Budget forwards for your 2022/23 FPL wildcard draft – Taiwio Awoniyi, Alexsandar Mitrovic and Solanke

With all the activities going on in the transfer market, the 2022/23 season promises to be yet another exciting season and we FPL managers can’t wait to start creating drafts for the upcoming season.

But before we start creating those drafts, we’d like to look at some newly promoted teams and their attackers and see which one you should consider adding to your wildcard drafts.

If there’s one thing we FPL managers like, it is having mid-priced forwards who can score goals and get us FPL points. And over the course of the last four FPL seasons, we’ve had the likes of Patrick Bamford, Teemu Pukki and Ivan Toney who were all mid-priced forwards, who did just that.

However, some of the players mentioned above might not be in the mid priced range when the 2022/23 FPL season launches; and so in this article, we’d be looking at forwards from newly promoted teams and see which one of them would be the best mid-priced option for your 2022/23 FPL wildcard draft.

Who is Alexsandar Mitrovic?

The first player on our list of potential budget forwards, in the 2022/23 FPL season would be Fulham’s Alexsandar Mitrovic. He’s the first player on our list because of his impressive goal-scoring season in the Championship last season.

Let’s take a look at his stats and see how he did in Championship.

His stats really are impressive. The Serbian forward outperformed his xG and xA, he averaged a goal per game, he also had an average of 4.62 shots a game with 2.10 of those being on target.

Those are really impressive numbers but the big question is, can he do this in the Premier League? Well, here are some of his numbers from his 2020/21 Premier League campaign:

From the looks of things, Mitrovic really struggled in the Premier League the last time he was here. However, I do think it’s a bit unfair to compare these two seeasons.

Fulham have become a much better side under Marco Silva and they play really good attacking football. Their attacking play saw them score 106 goals in the Championship last season. And if they keep up with their fluid attacking play, I can see Mitrovic hitting double figures for goals next season.

But before we decide whether Mitrovic would be a good budget striker for your 2022/23 FPL wildcard draft, let’s take a look at Fulham’s fixtures and see whether he’s one we should get at the start of the season, or maybe later on in the season.

From the looks of things four of Fulham’s first seven games are against last seeason’s top 10; which could be really difficult for them as well as for Mitrovic.

However, from gameweek 8-11 they have pretty winnable fixtures that Mitovic could perform well in. Depending on his price, you might want to buy him, and rotate him with some of your better bench players.

FPL budget forward: Dominic Solanke

Bournemouth on the otherhand, have Dominic Solanke who was their top scorer, with the 24 year old England attacker, scoring 29 goals in the 2021/22 championship campaign. Solanke also seems to be a nailed on starter for Bournemouth. The 24 year old forward managed an average of 4,086 minutes in his 46 starts for the cherries.

The Bournemouth striker will now look to improve his goal scoring threat in the premier league; as he only managed 3 goals in the 32 matches he played in the 2019/2020 season which was the last time the cherries were in the premier league.

Another attacking player that we FPL managers might want to keep an eye on is Philip billing. Billing played 40 Matches for the cherries and managed to score 10 goals in the championship last season.

Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke have the potential to be really good budget players and are ones we should keep an eye on. On the fixture front, Bournemouth have some really good fixtures. Those good fixtures, come right after they have played Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

With these sort of fixtures, Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke are not bad players to have in your team.

FPL budget forward: Taiwo Awoniyi

Since appointing their new coach (Steve Cooper) back in September 2021 on a 2 year deal from Swansea city, Nottingham Forest have become a force to reckon with in all competitions. The coach has totally transformed the team from being a championship side to now competing in the Premier League.

We know that Nottingham Forest would be a very competitive side as they showed in their FA cup run last season, where they beat Arsenal and Leicester respectively before losing 1-0 to Liverpool in what was a really interesting game.

Those impressive displays have gotten me really excited and I can’t wait to see them play in the Premier League this season. Nottingham Forest have also gone on to sign Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin and that has gotten me even more excited.

Let’s now take a look at his numbers and see whether or not he’d be a good mid-priced striker to add to your wildcard draft.

Taiwo Awoniyi’s numbers look great as the player managed to score 15 goals from an xG of 14 in 29 games. He also averaged 2.86 shots a game with 1.36 of those being on target. Taiwo Awoniyi is an asset with huge potential and one to consider if you’re on a draft.

Brennan Johnson is yet another ( Nottingham forest attacker), who can be a good budget enabler. Johnson played a big role in helping his team gain promotion into the premier league last season, scoring 19 goals and assisting 10 for his side.

With fixtures like this, it would not be a bad idea to have Awoniyi or maybe Johnson in your team most especially after the Man City game. When they have a couple of easy games against the likes of Bournemouth, Leeds and Fulham.

If Nottingham Forest stick to their attacking style of play, then we FPL managers are going to be in for a treat.

There you have it our budget forward picks for the 2022/23 FPL season. Do make sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think and who you’d be bringing into your FPL teams this season.

Ghafar Edun