club world cup run where he would score 2 and set up an assist in the final against PSG he looked like a great pick. Fast forward to now where he had a dreadful game against Palace, he was still captained by many against a woeful West Ham but missed the match after being withdrawn during warmup due to Groin issues. Palmer is set to to have a fitness scan on Tuesday to identify the extent of the issue. Enzo Marseca had added that he was not 100% against Palace either and played for the fans and the team. Could this be a positive sign that he will return to his best after recovery.
Bukayo Saka priced at £10.0m was the third most expensive midfielder after Salah and Palmer, he commanded that price tag due to his goals, set piece and penalty duties as well as being the focal point of the Arsenal attack. He was a kept quiet against Manchester United at Old Trafford barring one big chance which was blocked by De Ligt. He was also the captaincy choice for anyone who owned him home to Leeds, it would be a demolition 5-0 win with Saka scoring but he was subbed off due to injury in the 52nd minute and is now set to be out for 3-4 weeks due to a hamstring injury according to the BBC.
The choice to go big on a premium midfielder often dictates the rest of your team structure. A common strategy is to select one or two premium midfielders, then fill the remaining slots with a mix of mid-priced and budget enablers. This “stars and scrubs” approach relies on the consistent, high-scoring nature of the premium assets while hoping your cheaper options provide a reliable baseline. This has been the ‘FPL Meta’ in previous seasons but with the budget midfielders being more useful so far is this a change or just an outlier. We will have to wait for a larger sample size but for now the budget midfielders seem to be the better pick.
