Fantasy Football - the bargain squad

When it comes to fantasy football it doesn't matter what league you're in or who you're against, there is always that one genius who has the best bargains and predicted the unlikely superstars to put alongside the likes of Harry Kane and Eden Hazard. This season, you could be that guy.

Down below you can find the ultimate squad of potential bargains to put alongside your expensive world-beaters.

Goalkeepers: Matthew Ryan - Brighton & Hove Albion - £4.5 million

Last season Ryan managed 10 clean sheets for the Seagulls who conceded the least amount of goals in the bottom half despite the Australian being forced into the third highest amount of saves last season.

All but two of his clean sheets came against sides outside the top nine so it should be fairly easy to predict who not to play Matthew Ryan against next season.

Lukasz Fabianski - West Ham United - £4.5 million

It would appear West Ham have finally solved their goalkeeping dilemma with the signing of Fabianski. The keeper made more saves than Adrian and Joe Hart combined last season and kept nine clean sheets in a dismal Swansea City side.

You can't see Manuel Pellegrini's side making the same awful mistakes the Hammers made last season meaning more clean sheets for your fantasy team.

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold - Liverpool - £5 million

The youngster looks set to start as Liverpool's first choice right back this season and at a price of £5 million, he is an absolute steal.

He won't get the assists or the goals the likes of Marcos Alonso will but with Liverpool looking to sure up their defence and become title contenders this season, you would expect Trent to pick up a fair few points over the course of a season.

Jamaal Lascelles - Newcastle - £5 million

Newcastle conceded fewer goals than Arsenal, Leicester and Everton last season and with Rafael Benitez not being given the funds to improve his attacking line-up, expect Newcastle to be a very defensive side again next season.

The Magpies will look to utilize set-pieces again next season and Lascelles profited three times from such situations last season and he picked up nine bonus points last season.

Patrick Van Aanholt - Crystal Palace - £5.5 million

Pushing the average price boundary here is Van Aanholt a player who has shone for both Sunderland and Crystal Palace in terms of goals scored, scoring at least five in all of his last three seasons.

When Hodgson took over Crystal Palace they were a defensive calamity, now they're slightly more stable and you can envision them having a pretty decent defensive record next season.

Lewis Dunk - Brighton - £4.5 million

Another Brighton player simply because I believe they'll be even tougher to score against, this season. Chris Hughton knows how to set a side up to defend and they'll pick up a few shock results this season.

Ryan Bertrand - Southampton - £5 million

Last year was embarrassing for Southampton and Bertrand and I can't see them repeating their failings next year. Mark Hughes will have secured them up defensively and we can expect to see Bertrand in fine form this upcoming season.

Midfielders

Pascal Gross - Brighton - £7 million

I don't think anyone was expecting the Brighton man to be as effective as he was last season and I still think with the emphasis on wingers Anthony Knockaert and Alireza Jahanbakhsh this season I can see Gross building on his impressive season last term.

Gross picked up 24 bonus points last season to go alongside his seven goals and eight assists.

Ryan Sessegnon - Fulham - £6.5 million

The youngster has finally made his way to the Premier League and I can't for the life of me see him disappointing this season. Fulham will have a serious attacking threat this season and I can see them getting plenty of goals and Sessegnon will have a huge part to play.

Sessegnon was involved in 21 of Fulham's goals last season and with new signing Aleksandar Mitrovic set to link up with the youngster again this season, it looks like many more will be on the way.

Kenedy - Newcastle United - £5 million

Being a Newcastle fan I know exactly how essential Kenedy is to the Magpies. Last season, his fitness was suspect and he still looked an attacking threat. Now Benitez has had nearly a full pre-season with the Brazilian and I can envision Kenedy being Newcastle's star player this campaign.

You certainly won't find better value for £5 million this year.

Luka Milivojevic - Crystal Palace - £6.5 million

The logic behind this one is simple, with Wilfred Zaha and Andros Townsend, Crystal Palace will likely get a lot of penalties this year (like they did last time around). So why not put their penalty specialist in at £6.5 million?

He also got two assists and scored 10 goals last season. An absolute steal if he matches last seasons' form.

Diogo Jota - Wolves - 6.5 million

Involved in 22 goals last season, Jota was one of Wolves' star young players last season and is only going to get better. Wolves might have to adopt a slightly more defensive tactic than they did last season but that just means more opportunities on the counter-attack for their pacy left forward.

Strikers: Aleksandar Mitrović - Fulham - Price undetermined.

At a price which will be lower than £6 million. The Serbian international will be an absolute bargain, 12 goals in 17 appearances last season showed just what Mitrović is capable of. I can see him building on his £22 million price tag and settling the Premier League on fire this campaign.

Mitrović scored ten Premier League goals in 40 appearances for the Magpies but most of his appearances were either in a defensive line-up or as a substitute; Fulham will be an entirely different proposition. Strangely, Mitrovic isn't available on the game yet even though he was a Newcastle United player who was available last year.

Wilfred Zaha - Crystal Palace - £7 million

At the back end of the 2017/18 campaign, we saw the very best of Zaha, the quick dynamic player whom teams feared. This led to Zaha picking up nine goals and seven assists last season

Marko Arnantovic - West Ham United - £7 million

Despite Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini insisting Javier Hernandez will play for West Ham this season, I still envision the Austrian being the first choice striker at the club. Why? Because they've just signed two more quality wingers so you would assume he won't be playing on the wings.

According to Whoscored stats, Arnantovic was involved in 14 goals (nine goals five assists) in the sixteen games he started as West Ham's central striker last season. So at £7 million, the Hammer could be a steal this time around.

So there it is. 16 of the top bargains that could be the difference between winning and losing your fantasy league this season. In total, this squad costs £85.5 million with the average player costing £5.3 million. This gives you £14.5 million to play with which is more than the value of the most expensive player in the game. Want to see how you could incorporate these bargains into a team? Find mine below!

So what do you think? Were there any golden gems that we missed? How many of these will you use in your squad? Let us know in the comments!