One of the biggest advantages you can have at the start of a Fantasy Premier League season is identifying players whose prices don’t quite reflect their potential.
Every season, there are players who look expensive based on their previous output, while others feel underpriced.
Finding the latter can be hugely valuable, particularly in a campaign where fitting the likes of Erling Haaland (£15.5m), Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) and other premium assets into our squads requires us to find value elsewhere.
There are several players who stand out as being potentially undervalued by FPL this season. Here, I will highlight the ones that are most worth considering.
Florian Wirtz (£7.5m) — Liverpool
Wirtz immediately jumps out as one of the most interesting prices in the game.
The German arrived at Liverpool last season with a huge reputation after establishing himself as one of Europe’s most exciting attacking midfielders and moving for a potential fee of £116million. Yet he had an underwhelming season with only five goals and four assists in the Premier League. After taking a while to find his feet, he did improve as the season went on.
The 23-year-old racked up 21 goals and 25 assists in his previous two seasons for former club Bayer Leverkusen.
FPL has priced him at just £7.5m, which places him in the mid-priced category. His price is particularly appealing as we know he is a top talent — he has proven this at European and international level, so surely he has the potential to hugely increases his output this season.
All his attacking returns came from Gameweek 14 onwards. Therefore, if Wirtz continues where he left off from the second half of the last season, he could well outperform his price.
If Florian Wirtz makes good on his pedigree this season, he’ll make a mockery on his price tag (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Liverpool are still one of the league’s strongest attacking sides while Wirtz has the quality to become a significant contributor to their goals and assists.
His versatility will also be hugely important. Wirtz can operate from the left, in an advance attacking midfield role or also centrally, giving new manager Andoni Iraola plenty of tactical flexibility, which in turn is good for his expected minutes.
Liverpool also have some nice fixtures from an attacking point of view to start the season. They play Newcastle United (A), Nottingham Forest (H), Ipswich (A), Fulham (H) and Bournemouth (A) in the first five.
There aren’t many players in this price bracket with Wirtz’s pedigree, and that makes him one of the biggest potential value picks heading into the new season.
Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m) — Manchester City
Semenyo is another player whose price could prove to be a bargain.
The Ghana international enjoyed an impressive campaign last season where he scored 17 goals and six assists, and finished as the second-highest scoring midfielder (202 points) in the game.
After scoring 10 goals and three assists for Bournemouth, he managed to add another seven goals and an assist after his move to Manchester City in January.
Playing for one of the league’s most dominant teams will naturally provide Semenyo with more opportunities to get into dangerous positions and also to assist his team-mates.
In fact, during pre-season, he racked up four assists in three matches, not counting Sunday’s Community Shield.
At £8.5m, he is only £0.5m more than Morgan Gibbs-White (£8.0m) or £1m more than Declan Rice (£7.5m), who you would bet he comfortably outscores.
I can’t see Semenyo being anything other than a regular starter, and his ownership, considering his price and exploits last season, is surprisingly low at 27 per cent, at the time of writing.
City also have some great fixtures in their first 10 games of the season — their first five homes games read: Bournemouth, Coventry, Sunderland, Ipswich and Brighton.
Cole Palmer (£9.5m) — Chelsea
It might seem strange to describe Palmer as undervalued when he’s still priced at £9.5m.
However, given his previous FPL pedigree — he was the top scorer in the game in 2023-24 — and his importance to Chelsea, this could still prove to be too cheap.
Palmer has already demonstrated that he can produce elite FPL numbers. In that 2023-24 season, he scored 22 goals and had 13 assists, and followed that by netting 15 times and assisting 10 goals the following season.
The 24-year-old no doubt underwhelmed last season with only 10 goals and two assists. However, his season was marred with injuries and it always felt like he was playing his way back to fitness.
Now, with a full summer off and with the attacking midfielder hopefully well-rested, he could well be back to his best.
The fact that Chelsea do not have any European commitments this season also adds to his appeal FPL-wise.
Palmer also has set pieces and penalties in his locker, providing multiple routes to points and will surely be nailed to start under Xabi Alonso.
Chelsea will be hoping to challenge higher up the table than last season’s 10th, and if Alonso can get their attack firing, Palmer has the potential to return to the levels that previously made him one of the most sought-after players in FPL.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) — Leeds United
Perhaps the most underpriced player in the forward position is Calvert-Lewin at £6.0m.
The striker has already demonstrated that he can be an effective FPL asset when fit and playing regularly with 14 goals last season.
His biggest problem has historically been availability but he did manage 30 starts last season, playing 2721 minutes — the most he has managed since the 2020-21 campaign.
A starting price of £6.5m feels like a steal for Leeds United’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
He is playing as a first-choice No 9 for a good and improving Leeds, is the focal point of their attack and is also on penalties. You’ll be hard-pressed to find all that for £6.0m anywhere else.
At that price, Calvert-Lewin doesn’t need to produce premium-level numbers. A consistent stream of returns is enough to make him one of the best value players in the game.
Leeds also have fine fixtures to start their new campaign. They play Nottingham Forest (A), Brentford (H), Brighton (A), Newcastle (H) and Crystal Palace (H) in the first five games.
The Arsenal defence
Apart from Gabriel (£8.0m), most of the Arsenal defence look to be undervalued
They have been the best defensive team in the league for the last three seasons — ending all those campaigns with least goals conceded.
I don’t think any Arsenal defender or keeper should have been less than £6.5m.
With William Saliba (£6.0m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) currently out injured, this opens the door for Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) and Ben White (£5.5m), who, at their prices, are now the best value defenders in the game.
Mosquera should start every game until Saliba returns, providing Arsenal do not sign another centre-back. Same goes for White with Timber.
Even left-back Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) could be an option but he does have Piero Hincapie (£5.5m) as competition. However, the Italian has started every pre-season friendly so far and also opened the scoring in his team’s Community Shield win.
Arsenal’s defensive strength is a step ahead of everyone else — so much so that it doesn’t even matter if their defenders don’t get many defensive contributions.
Having at least one Arsenal defender to start the season looks pretty much essential given you can get a starting defender for the clear best defence in the league for as little as £5.5m.
