It’s that time of year once again! It’s the best but most stressful day of the year and one that you simply can’t over-prepare for. It’s draft day!
In our latest draft kit installment, we reveal our very own draft ranks, continuing with our forward rankings! As always, these are down to our own personal preference of where we would pick these players in a draft but shouldn’t be too far off the general consensus.
The idea of “tiered ranks” is that you should be happy taking any of the players named in each tier at a certain stage of the draft. For example, if we’re in the 2nd round of your draft and looking for a top forward, we would be equally happy coming away with Gabriel Jesus as we would be taking Raheem Sterling…simple!
That’s enough waffling…let’s get into the ranks!
Tier One
Any one of these top tier forwards could make a genuine case for top overall pick in Fantrax drafts this season. Tottenham duo Harry Kane and Son Heung Min were unstoppable for the second half of last season and their deadly partnership should only get better in Antonio Conte’s first full season in a stronger looking squad.
Son came completely out of left field to finish as the top overall points scorer in Fantrax last season and although his current ADP is around the number three slot, he has been seen to go at first pick overall in plenty of community mock drafts.
That being said, Mo Salah is at number one in our forward rankings and we’d also take him as the first pick overall in drafts this summer. Coming off the back of a bumper new long term contract, the Egyptian King has a point to proove following a well publicised drop in form following his AFCON disappointment. Throw in a mid-season break during the world cup and Mo ticks all the boxes needed!
Tier Two
The second tier is packed with risk and talent! Erling Haaland is more of a tier 1.5 entry and could make plenty of us look silly as we mention “Bundesliga tax” and draft him around the 7/8 slot. The Norweigan superstar should start almost every Premier League game he is fit for but it is that fitness record that raises more doubts than any.
Luis Diaz should be incredible fun in his first full Premier League season and the sheer number of minutes the Colombian racked up at the end of last season shows exactly how crucial Jurgen Klopp feels Diaz is. Gabriel Jesus is potentially our favourite pick out of this tier though as he’s finally now a guaranteed Premier League starter and it’d be a shock if he didn’t bag between 15 and 20 goals this season.
Raheem Sterling’s completed move to Chelsea gives him a big boost in ranking. As for Darwin Nunez...literally no idea!
Tier Three
What a tier this is! A beautiful mixture of risk, safety and upside greets us in tier three and this (as well as the tiers coming up) convinces me there’s plenty of depth at the forward spot this season.
Midfielders Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes, defenders Joao Cancelo and most of the aforementioned forwards will make up the first round and most of the second, meaning that most of these big hitting forwards will make it to round three.
Grabbing Ivan Toney at round three is an absolute bargain after his first Premier league season while Riyad Mahrez should still be around at the end of round two despite having less competition at right wing this time around.
Cristiano Ronaldo should also make it back to the second turn but big bargains could be had with Kai Havertz and Ollie Watkins this time, both of which I’ve seen make it to rounds four and five in mocks.
Plenty of value to be had right here.
Tier Four
As I said, there’s a lot of value in the forwards this season. This tier again convinces me that I should be looking to get a couple of top midfielders and an elite defender before getting my second forward in.
You’d anticipate most in this tier should make it to round five of the draft. I’d love Pedro Neto or Dominic Calvert Lewin at this stage while Aleksander Mitrovic and Callum Wilson would be adequate second forwards.
English pairing Patrick Bamford and Marcus Rashford have “bargain of the whole draft” potential this summer!
Tier Five
We’re normally in streaming territory here but there’s definitely a couple of potential gems right here!
I’ve picked out a couple of newbies here in Luis Sinisterra and Taiwo Awoniyi. If these two are your third forwards in your draft you should be delighted because as much as there will be fears over them being complete flops, it won’t matter as you’ll have your team built already. Imagine if they turn out to be those late gems though…they both look good on paper and (most importantly) on YouTube!
Fantasy Football 92 