Fantasy Premier League Pricing Insights: Tzolis, Schlager, Targett
The transfer window is moving, and so is Fantasy Premier League pricing. Three new arrivals dropped into the game on Friday, and each comes with a very different kind of risk. The numbers tempt you. The roles might not.
Here’s where they really stand.
Christos Tzolis (Arsenal, midfielder) – £6.5m
Brilliance meets the Arteta rotation machine
On raw output alone, Christos Tzolis should not be £6.5m.
Seventeen goals and 23 assists for Club Brugge in a title-winning season is the sort of end product that usually pushes a new Premier League winger straight into mid-price “essential” territory. He arrives at Arsenal as a proven creator and finisher, a wide player who can both attack the box and supply it.
The problem is not the player. It’s the ecosystem he’s walking into.
Arsenal’s 2025/26 title win came with a ruthless, almost cold-blooded approach to minutes in attacking midfield. Only three midfielders were nailed: Declan Rice at £7.5m, Martin Zubimendi at £5.5m, and Bukayo Saka at £9.5m. Rice started 35 league matches, Zubimendi 34. Saka, even in an injury-affected season, still managed 25 starts.
Everyone else lived in the spin cycle.
Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli, Mikel Merino – all of them were chopped and changed. None of that group averaged even 60 minutes per appearance. That is brutal for Fantasy managers. It kills captaincy thoughts, it wrecks bonus potential, and it leaves you sweating on team news every weekend.
Tzolis drops straight into that price band at £6.5m, shoulder to shoulder with Eze, Odegaard, Madueke and Martinelli. The message from the pricing is clear: explosive upside, fragile security.
He has the style to thrive when he plays. He presses, he runs in behind, he can create off both flanks and cut inside to shoot. But when you can buy guaranteed starters at the same price – Brentford’s Dango Ouattara, Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr, Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – the calculation changes.
Early in the season, when every transfer is precious, Tzolis looks like the sort of pick that can light up a Gameweek or leave you with a one-point cameo. Arsenal’s attack will be irresistible at times. The question is whether you want to pay £6.5m to guess which week he actually starts.
Xaver Schlager (Nottingham Forest, midfielder) – £5.0m
A familiar face, but is he the right one?
Nottingham Forest’s midfield has been ripped up and re-laid this summer. Elliot Anderson has gone to Manchester City, taking with him one of the most reliable defensive contribution (DC) point sources in the game.
Forest have moved quickly. Xaver Schlager arrives from RB Leipzig, and he knows new head coach Olivier Glasner well. On paper, he and Ibrahim Sangare, also £5.0m, will scrap for the defensive midfield role Anderson has left behind.
In Fantasy terms, that role is all about the grind.
Midfielders collect two DC points if they hit 12 Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Recoveries (CBIRT) in a match. Anderson was a monster in that department last season. He averaged 8.3 recoveries per 90 minutes alone, powering his way to a huge DC return.
Stack his numbers up against his successors and the gap is stark. Per 90 in 2025/26, Anderson totalled 13.9 defensive actions across clearances, blocks, interceptions, recoveries and tackles. Sangare came in at 11.6. Schlager lagged at 9.0.
Crucially, the headline area – recoveries – underlines the concern. Sangare and Schlager combined managed only 12 recoveries per 90 between them, barely more than Anderson on his own. That level of activity is exactly what drives DC consistency.
Schlager’s advantage is tactical familiarity. Glasner knows what he’s getting, and pre-season will tell us how that trust translates into minutes. But if you are shopping specifically for DC value at £5.0m, Sangare currently looks the sharper tool.
He is already closer to Anderson’s defensive output, and if he nails the starting spot, he has the profile to turn those two-point DC bonuses into a regular feature. Schlager might grow into the role under Glasner, but right now, the safer Fantasy bet in Forest’s engine room wears the number of Ibrahim Sangare.
Matt Targett (Hull City, defender) – £4.0m
Name value, but the numbers point elsewhere
Matt Targett’s name still carries a faint echo of 2020/21. That was his Fantasy peak: 138 points for Aston Villa, a season of steady clean sheets and bonus trickles that made him a go-to budget defender.
The game has changed since then.
With the arrival of DC scoring for defenders last season, the power has swung decisively towards centre-backs. Defenders now earn two DC points if they hit 10 Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Tackles (CBIT) in a match. Full-backs, who often rely on attacking returns and clean sheets, suddenly have serious competition from central stoppers who pile up defensive actions.
Targett joins Hull City on a free after leaving Newcastle United and will compete directly with Ryan Giles, also £4.0m, for the starting left-back role. Even if he wins it, the DC structure does him no favours.
Hull already have a £4.0m defender who fits the new scoring era perfectly: Charlie Hughes.
In the Championship last season, Hughes averaged 11.8 CBIT actions per 90 minutes – more than any other defender from the promoted clubs. That is elite DC territory. In a system that rewards volume defending, he looks built for the scoring matrix.
So while Targett offers experience, set-piece delivery and a familiar Fantasy profile, the cold numbers push you towards Hughes. If you are filling out your bench with a £4.0m Hull defender, the centre-back with double-digit defensive actions per game is the one who can quietly churn out DC points all year.
Targett might still have his moments. Hughes, though, has the profile to turn those moments into a season.
