After assessing the budget options, it’s time to pick out the best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) forwards priced between £6.0m and £7.0m.

In our position-by-position guides, we’ve been analysing the leading players competing to make managers’ opening squads.

OVERVIEW

At the time of writing, there are 16 names within this price range. However, reports say Julian Alvarez (£7.0m) is on the verge of joining Atletico Madrid, while the likes of Romelu Lukaku (£6.5m), Eddie Nketiah (£6.0m), Richarlison (£7.0m) and Jhon Duran (£6.0m) are potentially being offloaded.

On top of that, Rasmus Hojlund (£7.0m) will miss the initial Gameweeks with a hamstring problem and new Brentford signing Igor Thiago (£6.0m) was unlucky enough to suffer a knee injury on his pre-season debut. He’ll miss several months.

Of the remaining names, FPL managers can then judge whether they’d like to complete their starting line-up with a £6.0m to £7.0m forward or find better value in a similarly-priced midfielder that could enable 3-5-2.

Rodrigo Muniz (£6.0m)

Between February and April, Fulham forward Muniz provided a gift to such 3-5-2 managers. Priced at a bench-filling £4.5m, Gameweek 23 was only his fourth start of the season but it began a run of eight goals in eight matches.

Above: All players from Gameweeks 23 to 38, ranked by shots inside the box

From this period until the very end, he ranked third overall for attempts (60) and first for shots inside the box (56), alongside Erling Haaland (£15.0m). Inheriting the Cottagers’ number nine shirt, he’ll enter this campaign full of confidence, supplied by both Andreas Pereira (£5.5m) and new arrival Emile Smith Rowe (£5.5m).

The early fixtures look brilliant too, facing the newly-promoted duo Leicester City and Ipswich Town in Gameweeks 2 and 3. In fact, according to our Season Ticker, they begin with the league’s best six-match run.

Both Fulham penalties of 2023/24 were converted by Willian, who has now departed. So there’s even a chance that Muniz will inherit these, although Andreas is around and Sasa Lukic (£5.0m) took one in their recent friendly against Watford. Muniz grabbed a goal and an assist in that 6-1 win.

Chris Wood (£6.0m)

Meanwhile, our Ticker says Nottingham Forest have the nicest fixtures between Gameweeks 1 and 3, going on to have the second-best when stretched out to Gameweek 10.

That’s why a current community debate wonders whether Muniz or Wood is the best £6.0m option. Strengthening the Forest forward’s case are his 14 goals from last season, despite starting just 20 times (1,886 minutes).

Of those with at least a dozen goals, his rate of scoring every 134.7 minutes was only bettered by Haaland, Alexander Isak (£8.5m) and Cole Palmer (£10.5m). This has continued into pre-season, netting twice in the first three outings.

A further boost is that Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.0m) has seen just 13 minutes so far, though he’ll be a threat over time. Nuno Espirito Santo may push to buy an extra centre-forward as well.

In an interesting quirk, Wood has only received five yellow cards in seven Premier League campaigns. Don’t expect any disciplinary issues from the New Zealand international.

Matheus Cunha (£6.5m)

As of now, Cunha and Lukaku are the only £6.5m forwards in FPL. If it wasn’t for Wolverhampton Wanderers’ terrible-looking start – the worst on our Ticker over these first eight Gameweeks – he’d be a solid shout. Well, that plus the hamstring injury that might see him miss the trip to Arsenal.

“I wouldn’t see him as a doubt for the start of the season, I’m confident he’ll be out there against Arsenal. You can be wrong with these things, but at the moment I’m not concerned.” – Gary O’Neil, to the Express & Star

Until then, he’d bagged two pre-season goals during their tour of America.

Last time, the Brazilian had a particularly fruitful spell between Gameweeks 13 and 23, delivering seven goals and four assists. Heading into the following match’s injury, he was ranked as the fifth-highest-scoring FPL forward, accumulating the joint-third most shots on target (29) and third-most big chances created (seven) in his position.

As for spot kicks, he’s taken one of them but duties usually belong to Hwang Hee-chan (£6.5m) or Pablo Sarabia (£5.5m).

There’ll be even more competition for places following the arrivals of Rodrigo Gomes (£5.5m) and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.5m), although at least it’s not an either/or in the latter’s case as Cunha has been playing off the big Norwegian in pre-season.

Yoane Wissa (£6.0m)

It’ll be similar at Brentford for Wissa, whose projected minutes were boosted by the unfortunate Thiago injury but are in danger should Ivan Toney (£7.5m) not find a new club.

Then again, no Bees player has played more pre-season minutes than him and he even slotted home a penalty – although those are normally taken by Bryan Mbeumo (£7.0m).

It follows a promising end to 2023/24 that brought five goals and two assists in the final seven matches, although it should be noted that he tends to be a streaky player. For example, after scoring in Gameweeks 1 and 2, he found the net just once throughout his next 15 league appearances.

And, similarly to Wolves, our Season Ticker isn’t kind to the Bees. Despite hosting Crystal Palace and Southampton, they’re ranked last for the first five because of fellow trips to Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Keeping him in mind for Gameweek 6, when the fixtures turn and we will have a better idea of his game-time guarantees, is the play here.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m)

In a ‘hold my beer’ moment, Calvert-Lewin sneers at that poor Wissa spell. That’s because last season’s biggest expected goals (xG) underachiever (-5.93) had a gigantic 18-game goalless period that contained 40 shots and 10 big chances.

Yet four goals in the final seven give a glimmer of hope to his FPL prospects. Unlike the names above, he should be on penalty-taking duties for Everton, netting two last time and one in the recent friendly versus Preston North End.

Should Calvert-Lewin stave off the challenge from Beto (£5.0m) and new signing Iliman Ndiaye (£5.5m), he could be a good differential pick from Gameweek 3. Our Ticker places them first during the opening 10 rounds.

THE OTHERS

As mentioned, the other available individuals in this price bracket have huge question marks against their names.

WHAT ‘RATE MY TEAM’ THINKS

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