If you are like me and currently have Haaland, you are likely to need one or two 6.5m midfielders in the squad but the question remains who and Id just like to see who everyone has gone for. The options between the likes of Nkunku, Bailey, Garnacho, MGW, Johnson and Szobszlai.

Nkunku holds the great fixtures and can pose as a dangerous asset to the Chelsea team. His numbers in the bundesliga were great and even when he did play last season, he posted a respectable 0.59 xGI per 90 with 3 goals. Looks good so far in preseason and also has the potential to play OOP up top if Maresca wants. The key thing to consider with him is fitness and injuries. He hasn’t shown up in actually being able to get minutes and we have still not seen any reason to think differently. However, with a good preseason under his belt, he could gain the fitness and starting spot to provide some good coverage to Palmer.

Garnacho is one of my favourites of the picks too. He was able to get 11 g/a last season in around 28 starts (in minutes) and got a further 3 fpl assists. 14 fpl returns in 28 games is very respectable considering he didn’t nail down his position for a little bit. If you also take into account the horrible season Utd had and the improvements that they look like they are making (with transfers and changes in club structure), Garnacho looks like he could provide great value as one of the main Utd attacking threats. You can also note that he had the 7th highest xGI per 90 of all midfielders (0.62) from January to May. If Utd improve, Garnacho should benefit and reap the rewards. The issue here is IF they actually do. So it could be a wait and see or you can take the gamble early on.

Bailey is another great pick at this bracket. He was able to hold down a starting spot in the Villa team towards the end of the season and finish off the season with a very strong 10 goals and 9 assists. He had a very good xGI per 90 of 0.58 over a long sample of games. His main issue before was minutes but with the departure of Diaby now, this issue doesn’t seem as bad as it did. He should be the starting winger from now, as he was last season, and if Villa continue on from now they were last season, he could give lots of good value. The only issue here is now on Villa themselves. If you don’t think they can repeat last season (especially because of ucl) then you may see a weaker Villa team and a weaker asset as a result. Another thing to note is that he is not the main threat of that team with the main focus being on Watkins. I still really like him as coverage for Watkins though and do believe that Villa should stay as they were last season, especially given the great signings they have been making. It should be noted that if they do sign Joao Felix, I really don’t like him as much anymore.

Those are my 3 best picks but I will also mentions Johnson (Should be a Spurs starting attacker with 2 great starting fixtures. Just not as much of a goal threat for me and not fully nailed with all the spurs options: Werner, Richarlison, Son, Kulusevski …), MGW (Nailed, on pens and great fixtures. Just not very attacking and not too high underlying numbers) and finally Szoboszlai (Just scored in preseason in that cam role. Could provide great value if he can actually keep that role but that remains to be seen. Especially if MacAllister takes that role too.)

Which one are you going for or would you go for and why?