Who To Pick From Fulham

Drafting from Fulham

A squad of 26, and not one Englishman among the best five: Bernd Leno of Germany, Antonee Robinson of the United States, Calvin Bassey of Nigeria, Joachim Andersen of Denmark, Sander Berge of Norway. Five men, five passports. The English contingent is 4 of 26 and it sits in the middle of the squad rather than at the top of it. Fulham carry a power rating of 79, joint-fourteenth on the wheel, and the shape underneath that number is flat: a spread of 5 from the top man to the eleventh-best, where Liverpool run to 12. There is no cliff here, just a long gentle slope from 82 down to 70.

Just 2 players reach 82, and they are the whole decision: Leno in goal and Robinson at left back. Take Robinson. Left back is the slot drafts forget about until there is one place left and nothing decent to put in it, and an 82 there is a rarer object than the same number in goal, where good enough genuinely is good enough. Ryan Sessegnon at 76 sits behind him, so the position does not collapse on you if you spend a pick elsewhere first. And Robinson is a United States starter, a lane only Bournemouth's Tyler Adams matches for quality; if you want it at all, this is where you get it.

What Fulham actually sell is the middle of a squad. Bassey and Andersen at 80 apiece are two-thirds of a centre-back partnership no draft will ever let you assemble, Timothy Castagne at 78 covers the right, Alex Iwobi at 79 and Emile Smith Rowe at 78 are two different answers to the same hole behind the striker, Oscar Bobb at 78 is a winger with more in him than the number admits, and Rodrigo Muniz at 78 leads the line. The band is thick rather than tall: Kevin at 77 is only the eleventh-best rating in the building. If your board is thinning and you need a starter who will not embarrass the lineup, this is the cheap place to find one.

The cost is that nothing here wins you a week on its own. Eight central midfielders average 73, the lowest of any position Fulham stock more than one player in, so most of that squad list is body count rather than depth, and Berge at 79 is the only one of the eight worth a pick. The three centre-forwards average 74, which reduces to Muniz or nothing. For a Fulham number nine you have to go to the legends board, where Aleksandar Mitrovic at 92 and Clint Dempsey at 92 are a different proposition entirely. Come for the full back, take the back line if it falls to you, and shop for goals somewhere else.