Crystal Palace FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Palace: the value's at the wrong end — and that's fine

Here's the oddity our model keeps spitting out: Crystal Palace's best buy isn't anyone in their attack. It's Tyrick Mitchell, a £4.5m defender behind a back line we rank among the leakiest five in the league.

That sounds like a contradiction. It isn't. Mitchell has started every game, he's the top-projected Palace asset over the next six, and at £4.5m you're not paying for clean sheets — you're paying for a left-back who never blanks on minutes and chips in at the other end. Fewer than one in ten managers own him. That's the sort of player who quietly funds a Haaland.

The attack is the trap here. Palace are a respectable mid-table outfit going forward — ninth-best in our book — but the fixtures are brutal for scoring: Newcastle, Spurs away, Liverpool at Selhurst Park all land in this run. Strand Larsen at £6.0m is the shiny name, and he's the one I'd walk past: three starts from five is exactly the profile that gets hooked on 60 or benched outright, and you're paying a pound-fifty more than Mitchell for the privilege of guessing.

If you want a piece of the Palace midfield, Kamada at £5.0m is the sensible route — nailed, on corners, owned by basically nobody, and projected within touching distance of players costing a pound more. Yeremy has the set-piece portfolio (free kicks and corners) and more spark, but four starts from five versus Kamada's five from five tells you which one Cheapy trusts. Wharton's in the same bracket: starts everything, decent return, zero romance.

The honest caveat: an average clean-sheet run plus a 17th-ranked defence means Mitchell's big weeks will be rare. Liverpool and Newcastle will score against this back line. You're buying a reliable 2-3 points with the occasional attacking bonus, not hauls. Nottingham Forest at home first up and Coventry away at the end are the shut-out shouts.

So — is Palace worth buying into? As a source of cheap, nailed bodies, yes. As a source of goals over these six, no.

The call: buy Mitchell at £4.5m as your set-and-forget enabler, Kamada if you need a fifth midfielder who actually plays. Leave Strand Larsen and the attack alone until the fixtures turn.