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The Stuart Dallas Conundrum


There's no doubting that Stuart Dallas was one of the hero's of FPL last season (or villain - if like me, you opted for Luke Ayling at the start of the season instead, and then always had too many fires to fight elsewhere so didn't bring him in until too late) , but this year sees him increase in price, and be re-classified as a midfielder, meaning he loses the Out of Position bonus, and even risks the potential of playing in defence when classified as a midfielder next season.


Last season, Dallas started as a £4.5m defender, and instantly impressed... this only continued as he was moved into central midfield, allowing him to get forward even more than he was doing at Left Back, and add a goal threat to his game, and ending the season as the top points scoring defender in FPL.


On first glance, his increased price tag and re-classified position has been seen to be a bit of a trap, despite him being selected in 18.1% of teams so far, and so I wanted to dive deeper into the stats to see if there is still value in the Leeds player of the season, on the weekend that he celebrates signing a new deal at the club.


Firstly £5.5m options are fairly sparse this season. I've gone through and selected 10 options for this season, and included two 5.5m options from last season, and compared Dallas's performance stats to them.


The players included are:


Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal) - Always an xG threat

Emile Smith-Rowe (Arsenal) - 5 Assists and 2 goals in just over 1400 minutes last season

Ashley Westwood (Burnley) - Highest points scoring midfielder last season, who is priced £5.5m or less this year (Except for Dallas)

Thiago Alcantara (Liverpool) - Great player, not so much a great fantasy asset.

Marc Albrighton (Leicester) - 7 assists last season

Mateusz Klich (Leeds) - 99 Points last season (4 goals, 5 assists)

Miguel Almiron (Newcastle) - 4 goals, 2 assists last season

Todd Cantwell (Norwich) - Used 19/20 stats when he was last in the Premier League

Ruben Neves (Wolves) - 104 points last season (5 goals)

Daniel Podence (Wolves) - 3 goals and 2 assists in a stop-start season.


In order to try and minimise the impact of injuries/rotation etc, I've decided to look at Stats per appearance for the above players, and filtered Dallas's stats to only include fixtures from GW8 last season, as that's when he was moved into midfield.


I've also added in two players who were priced at £5.5m last season to give a flavour of what could be gained from that price point - West Broms Matheus Pereira (If Pereira gets a move back to the Premier League, I expect him to be more expensive) and Crystal Palace's Andros Townsend.





Whilst Dallas's goalscoring exploits caught our attention last season, there was a definite over performance in terms of "expected stats. This could either indicate Dallas is a clinical finisher, or his performance from last year is unlikely to be sustainable.


It's clear that Pereira was the stand out performer of these options last season. The Sea of Green showing his involvement in all aspects of the game, and outperforming Dallas in all the attacking aspects of the game.


Two other options which grab my attention (although it depends on minutes) are the Arsenal duo Martinelli and Smith-Rowe. Martinelli's stats show his goal threat with 1.4 Goal Attempts each appearance, 1.2 of which are in the box (highest of all the players selected). Meanwhile Smith-Rowe ranked highly in terms of touches in the final third at 19.6 per appearance, and Chances created at 1.4 per appearance.


One player that took me by surprise, especially in terms of chances created, was Ashley Westwood. Perhaps suffering from being at an unfashionable club, and therefore never really considered as an option, Westwood's creative numbers match those of Smith-Rowe per appearance. His goal-threat does let him down however, with the touches in the opposition penalty area the lowest of all 12 players considered.


Creatively, Dallas struggled last year when compared to his new peers, with both Chances created (0.7 per appearance), and Big Chances created (0.1 per appearance) lower than all but one in both categories.


When removing the outlying Pereira, Dallas does look a more appealing option, especially as you would expect him to be more reliable in terms of playing time than the Arsenal Duo, meaning you could do a lot worse than Northern Irishman.

However, as I mentioned earlier, Dallas's £5.5m price tag is awkward, and managers could potentially decide to go elsewhere. You could stretch your budget and opt for a £6/6.5m midfielder to try and maximise your points return from your 4th midfielder, or you could opt for a cheaper midfielder as your 5th midfielder, and opt for those that you expect to play, but are happy for them to sit on your bench and take their two points when they come into the team and move on.


If you go for the first option, and opt to spend a little bit more money on that midfield spot. Then the standout options are Dallas's team-mate Raphinha, or another Arsenal player Bukayo Saka, both of whom provided similar numbers throughout last season. Whilst Saka will face similar rotation threat at Arsenal to Martinelli and Smith-Rowe, i consider him to be more established in the line up than those two.


The players I've considered at the £6m/£6.5m price bracket are as follows:


Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)

Pascal Gross (Brighton)

Leandro Trossard (Brighton)

Raphinha (Leeds)

Jack Harrison (Leeds)

Youri Tielemans (Leicester)

Stuart Armstrong (Southampton)

James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)

Jarrod Bowen (West Ham)

Tomas Soucek (West Ham)

Ismaila Sarr (Watford) - again 19/20 stats have been used.






Dallas only seems to rank highly in the defensive stats amongst this group, which isn't ideal for FPL, whereas attacking wise, he provides a similar output to Youri Tielemans, James Ward-Prowse and Stuart Armstrong, all of whom are decent players, but not the most existing options for your FPL team. If you're considering them, save the extra cash and choose Dallas.


Now with Jack Harrison having made his move to Leeds a permanent one, the he becomes a more appealing prospect than Dallas. Available for £6m, Harrison provides a much superior threat at just half a million more expensive.


The other school of thought at Dallas's price point, is to drop to a cheaper option, allowing you to upgrade elsewhere in your squad.


Looking at 4.5m Options, the ones that caught my eye were:


Yves Bissouma (Brighton)

Kalvin Phillips (Leeds)

Billy Gilmour (Norwich)

Harry Winks (Spurs) - I think Nuno's appointment could see him get back into the squad, and Ive used 19/20 data as Wink's featured more then

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Spurs)

Declan Rice (West Ham)





Two players that suprised me here (as they have done with their mature performances for England this summer) are Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips.


Rice matches Dallas's creative numbers, and for goal attempts from inside the area, leading to a similar xG this season too (although Dallas's xA is higher), whereas his England counterpart Kalvin Phillips doesn't carry the goal threat of Dallas (in fact Phillips rarely touches the ball in the opposition area, but his creative numbers are significantly higher, suggesting a good opportunity for assists. The others in this price bracket aren't anywhere near Dallas's level, with the only eye catching stat being Yves Bissouma's 1.2 Goal attempts per game.


Gilmour and Winks both intrigue me, more on the eye test than stats provided here. Gilmour, I think will go straight into the team, and could be worth it as a 4.5m bench fodder, as i think he will dictate play for Norwich and run games for them, although i can see him being the quarterback type who assists the assister, so could be a frustrating buy as an FPL manager.


Winks, meanwhile, is one who won't be in my team earlier, but I will keep an eye on him, an spurs in general. He strikes me as the type of player Nuno will get the best out of and at 4.5m, if he becomes a regular, he could again be a nice bench option.


As with most FPL decisions, this really comes down to budget.


If you have £6.5m/£6m to spare, Saka, Raphinha and Harrison are the picks to take. Dallas's stats fall way below theirs, and with Raphinha and Harrison, they will have the same fixtures as Dallas, so will be likely to be rotated as Dallas would be in your squad.


At £5.5m or less though I think you can do a lot worse than picking Dallas again. He's fairly rotation proof, and the numbers from last year stack up well against the competition. Other options to consider would be Todd Cantwell, and the two Arsenal boys I mentioned earlier in Smith-Rowe and Martinelli. If I could be certain of his minutes, then Martinelli would be my choice.






All of the stats in this article have come from Fantasy Football Scouts Members Area. You can sign up using this link, and get 20% off their membership fees currently.


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