Best Fulham FPL Players | Fulham FPL Preview

Well, here we are again, folks. Fulham are back in the Premier League, having been promoted in three of the last five seasons and relegated in the other two.

Despite being a solid top flight team for the guts of 13 years until Mohammed Fayed sold up, we’re now seen as a yo-yo club. This season has to be the year they put an end to that. But has anything changed? Have the lessons of previous campaigns been learned?

It doesn’t look like it, to be honest. I had put off writing this article until the Cottagers had made some signings so I could better judge their chances for success. I waited, and waited, then waited some more. I even got some flak from fellow fans for writing that the club needed to follow Nottingham Forest’s lead on transfers and get the finger out. It’s baffling how slow the club has been at bringing in new faces, given everyone knew back in January that we were going up.

The past couple of weeks have finally seen some movement on that front, with several players coming in for key positions. But there is still more to do and the new season is here. Once again we have left it so late and put ourselves in unnecessary danger of losing ground in the opening month.

One reliable rule to live by in Fantasy Premier League is always wait and see with promoted teams. Fulham is certainly no exception, even more so given their lethargy in the transfer market and the fact they have Liverpool first up. This is not a bandwagon you need to jump on right away.

Even as a Fulham supporter I will be captaining Mo Salah in GW1. I am hoping against hope this game doesn’t turn into the kind of heavy-handed bloodbath that we know Jürgen Klopp’s men are capable of inflicting. Our squad is in a better condition than it was two years ago, but we have just two senior centre-backs in the squad, one of our most important players is out injured and the manager is unhappy with the lack of deals up to now.

Okay, enough of the doom-mongering. Let’s take a look at Fulham’s most dangerous assets, the newcomers to the team, how they will set up tactically, and maybe bust some myths along the way.

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Best Fulham FPL Assets

Mitrovic(6.5) on fire

There is no better place to begin than Aleksander Mitrovic (£6.5), the Serbian striker who demolished defences last season and scored 43 goals, beating the second tier goalscoring record set by Guy Whittingham (42) in 1992.

At his price point Mitro makes for a very intriguing option, but there is obviously a fear among FPL managers of being catfished again after the disaster that was 2020/21. For those who need reminding, he scored three goals. Three!

That is admittedly absolutely shocking and inevitably led to a load of memes about his proficiency in the Championship versus his supposed crumminess in the Premier League. If only there were a league between the two, I hear you cry!

But charges of Mitro being unable to cut in the Premier League are wide of the mark. In his first season at Newcastle he scored nine goals in 34 appearances. In his first top flight season with Fulham he found the net 11 times in 37 games while playing for an atrocious side. Michail Antonio, meanwhile, has never scored more than 10 league goals in a single campaign for West Ham.

As for two seasons ago, Scott Parker completely dropped the ball. He handed Mitro just 13 league starts, with another 14 coming off the bench. Parker benched his main source of goals from the previous season and chose to play a false nine. As Mick McCarthy once famously said in a press conference, that worked out well didn’t it.

The same thing won’t happen again under Marco Silva. The Portuguese will tailor the team to his needs and get the most out of him, just like he did last season. He will be vital to our survival chances this season and if the rest of the team can create opportunities in the box for him, then I can see him hitting double digits by the end of May.

Another myth concerning Mitro is that he’s a pure no.9 that only operates in the penalty area. He may not be the fastest forward around, but he can still move. Last season he put those legs to use by dropping deep, picking up the ball in pockets of space to facilitate attacking moves. While he doesn’t have the passing range of Harry Kane, he certainly evokes the playing style of the Spurs striker in this regard.

If Mitro can get even half of the number of goal involvements that Kane is capable of getting this season, then he will be a useful asset this season.

Further Read: Best FPL Forwards to Consider Ahead of the 2022/23 FPL Season

Fulham new signings

Andreas Pereira

We might as well start with the man who is currently the fifth midfielder in over a quarter of squads. He is none other than the pre-season Pirlo himself, Andreas Pereira (£4.5).

The Brazilian’s price point and likelihood of starting every week make him a widely popular pick, but is he actually a worthy pick? In a word, yes.

Pereira arrives from Manchester United as a replacement for Fabio Carvalho, who left for Liverpool at the end of last season. In pre-season he played in a similar role, occupying the no.10 position just behind Mitrovic. Where they seem to differ is Carvalho would often make runs into the box himself and also look to make killer passes, while Pereira is more involved in general buildup.

I don’t expect Pereira to be as effective in attack as his predecessor, but I’m looking forward to seeing how his relationship with Mitro develops; it could be a fruitful one. My main concerns over him FPL-wise relate to the lack of goal involvements in his career to date and his decision-making.

He has never managed more than eight goal involvements (5G, 3A while on loan at Granada in 2016/17) in a single league campaign. From watching him in the past, he appear to be good at plenty of things as an attacking midfielder, but often takes the wrong option in the final third; shoots when he should pass, passes when he should shoot.

What is really attractive about Pereira, though, is that he will be on some set pieces. In preseason he has been taking corners on the left, through which he provided two assists for Mitro. On both occasions, against Benfica and Estoril Praia, he whipped the ball toward the near post for the Serb to glance home. That’s encouraging, although the set-piece marking from Estoril was horrendous. Harry Wilson’s injury means he will have more responsibility on set pieces; he attempted a direct free kick in the second-half draw with Villarreal last weekend, although the effort was pretty bad.

Further Read: Best £4.5 Million FPL Midfielders For The 2022/23 FPL Season

Bernd Leno (£4.5)

Leno arrives from Arsenal and will almost certainly be starting against Liverpool this weekend. I don’t think I’ll have him in my team from the off, but there is potential for save points in GW1 and beyond.

Manor Soloman (price unknown)

Soloman could be a real wildcard this season. He’s an explosive player with quick pace and an eye for goal. He has joined on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk, for whom he scored in the Champions League against Real Madrid and Man City. He also scored a belting goal for Israel in the Uefa Nations League this summer as a teaser for what’s to come. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen him in pre-season due to the complicated nature of his transfer from Ukraine. But if he is priced at £5.5, I think he could be a dynamite differential later in the season.

Kevin Mbabu (£4.5)

Mbabu arrives from Wolfsburg as a replacement for, and arguably an upgrade on, Neco WIlliams. There are question marks over the former Wolfsburg right-back’s defending (and his Covid-19 vaccine status), but he made an instant impact with an assist for Mitrovic’s equaliser against Villarreal, just moments after coming off the bench. Expect him to be a rotation piece with Kenny Tete.

Joao Palhinha (£5.0)

Palhinha won’t be at the top of anyone’s wishlist, but is the kind of addition that Fulham have been crying out for for years. He will sit at the base of our midfield and break up play; expect him to get plenty of bookings, which kind of ruins him as a potential asset. That’s a shame because he will start every week and has a long range goal in him, as he demonstrated with a belter against Estoril.

Fulham are also looking at bringing in some much-needed centre-backs, with Jannik Vestergaard being linked. If he were to join, he would make a semi-decent bench option in FPL at £4.0.

Marco Silva tactics and set pieces

Throughout his career, Marco Silva has consistently been a press-and-possess manager. This is why we shouldn’t expect Fulham to venture too far from the style of football that saw them promoted from the Championship with 106 goals scored. He’s played this way with a stick-thin Hull City, Watford and Everton, so why would this season with Fulham be any different?

I do, though, expect a slight tweak to the formation. Last year we predominantly played in a 4-3-3 or some variation thereof with one DM playing with two more attacking players in midfield. We will be switching to more of a 4-2-3-1, with Palhinha and Harrison Reed as a double pivot behind Pereira.

This is how Silva intends on adapting his team to the Premier League after being the dominant force in the division below without losing too much of their attacking edge. They will still look to take on the opposition, but leave themselves a little less open than they were last season. Teams were able to make hay against us by just running up our gut at times; that shouldn’t happen as easily now with this new setup… in theory.

The last time he was a Premier League manager, Silva received a lot of flak for Everton’s weakness at set pieces. They were bad at defending them and never seemed to score from them. It wasn’t from a lack of trying, because they reportedly worked on them a lot at Finch Farm.

That issue has not followed Silva to Fulham, who scored 25 goals from set pieces last season. Not bad considering we only scored 27 goals in total in 2020/21. Mitrovic is obviously a huge part of that, as is the crossing ability of Wilson. But there were also clear patterns and set plays that Fulham had worked on in the training ground. On several occasions they ran a screen to give Mitro a free header on goal. Now we are seeing Pereira clearly aiming for Mitro at the near post in pre-season.

Success from set pieces will be absolutely vital to our survival and could be a boon in fantasy terms. On top of that, Silva, like Mitro, has a point to prove to everyone that he belongs at this level. And that is a powerful motivation.

Further Read: Set-Piece & Penalty Takers of All Premier League Clubs

Fulham in Pre-season

Played- 4, Won-2, Draw-1, Lost-1

Fulham 2-0 OGC Nice
Fulham 1-5 Benfica
Fulham 3-1 Estoril
Fulham 1-1 Villarreal

Top performers:

Mitrovic- 4 goals, 1 assist
Pereira- 2 assists(Both from corners)
Wilson- 1 goal, 1 assist
Mbabu- 1 assist
Palhinha- 1 goal

Full lineups, minutes played and Round up of Fulham’s Friendlies covered here.

Further Read: 2022/23 Pre-Season Summary of All 20 Premier League Teams

Fulham Predicted XI vs Liverpool

In terms of nailed-on starters for GW1 and thereafter, I think Leno, Tosin Adarabioyo (£4.5), Antonee Robinson (£4.5), Harrison Reed (£4.5) and Palhinha are all decent enablers that can be expected to play every week. Tim Ream (£4.5) will start against the Reds, but expect him to be replaced in the lineup if we can get in some new defenders.

Mitro and Pereira have been covered enough at this stage. With Wilson out for potentially six weeks, I expect Bobby De Cordova-Reid (£5.5) to start on the right wing with Neeskens Kebano (£5.5) on the opposite flank.

Predicted lineup vs Liverpool: Leno, Tete, Tosin, Ream, Robinson; Palhinha, Reed, Pereira; De Cordova-Reid, Mitrovic, Kebano.

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