The Best Manchester City FPL players are probably the most contentious picks for Fantasy Premier League managers. Pep Guardiola is notorious for rotating his key Man City assets, making picking the best FPL players incredibly tough.
With that in mind, let’s give it a go here and look at the best Man City FPL options for the 2021/22 season.
Remember, we’ve got everything you need to know about FPL 2021/22 right here on the Hub. Check out our FPL Ultimate Guide for team-by-team FPL previews, FPL strategy articles, the How to Win Guide and loads more.
- Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Tips 2021/22 | The Ultimate Guide
- The FPL Player Comparison Tool
- Opta Stats for FPL Managers
The Best Manchester City FPL Players 2021/22 | Man City in Brief
With such a plethora of attacking and defensive FPL talent, the challenge for managers isn’t finding good Man City FPL players but choosing just three of them.
Statistically, Man City dominate in basically every single metric. They scored more goals and conceded fewer than any other team last season, both in real-terms and in terms of expected stats.
The caveat, as any FPL manager will already know, is that settling on City players that will definitely start in the Premier League is incredibly difficult.
With the Champions League still eluding Guardiola, the task of selecting assured Man City starters in the 2021/22 season isn’t likely to get any easier.
Indeed, after another Premier League title last season, the narrative amongst some observers is that another domestic title is of little importance now. Whilst Guardiola will publicly deny such claims, FPL managers might not have the luxury of assuming that the Spaniard will definitely play his best players where possible in the top flight.
Any future rotation is hard to legislate for at this stage. Nonetheless, I’ll try to factor in the likelihood of a player starting when assessing Man City’s best FPL players here.
The Best Manchester City FPL Players | Phil Foden (£8.0m)
Of all the players to feature in over 1,000 minutes of football last season, it was Phil Foden who scored more FPL points per 90 (7.53).
This stat, above perhaps any other, is the most important to consider when weighing up the pros and cons of an FPL player.
The problem with Phil Foden is that he only played 1,613 Premier League minutes last season. As he continued to grow into his role at Man City, he was used in Champions League fixtures more and more frequently.
To be frank, Foden’s burgeoning importance to Guardiola could be good or bad news for FPL managers, depending on your outlook in life. In my view, it bodes well for Foden’s FPL prospects in the first half of the season, which is why he’s included here.
Spurs, Leicester and Arsenal in three of their first four fixtures would be ominous for most Premier League teams, but such is Man City’s ability that the quality of their opposition is basically irrelevant.
Indeed, when filtering FPL points per 90 against medium to strong opposition on our OPTA FPL tool, Foden actually scored more (8.41).
There’s simply nobody better than Foden when it comes to converting minutes on the pitch to FPL points. If he gets more time, his points tally could be huge.
The Best Manchester City FPL Players | John Stones (DEF – £5.5m)
I’m a big fan of the FPL points per 90 stat. Hey, speaking of – guess who tops that metric for defenders who played over 1,000 minutes?
Bingo. It’s John Stones.
I know what you’re thinking. Come on, James – it’s John Stones. But hear me out.
Stones’ stock is on the up. After a successful Euro 2020 and an assured 20/21 season, the errors that were at one point synonymous with Stones seem to have dried up. What’s left is the defender that Pep Guardiola paid £47.5m for.
His 1,933 minutes last season made Stones the second-most nailed centre-back for City. Whilst not much, his 22 appearances saw him return 14 clean sheets and four goals.
Perhaps more promising, however, is the partnership he formed with Ruben Dias (£6.0m). For the first eight games of the season, Guardiola opted for the seemingly formidable partnership of Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m) and Dias. City were 13th, having won just three games.
A switch from Laporte to Stones changed everything. City went on an unbeaten run of 19 games, of which Stones played 15. They conceded just three goals during those 15.
Guardiola will almost certainly be looking to build upon this centre-back partnership in the 2021/22 season. If Stones can get more minutes and achieve anything like the numbers he managed last season, he might just be the best £5.5m you spend.
I will probably wait a few gameweeks to see how quickly Stones returns to the starting eleven, given his late involvement at the Euros.
Stones has formed a great partnership with Ruben Dias.
The Best Manchester City FPL Players | Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m)
Riyad Mahrez is popping up more and more in early FPL drafts. There are a few reasons for his popularity, but one of the presiding factors is his lack of international action over the summer. Mahrez is rested, which means he’s highly likely to play at least the first two or three gameweeks.
A strong likelihood of involvement isn’t normally a good enough reason to invest £9.0m. But Mahrez isn’t exactly a normal player.
His points-per-90 of 6.68 is, according to our OPTA FPL tool, enough to place him fifth amongst all midfielders who played more than 1,500 minutes last season.
As already discussed in this article, the issue with Man City attackers has always been their likelihood of starting. Whilst other Man City FPL options will doubtless have better 2021/22 seasons than Mahrez, few are as assured of early-season minutes than the Algerian.
We already know from his time at Leicester that Mahrez is a player capable of huge returns. His ability to succeed in England’s top flight is proven beyond any doubt, and his utility in the City side is only growing.
In short, he’s a premium FPL midfielder masquerading as a mid-priced one. I think he could be a great pre-Wildcard pick.
Do you Agree?
What are your thoughts? Comment on this article and let me know whether I’ve missed anyone. I’d love to hear who else from Man City deserves to be on this list!
Do you play or want to learn how to play Fantasy Premier League?
Our How to Play FPL Guide is a great place to get started whilst our Ultimate FPL 2021/22 Guide has everything you could ever need be a successful FPL manager.
We have all the other Premier League fantasy football games covered too…
Be it FanTeam, Dream Team, Sky Fantasy or Telegraph Fantasy we have all the very best fantasy football tips, advice, tools and everything else you could wish for to become a better fantasy football manager and dominate your mini-leagues.
Become a Fantasy Football Hub member
Follow the Hub
Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Tiktok
And view all our latest fantasy football tips on our Homepage
Thanks James