The 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season was a beast.
The seemingly endless parade of late-campaign double gameweeks made planning a logistical nightmare of biblical proportions.
And we&#8217;re all going to get an equally nasty challenge next time around when FIFA kidnaps &#8216;The Football Family&#8217; and takes them off to Qatar for a month slap bang in the middle of the fantasy season.
That will mean a massive workload for most of the world&#8217;s best players, many of whom are based in England.
The Premier League – and, therefore, FPL &#8211; will take a break from November 13 to December 26 to accommodate the mid-season madness.
But there is a flip side, involving a select group of elite footballers who won&#8217;t be going anywhere near the World Cup.
Instead, they&#8217;ll be getting the mother of all winter breaks, returning fresher than a Bel Air prince to (potentially) dominate FPL over the Christmas period.
So who are these players, and can we fashion them into a viable FPL squad?
The answers, in reverse order, are &#8216;Yes&#8217; and &#8216;Please Continue Reading&#8217;.
(All prices are based on each player&#8217;s starting values last season. And, in the case of one particular striker, a big guess).
&nbsp;
<h1 class="western">The Best FPL Squad Of Non-World Cup Players – Goalkeepers</h1>
Martin Dubravka (£4.5m), Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.5m)
That&#8217;s one underwhelming pair of fantasy keepers, but picking goalies is generally a case of duty over pleasure anyway.
At least Newcastle&#8217;s Dubravka did keep four clean sheets (and produce another seven-point return) over the least eight games of the season, and the Slovakian stopper will be frustrated to miss out on a World Cup.
Liverpool back-up Kelleher played twice last term, managing one shut-out and ending up with 11,517 misguided FPL owners. If Brazil and Alisson have a decent World Cup campaign however, the Irishman could see some Premier League action across the Winter period.
Moving on&#8230;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-46573 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54.jpg" alt="non wc keepers" width="1060" height="860" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54.jpg 1060w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54-300x243.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54-1024x831.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54-768x623.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.47.54-610x495.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1060px) 100vw, 1060px" />
&nbsp;
<h1 class="western">The Best FPL Squad Of Non-World Cup Players – Defenders</h1>
Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.5m), Vladimir Coufal (£5.0m), Vitalii Mykolenko (£5.0m), Andy Robertson (£7.0m), Davinson Sanchez (£4.5m)
Let&#8217;s start with the Mcreme de la Mcreme, which is Scotland and Liverpool left-back Robertson.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp rested the full-back on more than one late-season occasion as the Reds chased down four trophies.
Robertson still produced the third best points total among FPL defenders, and the two above him played plenty more minutes.
That should keep his price down below the pair – Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joao Cancelo – but he&#8217;ll surely get more game-time than either of them when FPL returns in December.
Ukrainian duo Zinchenko and Mykolenko offer up some issues.
The former might not get the minutes – he played only 1,044 last time out – while the latter is part of a decidedly dodgy defence.
The same cannot be said for the London double act of Sanchez and Coufal.
The Spurs centre-half finished the season like a train, recording score of 6, 12 and 6 points, which should keep him firmly in manager Antonio Conte&#8217;s plans for 2022/23.
Coufal wasn&#8217;t close to his 2020/21 best, when he produced nine assists and a further nine clean sheets, but he still played 2,200+ minutes and is part of a West Ham squad that will be relatively unaffected by the World Cup.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-46574 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16.jpg" alt="non world cup defenders" width="1058" height="866" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16.jpg 1058w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16-300x246.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16-1024x838.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16-768x629.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.52.16-610x499.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1058px) 100vw, 1058px" />
&nbsp;
<h1 class="western">The Best FPL Squad Of Non-World Cup Players – Midfielders</h1>
Mo Salah (£12.5m), Dejan Kulusevski (£6.0m), Luis Diaz (£8.0m), Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m), Jorginho (£6.0m)
There&#8217;s really not too much to be said about this midfield, other than it looks pretty decent.
Salah, obviously, is the pick of the bunch given Egypt&#8217;s failure to qualify, but both Diaz and Kulusevski also impressed following their winter arrivals.
The Colombian winger produced 64 points, and the Sweden man a fantastic 99.
The latter will cost more this season, but hey ho.
Zaha finished last year with a flourish, with three goals and an assist from the last five matches. He remains a boom and bust performer, but could do some serious damage up against World Cup-weary defenders.
Completing the quintet is Italian Jorginho, who has penalty-taking duties to bump up his FPL appeal.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-46575 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47.jpg" alt="non world cup midfielders" width="1054" height="864" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47.jpg 1054w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47-300x246.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47-1024x839.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47-768x630.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-15-at-11.56.47-610x500.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1054px) 100vw, 1054px" />
&nbsp;
<h1 class="western">The Best FPL Squad Of Non-World Cup Players – Forwards</h1>
Erling Haaland (£12.0m??), Michail Antonio (£7.5m), Armando Broja (£5.0m)
We finish with forwards, and next season&#8217;s big unknown – just how devastating will Man City&#8217;s Erling Haaland be?
His goalscoring record is impeccable, the side he&#8217;s joining are champions, and the fact that he also possesses Neal Maupay levels of&#8230; let&#8217;s call it &#8216;attitude&#8217; &#8230;should guarantee the one thing Haaland won&#8217;t be is dull.
His price, obviously, is a complete guess, but shouldn&#8217;t be too far wide of the mark.
He&#8217;s joined up top by Antonio, who will presumably produce points spread rather more evenly across the season this time around, and Broja, who&#8217;s currently back at Chelsea after an initially promising, but ultimately disappointing, loan spell with Southampton.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-46613 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55.jpg" alt="forwards fpl" width="1062" height="864" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55.jpg 1062w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55-300x244.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55-1024x833.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55-768x625.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-17-at-11.21.55-610x496.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 1062px) 100vw, 1062px" />
The whole side comes in, amazingly, at exactly £100m, which is one of the big reasons why Matt Doherty (£5.0m) lost his place to Sanchez.
That, and the Irishman&#8217;s injury issues last season, plus potential competition from new arrival Djed Spence, and Emerson Royal.
Playing in a 3-5-2, with Kelleher, the two Ukrainians, and Broja sat on the bench, and it&#8217;s a team that could genuinely do some serious fantasy damage while the World Cup returners get slowly back up to speed.
&nbsp;
<h1 class="western">The Best FPL Squad Of Non-World Cup Players – Starting XI</h1>
Dubravka
Robertson &#8211; Coufal &#8211; Sanchez
Salah &#8211; Kulusevski &#8211; Diaz &#8211; Zaha &#8211; Jorginho
Haaland &#8211; Antonio
<h2></h2>
<h2>We have all the other main Premier League fantasy football games covered too…</h2>
Be it <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/sky-fantasy-football-tips/">Sky Fantasy</a>, <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fanteam-fantasy-football-2021-22-tips-the-ultimate-guide/">FanTeam</a>, <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/dream-team-fantasy-football-tips-the-ultimate-guide/">Dream Team</a> or <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/telegraph-fantasy-football-tips-the-ultimate-guide/">Telegraph Fantasy</a>, we have all the very best fantasy football tips, advice, tools and everything else you could wish for to become a better fantasy football manager and dominate your mini-leagues.
&nbsp;

<h3>Become a Fantasy Football Hub member</h3>
<div class="ff_inline_message">
<div class="large-font">Dominate at Fantasy Football</div>
<div class="desktop-trial-text">
<div class="standard-font">7 DAY FREE TRIAL</div>
</div>
<button><a style="color: white; text-decoration: none;" href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/freetrial">Join the Hub</a> 
</button>
</div>
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Main_LONG.mp4" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/579320338?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 

<h3>Follow the Hub</h3>
<a href="https://twitter.com/FFH_HQ">Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ffootballhub/">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/FantasyFootballHub/?sub_confirmation=1">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/FFH_HQ/">Instagram</a> | <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@FFH_HQ">Tiktok</a> And view all our latest fantasy football tips on our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/">Homepage</a>
<div class="app-ignore"></div>

The Best FPL Squad Of World Cup Non-Players

7 Day Free Membership!

Community & tools

Live rank

Fixture ticker

Vote