ImportantHere are our picks of the popular and highly owned players to ignore at the start of the 2024/25 FPL season.
Goalkeeper
Matt Turner, Nottingham Forest – 22% owned – this one is crazy, he appears to be third choice keeper at Forest! Let that sink in, nearly a quarter of managers have selected a player who almost certainly won’t get gametime. I get that he’s probably just a bargain pick to enable money to spent elsewhere but Valdimarsson of Brenford is much more likely to be his team’s number one and costs the same as Turner.
Image source: NYTimes
Defence
Saliba, Arsenal – 39.5% owned – again I know Arsenal’s defence has been great but their opening fixtures don’t scream clean sheets to me. Villa, Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Newcastle in the first 10 fixtures! He’s also not that attacking so I don’t see this as a logical pick.
Burn, Newcastle – 20% owned – Newcastle are still in the market for defenders and have recently been linked to Marc Guehi. If they land him or any others this could limit Burn’s gametime. He was previously used at left-back but it looks like Lewis Hall is locking down that place based on pre-season line-ups.
Kyle Walker, Man City – 9.5% owned – there’s the usual City rotation risk but Walker is only just returning from holiday after featuring in the latter stages of the Euro’s meaning he’s unlikely to be match fit for the first few games.
Image source: football365
Midfield
Foden, Man City – 26% owned – same as Walker, he’s only just returning. I know he’s a quality player and likely to play in his preferred number 10 role this year given De Bruyne’s age/fitness and Alvarez leaving, but he’s not likely to feature much to begin with.
Ødegaard, Arsenal, – 17% owned – at £8.5m this is a lot of budget to use up on someone with tough early fixtures and not guaranteed to be on penalties. Not a bad FPL pick generally but there’s simply better options out there for the money.
Kobbie Mainoo, Man United – 8% – another quality player who improves their team but not likely to be a prolific FPL point scorer. Maybe people are swayed by his inclusion in the England team during the Euro’s and his goal in the FA Cup final but Mainoo is a midfield ball progressor, not a regular assist or goal scorer so just not the profile of player for FPL.
Image source: goal.com
Forwards
João Pedro, Brighton – 16.5% owned – I think he’s in line for better game time this year than last but his opening few games are tough so it might pay to wait on him. It’s worth noting that he’s not long back from injury and despite this his popularity seems to be growing among managers.
Do you disagree – have you gone for any of these players and why? Let me know @FPLwithStu on X.
