Aston Villa FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Villa: Where's the Value in a Team Ranked Bottom-Five at Both Ends?

Every dead ball at Villa Park goes through one man. Buendía takes the penalties, the free kicks and a share of the corners — and he starts every week. That's the whole Villa case, right there, and it costs £5.9m with roughly 1 in 10 managers on board. Fewer, actually — hardly anyone owns him.

He needs to be the case, because the team around him doesn't make one. Our model has Villa's attack among the league's five bluntest and the defence not much better — fourth-worst at keeping the ball out. Now look at the run: Tottenham away, Newcastle away, Manchester City at home, Manchester United away. Brentford and Fulham at Villa Park are the only fixtures you'd circle, and "circle" is doing generous work.

So where does the little value there is actually sit? In midfield, and specifically in the players who never come off. Buendía leads our rankings for the club — nailed, on everything, capable of a decent haul when Brentford or Fulham visit. McGinn is the same profile a rung down: starts every week, on corners, £5.4m. Barkley at £5.0m projects respectably, but the model ranks him below both, and there's a reason — he's the low-upside body in the midfield, not the one the chances run through. Don't buy the cheaper ticket to the worse seat.

The traps are at the two ends. Jackson at £6.5m is priced like a striker who scores; in this attack, against these fixtures, he's a striker who runs. Bottom of our list for the club despite the second penalty claim — pass. At the back, Lindelöf and Wan-Bissaka look like classic £4.5m enablers until you check the small print: Wan-Bissaka has one start, and the clean-sheet outlook is grim regardless. A cheap defender who plays behind a bottom-five defence facing City and Newcastle isn't an enabler, he's furniture. Suzuki's three starts in goal don't inspire either.

What changes the call? A kinder run after this one, or the defence tightening up. Neither is here yet.

The call: Villa are a swerve for the next six. If you genuinely need a sub-£6.0m midfielder who starts every week, Buendía is the only door in — the set pieces give him a puncher's chance in the two home games you'd actually start him. Everyone else, keep your money.