Fantasy Premier League 2021 First Reaction – I’m Thinking It’s Back!
Last Positional Changes
Michail Antonio (6.5m, MID -> FWD)
West Ham have spent a long time looking for a top striker. Last season Sebastien Haller was the latest big-money signing, but he struggled to make his mark and then got injured. In stepped Antonio. The 30-year-old has played at right-back, left-wing, right-wing and now striker, where he excelled!
He scored 8 goals post lockdown (including 4 as West Ham tore apart Norwich to send them down), as Moyes used him as the spearpoint of the West Ham attack. As such he has now been reclassified as a forward. He is still relatively cheap, so could be an excellent 2nd or 3rd striker depending on your tactics and formation, but I would focus on fixtures before bringing him in as West Ham often sit back and leave their striker isolated against the big teams.
Richarlison (8.0m, MID->FWD)
Continuing the theme, Richarlison was classed as a midfielder but spent most of last year lining up alongside DCL as a striker for Everton. He has duly been reclassified and, for me, this makes him a much less viable option!
He scored a reasonable 165 points last year, with 13 goals and 5 assists. However, if you remove points for clean sheets and the extra point per goal that drops to 143. For 8.0m I would expect a lot more, especially as you can get the ever-reliable Jimenez or last year’s breakout hero Ings for just 0.5m more! Of course, Everton had a difficult season with Ancelotti coming in after Marco Silva’s disastrous tenure, but Richarlison is notoriously inconsistent and therefore isn’t too enticing at that price.
John Lundstram (5.5m, DEF->MID)
It was fun while it lasted. Lundstram has been pushed out of the squad by the transfer in of Sander Berge anyway, and with clean sheets now giving just 1 point rather than 4 his appeal is all gone. Goodbye Lord Lundstram, you will be missed.
There were a few others such as Fernandinho and Dier moving back to defenders, but nothing that will be too interesting for our FPL teams!