Everyone’s favourite 2nd team in the Premier League (maybe barring the Southampton Fans), Bournemouth are looking to further cement their spot as Premier League mainstays. Last season’s 9th place, with only a -5 GD stopping them from overtaking Southampton in the final league standings. Their recent signings are certainly showing intent, with almost £30mil spent to date, but us draft managers don’t care about budgets or net spends etc.… it’s all about the players and how they perform, so let’s see where Bournemouth’s strengths lay.

Goalkeepers

Federici and Boruc have surely been ousted with the signing of Asmir Begovic. Begovic was wasted as a deputy keeper at Chelsea and offers us a great goalkeeper as a pick up. Begovic could well flourish this season similar to how Tom Heaton and Lee Grant did last season, they’ll concede but their bonus points for saves made most of the time will make up for that.

Begovic won’t be the first keeper picked up as surely that’ll be Courtois or De Gea (providing they stay on at their clubs) but if you’ve missed out on these top picks then he could well be the diamond in the rough. Expect him to be gone by the 7th round of picks so don’t sit on waiting for a keeper for too long.

Defenders

Another statement of intent from Bournemouth is the £20mil signing of Nathan Ake from Chelsea. His loan spell was cruelly cut short last season as Chelsea wanted him back and then left him on the bench despite his match stealing performances for The Cherries in the beginning half of last season. Barring injuries than you’re also looking at guaranteed starts for every game of the season for Steve Cook, Eddie Howe’s ‘Mr Reliable’. Cook will be solid but doesn’t offer much in extra points, you’d be looking at Charlie Daniels for that, 4 goals and 3 assists for him last season can’t be ignored.

I wouldn’t say that Bournemouth’s defenders should be high on your lists but with no change in formation predicted, you’re looking at some safe players and if you find yourself into the latter 5 rounds of picks, then Charlie Daniels or Nathan Ake could serve you well.

Midfielders

Last season, Bournemouth parted ways with £15mil for Jordan Ibe, I thought that he was going to be a great pick up but his performances offered nothing for the draft manager. Ibe was overshadowed by Junior Stanislas. Stanislas rarely completed the full 90 mins and slipped under many managers radar but a return of 7 goals and 6 assists made him a great pickup. Another potentially great pick up could be Ryan Fraser, he made his name in THAT game against Liverpool and had many a waiver offers in for him immediately afterwards. He’s fast, can add a goal and racked up a solid 9 assists. If you do miss out on Stanislas then Fraser is a very astute back up plan.

I’d go in for either of these two as your 4th or 5th midfielder pick. Expect them to still be around come the 8th round of picks, it’s around this point where the gambles and gut feeling really kick in. The big names are gone and now it’s time to see who’s the best of the rest.

See More: Check out the Arsenal FPL Draft Overview

Forwards

Last season, Josh King was registered as a midfielder. Last season, I had Josh King in my team. Last season, I dropped Josh King mid-way through the season as he, and I quote myself, “didn’t look like he’d do much”. There’s a reason at times that I hate Draft Fantasy Football, you can’t just go back and pick the player back up again, you’ve got to trade with another manager and the lad that picked up King in our league was not releasing him for anything. That decision easily cost me 100 points. A mistake that I don’t think I’ll be doing again this season if given the chance. King will surely be listed as a forward and may be gone by the 4th or 5th round, quite easily. That is however, if he stays at Bournemouth. Tottenham are lurking and will use him as a backup player which would be criminal.

Afobe & Wilson will both be hoping for more game time this season but Bournemouth’s pick up of a resurgent Jermain Defoe will hinder that. Defoe was one of the rare shining lights at Sunderland last season in their woeful season. Maybe an impact player but Defoe scores goals and will again here, especially with a younger and hungrier team feeding him. Defoe again, could go quite early as strikers are like gold dust.

Wildcard

I did criticise him earlier but maybe Jordan Ibe can bounce back. There’s talent there and Liverpool wouldn’t have put a buy-back clause in his contract if they didn’t hope he’d tap into it. Liverpool had hopes of Ibe being a direct replacement for Sterling for a reason, maybe last season was just a blip and has light a fire underneath him to go on and shine this season as surely, it’ll be his last chance before dropping down the leagues.

Conclusion

On paper, Bournemouth have a very average team but Eddie Howe knows how to motivate these lads and gets some impressive performances out of them all. While there are no first or second round picks in this team, you’d be foolish to ignore them for the mid to later rounds of your draft.