Dream Team’s £50million budget means gaffers who want to include big names like Harry Kane (£7.5m), Mohamed Salah (£7.5m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£7m) will have to opt for cheaper players elsewhere to balance the books.
Identifying savvy value-for-money assets is half the battle but successfully backing a free-scoring forward who doesn’t break the bank is one of the greatest pleasures fantasy football has to offer.
So which bargain forwards (£3.5m or cheaper) have the potential to score 15+ goals in all competitions this coming season?
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1 Anthony Martial (£3m)
Plenty of Dream Team gaffers have fallen down the well of pre-season form before but the Frenchman has looked impressively refocused during Man United’s preparations under Erik ten Hag.
The Dutch tactician is expected to employ tactics that require intensity and considerable defensive effort from all his players which may spell bad news for a certain Cristiano Ronaldo (£6.5m).
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner remains an elite finisher but whether his all-round game justifies automatic selection for a team that should be competing for trophies has been a much-debated topic in recent seasons.
Plus, the 37-year-old has been absent from the Red Devils’ pre-season while supposedly seeking a transfer to a club set to participate in the Champions League.
All signs point towards Martial starting the new campaign as Man United’s first-choice striker.
Add in some neat pre-season finishes, plus the expectation that results will improve under Ten Hag, and his price tag looks very tempting.
At the time of writing, Martial is the seventh-most popular forward in the game with an ownership of 7.7%.
2 Aleksandar Mitrovic (£3.5m)
Cue murmurings about the Serbian’s underwhelming return of three goals from 27 appearances during his last whirl in the Premier League.
Question marks over Mitrovic’s ability to excel in the top flight are justified but it would be remiss to discard the fact he scored 43 goals in the Championship last season.
FORTY THREE.
If he’s only able to muster a third of that tally for Fulham this term then he will silence a lot of his critics and stack up a fair few Dream Team points in the process.
Naturally, the Cottagers will not be able to express themselves so effectively following promotion to the world’s most-popular league but the general consensus is that they’re better equipped to take on the big dogs this time around.
A fully-fit Mitrovic in his prime years and full of confidence is, at the very least, an intriguing prospect.
3 Patrick Bamford (£3m)
Leeds’ No9 was limited to just 581 minutes in 2021/22 because of injury setbacks – the whole season was essentially a write-off.
It stands to reason that a lot of Dream Team bosses have largely forgotten about Bamford given his lay-off but it’s worth remembering that he scored 17 goals and provided seven assists in the Premier League in 2020/21.
Granted, that was when Marcelo Bielsa’s unique attacking tactics were at their most effective but the evidence suggests Bamford is a Premier League quality goalscorer when at 100%.
He even managed a goal involvement every 145 minutes during his short sample size of appearances last season.
If Jesse Marsch’s side start the new term in decent shape then the 28-year-old could be worth backing as a bargain forward, at least until the European competitions are in full swing.
4 Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£3.5m)
Much of what applied to Bamford is also relevant to Everton’s target man.
Injury woes and his team’s collective poor form restricted his returns in 2021/22 but the season before he was one of the very best assets in his position having netted 21 goals in all competitions.
If the Calvert-Lewin of 2020/21 returns this season then he’ll offer superb value-for-money but it remains to be seen whether the Toffees have sorted themselves out over the summer.
5 Gabriel Martinelli (£2.5m)
If the other names on this list are affordable then Arsenal’s promising 21-year-old is scandalously cheap.
Unlike the other suggestions here, the Brazilian is not an out-and-out centre-forward as he’ll likely play mostly from the left flank but many other assets are able to achieve mountainous tallies from wide positions – just look at Salah!
The Gunners have won all four of their pre-season friendlies and seemed buoyed by the capture of Gabriel Jesus (£5m).
Martinelli will hope to form a partnership with his compatriot that may even see them switch positions from time to time to keep opposition defenders honest.
The talented youngster may not be assured of as many minutes as some of the other names on this list but as a developing player who has been singled out for praise by the likes of Jurgen Klopp, it feels as if he could flip a switch at any moment.
As it stands, 2.5% of Dream Team bosses are willing to roll the dice on Martinelli ahead of Game Week 1.
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