With Gameweek 1 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) 2024/25 nearing, we’re welcoming back our team of Hall of Famers and guest writers. Here, two-time Indian FPL champion and Manchester United fan Lateriser discusses Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes.

So my club Manchester United have been a bit Jekyll and Hyde under Erik ten Hag and their options have almost been alternating between being good and not so good. In this article, I will be talking about our prospects in attack, mainly focusing on whether Marcus Rashford (£7.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) will be options to consider in FPL this season.

Let us first look at United’s underlying numbers in the last two seasons. In all the images used below, we will have the 2022/23 data on the left and the 2023/24 data on the right.

While we scored the same amount of goals as we did in the first season under ten Hag, the expected goals (xG) data actually reduced drastically which was visible in a very underwhelming season. We were 10th for goals and xG in 2023/24. The season before that (ten Hag’s first) wasn’t that bad as we were 6th for xG and 8th for goals. We did have a huge chunk of injuries last year, however, and Casemiro (£5.0m) pretty much lost his legs (was unfit) which affected our play. I think it is crucial that we find a new midfield partner for Kobbie Mainoo (£5.5m) this season otherwise I’d be wary of investing in our defence.

MARCUS RASHFORD

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