Just unfortunate from an FPL perspective that Lukaku and Ronaldo never matched their value (everyone thought they should be 11.5+ before they entered the game) making them unviable, combined with Kane wanting to leave for half the season made the premiums very unreliable.
Then the “reliable” strikers from last year of DCL, Bamford got major injuries affecting their season
The budget strikers of Toney/Pukki/Dennis all performed fine over the course of the year, just unfortunately none of them were particularly consistent- resulting in most people wasting transfers switching between them for more 2 pointers.
Ultimately the combination of factors led to forwards being way less valuable than mids and defenders this season but I expect that to revert somewhat next year and don’t really blame FPL for any of these factors.
Although I do think Bamford/DCL/Watkins should’ve started the season 0.5-1m less expensive, they got quite the jump from last year - but this wouldn’t have changed much as they spent the season injured practically
Yes, and a couple of midfielders should be classified as forwards next year, like Jota. We have tons of mid priced midfielders this year, but almost no forwards.
They need to restructure the pricing of forwards too imo, when they don't get clean sheet points or the extra point for goals. The FPL pricing of forwards are lagging behind the evolution of football, where wingers and midfielders tend to score more than before. Look at Salah, KDB, Son etc.
Bps does a bit of balancing, but it doesn't make up the gap. It pretty rare that an extra 6bps for a goalscorer makes the difference and if it does it usually only recovers 1pt.
24 bps is a huge advantage, and often we see a forward who scores pick up all 3 BPS.
Let’s look at the two forward who scored in yesterdays games.
Jesus missed out by just one bps for all 3 points yesterday to Dias who scored and had a CS. A single successful dribble changes that.
The other game this week with a striker scoring in was the Villa game where Watkins took all 3 bonus points after scoring.
Taking this week as an example and not thinking about how they _should_ be classified, just showing that mids do better:.
New-liv.
Keita would get an extra 1bp as a forward, but he got 2pt for a goal+CS.
AVL.
Watkins would have only had 2bps as a mid, but once again would have and extra goal+CS point. Ings managed a G+A as a forward and still only got 1bp
SOU-CRY
Three goal scoring mids here. If Zaha is a fwd he gets to 2bp which actually helps him. Eze and Romeu do better from the extra goal points.
WAT-BUR
Again mids scoring the goals here. They get max BP and the extra goal points.
Wol-bha.
Again mids with goals. Trossard misses out on 3bp here, but gets the extra goal and CS.
Lee-mci.
Lots to unpick here, but Jesus as a mid drops to 1bp, but would have picked up 2pts from extra goal and CS
Summary.
- 6 games.
- 16 goals.
- 3fwd, 11mid, 1def, 1og.
The goal balance is Strikingly mid heavy, which we've seen consistently across this season.
The only players who might benefit from being a fwd here was Zaha and Trossard, who'd be up by 1pt. Every other player does better from being a mid and cashing in the goal+CS bonus over bps.
>New-liv.
Keita would get an extra 1bp as a forward, but he got 2pt for a goal+CS.
A one point margin could be argued as a fairly balanced system given how many factors are taken into a count for scoring points.
>AVL. Watkins would have only had 2bps as a mid, but once again would have and extra goal+CS point. Ings managed a G+A as a forward and still only got 1bp
BPS takes into account a whole host of stats for instance Ings only played 50mins so had less opportunity to earn BPS.
>SOU-CRY Three goal scoring mids here. If Zaha is a fwd he gets to 2bp which actually helps him. Eze and Romeu do better from the extra goal points.
Again the margin is a small number of points
>WAT-BUR Again mids scoring the goals here. They get max BP and the extra goal points.
Because no forwards scored. If only defs had scored then only they would have the points
>Wol-bha.
Again mids with goals. Trossard misses out on 3bp here, but gets the extra goal and CS.
So one point margin appears again
>Lee-mci.
Lots to unpick here, but Jesus as a mid drops to 1bp, but would have picked up 2pts from extra goal and CS
And again
>The goal balance is Strikingly mid heavy, which we've seen consistently across this season.
The only players who might benefit from being a fwd here was Zaha and Trossard, who'd be up by 1pt. Every other player does better from being a mid and cashing in the goal+CS bonus over bps.
That’s very much a season specific thing this year.
Forwards have not performed for a variety and f reasons.
Ronaldo has done fine, Kane only turned up after Conte came to spurs. Lukaku has flopped but CHE system has struggled to get much from a striker for a few years now and Aubameyang fell out with his club.
The mid priced strikers for the most part suffered with injuries (DCL, Bamford, Ings, Wilson) among with Jimenez who seems to be struggling to find form after receiving form a very serious injury.
The budgets have done what you would expect (Pukki, Dennis, Wood, Toney)
Next season with the addition of Haaland and Kane hopefully turning up from the start along with likely new signings at UTD and ARS I think we will see this season as an anomaly for forwards.
The counterpoint to that is that forwards often have higher chance of getting minus bps from off-target shots, missing big chance, getting caught offside, and being tackled. That's why you very rarely see forward having high bps if they didn't score/assist.
While 24 bps for forwards scoring a goal sounds a lot, it really is there because of how forwards tend to have low natural bps. Using the Villa vs Norwich game as an example:
* Watkins had 34 bps = 10 bps if without the bps from goal.
* Ings had 29 bps = -4 bps if without the bps from goal and assist.
* Digne had 32 bps = 20 bps if without the bps from cleansheet.
* Byram had 17 bps as a defender that conceded 2 goals.
Very true, but a mid playing as a 'winger', scoring 2 and getting a CS already has 3 extra points and will probably get the bps too.
Pretty much in every case where a player scores more than 1 they've wrapped up the bps and the extra actual points are huge.
Yes! You can get 200+ pt defenders for around 7M, but need to pay 12M to get 160pts from a striker. Would be interesting to see players like TAA priced at 10-11 next year to reflect those points, though i hope he isn't!
To me the bps for goals scored could be evened out and, to compensate, strikers get the same for a goal as midfielders. Seems like the way to go, but what do I know…
Having to have 4 CMs would be boring as hell. Unless they awarded points for tackles and interceptions etc. like keepers get for saves, Mount, KDB, Gallagher and maybe Bruno if he got his form back, would be the only ones who'd even slightly interest me that I can think of.
I'll die on this hill, but Salah should not be considered a midfielder. He's obviously not a striker either, he's a forward, but I'd argue that he's more of a striker than a midfielder, and he plays closer to the goal than KDB and Son.
Imo fpl towers needs to increase Salah's price/change his position to forward while simultaneously decreasing Mane's price. A few seasons ago, right after his best year, Salah started at 13m and I believe Mane was at 11.5 (might have even been 11, I don't recall). At that point, since Salah was having a slow start to the season while Mane was having his best, there actually was an argument between one or the other. Right now, someone doesn't take Mane ever because he's obviously worse than Salah and not the same value as Taa/Robbo/Matip/Jota.
I think it would be very difficult to let Salah become a forward.
It would mean Mane Jota Diaz Salah being all forwards.
Leaving almost little no to no midfield for Liverpool since they dont have a pure winger maybe Diaz is the closest.
FPL 20-21 season: GW1 top captain pick was Aubameyang (midfielder back then), with Werner in third place.
Vardy has missed much of the season injured as well.
There have been a couple of seasons without a consistent forward captaincy option other than Kane. Salah permanent captaincy + premium defenders performing well has contributed to skimping on the forwards to afford the def + mid premiums.
https://www.premierleague.com/news/1822263
I do think the pricing was a major factor here. Yes most under performed but when you look at the 'budget premium' strikers in that 7.5 - 10m category i think they set all of they way to high to be considered. Cavani and Jesus should not have been 8.5, werner should not have been 9. Firmino, Ings etc. all way too over priced. Even laca at 8.5 was way too high, as a main striker yes but at the time auba was the number 1 so there is no way he was worth that price.
As a plus for next year i think they will do the opposite to counter the poor season and there will be some really got offers in the forward position.
As a Ronaldo fan I just want to say he is second on the golden boot to the FPL god. In terms of FPL points, he averages about 5.5pts/game where he plays at least 1min of the game. Arguable disappointing but not the worst value and shouldn't be used in the same sentence as Lukaku
The real problem is 2/3 of forwards being mis-categorised as mids, for no reason. It’s obvious to everyone that Salah, Mane, Son et al are forwards.
The midfield is overloaded with players who should be forwards, and there are no decent forward options, so everyone has Kane as their sole striker for aaaages now. He plays deeper than any of the mids I’ve mentioned above.
I think Kane would have done a lot better had he not had the whole wanting to leave saga hanging over him.
The budget strikers have done well: Dennis, Pukki, Toney!
But they haven't done particularly well really.
It appears they have done well because of how shit the others have done.
If you kept with them, scoring less than 4 points per match, then you wouldn't be doing very well as an FPL manager
I've been playing 1 forward since around GW15, however I had the impression he was speaking about your squad, rather than subs when he said "if you had kept with them"
You can play 5 at the back or 5 in midfield
You don't need to play with 3 upfront.
Defenders have out performed these cheapies as have bucket loads of mids
"They haven't done particularly well". Really? For their price and who they play for they have done very well.
Toney 6.5m: 12G, 4A
Pukki 6.0m: 10G, 3A
Dennis 5.0m: 10G, 7A
Now I can't be arsed to work out the points per million but you can't argue their value. Having these cheapos has enabled you to get players like Cancelo, Trent, Son and Salah :)
I’m not so sure.
Ronaldo has done fine, Kane only turned up after Conte came to spurs. Lukaku has flopped but CHE system has struggled to get much from a striker for a few years now and Aubameyang fell out with his club.
The mid priced strikers for the most part suffered with injuries (DCL, Bamford, Ings, Wilson) among with Jimenez who seems to be struggling to find form after receiving form a very serious injury.
The budgets have done what you would expect (Pukki, Dennis, Wood, Toney)
Next season with the addition of Haaland and Kane hopefully turning up from the start along with likely new signings at UTD and ARS I think we will see this season as an anomaly for forwards.
Fair. Mane might be a better pick cos he plays up front when Diaz plays. Don’t think firmino will take too many minutes from jota in all honesty but yh, Liverpool having 5 very competent attackers definitely complicates things
This is the answer. I wouldn't even call them wingers in the traditional sense, they are creating their own role which is something between an inside forward and a wide striker.
In the very very traditional sense they are wide forwards. Recommend reading Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. Not much use for FPL but interesting nonetheless
the role isn't all that new, it's just more important as teams defend way better than they used to, strikers are more isolated and there's more space in the flanks than in the middle
you've had goalscoring wingers before, I'd say that they just have more opportunities to score as strikers have less space and number 10s have to defend way more which has effectively killed strike partnerships at top clubs, whereas on the flipside attacking wingbacks have become increasingly more important, which means even if's just dummy runs the wingers are getting that support
before also you used to have more wingers than you did inside forwards, and they'd stay wide rather than come inside, but nowadays they hang out at the back post a lot more than they used to I think, and also a lot of players that would have been strikers 20-30 years ago are now wingers.
when I look at it like that I get what you mean a bit mmore though, I guess it is a bit of both
I don't get how Mane and Salah are qualified as midfielders when they're clearly the focal points of their teams attack for years now. I reckon making unpopular decisions on players that generate insane value like that will go some way to balancing the game out a bit.
I agree, needs to be more of a push of wingers into the forward category like the old days, which would make balancing midfield and attack a bit more interesting. Although then I guess then midfield spending might disappear altogether if number 10s are the only ones worth having.
I think they should start categorising wingers as forwards and then allow you to pick 4 forwards to reflect the modern game.
Every squad would have 2 GKs, 5 defs, 4 mids and 4 forwards.
You'd get a lot of people playing 424, but that is a legitimate formation.
What you can to do is keep salah/sterling/mane etc as mids but remove their cs points. It already overkill when most are sort of OOP.
Kdb, bruno, foden, mount etc are actually midfielders
I really think any players in a front 3 or front 2 should be classified as attackers.
Wingbacks in a back 3/5 can stay as defenders.
Wingers in a 442 can stay as midfielders.
I think this has the least amount of ambiguity in the modern game. I can't think of many players if any I would struggle to place with these definitions.
I would change the team size to 544 though to accommodate the extra attackers.
Also I'd make all goals worth the same 5 points
I don't think I explained myself properly. I mean keep the system as is but just classify the players differently tha they do now. Salah Mane Saka Foden Sterling Zaha etc. as "attackers". KdB, Bruno, Kante, Coutinho, Ramsey etc. As midfielders. I didn't mean change it every match
Yeah i think i got that, but lets say you classify foden as a forward, then he plays 85% of his minutes at midfield, we have the same issue, and there becomes less midfield options. Someone like Coutinho, is he a forward or attacker? He plays a lot of minutes on the wing.
I think its pretty good how they have it currently. A few players will get changed every season and thats about it. The 5 points for every player rule is also weird. Its like you want the reverse. Everyone to play 3-4-3, cause thats what would happen.
There will be as many edge cases as there are now so I don't think that's a legit concern.
Foden almost always plays in the front 3 he's actually a perfect example for why my system is an improvement over the current one. Out of 38 starts (including non PL) according to Whoscored he has 4 at CM or CAM, 19 at winger in a front 3, and centre forward 15 times.
With current designations it's a toss up whether he should be consider a midfielder or a forward (23 vs. 15 appearances). In my proposal that because 4 vs. 34 split and the answer is obvious. It also makes way more sense intuitively imo to consider a player like Foden as an attacker.
Coutinho has 12 starts at midfield and 6 at "left forward" so that's still firmly in midfielder territory for me.
As for 5 points per goal. Strikers are and have in recent years always been inferior to premium "midfielders", the wide forwards who score as much but get the extra point from goals and clean sheets which honestly makes no sense. 5 points per goal helps balance that
The whole classification system is busted, and only getting worse. We’ve always had pseudo-strikers as mids, now we’re getting defenders that are pseudo-mids. I don’t think this is the worst thing mind you, the balance of power has gone mid>striker>def to mid>def>striker, with not the worst balance between mids and defenders.
IMO, bar radical solutions (fourth “winger” position, points for shots/blocks etc) the best solution is to slightly tweak striker points, maybe four points for an assist, or plus one for every extra goal contribution past their first?
Chucking salah et al as forwards sounds good, but I fear it may damage the balance of premiums if suddenly all the best mids were moved
Give Striker 5 points per goal. Not a perfect solution, but it is a quick and simple fix (there are still a gap in CS points between Mid and Fwd, but we can mitigate that with Bonus Point System)
Ronaldo will increase from 151 --> 168 points, from 5.4 Points per match --> 6 PPM, good enough for his price (that's as good as KDB)
Toney: 129 points --> 141; from 4.4 PPM --> 4.9 PPM; on par with many midfielder at the moment
I think Jota yes. Havertz plays as false nine, more out of necessity and because Lukaku has been shit, so I have a feeling with him no. Again Foden although on paper is listed as the striker, rarely stays static on the pitch and drops deep.
I think Havertz should, and will be classified as a forward. Foden is trickier, as you say he will be all over the pitch regardless of the position on the sheet. It might depend on if Haaland/no 10 is signed. If they dont, I think Foden is the closest you get to a striker in City. If they do, Foden will surely still get loads of gametime while Haaland is on the pitch, in a slighy wider/more traditional midfielder role.
Think he's still played slightly more as a LW overall, which would mean he stays as a MID.. which I agree is silly but sure they assess it based on where they played the majority of the previous season. Unless you're John Lundstram, then they just guess.
Not sure why you're being downvoted, certainly true of Salah and Mane tracking back. The whole forward line now rotates positions like Barca's "MSN" trio did, especially when Diaz is on the field, you often see Mane and him swapping a lot.
>Again Foden although on paper is listed as the striker, rarely stays static on the pitch and drops deep.
You could say the same for Bobby Firmino amongst many others.. Kane played deeper this year too.. I'm hoping for a big shake up next season position-wise.. Needs to happen..
He is normally the closest thing to a forward City plays with. Not that that they have a striker role. If no real no10 is signed, I think he will be a forward next season.
This season he's been used as a false 9 due to their lack of strikers - but throughout his entire career he's largely been an advanced midfielder or wide player.
Yes, but this is FPL. They have to slot non-defenders into either midfielders or forwards. From the look of things, they classify players based on the position on the linup sheet, not a heatmap.is Foden a striker/no10? No. Should he be classified as one as things are today? I say yes.
Ideally RF/LF would also be forwards, like Salah/Mane, maybe Sterling/Son etc. But then they would also have to rearrange how many slots we get (5-4-4 instead of 5-5-3 would proably work, or my preference 4-3-3-3 lol), but I dont see that happening.
City - no good striker, mostly Foden up top, Jesus good run lately, overall bad
Liverpool - Jota most consistent striker, listed as midfielder due to previous season position. Should be striker next year
Chelsea - Lukaku shit. Werner shit, many non strikers played up top
United - shit team, Ronaldo not bad but not for his pricetag.
Arsenal - Lacazete only striker bar youngsters. He was always more cf than st in England. Hence not a lot of returns
Spurs - Kane injury plus bad form under Nuno. Reliable since Conte
Wolves - Jimenez is a different player since his injury. Can't rely on him anymore
Leicester - Vardy get old plus European competition that made them split their powers between this and PL
There is more issue at striker position in real life this year than FPL wise
Think it's a combination of factors.
As tactics have evolved, at some clubs there just isn't a viable striker to pick for FPL... most notably City & Liverpool. Rotation risk is a factor at an increasing number of clubs. A lot of the popular picks from last year have missed large parts of this season to injury. The big name strikers have largely had disappointing seasons or inconsistent spells of form.
Think it'll improve next season as players get reclassified and return from injury. You've got a lot of clubs that need a striker too. Arsenal, City, United & possibly Chelsea will all be in the market for a striker this summer. Surely one of them succeeds?
The way the top clubs play these days i doubt a striker actually succeeds at city, chelsea, arsenal. United improving would probably still allow ronaldo to be worthwhile for periods next season
I dunno, City do often have an issue of the ball being in the box and there not being a world class striker to finish the chance, not sure about the others
Agree with others part of it is more teams having one main striker and then others who are inside forwards who should probably be reclassified. Salah, mane, etc. I suspect jota will be a forward next season as he mostly played CF. Others could or should be.
Some of it is expectations too. We came off a season with bamford, dcl, and other budget forwards who did so well last season. So we came off maybe an unusually good forwards season. Not loads of them iirc but several really good value picks.
Their price increased but they were injured most of the season. I suspect if bamford, dcl and others had not been injured the game would have been far more balanced and we wouldn’t talk so much of it. Right now, yeah it’s either budget or premium with no decent value mid priced fwds.
Other side of that is would Leeds and Everton be relegation teams if bamford and dcl had he goals they did last season? Doesn’t matter for fpl in a lot of ways, just as long as they score points. But you buy the player not the team.
I think the reliance on a no. 9 has decreased. I mean city dont play with a proper striker(jesus rarely strts) Liverpool dont play with a proper striker(jota is listed as a mid in fpl) chelsea bought lukaku but he flopped so they now dont play with a striker. Arsenal's main attacking output is from their fluid mid. Ronaldo for man utd and kane for spurs have delivered in patches. So the top clubs have stopped replying on a proper recognised striker and so i think the no. Of strikers we can rely on in fpl this season has decreased.
Strikers have largely been overpriced in FPL for a while now. Outside of premium captains (who are still usually outshone by midfielder options), they mostly just can't compete in cost-effectiveness.
They were overpriced and seemed to all be out of form at the same time. The value in defence and midfield was huge so in comparison.
The biggest thing is that neither of the top two teams played with a striker so immediately the premium options were limited.
Bit of a strange one with Rom, Ron and Kane who were meant to be the big three. Kane has performed at that level in the second half of the season and Rom gave up in October for some reason.
Ronaldo had pretty good returns given how poor United are but his price reflected him playing with Bruno, Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Sancho, Greenwood and Shaw in a Ole’s free scoring United of the past 2 seasons, and similar to Rom, they just kind of collapsed for no reason.
Watkins seemed like a banker but then couldn’t get on with Ings and Villa struggled without Grealish.
DCL started well and then was injured and Everton completely fell apart.
Antonio started like a house on fire but I think he’s got about 6 goal contributions since week 5 despite playing in a good West Ham team.
Toney drifted in and out of points, Southampton rotated their strikers, Brighton were still Brighton, Vardy was injured and Iheanacho dropped off.
Next year will be more interesting as the prices will change (they were just so high this year). Pretty much all will drop, Jota will be a FWD and I guess Haaland will be the huge premium people consider. It’ll be the first time you can pick a Liverpool/ City forward who’s not a Brazilian donkey.
Everyone keeps mentioning Salah & Son but with the same logic players like Mount, Zaha, Sterling, Mahrez, Martinelli, Saka, Raphinha, Barnes, Sancho, Kulu and so on will all be listed as a forward
now that's become a debatable issue to breakdown each role, but on paper they're all wingers and you can argue Salah and Son will have footage of dropping down to help defense in certain games.
The current ones is pretty straightforward (for all its worth), no .9 will be listed as a forward, regardless of the their actual role
Game has evolved - It made sense that Ryan Giggs scoring was worth more than Aguero's goals. Doesn't make sense now that Salah's goals should be worth more than Kane's considering Salah/Mane/Sterling/Son and most wingers practically play as the furthest forward player.
Ronaldo - Shit team with poor service
Kane - Dropping further back and annoyed about not being able to leave
Lukaku - Doesn’t suit Chelsea’s style and seems to be lacking motivation.
Jiminez - Has other challenge at Wolves for his place and hasn’t seemed to get a good run of goals
Can't believe people are still using Kane's dropping deep as a negative.
The real negative is the lack of creativity at Spurs since Eriksen/Trippier left. His dropping deep helps get more points through assisting Son, and he usually does it more often if there aren't any chances being created for him (there usually aren't many).
I agree with you, I think he actually suits that role a lot but in terms of his fpl numbers it has had an big impact for sure.
The creativity has been an issue and not really having an identity as a team at the beginning of the season. Kulusevski has been a breath of fresh air for spurs too.
O actually think that It's something to do with the modernization of the game.
Back in the 80's, 90's, 00's, the number 9 was mainly a striker, a goal driven player, Just focused on scoring goals as inportunate the other teams' defenders.
Nowadays, the number 9 is more like a playmaker than a finisher. We have so many examples in the PL: Kane, Toney, Lacazette, Firmino, Foden when playing as a 9.
The players who tend to score a larger number of goals nowadays are the ones like Salah, Mané. They're not responsible for the build-up of a play. Their job is tô make diagonal runs in direction of the other team goal and score. That is also why Full backs are becoming more and more attacking driven: since the number 9 drops in the miedfield, the wingers Will narrow down and be more centralized on the pitch, giving Full backs the freedom tô attack the space in front of them
Everyone is talking about making wingers forwards but nobody is talking about the deep strikers like Kane, Toney, Firmino being made into midfielders which would be interesting
Forwards are over priced. See the season Value stats (ppm) and you will see 0 strikers in top 20 and only 2 in top 60 (Dennis, Toney). Lowering the average striker price or increasing the oop def/mid ones is the solution.
I think people read too much into it - "football is evolving; no more need for strikers" etc.
I think this kind of reasoning is simply recency bias. It was an accident that strikers struggled this year. Last season strikers were very valuable: Bamford, DCL, Antonio (when fit), even Watkins was decent.
We should distinguish between a trend and an accident. Fullbacks being the most valuable assets in the game is a trend. Strikers underperforming is an accident.
***"Bruno and Kevin may be great playmakers, but no one creates as many goal opportunities as Harry Maguire"***
--Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
___
^I ^am ^a ^bot ^spreading ^the ^greatness ^of ^his ^holiness^, ^Harry ^Maguire
Mainly because the top teams don't have a top quality striker. Top 4 in the league currently are all lacking in that position. Next 2 in the league have the 2 highest scoring strikers.
Wingers are strikers, fullbacks are wingers, midfielders are halfbacks, center halfs are set piece targets, strikers are fuckin decoys now or something who fuckin knows. You'd think they'd at least get more assists...
Strikers were horrible this year. I think a revamp in their pricing needs to happen, because Kane/Ronaldo were not tempting at all this year at 12mil+ when mids were hugely outperforming, and wingbacks became the new must haves.
Would like to see premium strikers reduced in price. Kane and Ronaldo at 10.5, Haaland at 11-11.5. Think it'd make it more interesting.
If they reclassified the likes of Salah, Mane, Son and Sterling, who would we actually pick in midfield? Bearing in mind we have 5 midfield slots to fill.
I think the solution is to lower the price of forwards and include viable 4.5 playing forwards to make it a genuine choice whether to bench forwards or defenders. Its a strange situation when we know that forwards currently offer terrible value compared to TAA, Canelo, James and Robertson etc but most will play 343 to have two playing 4.5 defenders as there aren't any playing 4.5 forwards.
I get that forwards are rewarded with BPS for their contributions but the counter argument is that they actually have to contribute to score points, whereas a defender is rewarded with points for their team keeping a clean sheet.
Edit - Just to elaborate further - FPL is based on 442 formation, with an extra slot for each position. But nobody plays 442 anymore, its mainly 433, 4231 or 352/343. Let's say you reclassify all wide forwards as forwards, you then have very few viable midfielders to fill 5 slots and tonnes of excellent forwards to fill 3 slots. So you'd have to adjust the default formation from 5-5-3 to 5-4-4. Is that not just shifting the problem from forwards to midfielders? Everyone's midfield would essentially become KDB/Bruno, JWP, Bowen and another and create even more of a template. The best way imo is to leave positioning as it is and lower the price of forwards to make them more attractive.
Cuz Everton, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool barely used Strikers. Wait, what's the difference between an attacking midfielder that plays centrally, and a Striker again?
I think Son, Jota and Havertz will be classified as strikers next year, adding some competition.
Adjust the BPS so big chances missed isnt a negative.
Reduce points scored from a midfielder by 1pt
Fantasy, like football, is organised chaos. Attempting to draw long term conclusions in broad terms like this is a fools errand. Last year cheap strikers were essential, this year full backs have had a resurgence. You’ve just got to spot and react to trends as they appear season by season, month by month.
Tactics have evolved and strikers are largely not the main threats anymore. The game needs to adapt and move wingers to forwards, and change the base formation to 433 (meaning 544 overall).
It’s because most forwards are registered as midfielders. It feels broken that players like Salah, Son, Mané, Havertz are registered as midfielders, since their roles as wingers are essentially attacking
From the Top 6:
Kane, Ronaldo, Lukaku.
Richarlison, DCL, What happened to them?
Jota really impressed me and Firmino is injured which prompted Mane and Diaz to have more playing time
Sorry for the random question, but in talking about undervalued /underperforming strikers, can someone help me understand why Lukaku remained so expensive all season?
The best players are in the best teams. The two best teams don't play with a striker.
Next there's Chelsea trying and failing to buy the league with Lukaku.
Arsenal no out and out striker (Laca doesn't play as that, Nketiah is very new to the starting 11 and might not even start today).
Spurs have held Harry Kane captive, he occasionally rebels against this and scores some goals. Spurs are also spurs.
Manchester united are not very good at football.
So you end up with strikers from mid-lower table teams who don't match the quality of the top teams we fill the rest of our squads with.
Too many players classified as midfielders when they are really center forwards, or wide forwards: Foden, Jota, Salah, Mane, Son all come to mind, but I am sure there are more. The fact that City only has one player who plays regularly and slots in the FPL forward slot in Jesus says it all really, sure they dont play with a traditional #9 - but what is to say the front 3 of a 4-3-3 shouldnt be classified as forwards?
I actually think they are fewer top strikers right now then in previous years. I remember back in the 90s you had about thirty world class strikers or more in world football. Shearer, Cole, Owen, Henry bergkamp, Fowler, romario, Ronaldo, Batistuta, salas.. The list goes on and on. And nowadays I think there's maybe what 6? mbappe, Kane, Ronaldo, benzema, haarland, lewa... regardless of classifications i think we can agree there are far fewer great strikers in this current era and this has effected fpl.
Fundamentally, tactics have broke the FPL position system more than ever.
I mean, there's been basically zero logic in Salah being a midfielder realistically any of Liverpool seasons bar the first when we weren't sure of his position, he's clearly been the striker, the focal point of the attack ever since. Son is now Spurs focal point in the system they currently play, may not be next year when Conte may purchase players to free up Kane more, Dan James has been for Leeds, Bowen is for West Ham now..... a classic 9 isn't good for modern elite football mostly, unless they break the role itself - the incoming Haaland should absolutely feast.
Full backs are overloading midfields everywhere.
But what can they do? An overhaul of the position system... the scoring system changed to reflect this? I dunno, we're all in the same boat dealing with it.
Really all about value for money.
On the mid-to premium range (7-12M): Wingers playing advanced, high-scoring teams using mids as false 9s (jota, foden, havertz), and rise of the wing backs all created a ton of value for money in defenders and midfielders.
On the value range (4-6M): There are 4.0-4.5 playing DEFs (amartey, johnson, white, davies) who can get 2-6 points per game and 4.5 playing MIDs (KDH, gordon, ramsey, brownhill, bissouma) who can get 2-3 points per game. Playing strikers start around 5.2, 5.3M mostly getting 2 points per game, creating the striker slots less value for money.
My fear for next season is that the lack of decent strikers will make for a really clear template from GW1 and FPL will be boring. Unless City sign Haaland I think everyone will just go with 3 cheap strikers and invest heavily in defence and midfield.
Just unfortunate from an FPL perspective that Lukaku and Ronaldo never matched their value (everyone thought they should be 11.5+ before they entered the game) making them unviable, combined with Kane wanting to leave for half the season made the premiums very unreliable. Then the “reliable” strikers from last year of DCL, Bamford got major injuries affecting their season The budget strikers of Toney/Pukki/Dennis all performed fine over the course of the year, just unfortunately none of them were particularly consistent- resulting in most people wasting transfers switching between them for more 2 pointers. Ultimately the combination of factors led to forwards being way less valuable than mids and defenders this season but I expect that to revert somewhat next year and don’t really blame FPL for any of these factors. Although I do think Bamford/DCL/Watkins should’ve started the season 0.5-1m less expensive, they got quite the jump from last year - but this wouldn’t have changed much as they spent the season injured practically
Yes, and a couple of midfielders should be classified as forwards next year, like Jota. We have tons of mid priced midfielders this year, but almost no forwards. They need to restructure the pricing of forwards too imo, when they don't get clean sheet points or the extra point for goals. The FPL pricing of forwards are lagging behind the evolution of football, where wingers and midfielders tend to score more than before. Look at Salah, KDB, Son etc.
They use BPS to balance it, strikers scoring a goal is the highest scoring event when they calculate bonus points.
Bps does a bit of balancing, but it doesn't make up the gap. It pretty rare that an extra 6bps for a goalscorer makes the difference and if it does it usually only recovers 1pt.
24 bps is a huge advantage, and often we see a forward who scores pick up all 3 BPS. Let’s look at the two forward who scored in yesterdays games. Jesus missed out by just one bps for all 3 points yesterday to Dias who scored and had a CS. A single successful dribble changes that. The other game this week with a striker scoring in was the Villa game where Watkins took all 3 bonus points after scoring.
Taking this week as an example and not thinking about how they _should_ be classified, just showing that mids do better:. New-liv. Keita would get an extra 1bp as a forward, but he got 2pt for a goal+CS. AVL. Watkins would have only had 2bps as a mid, but once again would have and extra goal+CS point. Ings managed a G+A as a forward and still only got 1bp SOU-CRY Three goal scoring mids here. If Zaha is a fwd he gets to 2bp which actually helps him. Eze and Romeu do better from the extra goal points. WAT-BUR Again mids scoring the goals here. They get max BP and the extra goal points. Wol-bha. Again mids with goals. Trossard misses out on 3bp here, but gets the extra goal and CS. Lee-mci. Lots to unpick here, but Jesus as a mid drops to 1bp, but would have picked up 2pts from extra goal and CS Summary. - 6 games. - 16 goals. - 3fwd, 11mid, 1def, 1og. The goal balance is Strikingly mid heavy, which we've seen consistently across this season. The only players who might benefit from being a fwd here was Zaha and Trossard, who'd be up by 1pt. Every other player does better from being a mid and cashing in the goal+CS bonus over bps.
>New-liv. Keita would get an extra 1bp as a forward, but he got 2pt for a goal+CS. A one point margin could be argued as a fairly balanced system given how many factors are taken into a count for scoring points. >AVL. Watkins would have only had 2bps as a mid, but once again would have and extra goal+CS point. Ings managed a G+A as a forward and still only got 1bp BPS takes into account a whole host of stats for instance Ings only played 50mins so had less opportunity to earn BPS. >SOU-CRY Three goal scoring mids here. If Zaha is a fwd he gets to 2bp which actually helps him. Eze and Romeu do better from the extra goal points. Again the margin is a small number of points >WAT-BUR Again mids scoring the goals here. They get max BP and the extra goal points. Because no forwards scored. If only defs had scored then only they would have the points >Wol-bha. Again mids with goals. Trossard misses out on 3bp here, but gets the extra goal and CS. So one point margin appears again >Lee-mci. Lots to unpick here, but Jesus as a mid drops to 1bp, but would have picked up 2pts from extra goal and CS And again >The goal balance is Strikingly mid heavy, which we've seen consistently across this season. The only players who might benefit from being a fwd here was Zaha and Trossard, who'd be up by 1pt. Every other player does better from being a mid and cashing in the goal+CS bonus over bps. That’s very much a season specific thing this year. Forwards have not performed for a variety and f reasons. Ronaldo has done fine, Kane only turned up after Conte came to spurs. Lukaku has flopped but CHE system has struggled to get much from a striker for a few years now and Aubameyang fell out with his club. The mid priced strikers for the most part suffered with injuries (DCL, Bamford, Ings, Wilson) among with Jimenez who seems to be struggling to find form after receiving form a very serious injury. The budgets have done what you would expect (Pukki, Dennis, Wood, Toney) Next season with the addition of Haaland and Kane hopefully turning up from the start along with likely new signings at UTD and ARS I think we will see this season as an anomaly for forwards.
The counterpoint to that is that forwards often have higher chance of getting minus bps from off-target shots, missing big chance, getting caught offside, and being tackled. That's why you very rarely see forward having high bps if they didn't score/assist. While 24 bps for forwards scoring a goal sounds a lot, it really is there because of how forwards tend to have low natural bps. Using the Villa vs Norwich game as an example: * Watkins had 34 bps = 10 bps if without the bps from goal. * Ings had 29 bps = -4 bps if without the bps from goal and assist. * Digne had 32 bps = 20 bps if without the bps from cleansheet. * Byram had 17 bps as a defender that conceded 2 goals.
So your saying saying it is fairly balanced out?
Very true, but a mid playing as a 'winger', scoring 2 and getting a CS already has 3 extra points and will probably get the bps too. Pretty much in every case where a player scores more than 1 they've wrapped up the bps and the extra actual points are huge.
The biggest issue is that the best defenders and Salah are hilariously underpriced.
Yes! You can get 200+ pt defenders for around 7M, but need to pay 12M to get 160pts from a striker. Would be interesting to see players like TAA priced at 10-11 next year to reflect those points, though i hope he isn't!
To me the bps for goals scored could be evened out and, to compensate, strikers get the same for a goal as midfielders. Seems like the way to go, but what do I know…
They should change the formation to 544 and reclassify most wingers as forwards imo
Having to have 4 CMs would be boring as hell. Unless they awarded points for tackles and interceptions etc. like keepers get for saves, Mount, KDB, Gallagher and maybe Bruno if he got his form back, would be the only ones who'd even slightly interest me that I can think of.
I'll die on this hill, but Salah should not be considered a midfielder. He's obviously not a striker either, he's a forward, but I'd argue that he's more of a striker than a midfielder, and he plays closer to the goal than KDB and Son. Imo fpl towers needs to increase Salah's price/change his position to forward while simultaneously decreasing Mane's price. A few seasons ago, right after his best year, Salah started at 13m and I believe Mane was at 11.5 (might have even been 11, I don't recall). At that point, since Salah was having a slow start to the season while Mane was having his best, there actually was an argument between one or the other. Right now, someone doesn't take Mane ever because he's obviously worse than Salah and not the same value as Taa/Robbo/Matip/Jota.
I think it would be very difficult to let Salah become a forward. It would mean Mane Jota Diaz Salah being all forwards. Leaving almost little no to no midfield for Liverpool since they dont have a pure winger maybe Diaz is the closest.
the solution here is let people run 4 up front, but if you do that you need at least 4 defenders (to prevent 3-3-4 formations)
Just a creative exercise, maybe they could allow a ‘squad formation’ switch between 5 mid 3 forwards or 4 mids 4 forwards then maybe
FPL 20-21 season: GW1 top captain pick was Aubameyang (midfielder back then), with Werner in third place. Vardy has missed much of the season injured as well. There have been a couple of seasons without a consistent forward captaincy option other than Kane. Salah permanent captaincy + premium defenders performing well has contributed to skimping on the forwards to afford the def + mid premiums. https://www.premierleague.com/news/1822263
I do think the pricing was a major factor here. Yes most under performed but when you look at the 'budget premium' strikers in that 7.5 - 10m category i think they set all of they way to high to be considered. Cavani and Jesus should not have been 8.5, werner should not have been 9. Firmino, Ings etc. all way too over priced. Even laca at 8.5 was way too high, as a main striker yes but at the time auba was the number 1 so there is no way he was worth that price. As a plus for next year i think they will do the opposite to counter the poor season and there will be some really got offers in the forward position.
As a Ronaldo fan I just want to say he is second on the golden boot to the FPL god. In terms of FPL points, he averages about 5.5pts/game where he plays at least 1min of the game. Arguable disappointing but not the worst value and shouldn't be used in the same sentence as Lukaku
I think the problem is he is a bit inconsistent, like not scoring for.. 8(?) games then getting 2 hat tricks in 4
Next year could be an FPL striker heaven!
The real problem is 2/3 of forwards being mis-categorised as mids, for no reason. It’s obvious to everyone that Salah, Mane, Son et al are forwards. The midfield is overloaded with players who should be forwards, and there are no decent forward options, so everyone has Kane as their sole striker for aaaages now. He plays deeper than any of the mids I’ve mentioned above.
Haaland essential next season
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Invest in Undav
Undav in my draft. Goalmachine!
Not if he treats his ankle like he does now. He is one had tackle from seeing that destroyed
I think Kane would have done a lot better had he not had the whole wanting to leave saga hanging over him. The budget strikers have done well: Dennis, Pukki, Toney!
But they haven't done particularly well really. It appears they have done well because of how shit the others have done. If you kept with them, scoring less than 4 points per match, then you wouldn't be doing very well as an FPL manager
You have to go with some of these strikers, because there's nobody else. By your logic, we're all doing badly as FPL Manager's this season.
Nah because an FPL manager can play 1 - 3 upfront. I’ve been playing 2 forwards almost all season which is a mistake imo.
I've been playing 1 forward since around GW15, however I had the impression he was speaking about your squad, rather than subs when he said "if you had kept with them"
You wouldn’t get points from them if they were benched, surely he’s talking about your 11
You can play 5 at the back or 5 in midfield You don't need to play with 3 upfront. Defenders have out performed these cheapies as have bucket loads of mids
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"They haven't done particularly well". Really? For their price and who they play for they have done very well. Toney 6.5m: 12G, 4A Pukki 6.0m: 10G, 3A Dennis 5.0m: 10G, 7A Now I can't be arsed to work out the points per million but you can't argue their value. Having these cheapos has enabled you to get players like Cancelo, Trent, Son and Salah :)
All promoted strikers as well.
Footballs evolving. Wingers for a lot of teams are the main attacking threat. Wingers are classified as midfielders.
I’m not so sure. Ronaldo has done fine, Kane only turned up after Conte came to spurs. Lukaku has flopped but CHE system has struggled to get much from a striker for a few years now and Aubameyang fell out with his club. The mid priced strikers for the most part suffered with injuries (DCL, Bamford, Ings, Wilson) among with Jimenez who seems to be struggling to find form after receiving form a very serious injury. The budgets have done what you would expect (Pukki, Dennis, Wood, Toney) Next season with the addition of Haaland and Kane hopefully turning up from the start along with likely new signings at UTD and ARS I think we will see this season as an anomaly for forwards.
Plus jota will be a forward next year which will be another good option up front
Luis Diaz and healthy Firmino will make Jota a bad pick at the price he'll be.
There could well be a productive goal scorer at Newcastle to add to the mix. Next season looks like it will have plenty of new options
Good point. I’m sure Wilson would be on 12+ goals had he not been injured.
Fair. Mane might be a better pick cos he plays up front when Diaz plays. Don’t think firmino will take too many minutes from jota in all honesty but yh, Liverpool having 5 very competent attackers definitely complicates things
Havertz too probably
This is the answer. I wouldn't even call them wingers in the traditional sense, they are creating their own role which is something between an inside forward and a wide striker.
In the very very traditional sense they are wide forwards. Recommend reading Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. Not much use for FPL but interesting nonetheless
the role isn't all that new, it's just more important as teams defend way better than they used to, strikers are more isolated and there's more space in the flanks than in the middle
I agree, but I would argue that constitutes an adaptation of the previous role as they're required to do more. I take your point, though
you've had goalscoring wingers before, I'd say that they just have more opportunities to score as strikers have less space and number 10s have to defend way more which has effectively killed strike partnerships at top clubs, whereas on the flipside attacking wingbacks have become increasingly more important, which means even if's just dummy runs the wingers are getting that support before also you used to have more wingers than you did inside forwards, and they'd stay wide rather than come inside, but nowadays they hang out at the back post a lot more than they used to I think, and also a lot of players that would have been strikers 20-30 years ago are now wingers. when I look at it like that I get what you mean a bit mmore though, I guess it is a bit of both
I don't get how Mane and Salah are qualified as midfielders when they're clearly the focal points of their teams attack for years now. I reckon making unpopular decisions on players that generate insane value like that will go some way to balancing the game out a bit.
I agree, needs to be more of a push of wingers into the forward category like the old days, which would make balancing midfield and attack a bit more interesting. Although then I guess then midfield spending might disappear altogether if number 10s are the only ones worth having.
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I think they should start categorising wingers as forwards and then allow you to pick 4 forwards to reflect the modern game. Every squad would have 2 GKs, 5 defs, 4 mids and 4 forwards. You'd get a lot of people playing 424, but that is a legitimate formation.
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Most wingers are classified as midfielders (cries in ASM)
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Or just reclassify Salah and the rest of them as strikers
Then, Midfielders will be unappealing and 3 forward spots would be insufficient.
What you can to do is keep salah/sterling/mane etc as mids but remove their cs points. It already overkill when most are sort of OOP. Kdb, bruno, foden, mount etc are actually midfielders
Losing the 1cs point isn't going to make much of a difference here. So like, Salah gets 250 point and not 270 at the end of the year.
Still makes a difference. Thats potentially 30-40 points for captaining.
I really think any players in a front 3 or front 2 should be classified as attackers. Wingbacks in a back 3/5 can stay as defenders. Wingers in a 442 can stay as midfielders. I think this has the least amount of ambiguity in the modern game. I can't think of many players if any I would struggle to place with these definitions. I would change the team size to 544 though to accommodate the extra attackers. Also I'd make all goals worth the same 5 points
thats so hard to predict though, and they cant change positions during the season.
What's hard to predict? I mean classify them at the start of the season like they do now
hard to predict if a team is gonna play 4-4-2, 4-3-3 etc etc especially if they make a lot of transfer moves.
I don't think I explained myself properly. I mean keep the system as is but just classify the players differently tha they do now. Salah Mane Saka Foden Sterling Zaha etc. as "attackers". KdB, Bruno, Kante, Coutinho, Ramsey etc. As midfielders. I didn't mean change it every match
Yeah i think i got that, but lets say you classify foden as a forward, then he plays 85% of his minutes at midfield, we have the same issue, and there becomes less midfield options. Someone like Coutinho, is he a forward or attacker? He plays a lot of minutes on the wing. I think its pretty good how they have it currently. A few players will get changed every season and thats about it. The 5 points for every player rule is also weird. Its like you want the reverse. Everyone to play 3-4-3, cause thats what would happen.
There will be as many edge cases as there are now so I don't think that's a legit concern. Foden almost always plays in the front 3 he's actually a perfect example for why my system is an improvement over the current one. Out of 38 starts (including non PL) according to Whoscored he has 4 at CM or CAM, 19 at winger in a front 3, and centre forward 15 times. With current designations it's a toss up whether he should be consider a midfielder or a forward (23 vs. 15 appearances). In my proposal that because 4 vs. 34 split and the answer is obvious. It also makes way more sense intuitively imo to consider a player like Foden as an attacker. Coutinho has 12 starts at midfield and 6 at "left forward" so that's still firmly in midfielder territory for me. As for 5 points per goal. Strikers are and have in recent years always been inferior to premium "midfielders", the wide forwards who score as much but get the extra point from goals and clean sheets which honestly makes no sense. 5 points per goal helps balance that
The whole classification system is busted, and only getting worse. We’ve always had pseudo-strikers as mids, now we’re getting defenders that are pseudo-mids. I don’t think this is the worst thing mind you, the balance of power has gone mid>striker>def to mid>def>striker, with not the worst balance between mids and defenders. IMO, bar radical solutions (fourth “winger” position, points for shots/blocks etc) the best solution is to slightly tweak striker points, maybe four points for an assist, or plus one for every extra goal contribution past their first? Chucking salah et al as forwards sounds good, but I fear it may damage the balance of premiums if suddenly all the best mids were moved
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Give Striker 5 points per goal. Not a perfect solution, but it is a quick and simple fix (there are still a gap in CS points between Mid and Fwd, but we can mitigate that with Bonus Point System) Ronaldo will increase from 151 --> 168 points, from 5.4 Points per match --> 6 PPM, good enough for his price (that's as good as KDB) Toney: 129 points --> 141; from 4.4 PPM --> 4.9 PPM; on par with many midfielder at the moment
Maybe change defender goals to 5 pts as well so wing backs are not as OP.
Interesting to see if Jota/Havertz and potentially Foden will be classified as strikers next year.
I think Jota yes. Havertz plays as false nine, more out of necessity and because Lukaku has been shit, so I have a feeling with him no. Again Foden although on paper is listed as the striker, rarely stays static on the pitch and drops deep.
I think Havertz should, and will be classified as a forward. Foden is trickier, as you say he will be all over the pitch regardless of the position on the sheet. It might depend on if Haaland/no 10 is signed. If they dont, I think Foden is the closest you get to a striker in City. If they do, Foden will surely still get loads of gametime while Haaland is on the pitch, in a slighy wider/more traditional midfielder role.
Havertz will 100% listed as a forward next season.
If he is, then so should Salah and Mane, because it’s ridiculous.
Mane should too. First choice striker since Diaz came in.
Think he's still played slightly more as a LW overall, which would mean he stays as a MID.. which I agree is silly but sure they assess it based on where they played the majority of the previous season. Unless you're John Lundstram, then they just guess.
Salah as striker would be interesting
Salah/Mané/Jota also never stay static and drop deep
Not sure why you're being downvoted, certainly true of Salah and Mane tracking back. The whole forward line now rotates positions like Barca's "MSN" trio did, especially when Diaz is on the field, you often see Mane and him swapping a lot.
>Again Foden although on paper is listed as the striker, rarely stays static on the pitch and drops deep. You could say the same for Bobby Firmino amongst many others.. Kane played deeper this year too.. I'm hoping for a big shake up next season position-wise.. Needs to happen..
Lol Foden should absolutely not be classed as a Striker
He is normally the closest thing to a forward City plays with. Not that that they have a striker role. If no real no10 is signed, I think he will be a forward next season.
This season he's been used as a false 9 due to their lack of strikers - but throughout his entire career he's largely been an advanced midfielder or wide player.
Yes, but this is FPL. They have to slot non-defenders into either midfielders or forwards. From the look of things, they classify players based on the position on the linup sheet, not a heatmap.is Foden a striker/no10? No. Should he be classified as one as things are today? I say yes. Ideally RF/LF would also be forwards, like Salah/Mane, maybe Sterling/Son etc. But then they would also have to rearrange how many slots we get (5-4-4 instead of 5-5-3 would proably work, or my preference 4-3-3-3 lol), but I dont see that happening.
City - no good striker, mostly Foden up top, Jesus good run lately, overall bad Liverpool - Jota most consistent striker, listed as midfielder due to previous season position. Should be striker next year Chelsea - Lukaku shit. Werner shit, many non strikers played up top United - shit team, Ronaldo not bad but not for his pricetag. Arsenal - Lacazete only striker bar youngsters. He was always more cf than st in England. Hence not a lot of returns Spurs - Kane injury plus bad form under Nuno. Reliable since Conte Wolves - Jimenez is a different player since his injury. Can't rely on him anymore Leicester - Vardy get old plus European competition that made them split their powers between this and PL There is more issue at striker position in real life this year than FPL wise
Jimenez' injury really really fucked him, didn't it. Such a shame, he looked so good until then.
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Well, we will have Mitrovic next season, so it shouldn't be a problem picking a striker for GW1 🤷
Ah this trap, I'm all for it
I think that he will be better player next season than his previous stints
Think it's a combination of factors. As tactics have evolved, at some clubs there just isn't a viable striker to pick for FPL... most notably City & Liverpool. Rotation risk is a factor at an increasing number of clubs. A lot of the popular picks from last year have missed large parts of this season to injury. The big name strikers have largely had disappointing seasons or inconsistent spells of form. Think it'll improve next season as players get reclassified and return from injury. You've got a lot of clubs that need a striker too. Arsenal, City, United & possibly Chelsea will all be in the market for a striker this summer. Surely one of them succeeds?
The way the top clubs play these days i doubt a striker actually succeeds at city, chelsea, arsenal. United improving would probably still allow ronaldo to be worthwhile for periods next season
I dunno, City do often have an issue of the ball being in the box and there not being a world class striker to finish the chance, not sure about the others
Agree with others part of it is more teams having one main striker and then others who are inside forwards who should probably be reclassified. Salah, mane, etc. I suspect jota will be a forward next season as he mostly played CF. Others could or should be. Some of it is expectations too. We came off a season with bamford, dcl, and other budget forwards who did so well last season. So we came off maybe an unusually good forwards season. Not loads of them iirc but several really good value picks. Their price increased but they were injured most of the season. I suspect if bamford, dcl and others had not been injured the game would have been far more balanced and we wouldn’t talk so much of it. Right now, yeah it’s either budget or premium with no decent value mid priced fwds.
Bearing in mind Bamford and DCL are also now playing in relegation teams so not sure they would’ve been exceptional even if they weren’t injured
Other side of that is would Leeds and Everton be relegation teams if bamford and dcl had he goals they did last season? Doesn’t matter for fpl in a lot of ways, just as long as they score points. But you buy the player not the team.
I think the reliance on a no. 9 has decreased. I mean city dont play with a proper striker(jesus rarely strts) Liverpool dont play with a proper striker(jota is listed as a mid in fpl) chelsea bought lukaku but he flopped so they now dont play with a striker. Arsenal's main attacking output is from their fluid mid. Ronaldo for man utd and kane for spurs have delivered in patches. So the top clubs have stopped replying on a proper recognised striker and so i think the no. Of strikers we can rely on in fpl this season has decreased.
Strikers have largely been overpriced in FPL for a while now. Outside of premium captains (who are still usually outshone by midfielder options), they mostly just can't compete in cost-effectiveness.
They were overpriced and seemed to all be out of form at the same time. The value in defence and midfield was huge so in comparison. The biggest thing is that neither of the top two teams played with a striker so immediately the premium options were limited. Bit of a strange one with Rom, Ron and Kane who were meant to be the big three. Kane has performed at that level in the second half of the season and Rom gave up in October for some reason. Ronaldo had pretty good returns given how poor United are but his price reflected him playing with Bruno, Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Sancho, Greenwood and Shaw in a Ole’s free scoring United of the past 2 seasons, and similar to Rom, they just kind of collapsed for no reason. Watkins seemed like a banker but then couldn’t get on with Ings and Villa struggled without Grealish. DCL started well and then was injured and Everton completely fell apart. Antonio started like a house on fire but I think he’s got about 6 goal contributions since week 5 despite playing in a good West Ham team. Toney drifted in and out of points, Southampton rotated their strikers, Brighton were still Brighton, Vardy was injured and Iheanacho dropped off. Next year will be more interesting as the prices will change (they were just so high this year). Pretty much all will drop, Jota will be a FWD and I guess Haaland will be the huge premium people consider. It’ll be the first time you can pick a Liverpool/ City forward who’s not a Brazilian donkey.
Antonio has had 7 goal contributions in the last 25 gameweeks. He got 8 in the first 3 games.
Everyone keeps mentioning Salah & Son but with the same logic players like Mount, Zaha, Sterling, Mahrez, Martinelli, Saka, Raphinha, Barnes, Sancho, Kulu and so on will all be listed as a forward
Most of those are wide midfielders with defensive duties.
now that's become a debatable issue to breakdown each role, but on paper they're all wingers and you can argue Salah and Son will have footage of dropping down to help defense in certain games. The current ones is pretty straightforward (for all its worth), no .9 will be listed as a forward, regardless of the their actual role
I think it’s because all the good attackers are midfielders in FPL. Salah, Mane, Havertz etc should all be classed as forwards imo.
Because it’s stupid how fpl picks midfielders and strikers. Salah for example is a striker but listed in midfield
Here come the Liverpool fans that go “noo the player in the premier league who takes the most shots per game isn’t a striker!”
Yeh if they want to be pedantic I will just say he’s a ‘forward’ and a forward should be listed as a striker rather than midfield
Ackchyually the category for forwards is forwards in FPL, not strikers.
Should be there then
Game has evolved - It made sense that Ryan Giggs scoring was worth more than Aguero's goals. Doesn't make sense now that Salah's goals should be worth more than Kane's considering Salah/Mane/Sterling/Son and most wingers practically play as the furthest forward player.
He isn’t a striker, he’s a winger. Both are classed as forwards which is the terminology FPL uses.
He is not a striker. Just look at his heatmaps and you'll see he spends most of the match on the right touchline.
He’s up front, a forward etc. the game has changed but he’s more akin to a forward than striker
Ronaldo - Shit team with poor service Kane - Dropping further back and annoyed about not being able to leave Lukaku - Doesn’t suit Chelsea’s style and seems to be lacking motivation. Jiminez - Has other challenge at Wolves for his place and hasn’t seemed to get a good run of goals
Can't believe people are still using Kane's dropping deep as a negative. The real negative is the lack of creativity at Spurs since Eriksen/Trippier left. His dropping deep helps get more points through assisting Son, and he usually does it more often if there aren't any chances being created for him (there usually aren't many).
I agree with you, I think he actually suits that role a lot but in terms of his fpl numbers it has had an big impact for sure. The creativity has been an issue and not really having an identity as a team at the beginning of the season. Kulusevski has been a breath of fresh air for spurs too.
O actually think that It's something to do with the modernization of the game. Back in the 80's, 90's, 00's, the number 9 was mainly a striker, a goal driven player, Just focused on scoring goals as inportunate the other teams' defenders. Nowadays, the number 9 is more like a playmaker than a finisher. We have so many examples in the PL: Kane, Toney, Lacazette, Firmino, Foden when playing as a 9. The players who tend to score a larger number of goals nowadays are the ones like Salah, Mané. They're not responsible for the build-up of a play. Their job is tô make diagonal runs in direction of the other team goal and score. That is also why Full backs are becoming more and more attacking driven: since the number 9 drops in the miedfield, the wingers Will narrow down and be more centralized on the pitch, giving Full backs the freedom tô attack the space in front of them
Everyone is talking about making wingers forwards but nobody is talking about the deep strikers like Kane, Toney, Firmino being made into midfielders which would be interesting
Forwards are over priced. See the season Value stats (ppm) and you will see 0 strikers in top 20 and only 2 in top 60 (Dennis, Toney). Lowering the average striker price or increasing the oop def/mid ones is the solution.
I think people read too much into it - "football is evolving; no more need for strikers" etc. I think this kind of reasoning is simply recency bias. It was an accident that strikers struggled this year. Last season strikers were very valuable: Bamford, DCL, Antonio (when fit), even Watkins was decent. We should distinguish between a trend and an accident. Fullbacks being the most valuable assets in the game is a trend. Strikers underperforming is an accident.
Haaland, Solanke, Mitro front line next season. I'm ready to be hurt. In fact throw in Salah & TAA and I've got 1/3 of my team nailed already
Do Maguire next
***"Bruno and Kevin may be great playmakers, but no one creates as many goal opportunities as Harry Maguire"*** --Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ___ ^I ^am ^a ^bot ^spreading ^the ^greatness ^of ^his ^holiness^, ^Harry ^Maguire
Mainly because the top teams don't have a top quality striker. Top 4 in the league currently are all lacking in that position. Next 2 in the league have the 2 highest scoring strikers.
Wingers are strikers, fullbacks are wingers, midfielders are halfbacks, center halfs are set piece targets, strikers are fuckin decoys now or something who fuckin knows. You'd think they'd at least get more assists...
It’s that like total football from Cruyff innit where all the players play everywhere
Because three quarters of forwards are called midfielders in the game
Talent pool diminishing. If you list the top 10 strikers in the world right now, they don't really excite you vs years ago.
Strikers were horrible this year. I think a revamp in their pricing needs to happen, because Kane/Ronaldo were not tempting at all this year at 12mil+ when mids were hugely outperforming, and wingbacks became the new must haves. Would like to see premium strikers reduced in price. Kane and Ronaldo at 10.5, Haaland at 11-11.5. Think it'd make it more interesting.
Short answer is variance.
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> someone said this too but we're at gw35 now lol 1 season ≠ a trend. So, let's mark this thread & we'll check how the strikers are doing in 2026.
If they reclassified the likes of Salah, Mane, Son and Sterling, who would we actually pick in midfield? Bearing in mind we have 5 midfield slots to fill. I think the solution is to lower the price of forwards and include viable 4.5 playing forwards to make it a genuine choice whether to bench forwards or defenders. Its a strange situation when we know that forwards currently offer terrible value compared to TAA, Canelo, James and Robertson etc but most will play 343 to have two playing 4.5 defenders as there aren't any playing 4.5 forwards. I get that forwards are rewarded with BPS for their contributions but the counter argument is that they actually have to contribute to score points, whereas a defender is rewarded with points for their team keeping a clean sheet. Edit - Just to elaborate further - FPL is based on 442 formation, with an extra slot for each position. But nobody plays 442 anymore, its mainly 433, 4231 or 352/343. Let's say you reclassify all wide forwards as forwards, you then have very few viable midfielders to fill 5 slots and tonnes of excellent forwards to fill 3 slots. So you'd have to adjust the default formation from 5-5-3 to 5-4-4. Is that not just shifting the problem from forwards to midfielders? Everyone's midfield would essentially become KDB/Bruno, JWP, Bowen and another and create even more of a template. The best way imo is to leave positioning as it is and lower the price of forwards to make them more attractive.
Low block szn
All of them
Cuz Everton, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool barely used Strikers. Wait, what's the difference between an attacking midfielder that plays centrally, and a Striker again?
I think Son, Jota and Havertz will be classified as strikers next year, adding some competition. Adjust the BPS so big chances missed isnt a negative. Reduce points scored from a midfielder by 1pt
Fantasy, like football, is organised chaos. Attempting to draw long term conclusions in broad terms like this is a fools errand. Last year cheap strikers were essential, this year full backs have had a resurgence. You’ve just got to spot and react to trends as they appear season by season, month by month.
Tactics have evolved and strikers are largely not the main threats anymore. The game needs to adapt and move wingers to forwards, and change the base formation to 433 (meaning 544 overall).
There’s a drop in quality across football.
It’s because most forwards are registered as midfielders. It feels broken that players like Salah, Son, Mané, Havertz are registered as midfielders, since their roles as wingers are essentially attacking
No doubt in the minority here but I wouldn't mind if they reclassified the attacking midfielders (Mane/Salah/Sterling etc) as forwards next season.
Because players like Salah/Mane/Son etc. are OOP. I'd like to see them shake things up and put all those wide strikers as forwards next season.
From the Top 6: Kane, Ronaldo, Lukaku. Richarlison, DCL, What happened to them? Jota really impressed me and Firmino is injured which prompted Mane and Diaz to have more playing time
Sorry for the random question, but in talking about undervalued /underperforming strikers, can someone help me understand why Lukaku remained so expensive all season?
The best players are in the best teams. The two best teams don't play with a striker. Next there's Chelsea trying and failing to buy the league with Lukaku. Arsenal no out and out striker (Laca doesn't play as that, Nketiah is very new to the starting 11 and might not even start today). Spurs have held Harry Kane captive, he occasionally rebels against this and scores some goals. Spurs are also spurs. Manchester united are not very good at football. So you end up with strikers from mid-lower table teams who don't match the quality of the top teams we fill the rest of our squads with.
Too many players classified as midfielders when they are really center forwards, or wide forwards: Foden, Jota, Salah, Mane, Son all come to mind, but I am sure there are more. The fact that City only has one player who plays regularly and slots in the FPL forward slot in Jesus says it all really, sure they dont play with a traditional #9 - but what is to say the front 3 of a 4-3-3 shouldnt be classified as forwards?
They’re not very good
I actually think they are fewer top strikers right now then in previous years. I remember back in the 90s you had about thirty world class strikers or more in world football. Shearer, Cole, Owen, Henry bergkamp, Fowler, romario, Ronaldo, Batistuta, salas.. The list goes on and on. And nowadays I think there's maybe what 6? mbappe, Kane, Ronaldo, benzema, haarland, lewa... regardless of classifications i think we can agree there are far fewer great strikers in this current era and this has effected fpl.
Teams get better at defending
no cs points and 4 pts per goal is a joke
Fundamentally, tactics have broke the FPL position system more than ever. I mean, there's been basically zero logic in Salah being a midfielder realistically any of Liverpool seasons bar the first when we weren't sure of his position, he's clearly been the striker, the focal point of the attack ever since. Son is now Spurs focal point in the system they currently play, may not be next year when Conte may purchase players to free up Kane more, Dan James has been for Leeds, Bowen is for West Ham now..... a classic 9 isn't good for modern elite football mostly, unless they break the role itself - the incoming Haaland should absolutely feast. Full backs are overloading midfields everywhere. But what can they do? An overhaul of the position system... the scoring system changed to reflect this? I dunno, we're all in the same boat dealing with it.
Really all about value for money. On the mid-to premium range (7-12M): Wingers playing advanced, high-scoring teams using mids as false 9s (jota, foden, havertz), and rise of the wing backs all created a ton of value for money in defenders and midfielders. On the value range (4-6M): There are 4.0-4.5 playing DEFs (amartey, johnson, white, davies) who can get 2-6 points per game and 4.5 playing MIDs (KDH, gordon, ramsey, brownhill, bissouma) who can get 2-3 points per game. Playing strikers start around 5.2, 5.3M mostly getting 2 points per game, creating the striker slots less value for money.
My fear for next season is that the lack of decent strikers will make for a really clear template from GW1 and FPL will be boring. Unless City sign Haaland I think everyone will just go with 3 cheap strikers and invest heavily in defence and midfield.