Before the season started, I was quite convinced that FPL teams would live or die by their choice of £8m mid. The first two gameweeks have favoured the cheaper mids though, with seven of the top ten scoring midfielders starting at £6 or less! I do still think that owning at least one of the £8m mids is good for team balance and, as the season goes on, we should see the cream start to rise to the top. But who should be go for? Let’s go over all the mids that started the season at £8m and see if we can beat the bandwagon.

Kulusevski

A fair few managers were including him in their drafts as Spurs cover for the pricier Kane and Son. With his 15 point total eclipsing the scores of his premium team mates, that certainly looked like a good call! The majority of those points came from a goal and assist in the 4-0 thrashing of Southampton though. His underlying stats aren’t great and he was largely invisible against Chelsea. Spurs were under pressure for the majority of that game, which might imply that the Swede isn’t a fixture-proof option. Having said that, WOL | not | whu | FUL is a pretty nice run, so maybe we’ll be seeing him back in the points again sooner rather than later.

Maddison

Maddison certainly has the most impressive stats of all the 8m mids so far. He ranks 1st for shots and SiB, as well as 2nd for xG. His 6 key passes and 1 assist show that he can create as well as score goals. He is undoubtedly the talisman of the Leicester team (if you haven’t read @WGTA_FPL’s annual article about Talisman Theory, I highly recommend you do so) and if there are goals, he’s highly likely to be involved. There are certainly doubts about the quality of the players around him though, so goals aren’t might not come as easily as we’d like. His immediate fixture list isn’t too bad ( SOU | che | MUN | bha | AVL ) but gets a whole lot tastier from GW9 ( NOT | bou | CRY | LEE | wol ) after the international break. Expect to see him in a whole lot of wildcard teams.

Foden

We all know that Man City players can do wonders for an FPL team, but the hardest part is usually trying to work out who is going to start! Foden has started both games so far this season and it certainly helps that he can play anywhere on the pitch. He’s off to a good start with the highest xG and xA of any 8m mid, with a goal and assist to show for it. It’s worth noting that Pep has made it very clear that Haaland is the focal point of the City attack though. He was quite critical of Foden after the Bournemouth game, where he wasted a perfect opportunity to square the ball to Haaland in the box. Maybe that contributed to him getting pulled at half time?

Diaz

The Colombian was a very popular choice in pre-season drafts and still remains the highest selected 8m mid. The battle for the third Liverpool slot between him and Robertson feels like a bit of a one-sided contest right now! Diaz hit the woodwork against Fulham, but got off the mark with goal against Palace after Nunez got sent off. He really seemed to come alive after the red card with more freedom to take central positions. He looks primed to take advantage of Nunez’s absence for the next three games, with a tasty run of mun | BOU | NEW | eve | WOL to get his teeth into.

Saka

After Arsenal put on a bit of a show in pre-season, many people (myself included) expected Saka to pick up where he left off. While Jesus and Martinelli certainly did, Saka appears to be getting left out of all the fun with only a single lucky assist to his name. Considering the team have scored six goals in two games, that’s a bit concerning. Only 20% of Arsenal’s chances have come down the right hand side, so he is simply not able to get involved. When you also consider the fact that he might not even be on penalties anymore, it’s hard to deny the fact that Martinelli is simply better value.

Mount

Mount has yet to really look dangerous this season, with a rather uninspiring 0.2xG and 0.11xA. With Sterling yet to show up, Chelsea are still looking for that consistent goal scoring threat and many managers expected Mount to provide that. With an upcoming fixture run of lee | LEI | sou | WHU | fun, there is definitely still an opportunity to turn it around.

Mahrez

Where there are winners in Pep Roulette, there has to be losers. Mahrez has only seen 91 minutes of play in the last two GW, which makes him a bit of a risk until he starts getting some consistent starts. Haaland looks like he will be taking over penalty duties, which further reduces the dwindling appeal of the Algerian.

My order of preference for the £8m mids would be:

Maddison > Diaz > Kulu > Foden > Saka > Mount > Mahrez

Stats taken from Fantasy Football Hub