<p><em>Hub contributor Jon aka <a href="https://twitter.com/FPLBrain">@FPLBrain</a> has been playing FPL seriously for 3 years &#8211; 16k OR in 19/20, 28k in 18/19, 224k in 17/18. He wrote &#8216;<a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/the-universal-guide-to-fpl/">The Universal Guide to FPL</a>&#8216; to help beginners hit the ground running and others to improve their skills. Jon has played and followed football for over 30 years. In this article Jon presents his <strong>15 Fantasy Premier League bargains for the second half of the season.</strong></em></p>
<p>With the big-hitting expensive players in FPL well known and highly owned by now, it&#8217;s important that the rest of the players in our squads are able to punch above their weight and help to separate us from the pack. So this week I&#8217;ve been digging through the FPL bargain bin for some great cheap players to help power us up the rankings over the back half of the season. I&#8217;m looking at defenders under £5.5m as well as midfielders and forwards under £6.5m, ranking them on a pound for pound basis while also factoring in position/value scarcity (i.e. there&#8217;s a lot of good cheap defenders so the bar is higher in that position).</p>
<p>Okay let&#8217;s begin! We&#8217;ll take them in reverse order, saving the best for last.</p>
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<h3><strong>15. Jayden Bogle (£4.3m)</strong></h3>
<p>We start off in somewhat punty territory as Bogle was just supposed to be keeping <strong>George Baldock&#8217;s</strong> right-wingback place warm, but he&#8217;s looked so good lately that there has to be a chance he keeps the shirt? At the very least he&#8217;s one to watch as he somehow manages to look a goal threat as an understudy in a team that hardly ever scores.</p>
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<h3><strong>14. Fabio Silva (£5.2m)</strong></h3>
<p>Yes he only has two league goals to his name so far but that&#8217;s two more than <strong>Rhian</strong> &#8216;oops there goes £24m!&#8217; <strong>Brewster</strong> and he looks like he&#8217;s going to be a very good player sooner or later. While <strong>Raul Jimenez</strong> remains sidelined &#8211; and I&#8217;d be amazed if Wolves were to rush him back in the circumstances &#8211; he&#8217;s a decent option if you have the budget for an upgrade at the 3rd forward spot in a 3-5-2. Okay that was a lot of qualifiers but trust me, the lad can play.</p>
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<h3><strong>13. Luke Shaw (£4.8m)</strong></h3>
<div id="attachment_31461" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31461" class="wp-image-31461 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-scaled.jpg" alt="best fpl player tips 20/21" width="2560" height="1706" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-610x406.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Shaw-1080x720.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /><p id="caption-attachment-31461" class="wp-caption-text">Shaw is the current first choice Man United left back</p></div>
<p>Despite the arrival of <strong>Alex Telles</strong>, who many expected to take his starting spot, Shaw is having probably his best season for Manchester United and helped keep <strong>Mohamed Salah</strong> incredibly quiet on Sunday. Shaw&#8217;s attacking numbers have improved too &#8211; he&#8217;s 5th best for xGI among defenders over the last six matches &#8211; and United have very nice fixtures until Gameweek 25.</p>
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<h3><strong>12. Rob Holding (£4.5m)</strong></h3>
<p>Holding was  considered a useful squad player when the season began, expected to watch from the bench as the likes of <strong>William Saliba</strong> and <strong>David Luiz</strong> strutted their higher-profile stuff. Instead Holding has become a regular in an improved Arsenal side (they have the 5th best xGC over the last six), and he is one of their main targets on corners. He might even get you the jammiest of assists once in a while (thank you <strong>Kieran Tierney</strong>!).</p>
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<h3><strong>11. Ademola Lookman (£5.0m)</strong></h3>
<p>It&#8217;s not often you get an attacking player in FPL who looks this talented and can be had for just 5m. His assist for <strong>Ivan Cavaleiro</strong> to wipe my <strong>Hugo Lloris</strong> cleansheet last weekend was a moment of the highest quality and he has some goal threat too. He&#8217;s one of those accidental gifts from FPL Towers thanks to Fulham&#8217;s change of style and personnel, and Lookman&#8217;s continued improvement.</p>
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<h3><strong>10. İlkay Gündoğan (£5.5m)</strong></h3>
<p>After a slow start to the season due to COVID-19 recovery, Gündoğan is now playing an important and more advanced role for Manchester City as they hit ominous form. In the ongoing absence of <strong>Sergio Agüero</strong> City need goalscorers and Gundo can finish when he&#8217;s getting opportunities. The current template is trending towards two City defenders plus <strong>Kevin De Bruyne</strong>, but if you want to take a slightly different tack then Gundo is a good option.</p>
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<h3><strong>9. Phil Foden (£6.3m)</strong></h3>
<div id="attachment_28326" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28326" class="wp-image-28326 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-scaled.jpg" alt="best fantasy players" width="2560" height="1785" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-300x209.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-1024x714.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-768x535.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-1536x1071.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-2048x1428.jpg 2048w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-610x425.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Phil-Foden-1-1080x753.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /><p id="caption-attachment-28326" class="wp-caption-text">Foden has been in superb goal-scoring for Man City &#8211; when he starts</p></div>
<p>Similar case to Gündoğan except that Foden carries more &#8216;teamsheet risk&#8217; and also more upside. When he&#8217;s on the pitch for City, Foden is explosive (with I believe the highest FPL points-per-minute of any City player), posting returns of 14 and 11 points in his last two starts and more than capable of producing more double-digit returns going forward. As far as I&#8217;m concerned he looks like one of City&#8217;s better players almost every time he plays so I continue to believe it&#8217;s only a matter of time before he starts more regularly in the league.</p>
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<h3><strong>8. Anwar El Ghazi (£5.8m)</strong></h3>
<p>If El Ghazi keeps his place and stays on penalties (<strong>Jack Grealish</strong> is in absolutely no rush to take them so that seems likely), he&#8217;s a bargain at just £5.8m for an Aston Villa side who are very good going forward and have games in hand to catch up on. He&#8217;s been excellent since joining the starting lineup a month ago and has five goals in Villa&#8217;s last six in the league.</p>
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<h3><strong>7. James Justin (£5.0m)</strong></h3>
<p>The &#8216;rich man&#8217;s Jayden Bogle&#8217; some call him! Okay no one calls him that but it&#8217;s a similar story, with Justin having performed so well in <strong>Ricardo Pereira</strong>&#8216;s absence (he&#8217;s put in another strong performance and banked another clean sheet as I write this) that it&#8217;s hard to see how he can be dropped at this stage. I think Leicester City will find a place for Justin somewhere as they won&#8217;t want to stall his development, with the only risk here being that it becomes an unpredictable rotation situation among the Foxes&#8217; wingbacks.</p>
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<h3><strong>6. Tyrick Mitchell (£3.9m)</strong></h3>
<p>Mitchell has regained his starting position thanks to being a much better defender than his extremely attacking rival <strong>Patrick van Aanholt</strong>. Crystal Palace are not great but a starting defender for £3.9m? He&#8217;s an obvious choice for 5th defender on a Wildcard at the very least, but perhaps more than that with Palace coming into a good run of fixtures.</p>
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<h3><strong>5. Michail Antonio (£6.3m)</strong></h3>
<div id="attachment_28736" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28736" class="wp-image-28736 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-scaled.jpg" alt="best fantasy football players" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-610x407.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1228757585-1080x720.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /><p id="caption-attachment-28736" class="wp-caption-text">Antonio is back fit and firing</p></div>
<p>Antonio posted the highest xGI of any player not named Mohamed Salah over the 2nd half of last season, and when he&#8217;s been healthy in 20/21 he&#8217;s looked a pretty similar threat, even if the numbers haven&#8217;t been quite as stand-out. West Ham are a different, better team when he&#8217;s available as the fulcrum (they know that, packing <strong>Sebastian Haller</strong>’s bags for him as soon as Ajax made a half-decent bid) so whenever he&#8217;s fit he should be a major consideration for your team at his bargain price.</p>
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<h3><strong>4. Tomáš Souček (£5.3m)</strong></h3>
<p>This one is as obvious and well-known as they come by now, but tall Tomáš remains an outstanding option given his elite aerial prowess combined with an eye for goal. David Moyes could see this and having said in December that he needed to get him in the box more, he was true to his word and the underlying numbers have risen markedly since, to further boost the case here.</p>
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<h3><strong>3. John Stones (£5.1m)</strong></h3>
<p>Stones already looked a great bargain having nailed down a starting spot thanks to his incredible partnership with Rúben Dias (conceding only one goal in their last nine when starting together). Then out of nowhere he starts doing work at the other end, scoring his first two league goals for City in the same match to notch 21 points and write his name into FPL folklore for evermore. That was a little fluky obviously (Dias and João Cancelo owner here, Hi) but he is now a deliberate target at corners, so I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if he scores a couple more before the season&#8217;s over. Another who should be in almost every Wildcard at this point.</p>
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<h3><strong>2. Emile Smith-Rowe (£4.5m)</strong></h3>
<p>Smith-Rowe has emerged seemingly overnight (in reality there were loan spells at RB Leipzig and Huddersfield Town) as Arsenal&#8217;s starting number 10, their primary creative force and one of the keys to the teams recent renaissance (4th best team xG over the last six). Smith-Rowe has started the last five league games for Arsenal, has four assists and 27 pts in that time and has played so well that it’s hard to see Arteta leaving him out much the rest of the way. Just absolute daylight robbery at £4.5m &#8211; the perfect 5th midfielder.</p>
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<h3><strong>1. Bukayo Saka (£5.3m)</strong></h3>
<p>If you&#8217;re able to stretch £0.8m further then there might be an even greater bargain for your squad in the form of Bukayo Saka. Saka packs added goal threat beyond that of Smith-Rowe and has been looking and performing like a premium player anytime he&#8217;s been at right wing/forward for Arsenal over the last month or so. I think he&#8217;s made that position his own in the process. With three goals, two assists and 39 points in his last five games, the young master is going to be appearing on Arsenal and England teamsheets for many years to come. For me he’s currently the greatest bargain in FPL at this point in time, with realistic double-digit upside anytime he starts in the attack. I’d expect him to cost £8m+ next season, so snap him up while you can.</p>
<p>Okay that&#8217;s your lot! I hope you liked the look of these bargain bucket diamonds. If you combine your favourites from the list with a handful of the more expensive, elite players in the game then I believe you&#8217;ll see a lot of green arrows over the second half of the season. Good luck and happy bargain hunting!</p>
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