Sam FPL’s GW1 Key FPL Questions

Finally GW1 is here – New season, new deadlines and new FPL dilemmas!

Before we start make your moves early to avoid any overthinking before the deadline and make sure you’re satisfied with every pick in your draft. Don’t just follow content creators or friends blindly, search, watch, read more and more and follow your gut feeling!

Best Differentials for GW1 draft?

Porro (around 10%):

Porro has 8 goal involvements last season in 33 appearances and is one of the best attacking defenders in the league currently. Maddison’s injury will boost his returns as he will take more set pieces as he did against PSG and registered an assist in such tough game.

Spurs have great long term fixtures. Ange and his defensive high line now gone, Spurs will hope for greater defensive stability under Thomas Frank Who moved over from Brentford, signing a three-year deal.

Personally, I expect him to bang in GW1 against Burnley.

Diouf (6%):

He has recorded 10 goals and 3 assists for Slavia Prague in the last 2 seasons playing as a wing-back and delivered an assist vs Bournemouth recently. He is more attacking and advanced than Wan-Bissaka who is owned by around 30% of FPL managers.

SUN in Gameweek 1 will be a great chance to get a decent haul!

Gakpo (6%):

He has 24 goal involvements last year in all competitions which is very good for a midfielder priced at only £7.5m. His minutes looks secured recently and he overlaps well with Etikite. Wirtz is better pick for sure but IF you can’t afford him, Gakpo might be a nice solution.

Evanilson (2%):

He recorded 15 goal involvements in 28 starts in his debut season for Bournemouth. Now he adapt and should improve and deliver in this season. Most managers avoided him because he faces Liverpool in GW1 at Anfield but I think if you can bench him against the reds, you will get great run of fixtures in GW2 – 7

Best 4.5 Defender?

At this price tag, we will find assets with limited attacking threat, mostly CBs, So putting the defensive contribution is a key! from last season data, Andersen and Richards are top 4.5 defenders for Def Con by 9.5 and 9 DC per 90 min. Players like Konsa and Van de Ven are poor at DC. Simply put in mind DC and the fixtures ticker as well.

Best Budget Midfielder?

Unfortunately, there is no good pick at £4.5m in midfield. So I’m going to talk about a 5.0m midfielder from Everton!

Dewsbury-Hall: Kiernan Dewsbury‑Hall completed a transfer from Chelsea to Everton, signing a five-year contract and is expected to be a key player at no 10.

Despite his limited minutes last season, he got 9 goal involvements. I think he is going to be a gem at this £5.0m as your 5^th mid or even 4^th starting mid during Everton easy period of fixtures.

Which Premiums to buy?

I’ll divide it into 2 categories: super Premiums and normal Premiums.

Super Premiums are Salah and Haaland:

Salah has been priced as the most expensive asset in the campaign for a reason. He is 14.5 and Haaland at 14.0.

I’ve already decided to get only 1 premium out of Salah and Haaland. Getting both will negatively affect my team structure and leave my draft unbalanced.

The one you buy from them should be your GW1 captain.

Other premiums are:

Palmer, Saka, Bruno and Wirtz.

I think getting 2 out of this 4 is essential. This is the ideal amount of premiums to get to keep your draft balanced and solid. Saka has the worst schedule, and this may lower his ceiling. Palmer has better fixtures and penalties. Wirtz and Bruno has mixed fixtures and are cheaper.

For me, I’ll get Salah over Haaland, and from the other category I’ll pick Palmer and one of Bruno or Wirtz.

 

Check out Sam FPL’s GW1 guide from earlier this week too, between these 2 articles Sam’s got you covered on every FPL query heading into the opening week.

You also might want to freshen up on the best budget options at every position in FPL this season: the best budget Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Forwards in FPL for the 25/26 season.