Budget FPL Gems: Ipswich Clarity vs Hull Chaos
The final weekend of pre-season threw Fantasy Premier League managers exactly what they wanted – and exactly what they feared.
Ipswich Town offered clarity. Hull City offered chaos.
At the heart of it all: a £4.5m forward with two assists, a cluster of £4.0m defenders under the microscope, and a reminder that cheap doesn’t have to mean dull.
Ipswich: £4.0m defence takes shape, £4.5m forward makes a statement
Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich Town
Goals: J Clarke, Emersonn, O’Shea, McAteer
Assists: Davis, Walle Egeli x2, Mehmeti
Gary O’Neil has stopped tinkering. That’s the headline for FPL managers.
For the second game running, Ipswich lined up with the same back four: Dara O’Shea, Issa Diop, Jacob Greaves and Leif Davis – all priced at £4.0m. At this stage of pre-season, this isn’t fitness work. This is a manager bedding in his first XI.
And the picture is suddenly a lot clearer.
It’s no longer a simple “two from three” among the centre-backs. O’Shea has been pushed out to right-back, with Diop and Greaves operating centrally and Davis marauding down the left. In reality, it often resembled a back three, with Davis so high that O’Shea tucked in.
O’Shea’s new role brought an immediate headline moment: a curling goal from open play. It’s the kind of strike that turns heads in FPL circles. But over a season, it’s not the odd worldie that matters for budget defenders. It’s the DefCons, the steady drip of clean sheets and appearance points. On that front, Diop looks the most secure pick of the £4.0m Ipswich options right now.
Davis is a different conversation entirely.
Nominally a left-back, he played like an auxiliary winger. He ended pre-season with more attacking returns than any other Ipswich player – four in total – and added another assist here, a whipped cross for Jack Clarke (£5.5m) to finish. At times, Davis was positioned higher than Daizen Maeda (£5.5m), with the Japanese forward dropping in to cover when Davis surged past him.
The question is no longer whether Davis carries attacking threat. He clearly does. The dilemma is whether that upside can justify the extra £0.5m over a nailed £4.0m centre-back, especially when recent history shows newly promoted defenders racking up DefCons in around half their starts. If Davis is going to tempt managers away from the cheaper route, he’ll need to turn that advanced role into consistent returns.
Behind them, there’s one more budget call to wrestle with. Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m) had a mixed afternoon. Union Berlin’s two goals weren’t calamitous, but both were the kind a goalkeeper would expect to do better with. It’s early, and the judgement is still forming, but he hasn’t yet slammed the door on doubts in the way some of his fellow promoted keepers have.
Further up the pitch, a £4.5m forward lit things up.
Sindre Walle Egeli not only started, he produced two assists – one for Emersonn (£5.5m), another for O’Shea – and closed pre-season with the fifth-most minutes in the Ipswich squad. He operated from the right flank here, having played as a No 10 last week. That versatility helps, but it also brings a warning: competition is coming.
Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) is working his way back from a knock, while Julio Enciso is on the brink of arriving. Both can operate in the same zones. For now, Walle Egeli is a live, budget-enabling punt. Long term, his minutes are on shaky ground. Enjoy the chaos while it lasts.
There was also a first pre-season outing for Jaden Philogene (£5.5m), last season’s 12-goal winger. He’s been linked with a move away and may yet be wearing different colours by September, but his return to the pitch at least puts him back on the radar.
Ipswich, then, head into Gameweek 1 with a defined structure, clear roles and a clutch of cheap assets. For FPL managers, that’s gold dust.
Hull: rotation fears, injury clouds and a busy £4.5m keeper
Hull’s final friendly told a very different story.
The 0-0 draw with Nice was short on incident and long on uncertainty. For Fantasy bosses hoping for a clear £4.0m route into their defence, or a standout budget attacker, this was not the afternoon they wanted.
Elliot Stroud (£5.0m) was thrown straight in for his debut on the left wing. Three other summer signings – Lucas Gourna-Douath (price TBA), Lucas Herrington (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m) – came off the bench for their first minutes. Joe Gelhardt (£5.0m) was missing altogether.
The reason was simple enough.
“Because he had an injury. He has an injury from Leeds, three weeks already gone. I expect in two weeks he will be on the pitch with the team. Right ankle,” Sergej Jakirovic explained.
If Hull’s squad looked stretched a week ago, it at least regained some key figures here. John Egan (£4.0m), Jens Hjerto-Dahl (£5.0m), Paddy McNair (£4.0m) and Liam Millar (£5.0m) all returned, with Egan and Hjerto-Dahl starting. Even so, the XI still had a strong Championship flavour: eight of the 11 starters were part of last season’s promotion push.
The sense, though, is of a team in transition.
At centre-half, Egan and Semi Ajayi (£4.0m) got the nod from the start in this final tune-up. But with club-record signing Mendy and fellow new arrival Herrington both introduced in the second half, it’s hard to shake the feeling that those shirts are up for grabs as soon as the Premier League kicks in. If you’re eyeing a £4.0m defender for an early Bench Boost, the Ipswich and Coventry options look cleaner, with less looming rotation.
The uncertainty doesn’t stop at the back.
Oli McBurnie (£5.5m) is currently short of serious competition up front, but Jakirovic made it clear that won’t last.
“I hope also we will bring, in a few days, another option for the striker position,” he said.
In midfield, the two £4.5m candidates – Regan Slater and Matt Crooks – are hanging on to their places, helped by injuries to several potential rivals. Gourna-Douath, on this evidence, may be more of a threat to Hjerto-Dahl than to those two, with the Norwegian still looking like he’s playing catch-up physically. Hull continue to be linked with more reinforcements in the engine room, which only deepens the minutes risk.
On the pitch, Hull rarely caught fire. Their main threat came from dead balls, with Slater and Mohamed Belloumi (£5.0m) delivering corners that caused Nice some discomfort. Egan, Hjerto-Dahl and Mendy all had half-chances from set pieces, but nothing truly clear-cut.
In open play, Belloumi was the standout. He looked the one player capable of conjuring something out of nothing, carving out Hull’s best chance for himself only to see his effort beaten away. Beyond that, the Tigers laboured to create.
One position, though, does look locked: goalkeeper.
Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.5m) was sharp throughout, his best moment a superb double save just before half-time. He will be busy this season, and on this showing he’s ready for it. For managers seeking a save magnet rather than a clean-sheet machine, he’s firmly in the conversation.
Hull, then, go into Gameweek 1 with questions everywhere: at centre-back, in midfield, up front. Ipswich arrive with a settled core and cheap routes into it. The template will form quickly in the opening weeks.
The only real question now is simple: who dares back the chaos, and who sticks with the clarity?
