Weekly Dribble: Non-obvious players who are quietly elite
Who’s truly vital to their team right now?
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While I want my content to be educational, useful, and actionable, I also want it to be fun. Not just for you, but also in the process of writing it.
So, today, I will try something a bit different.
You could say this is a season of disappointment so far. Several players have had a slow start, particularly in FPL — Mohamed Salah, Florian Wirtz, Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Evanilson, Everton’s #9s, to name just a few.
Looking at the current top 10 highest-scoring players is bleak: there are six defenders, one defensive midfielder, and a player from a team placed 18th in the league table. And the reason is certainly not just because of the defensive contributions…
Today, I’ll be discussing players who are key figures for their teams.
Most of them are not viable FPL picks, but they have a significant impact on the pitch.
Recognising who they are could assist you in your decision-making process.
I’ll try to pick some less obvious ones — we all know that Moisés Caicedo, Jack Grealish, Declan Rice or Erling Haaland are crucial for how their team functions, you don’t need me to tell you that.
Cody Gakpo
Gakpo embodies everything Liverpool fans want Mohamed Salah to be.
Recently, I saw someone say that the best players can score, assist, dribble, and operate with speed — while you could argue that he doesn’t excel at all these at the absolute elite level, I believe he’s the best Liverpool offensive player this season, and he fully deserves to keep that left-winger role.
The big argument for me is his results in the advanced goal probability added metric. It essentially measures how his touches with the ball influence the team’s likelihood of scoring (and not conceding). You can play with it and track different areas of the pitch or focus on his passes, carries, and dribbles separately. And Gakpo dominates with both passes and dribbles.
What stands out to me is how he manipulates that cutback zone on the left — he can time a great pass into it, or run inside it and play the cutback pass himself. He has already created plenty of dangerous opportunities in this way. He’s a real threat in the final third and can turn his skills into the final product — shots, key passes, and crosses into the box, both in volume and quality.
Also, you should consider how challenging Liverpool’s fixtures were. In FPL, the main issue is considerable uncertainty.
Not his threat.
Elliot Anderson
One of the most hyped-up players of this pre-season in the Fantasy Premier League circles, and rightfully so.
He has narrowly missed his DEFCON two-pointer four times (!), while meeting the threshold in the other three instances. He only has one assist and 22 FPL points, but in a broader footballing sense, he has been fantastic. I’d even say indispensable.
Although Forest have been poor defensively, you can’t really blame Anderson for that. In fact, he excels off the ball — he wins an absurd number of possessions in key areas. When neutralising dangerous attacks deep in the pitch, he’s a very reliable tackler.
At the same time, he provides a lot on the ball. He can drive it forward and rarely fails when taking on a player, making him one of the most fouled midfielders in the league: more than 98% of other midfielders in the Premier League.
In the last three games, he took only one corner, with Douglas Luiz, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Dilane Bakwa being more utilised. However, most of his passes that directly lead to shots come from open play, and if he continues to play more advanced, attacking returns will come.
I don’t consider him a standout FPL pick at this stage for several reasons, but if there’s ever a moment he misses a game, it would make Forest a much weaker side.
Jérémy Doku
Two words.
Constant threat.
Passes, dribbles, runs, draws fouls, and has excellent vision for a final pass.
He is ranked third in touches inside the box, but he mainly distributes rather than shoots. So far, he averages just 0.90 shots and 0.11 non-penalty xG per 90 minutes (4 not very dangerous shots so far), which pretty much disqualifies him as a fantasy pick. Still, other than that, he provides a massive value for Manchester City.
The Belgian is a prolific dribbler who basically lives in the box, and his elite athleticism is something that a “new”, rapid, and counter-attacking City team benefits from.
By the way, I wrote about this new trend in the article below, if you’re interested:
David Brooks
A man who truly deserves a shout-out. I love these kinds of stories. He faced adversity in his life and football career, but stepped up when needed.
Last season, Brooks played around 1,150 minutes, with 69% of his appearances coming off the bench. And he mostly didn’t disappoint.
Bournemouth started the season without Justin Kluivert and Dango Ouattara, who later left the team, which earned Brooks a place in the starting eleven. In the first seven gameweeks, he accumulated almost 500 minutes and was even preferred over Kluivert against Fulham.
When on the pitch, he not only gets the job done but is also highly influential. Again, in the goal probability added model, he ranks in the top 5% of midfielders. The majority of his creativity comes from well-timed crosses from deeper areas, and he has already delivered several dangerous passes into the central areas of the box.
Most of the time, he’s very lively, and his runs in the final third make sense. He shoots a lot, but from not-so-advantageous positions — the obvious caveat in our beloved game, along with the expected minutes.
Alex Iwobi
Truly one of the most influential midfielders in the league.
The kind of footballer every manager values, and the MAIN source of Fulham’s creativity — if he gets injured or suspended, good luck, Cottagers.
Although he isn’t a set-piece taker, he averages the most passes into the box in the league (4.03 per game). That’s right, all of them are from an open play.
Most of them are various kinds of passes from deeper areas. He’s someone with a very good awareness of his teammates’ runs and what happens on the pitch. So far, he has 2 assists to his name.
He also scored once, but that’s not his primary role, as he took 80% of his shots from outside the box.
Honorary mentions, to keep this easy to read: James Garner, Adam Wharton (both could easily be included in the article), Sandro Tonali, Pedro Neto, and Yankuba Minteh.
I’m sure I’ll discuss many of them at some point in the future.
‘Constant threat’ definitely feels like the right way to describe Doku. I always find the game infinitely more exciting when he’s playing. Football must be so fun when you can effortlessly beat and dribble past defenders with absolute ease. At times I do wonder how you can be that good and only get limited playing time, but that’s the blessing of an embarrassment of riches.