FPL Pre-Season Insights: £4.5m Forward and £4.0m Defender Analysis

The final weekend of pre-season threw Fantasy Premier League managers exactly what they wanted – and what they hate. Clarity at Ipswich. Chaos at Hull.

At one end, a £4.5m forward turned provider and a cluster of £4.0m defenders laid out their cases. At the other, rotation threats, injury niggles and a manager openly talking about new signings left Hull assets looking like a minefield.

Let’s start where the value actually looks real.

Ipswich: £4.0m defence takes shape, £4.5m forward delivers

Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich Town

• Goals: Clarke, Emersonn, O’Shea, McAteer
• Assists: Davis, Walle Egeli x2, Mehmeti

Gary O’Neil has stopped tinkering.

For the second game running, he rolled out the same back four, and with the season days away, that matters more than any July run-out. This looks like a manager bedding in his first XI, not throwing names into a blender.

The big news for FPL is that the “two from three” debate among Ipswich’s £4.0m centre-backs has shifted. Dara O’Shea, Issa Diop and Jacob Greaves are still all available at basement price, but O’Shea has been pushed to right-back. On paper, that’s a positional win. In practice, it almost functions as a back three because Leif Davis on the opposite side spends half the game playing like a winger.

O’Shea even underlined the point with a goal here, bending in a curling effort to cap an adventurous display. For FPL managers, though, the appeal of a £4.0m defender usually starts with clean sheets, not long shots. On that front, Diop still feels like the more straightforward DefCon play if you’re looking for regular, low-maintenance points rather than the odd attacking spike.

Davis is a different conversation entirely.

Officially priced at £4.0m, he finished pre-season with more attacking returns than any other Ipswich player: four in total, adding another assist in Berlin by swinging in a cross for Jack Clarke (£5.5m). At times, Davis was stationed higher than Daizen Maeda (£5.5m), with the Japanese attacker dropping in to cover when the left-back surged on.

Two years ago, FPL managers piled in on Davis and were burned. The question now is whether 2026/27 is the season he finally turns that constant threat into consistent returns. With some newly promoted centre-backs in 2025/26 delivering DefCons in around half their starts – Esteve and Ballard the prime examples – Davis will need to keep those attacking numbers high to justify picking him over a more “boring” £4.0m centre-half.

The clean sheets themselves still need work. Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m) didn’t commit any howlers, but Union’s two goals felt saveable. Not disastrous, just the kind that will irritate both goalkeeper and FPL managers hoping for cheap shutouts. It’s early, but the jury isn’t racing back into the room with a verdict.

Higher up the pitch, Sindre Walle Egeli (£4.5m) has muscled his way into the conversation. He started again and supplied two assists – one for Emersonn (£5.5m), one for O’Shea – and wrapped up pre-season with the fifth-most minutes in the Ipswich squad. That’s not the profile of a token kid getting late cameos.

There is a catch. There always is at £4.5m.

Walle Egeli lined up on the right here, having played as a No 10 last week. In both roles, competition is coming. Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) is due back from a knock, and Julio Enciso is on the way. The Norwegian’s minutes could evaporate quickly once everyone is fit and available. For now, though, he’s cheap, involved and clearly trusted enough to start. Enjoy the window while it’s open.

One more name flickered into view: Jaden Philogene (£5.5m). Last season’s 12-goal winger made his first appearance of the summer off the bench. With transfer links swirling and his future unresolved, he’s more a situation to monitor than a pre-season winner. By September, he could be lighting it up somewhere else entirely.

Hull: rotation risk, new signings and one nailed £4.5m keeper

Hull City 0-0 Nice

This was a different kind of story. Less about answers, more about questions.

Elliot Stroud (£5.0m) went straight into the side for his debut, taking up a spot on the left wing. Three other new arrivals got their first minutes from the bench: midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath (price TBA) and centre-backs Lucas Herrington (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m). Another new forward, Joe Gelhardt (£5.0m), didn’t feature at all.

The reason was simple enough.

“Because he had an injury. He has an injury from Leeds, three weeks already gone. I expect in two weeks he will be on the pitch with the team. Right ankle,” explained Sergej Jakirovic afterwards.

Hull’s injury list is already uncomfortably long, but at least there was some positive news. John Egan (£4.0m), Jens Hjerto-Dahl (£5.0m), Paddy McNair (£4.0m) and Liam Millar (£5.0m) all returned after scares last weekend, with Egan and Hjerto-Dahl starting.

Even so, this still looked and felt like a Championship side. Eight of the XI began last season in the second tier. The sense, though, is of a slow handover rather than blind loyalty. At centre-back, Egan and Semi Ajayi (£4.0m) started this final friendly, but their grip on those shirts looks anything but secure.

Herrington and Mendy were eased in off the bench, and Mendy in particular – the club record signing – looms large over that back line. It’s hard to imagine Hull spending that kind of money for him to sit out for long. For FPL managers eyeing £4.0m defenders, that uncertainty is a red flag, especially with Ipswich and Coventry offering cheaper routes into arguably better early fixtures for Bench Boosters.

The instability doesn’t stop there.

Up front, Oli McBurnie (£5.5m) is currently short of serious competition. That may not last.

“I hope also we will bring, in a few days, another option for the striker position,” Jakirovic admitted. Any new arrival would instantly cloud McBurnie’s minutes and his appeal as a short-term punt.

Behind him, two £4.5m midfielders – Regan Slater and Matt Crooks – are just about holding on to their places. They’ve been helped by injuries to potential rivals, but that leash could be short. Gourna-Douath’s introduction on Saturday suggested he’s more likely to threaten Hjerto-Dahl’s role for now, with the Norwegian still playing catch-up physically. Even that could change quickly, with Hull still strongly linked to further midfield reinforcements.

The match itself won’t live long in the memory. Hull’s main danger came from set pieces, with Slater and Mohamed Belloumi (£5.0m) whipping in corners that Nice struggled to fully deal with. Egan, Hjerto-Dahl and Mendy all had half-chances from dead balls.

In open play, Belloumi was the standout. He looked the one player capable of conjuring something out of nothing, fashioning Hull’s best chance for himself before seeing his effort beaten away. Beyond that, Jakirovic’s side laboured to create clear openings.

There was, though, one Hull player who emerged from pre-season with his stock firmly up: Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.5m). The goalkeeper produced an eye-catching display, highlighted by a superb double save late in the first half. On this evidence, he’s nailed for Gameweek 1 and will have plenty to do behind an evolving, and occasionally exposed, defence.

For FPL managers, that workload might be exactly the point.