This FPL 2021/22 strategy article focuses on the idea of getting a draft prepared that includes four premium players in your Fantasy Premier League side.

Specifically, @RichP_FPL looks at how to fit in Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m), Harry Kane (£12.5m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) into your FPL squad.

A common struggle with the FPL budget this year is trying to fit in more than two “premium players”. Most FPL managers are plumping for two, with Mohamed Salah and Bruno Fernandes being the popular double up.

That leaves the likes of Harry Kane and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m) out altogether. You simply can’t fit them all in and still get a balanced squad.

What about three of the four, though? And maybe Trent Alexander-Arnold thrown in for good measure? Challenge accepted.

Some of the Fantasy Football Hub contributor team and I have gone there. We’ve drafted some FPL Gameweek 1 squads (that we think look pretty decent) that include Salah, Fernandes and Kane (and in some instances, Alexander-Arnold as well).

Below we’ll have a quick look through them, as well as run them through the Hub’s BETA RMT Tool to see which drafts come out on top!

Note: The BETA Model is exactly that – a BETA using a predictive model. We’re merely using it as a rough gauge for now. Plus it’s fun to know who the winner is, right?

To Trent, or not to Trent?

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) seems like a must-have as we approach Gameweek 1; especially given his 27.8% ownership. Of all the defenders, only Luke Shaw (£5.5m) is owned by more managers at 47.1%, in part due to his incredibly generous price tag.

With the “three premium conundrum”, you can go for one of these, but it’s unlikely you can have both and still maintain some sort of balance. So without further ado, we’ll get into the drafts. Some of these have Alexander-Arnold in and some won’t.

In any case, we’re sure this will get your draft creation juices flowing.

Trent Draft One: @FPLTIPZ

First we take a look at a draft from YouTuber and fellow Hub Contributor, @FPLTIPZ. This draft is also available to view on his YouTube channel if you would like a bit more rationale into his decisions behind the picks he’s made.

Here’s the draft.

@FPLTIPZ Three Premium and Trent Alexander-Arnold Draft

I have to say, I do like this squad. The bench is a tad weak, but it gets the three premiums and Alexander-Arnold in as well. Vladimir Coufal (£5.0m) could continue being a decent value pick after last season, even after a price increase.

We also see Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.5m) who is expected to get increased game time after a new contract. He’s also been given the number 10 shirt! Nice work, TIPZ!

Sticking it through the Hub BETA RMT Tool, this team scores 82% and is projected to get 344.9 points over the first six gameweeks.

Trent Draft Two: @FplDarkhorse

Next up we have @FplDarkhorse with a draft that includes both Alexander-Arnold and Luke Shaw, as well as Salah, Fernandes and Kane!

Let’s check it out.

@FplDarkhorse Three Premium, Alexander-Arnold and Luke Shaw draft!

Again, this looks pretty solid. We see Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.5m) again and Raphinha (£6.5m) should prove to be great value even at an increased price point.

Michail Antonio (£7.5m) has a decent run of fixtures to start the season, provided he can stay fit.

I’d swap Charlie Taylor (£4.5m) for his Burnley colleague Matt Lowton (£4.5m) but I’m nitpicking there really. Not a bad effort at all.

The Hub BETA RMT Tool rates this team at 85%, with a predicted score of 352.2 points over the first six gameweeks.

Trent Draft Three: @RichP_FPL v1

I’ve done a couple of drafts here: one as a 3-5-2 formation and one using 4-3-3. We will start with the 3-5-2:

@RichP_FPL Draft with Three Premiums and Trent – Attempt One

I adopted an approach of loading up on £4.5m defenders, as I think there is plenty of value there. This meant I could still spend a decent amount in midfield and also get a reasonable partner for Kane in Ivan Toney (£6.5m).

Whilst Ben White (£4.5m) is starting in this picture, I’d happily play Joel Veltman (£4.5m) as well. Two playing options from the bench gives this draft a bit of security.

This team scores an impressive 87% on the Hub BETA RMT Tool, and is predicted to score 355.7 points over the first six gameweeks.

Trent Draft Four: @RichP_FPL v2

For this draft, I’ve gone with a 4-3-3 formation. With a plethora of decent mid-priced FPL forwards in the game, it feels like there are a lot of options for us.

@RichP_FPL Draft with Three Premiums and Trent – Attempt Two

This one is very similar to that of @FPLTIPZ, with me going for Raphinha (£6.5m) instead of Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.5m), a £4.5m defender over Vladimir Coufal (£5m) and Andrew Omobamidele (£4m) over Rayan Hit Nouri (£4.5m).

This team scores 85% on the Hub BETA RMT Tool, and is predicted to score 351 points over the first six gameweeks.

I think it shows that you can draft a pretty good team of three premiums and Alexander-Arnold if you’re prepared to sacrifice elsewhere. With what appears to be plenty of value in defence, this could work very nicely.

Let’s see a couple of drafts without Alexander-Arnold in, and see what we can get out of them.

Three Premiums (No Alexander-Arnold) Draft 1: @FPLMatthew

For this one, I’ve roped in one of the best FPL Managers around, @FPLMatthew, to have a quick stab at a three-premium draft.

He says this was a quick attempt, but coming from one of the best in the game, I know it’ll be a superb effort.

@FPLMatthew’s attempt at a Three Premium Draft

I’m a big fan of this. A tasty front seven, with a lot of those we’ve seen before, but with the addition of Emiliano Buendia (£6.5m).

Signed from Norwich, Buendia is a top footballer with some great underlying stats from his time with The Canaries. With Jack Grealish (£8m) potentially moving to Manchester City, Aston Villa will need someone to create chances for Ollie Watkins.

The loss of Alexander-Arnold does see Luke Shaw (£5.5m) make an appearance here, and whilst the bench is a tad weak, this is another decent draft.

The Hub BETA RMT Tool gives this team a whopping 89%, predicting it to score 356.4 points over the first six gameweeks.

Three Premiums (No Alexander-Arnold) Draft 2: @RichP_FPL

I also took a stab at the “Non Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) three premiums” draft, just to see what you can do when you take the Liverpool full-back out of the equation.

Here’s what I came up with.

@RichP_FPL’s attempt at a Three Premium Draft

Even if I do say so myself, I think this looks pretty good! Two playing options off of the bench, four attacking defenders, with the addition of Lucas Digne (£5.5m) to some previously seen faces above.

Jarrod Bowen (£6.5m) comes in so we can try and tap in to a decent fixture run for West Ham.

We also see Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£8m) enter the fold, with Everton‘s fixtures resulting in a Toffees double-up for this team. Plenty of scope to change this up as well: Bowen could be Raphinha, Calvert-Lewin could drop to a Watkins or Antonio to fund improvements elsewhere.

Putting this through the Hub BETA RMT Tool, this team scores an incredible 90%!

Based on the predictions model used, the predicted score after six gameweeks is 360 points, which is the highest we’ve seen throughout the article.

I’m not declaring myself the unofficial winner, despite it scoring the highest. I’ll leave that up to you guys.

Conclusion

So there we have it. The Hub team have put their heads together to come up with some food for thought for you guys.

We’re not saying these are foolproof, and you could take on your own iterations of these drafts and tweak them as you see fit. What it shows you is that you can opt to have three premiums (and Trent Alexander-Arnold in some cases) and still put out a decent team.

What do you think? Can you better any of these drafts? Let us know.

Thanks for reading! If you are on Twitter, I would love it if you’d drop me a follow @RichP_FPL. Cheers!

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