FPL: The best mid-priced mids 🧠

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🐝 Brentford break club transfer record to sign defensive midfielder Mamadou Sangaré. He’s priced at £5.5m.

🤝 Bournemouth sign centre-back António Silva from Benfica for £25m.

🔵 Danny Welbeck joins Chelsea from Brighton. Full-back Valentín Barco also signs for Chelsea.

🧤 Newcastle sign goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek from Braga for £25m.

Alright?

According to young-person parlance, a language to which we are naturally accustomed, “mid” is used to describe something a bit crap. Not emphatically crap - like malaria - but a bit crap; like a mosquito bite, sans malaria.

But in FPL, the mids - or midfielders, as we call them in the biz - are usually the most fruitful source of points. Of the last 14 seasons, 12 of the top FPL points scorers have been midfielders.

Today we’re looking at the mid-priced midfielders - the £6.0m-£7.5m bracket - in search of some not-so-mid FPL assets. It’s a diverse range, from DefCon stalwarts to some of the league's most exciting (but unpredictable) players.

Barnes to the left of us, Foden to the right, here we are, making sure you don’t get stuck in the midfield with Hughes.

Kevin Schade (Brentford, 2.3% owned).

No £6.0m midfielder had more attacking returns last season than Kevin Schade’s 13, which comprised 8 goals and 5 assists. He was also top in his price bracket for expected goal involvements (xGI), with 14.13, and, quite remarkably, he had the highest xG of any midfielder last season (12.08). He did all of this in 2,744 minutes and 32 starts.

Schade’s main issue is minutes. He completed 90 minutes 18 times last season, which means he was subbed early in nearly half of his starts. If he can establish himself as a 90-minute man in that Brentford side, he could be excellent value at £6.0m.

He has Spurs (H), Leeds (A) and Sunderland (H) in his first three games.

Enzo Le Fée (Sunderland, 11.8% owned).

Sure, he might sound like one of Gaston’s sidekicks, but with three pre-season goals already (two against York City, one against Liverpool), Le Fée looks set to build on a 25/26 season that saw him register 11 attacking returns and 147 FPL points. Incidentally, he missed their latest friendly due to a minor injury, which is worth monitoring.

Aside from goals and assists, Le Fée averaged 9.66 defensive contributions per start last season. Combined with set-piece duties, a share of the penalties with Habib Diarra and a high chance of lots of minutes, he could end up being underpriced.

He has a decent set of fixtures to start the season, with Ipswich (A), Fulham (H) and Brentford (A).

Mateus Fernandes (Spurs, 3.9% owned).

Having moved from West Ham to Spurs for a club-record £85m, Fernandes is an unknown quantity at his new club. But he’s probably going to play as many Premier League games as his fitness will allow.

Averaging 10.5 defensive contributions per start last season, Fernandes’ seven attacking contributions last season look better when you consider how poor - or “mid” - West Ham were.

He’s only played 73 pre-season minutes for his new club - against footballing giants Auckland FC and MK Dons - but has already scored.

He’ll start the season with Brentford (A), Newcastle (H) and Nottingham Forest (A).

On our radar:

Marcus Tavernier (Bournemouth, 1.8% owned) - Tough fixtures to start the season, but he might be on penalties for Bournemouth whilst Junior Kroupi is injured.

Alex Scott (Bournemouth, 1.6% owned) - Averaged 11.3 DefCons per start last season. Dependable for minutes when he’s fit.

James Garner (Everton, 0.8% owned) - Garner was one of the standout picks in this category due to DefCon and set-pieces, but is a doubt for Gameweek 1. Worth looking at when he returns from injury.

Ismaïla Sarr (Crystal Palace, 10.4% owned).

Sarr’s nine goals last season were actually an underperformance - he registered an impressive 10.93xG in just 2,173 minutes and 24 Premier League starts. That’s around 0.45 expected goals (xG) per start: no midfielder had a higher xG per start.

The Palace man missed eight games through injury in the 25/26 campaign, and was absent for extra games due to AFCON, but is as nailed to start as anyone on this list when he’s fit. His four goals in the World Cup are further evidence - if we needed it - that he’s an exceptionally good player.

Everton (A), Man City (H) and Fulham (A) isn’t the greatest start to the season, but he’ll play Ipswich (H) and Leeds (A) in Gameweeks 4 and 5.

Elliot Anderson (Man City, 12% owned).

It’s hard to know whether Anderson will sustain his remarkable FPL points output now that he’s at Man City. The general consensus is that he won’t, because he’ll probably play fewer minutes and have less defending to do, but none of this is certain.

Remember, ball recoveries count towards a midfielder’s defensive contributions - a stat that might actually improve now that he’s at Man City (they had around 250 more ball recoveries last season compared to Nottingham Forest).

There are obvious attacking benefits, too, and a higher likelihood of the 1-point clean sheet bonus.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Everton, 4% owned).

Last season, Dewsbury-Hall averaged one attacking return every two starts. 8 goals and 7 assists were an overperformance, but illustrative of a player who reached near-talismanic status in a relatively poor Everton side.

Everton have had a pretty disappointing pre-season so far, and their fans (including The Professor) are desperately hoping for some recruitment between now and Gameweek 1. If they sign a reliable goalscorer, Dewsbury-Hall’s value will surely increase.

On our radar:

Dango Ouattara (Brentford, 1.3% owned) - 15 goal involvements from ~2,200 minutes last season. If he plays regularly, he’s one to watch.

Harry Wilson (Leeds, 8.7% owned) - Hugely overperformed last season with 19 attacking contributions, but clearly talented. An unknown quantity at Leeds.

Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool, 48.2% owned).

We discussed Szoboszlai recently and concluded that, given his goal threat, DefCon potential and set-piece involvement, he’s a worthy inclusion in your FPL team for £7.0m.

Whether he’s deserving of his 48% ownership is another question, but his popularity is such that not owning him is a risk most of our in-house experts are unwilling to take.

On our radar:

Phil Foden (Man City, 7.5% owned) - Obviously very good when he plays. Maresca has singled him out for praise, and the fact he wasn’t picked for England could improve his chances of minutes at the start of the season.

Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle, 8.3% owned) - Newcastle rejected Arsenal’s first offer for him on Monday, but he looks set to leave The Magpies eventually. Provides plenty of DefCon and attacking threat.

Declan Rice (Arsenal, 22.3% owned).

The fourth-highest-scoring midfielder last season, the only real question mark over Rice is whether he’ll be given more rest after a gruelling World Cup. His involvement in the Community Shield could provide an answer.

Coventry (H), Aston Villa (A), Chelsea (H) is a mixed bag, but fixtures matter less for a team like Arsenal.

Florian Wirtz (Liverpool, 11.1% owned).

There are two things we really like about Wirtz: Firstly, he’s nailed to start for Liverpool. Secondly, his xGI last season (11.96) was actually the second-highest in this price bracket.

How he - and Liverpool - will perform under Iraola remains to be seen, but he scored in their most recent friendly against Leeds, which only adds to the optimism amongst most Liverpool fans that he’ll flourish this season.

On our radar:

Morgan Rogers (Chelsea, 31.4% owned) - A very popular pick, but his role at Chelsea remains to be seen. Significantly overperformed his underlying stats last season.

Jeremy Doku (Man City, 6.4% owned) - Finished last season very strongly. Always dangerous when he starts, but minutes are his main issue.

Here’s what a midfield comprised of mid-priced assets might look like:

It combines some of the most impressive attacking stats from last season (Schade and Sarr) with reliable DefCon stalwarts capable of attacking returns (Fernandes, Szoboszlai, Rice).

To be clear, we’d never recommend actually picking this exact midfield. There are far too many premium midfielders worth considering, including Bruno Fernandes and Antoine Semenyo. But we’ll talk about them another day.

⚽️ Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored a brace against Liverpool in Leeds’ 4-2 friendly win.

🎯 Pascal Groß (£5.5m midfielder) took (and scored) a penalty in a recent friendly for Brighton.

👀 Maresca’s playing style is “music to my ears”, says Antoine Semenyo.

Without meaning to be too forward, we’ll be back on Thursday to talk about forwards.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.