FPL Budget Picks: The Best MID Under £6.5

Budget midfielders under £6.5m: the boring money is the best money

Sixty midfielders qualify at £6.5m or under. Most of them will cost you points through blanks and benchings. Here's who actually plays, and who's actually worth it.

Ndiaye (EVE, £6.0m) tops our list. Nailed starter, proven at this level, and projected for around 26 points over the next six — a steady 4-5 most weeks with the odd bigger one. Fixtures are only average, starting at Bournemouth, but he's Everton's attack in a shirt. About 1 in 6 managers already have him. That's fine; you're buying reliability, not a secret.

Groß (BHA, £5.5m) is the value play — barely behind Ndiaye's projection at half a million cheaper, starts every week, and Brighton's run is genuinely kind after they get Chelsea away out of the way. Owned by roughly 1 in 8.

Schade (BRE, £6.0m) is the quiet one. Very kind fixtures, starts, projected mid-20s over six weeks, and hardly anyone owns him — about 1 in 30. If you want a pick nobody else has, this is it.

Dewsbury-Hall (EVE, £6.5m) starts and produces, but he's Ndiaye's teammate at £0.5m more for slightly less. Take the cheaper Everton option.

Quick lines on the rest: Tavernier (BOU, £6.0m) starts, favourable fixtures, owned by nearly nobody — decent shout. Ødegaard (ARS, £6.5m) is the real Arsenal pick here with a lovely run ahead. Stach (LEE, £6.0m) quietly projects well for a 1-in-60 owned player. Xhaka and Le Fée both start for Sunderland but the fixtures are ugly. Wilson and Tonali — starters, modest returns, pass.

And the elephant: Tzolis (ARS, £6.5m). About 1 in 4 managers own him — comfortably the most popular name on this list — and our model ranks him below every proven starter above. He's expected to start and Arsenal's fixtures are lovely, but he's unproven at this level and projects the worst of any £6.0m+ name here. The crowd has bought the shirt, not the points. Don't follow them.

The call: Ndiaye is the buy — starts, produces, no drama. If the extra £0.5m matters, Groß at £5.5m gets you nearly the same points with better fixtures. Either way, that's your money spent properly.