If you’re lagging behind in your FPL mini-league, it might be time to take a look at some less popular players and gain some differential power.
It is all well and good giving the captain’s armband to Mohammed Salah but when all of your rivals are doing the same, it will be difficult to gain ground.
To help you out, we have taken a look at how many points every player owned by less than 10 per cent of FPL managers could have expected to score based on performance in their club’s last 10 matches.
Could one of these out-of-favour players boost your standing?
More from Mahrez
Kevin De Bruyne is the clear favourite in the Manchester City midfield – with 178 points to his name already, he is in precisely 50 per cent of all teams.
Riyad Mahrez, however, might prove to be the decisive City player in your squad.
No player with less than 10 per cent ownership has more points than the former Leicester man in their side’s last 10 matches, and his ICT Index levels show that his points total is no fluke.
The ‘C’ of ICT stands for Creativity, which measures the goalscoring opportunities a player creates, with analysis showing that a player scores around 100 Creativity for every assist they register.
The ‘T’ stands for Threat, which is used to assess potential goals as creativity is used to assess potential assists.
Cumulative scores of 421 threat and 311 creativity for Mahrez in City’s last 10 outings mean he could have expected to record at least four goals and three assists – with midfielders gaining five points for a goal and three points for assists, his expected attacking returns in this period are just over 30 points.
City’s number 26 has achieved these totals despite missing more than a quarter of potential time on the pitch, and it may be Pep Guardiola’s tendency to rotate which is putting managers off.
With 10 matches remaining though, it is time to throw caution to the wind and Mahrez could well prove a gamble worth taking.
Demon Deeney
While no player with low ownership has scored more points in the last 10 outings than Mahrez, there are actually three who have matched his 51-point return.
Troy Deeney is the first, and his ICT numbers place him second for expected attacking returns in that period.
Forwards may earn one point less per goal but Deeney’s 417 threat and 187 creativity are enough for a total of 22.3 expected points.
Abdoulaye Doucoure is the second Watford player to score exactly 51 points in the Hornets’ 10 most recent matches, but his ICT figures show a more modest attacking contribution, equivalent to 15.2 expected points.
Do not rule the Frenchman out of your thoughts entirely though, as his £5.6m price tag makes him easier to squeeze into your squad.
The final member of the 51 club is Leicester man Ayoze Perez, whose expected attacking output has been somewhere in between the two Watford men at 19.5 expected points.
If you are going to launch an assault on the leaderboard at this late stage, you will need to think outside the box and these four players could be a good place to start.
