FPL Pre-Season Insights: £4.5m Forward and £4.0m Defenders
The final weekend of pre-season threw Fantasy Premier League managers exactly what they wanted – and exactly what they hate. Clarity at Ipswich. Chaos at Hull.
At one end, a £4.5m forward quietly racks up two more assists. At the other, a promoted side still looks two or three signings – and several selection calls – away from anything resembling reliability.
Ipswich: £4.0m defenders and a £4.5m wildcard
Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich Town
- Goals: J Clarke, Emersonn, O’Shea, McAteer
- Assists: Davis, Walle Egeli x2, Mehmeti
This was the kind of August XI you take seriously.
Gary O’Neil named the same back four that started Ipswich’s penultimate friendly, and at this stage of pre-season, that usually means something. The experimentation phase is over; this is about rehearsing the team he wants for Gameweek 1.
The £4.0m defender puzzle at Portman Road is starting to fall into place.
Dara O’Shea, Issa Diop and Jacob Greaves – all priced at £4.0m – are no longer simply fighting for two centre-back berths. O’Shea has been pushed out to right-back, with Greaves and Diop in the middle and Leif Davis (£4.0m) marauding down the left. With Davis so high, it often resembled a back three anyway.
O’Shea’s new role carries a bit more attacking juice. He underlined that by bending in a fine goal here. But for most FPL managers, that’s not the point. With £4.0m defenders, it’s DefCons – those reliable defensive contributions – that matter. On that front, Diop looks the safest pick in this backline. He’s the one you’d back to quietly rack up the minutes and the baseline.
Davis is a different conversation altogether.
He finished pre-season with more attacking returns than any other Ipswich player – four in total, adding another assist in Berlin with a cross for Jack Clarke (£5.5m). Often, Davis was higher than Daizen Maeda (£5.5m), with the Japanese attacker tucking in and covering while the left-back surged on.
Two seasons ago, Davis flattered to deceive for FPL managers. The promise was there; the end product wasn’t. Now the question hangs over 2026/27: can he finally turn that constant threat into something more sustained?
There’s a catch. In 2025/26, some newly promoted centre-backs ended up landing DefCons in around half of their starts – Esteve and Ballard being prime examples. For many managers, that kind of steady floor from a £4.0m centre-half will be hard to ignore. Davis will need to keep delivering attacking returns to justify the extra risk.
Clean sheets would help, too. Ipswich’s new goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m) didn’t have a disaster, but he didn’t fully convince either. Union’s goals weren’t glaring howlers, more the type of efforts a keeper might still feel he should do better with. It’s early, but he hasn’t yet slammed the door on rotation or doubt.
Further up the pitch, Sindre Walle Egeli (£4.5m) threw a spanner into FPL draft plans.
The budget forward started again and produced two assists – one for Emersonn (£5.5m), another for O’Shea – and ended pre-season with the fifth-highest minutes in the Ipswich squad. That’s not fringe-player territory.
He operated from the right flank this time, having played as a No. 10 last week. Versatility is helping him stay on the pitch, but the looming threats are obvious: Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) is on his way back from a knock, and Julio Enciso is about to walk through the door. Both can operate in those advanced roles.
For now, Walle Egeli is a live, ultra-cheap option. The long-term minutes look fragile, but while he’s in the team, he’s making things happen.
Another subplot: Jaden Philogene (£5.5m) finally appeared for the first time this summer. Last season’s 12-goal winger has been linked with a move away, and that speculation hasn’t gone away. His situation could flip the Ipswich attacking hierarchy again if a transfer materialises before September.
Hull: rotation risk, injury clouds and one safe pair of hands
Hull City 0-0 Nice
Hull’s final friendly told a very different story. Less about locked-in starters, more about moving parts.
Elliot Stroud (£5.0m) was thrown straight into the side on debut, starting on the left wing. Three other summer arrivals were eased in from the bench: midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath (price TBA) and centre-backs Lucas Herrington (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m). Joe Gelhardt (£5.0m), another recent signing, didn’t feature at all.
The reason was clear 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.” – Sergej Jakirovic on why Joe Gelhardt didn’t feature
Hull’s injury list is already long, but at least a few scares from last weekend eased. John Egan (£4.0m), Jens Hjerto-Dahl (£5.0m), Paddy McNair (£4.0m) and Liam Millar (£5.0m) all returned, with Egan and Hjerto-Dahl starting.
Even so, this still looked and felt like a Championship side. Eight of the XI that began against Nice were part of last season’s promotion push in 2025/26. The sense is of a slow, uneasy changing of the guard rather than a settled Premier League outfit.
At centre-half, Egan and Semi Ajayi (£4.0m) got the nod from the off. On paper, that should interest FPL managers hunting £4.0m starters. In reality, it feels short-term at best. Herrington and Mendy both came on for gentle introductions, and with Mendy the club record signing, his claim on a starting shirt is obvious and imminent.
When you factor in that Ipswich and Coventry’s £4.0m defenders have better early fixtures for Bench Boosts and rotation, Hull’s backline becomes an avoid in the opening weeks. The rotation risk is just too high.
The uncertainty doesn’t stop there.
Up front, Oli McBurnie (£5.5m) currently has the shirt and little competition. That might not last long.
“I hope also we will bring, in a few days, another option for the striker position.” – Sergej Jakirovic
Behind him, two £4.5m midfielders – Regan Slater and Matt Crooks – are just about hanging on to their places. Injuries to potential rivals have helped them, but the ground beneath their feet is far from firm. Gourna-Douath, for instance, looked more like a direct challenger to Hjerto-Dahl on Saturday, with the Norwegian still working his way up to full sharpness. Hull are also being linked with further midfield reinforcements, which only adds to the volatility.
On the pitch, the match itself rarely caught fire. Hull’s main threat came from dead balls. Slater and Mohamed Belloumi (£5.0m) delivered some teasing corners, with Egan, Hjerto-Dahl and Mendy all sniffing half-chances from set pieces.
Belloumi was the standout in open play. He looked the one player capable of unlocking Nice, fashioning Hull’s best chance for himself before seeing his effort beaten away. Beyond his flashes, Jakirovic’s side struggled badly to create.
One position, though, looks nailed: goalkeeper.
Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.5m) was excellent. He produced a sharp double save before half-time and handled what Nice threw at him with authority. Given the volume of work he’s likely to face in the Premier League, save points shouldn’t be in short supply.
Ipswich head into Gameweek 1 offering structure, cheap routes into a settled defence, and a £4.5m forward who refuses to go quietly. Hull arrive with promise, moving parts and a keeper who might be in for the busiest season of his career.
