Top 200: 2023-24 FPL Draft Ranks

De Bruyne, Barnes, Trossard all moving up

My Top 200 ranks have published on the shared doc. The only outstanding entry now is a Mock Draft, which is on the way. If you’ve been using the position ranks, you may have noticed that there have been a few changes. Some of them are minor and have happened without greater editorializing, but some merit special consideration.

I’m highlighting just a couple clubs and situations below, but the comments are always open! This post is available to all so sharing it helps bring more questions, which creates more research opportunity for this guy, which means more data-informed responses helping you sharpen your draft list.

City Shuffle

The biggest news in FPL has to be the presence of Kevin De Bruyne on the Manchester City bench for their most recent friendly against Bayern Munchen. Pep Guardiola has been suggesting that KDB will be on the pitch sooner than later, as the Belgian continues his recovery from a significant hamstring injury. Aged 32, the midfield maestro is no stranger to serious injury and prolonged recovery, but he simply cannot be expected to return pre-injury levels every time this happens. Hamstrings are still, in these days of modern training, fitness monitoring, etc, still difficult to judge on impact and possible relapse. He’s up to 5th overall, and and third at his position, sending teammate Phil Foden on a corresponding slide down the table. I still love both, each comes with their own risks, either is justifiable as a selection once you get past the top five players; with each, there can be no expectation you’ll land them in Round 2 so if they’re on your must have list, you know what to do.

Elsewhere, there was a rise for fullback Joao Cancelo as he made the bench and onto the pitch as a substitute vs. his former (loan) club, while Julian Alverez and Bernardo Silva are yet to depart the club and make their way into the ranks. How long they stay remains a mystery.

Midfield Cannibals and Competition

Another big jump belongs to former Brighton playmaker Leandro Trossard who has been in scintillating form for Arsenal. A year ago this MID ranking would have looked very strange with Martinelli and Trossard both outside of the top 10 and Rice inside the top 20. The arrival of Trossard instantly created a selection headache for boss Mikel Arteta, playing in basically the same role as highly touted incumbent Martinelli.

The injury gods cursed the end of Arsenal’s season, and solved the selection dilemma for a couple of months, but the Belgian’s play has left fantasy managers on edge this summer waiting to see who has the upper hand.

IF you’ve somehow forgotten how good Trossard was after the transfer - he recorded a goal and TEN ASSISTS in his 20 appearances (10 starts), with a g+a every 90’ (it was actually slightly better at 1.06 g+a/90’!). Meanwhile Declan Rice, like Liverpool’s new boy Dominik Szoboszlai (RB Leipzig) benefits from little to no competition for his place and having a prime role in one of the three best attacks in the Premier League. Rice, unlike Szoboszlai, will not accumulate the goals + assists of the Hungarian hitman or any of his Gunners squad mates, but he should largely earn that M19 rank with consistent high floor performances punctuated by the occasional 10+ point haul.

Also in the mix just outside the top twenty midfielders are Newcastle duo Miguel Almiron and Harvey Barnes. A £38m transfer from Leicester City sees the former Fox replace Allan Saint Maximum in a side which had already strengthen the midfield with AC Milan’s Sando Tonali. 25 year old Barnes is a good fit here and will be an upside play at this rank, tied to his ability to show the quality finishing that he had in Leicester (13 goals from 8.9 xG in 2022-23). The new Magpie should be a regular name in Eddie Howe’s XI and once he is, he’ll be a top-end every week midfielder in all size leagues,

End Game

The back end of the draft is largely about preference. If you like a player I have rated 168 (Wout Weghorst) more than the guy I have rated 136 (Anthony Martial) there’s absolutely no down side to flipping them in your head. Remember the Top 200 isn’t a static document, nor is it standalone. While you can absolutely draft Wout earlier - in fact they’re in the same tier in position ranks, and fully expect many people would take the Burnley forward over an underwhelming Martial pushed further down the United pecking order. Meanwhile, none of the expected offers have materialized for Weggy this summer, leaving him with a shot at making 30+ EPL starts for a Clarets attack which lacks any real firepower.

Sticky Wickets (Maybe from honey? Because Bees.)

Look, the Brentford GK situation remains a mess, and GK is a crap shoot. But you have place a bet so you may as well place it on a guy who will have a good chance at 15+ clean sheets and the odd assist with decent save numbers (Alisson) or the guy who is going to get pelted while being a phenomenal shot-stopper. Transfermarkt covers Flekken’s upside concisely:

Furthermore, Flekken is also an excellent shot-stopper. Flekken was second in the Bundesliga with 112 saves while facing the fifth most shots of any keeper in the German topflight (156). The Dutchman was also fifth in the Bundesliga with 2.98 prevented goals overall and 0.08 prevented goals per 90 minutes.

Should I have him listed 2nd? Probably not. There is a bunch of uncertainty here including the continued presence of last seasons breakout FPL star David Raya. Raya holds his place in the position ranks as the 21st GK on the board, but if you’re drafting right now it’s very easy to draft him in your last round on the hope he wins/retains the job. In all 13 GK make the ranks, and they’re based on projected returns + confidence they get to those return + cost of the pick.

Don’t forget to read all the other posts on the site, starting with this announcement:

As you can read above, I’ll turn the subscriptions on the site back on Aug 1, but continue to post everything outside the paywall. Would love your $upport through the Stack Subscription, Venmo (@ FantasyGaffer) or Paypal (@ JohnWallin). Or not. Up to you. Appreciate you all.

And you can find the always find my position ranks and the Top 200 in the shared doc.

Got questions about the Ranks? Leave them in the comments now.

And now for something completely different

@kylegordonisgreatPlanet of the Bass (feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica) #djcrazytimes #eurodance #90s #dancemusic #edm #funny #funnyvideos #funnytiktok

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