💰The biggest bargains in FPL 👀

🚀 The game is live. 1.2m teams already created.

🧠 Today we’ll share our initial under-the-radar picks.

🤝 Rice and Timber join Arsenal, Mount to Man United.

Stick around for a link to join our free FPL league.

…nah just kidding, it’s here.

Alright?

FPL 23/24 is live.

We’ve been serving you salad at the BBQ for a month now. Whilst we did our best to keep it tasty - some balsamic dressing here, a few slices of halloumi there - nobody goes to a BBQ for the salad.

But from now on, it’s all meat. Tesco Finest burgers and those sausages with the bits of apple in them. Ribs. Drumsticks. You name it.

Today’s email is mostly about the players who are cheaper than they ought to be. The Professor will be highlighting some sturdy, underpriced picks and I’ll be covering the bottom-feeding enablers.

In later emails, we’ll be going over premiums, differentials and everything else you need to build an excellent Gameweek 1 team.

Crack open a cold one and get your lemon wipes at the ready - we’re going in.

LazyFPL Premium opens next week

Yup, we’re reopening LazyFPL Premium next Sunday.

We never really discount our membership, but for the first time ever we’re giving out a small number of discounted annual memberships (£24 rather than £36).

To be on that list, just reply to this email with the word “premium” and you’ll get first refusal.

Here’s a reminder of why 100% of our members said it was good value for money last season:

1. You’ll get 2 extra emails every gameweek, written by the Professor. He’s never finished outside of the top 100k 🤯

2. You’ll be invited to our Premium WhatsApp groups. One is a chat, where top managers dish out advice, friendships are made and teams are rated. The other is an announcement group, where up-to-the-minute news, team leaks and goal alerts are shared. Last season we were the first to leak that Haaland wasn’t starting in GW38 👀

3. You’ll get access to our exclusive LazyFPL Premium league. It has better prizes and fewer competitors. Last year we gave away a PS5. This year it’ll be even bigger.

Reply with the word “premium” if you want a discount on your annual subscription!

The lay of the land

The general consensus is that settling on a perfect Gameweek 1 side this season will be challenging: not because of a lack of viable options, but because of an abundance.

As with last year, players have been priced sympathetically. The result is that only two assets (Haaland - 85% and Estupinan - 51%) are in more than half of the current crop of FPL teams.

It’s early, but the template appears to be less rigid than normal.

What does that mean for you?

Opportunity, of course.

A wider spread of player ownership means a larger chasm between good managers and weak managers. Don’t worry, you’re in safe hands. Welcome to life in the lazy lane.

The enablers

enabler (noun); dirt cheap FPL fodder that frees up cash to spend elsewhere in your team.

ex. Ellis Simms is going to Coventry soon, but he’s only £4.5m. Perfect enabler.

Anyone can pick a good player. The real art of mastering FPL? Picking the best shite players.

Here are some of ours…

Forwards

🍬 Ellis Simms (Everton, £4.5m)

Ellis Simms won’t be in the Premier League for long. In fact, he’s already moved from Everton to Coventry.

But FPL HQ hasn’t caught on yet. It means you can still buy a player who cannot fall in price once the season is underway.

That’s important, because enablers have a tendency to drop in price once the season starts, making it very hard to replace them if you don’t already have money in the bank.

🦹 Cameron Archer (Aston Villa, £4.5m)

Archer was on loan at Middlesbrough for the second half of 22/23, scoring 11 goals in 17 starts. He’s also scored a couple of recent goals for England’s U21 side, in what have mostly been cameo appearances.

All which is to say, the lad can play. Whether he’ll actually play is another question, but this 21-year-old seems to impress everywhere he goes. One to watch.

🔫 Folarin Balogun (Arsenal, £4.5m)

The reason Balogun is interesting is because he’s been priced with competition from Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah in mind, despite the fact that he’s strongly rumoured to move.

Chelsea look to be the most likely candidates to sign him, and there’s less competition for a starting berth there.

Note: Sam Surridge (10% owned) is the most popular £4.5m forward, but picking the most popular enabler is a dangerous game. The higher the ownership, the more likely it is that a player will fall in price (because the volume of people selling him is invariably higher). We’d avoid.

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Midfielders

Buying a midfield enabler is the FPL equivalent of going to a Michelin starred restaurant and asking the chef for a plate of cheesy chips. There are just so many reasonably priced midfield options that an enabler feels wasteful.

Still, here are a few if you’re looking.

🦹 Marvelous Nakamba (Aston Villa, £4.5m)

Anyone with Marvelous in his name is worth a look, and Nakamba is no exception. The Villa midfielder spent most of last season on loan to Luton where he was incredibly important, and the newly promoted club are in talks to retain his services.

He’s a CDM so don’t get too carried away, but if he moves to Luton, he plays most weeks.

🐺 Chiquinho (Wolves, £4.5m)

Chiquinho (who, confusingly, doesn’t actually have the name “Chiquinho” in any of his four names), is tipped by Wolves fans to feature next season. He suffered a serious injury last season so he played 0 minutes, but Wolves fans rate him.

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Defenders 

FPL HQ have once again gifted us a few £4.0m defenders who will probably play. The generous bastards.

🛡️ Jordan Beyer (Burnley, £4.0m)

Beyer only missed three games for the most robust defense in the Championship last season. This one’s a no-brainer.

🎩 Amari’i Bell (Luton, £4.0m)

It’s time to start getting excited about Luton players, folks. Bell plays every game for Luton if he’s fit, and splits his time between centre-back and full-back positions. A Poundland Ben White, if you will.

🔪 George Baldock (Sheffield United, £4.0m)

That Baldock was priced at £5.5m in the 20/21 season should tell you how generous the pricing is these days. He shares his match time with Jayden Bogle but, given how patchy Bogle’s fitness is, we reckon the right wing-back will feature plenty.

Btw, for a comprehensive breakdown of the best £4.0m defensive options - including some even bigger differentials - check out this article on our sister website.

Contains a lovely write up on Malo Gusto (Chelsea, 4.0). Another to watch.

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Goalkeepers

A token mention to West Ham’s Alphonse Areola, who has been priced at an eyebrow-raising £4.0m. He competes with Fabianski, who is 38 and only has one year left on his contract.

Areola was their keeper of choice throughout their Conference League run, so Moyes clearly trusts him.

Oddly cheap players who will score points

First up is hardly a hidden gem but he’s a player who is undoubtedly underpriced this season. And he should be in every draft out there.

Pervis Estupinan (Brighton, £5.0m)

Now I know he’s currently in 51% of teams but he should be in every draft as far as I’m concerned.

Not only did Brighton have a top four defence last season when it came to non-penalty expected goals against:

But Estupinan easily outscores the other 5.0 options out there when it comes to offensive data (non-penalty expected goals + expected assists):

At 5.0, he’s a no-brainer.

Half the game is right so far in owning him.

Kai Havertz (Arsenal, £7.5m)

How quickly they forget.

Before Havertz joined Chelsea he was the one of the best attacking midfield prospects on the planet. Since joining Chelsea, his stock has dropped but I think it’s criminally unfair to tar a player who was playing in a dysfunctional Chelsea team last season and has spent the majority of his time out of position as a forward.

FPL has done the right thing recategorising Havertz as a midfielder. But I think they have under priced him.

Above is likely how Arsenal will line up with the ball - operating in a box midfield like all the other trendy teams these days.

Given Odegaard has played deeper for Arteta previously, it will likely be Havertz supporting Jesus centrally while Odegaard links midfield to attack.

Even in a dysfunctional Chelsea team, Havertz’s data was fine. Certainly better than a 7.5 pricing.

He’s in my team. Is he in yours?

Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea, £7.5m)

In recent years, Bundesliga imports have been as hit and miss as old school expensive Eredivisie signings.

For every Jadon Sancho there used to be an Afonso Alves.

However, data is data.

Nkunku’s 0.74 non-penalty expected goals + expected assists would have ranked him 5th in the Premier League this season.

Now of course there will be a Bundesliga tax to account for - just like Havertz above. However, even if he drops off to 0.6 he’s still great value at 7.5.

One to watch.

Other tidbits

🔴 Mason Mount has signed for Man United. He’s currently owned by 9% of managers.

🤝 Arsenal have signed Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber. Timber, from Ajax, is a versatile defender who plays at centre-back or right-back. Ben White is the most threatened.

🤕 Jacob Ramsey is injured with a metatarsal issue. He’ll be out for around 10 weeks.

🏆 A reminder tojoin our league. It’s free, competitive and there’ll be a prize at the end.

🧤 Brighton have signed a goalkeeper, Bart Verbruggen, from Anderlecht.

Next week we’ll be looking at Premiums: who’s worth it and who’s a waste of money. Don’t miss it.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL team.