Sunderland
Stadium of Light
Sunderland FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid
The call — Sunderland: the value's at the wrong end of the pitch — and that's fine Here's the picture in one line: our model has Sunderland's attack fourth-worst in the league heading into a genuinely nasty run of fixtures, while the defence sits a respectable mid-table 11th with a perfectly average clean-sheet outlook. Translation: anyone buying a Sunderland attacker for goals is…
What has not being with FFIQ cost you this season?
One squad, picked before a ball was kicked and run for five gameweeks on three transfers — no hits taken. Scored on FPL’s own results.
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Start with the one midfielder who earns an exception. Le Fée tops our list, and not by accident — he's on corners, shares free kicks, and he's second in line for penalties behind Diarra. At £5.7m with barely 3 in 10 — sorry, about 3 in every 100 managers — owning him, he's the only Sunderland player whose points don't depend on this team suddenly scoring freely. Set-piece deliveries keep a player ticking over at 4-5 points a week even when the team's blanking, and that's exactly the shape of his projection. Xhaka sits just behind, also nailed, also on dead balls, but with less of the direct stuff. If you're taking one, take Le Fée.
The quieter value is the defence. Roefs at £4.9m is a starting Premier League keeper for the price of most benches, and Mukiele and Meunier both start every week at £5.4m and £4.5m. Mid-table defensively, average fixtures — that's not a sales pitch, it's a floor. You're buying 2-3 points guaranteed with a clean sheet bonus when Brighton, Leeds or Coventry have an off day at the Stadium of Light.
The honest caveat: BHA (H), BOU (A), LEE (H), COV (A), CHE (H), AVL (A) is a hard road for the forward line and only average for shut-outs. Nobody here is going massive. This is an enabler club — the players you buy so you can afford Haaland, not instead of him.
The call: Le Fée is a buy if you need a fifth midfielder who actually plays and touches every set piece — he's the best thing here by a distance. Roefs or Meunier are sound bench fodder that starts. Everything else, leave in the table. And don't go near a Sunderland forward until the fixtures — and the attack — say otherwise.