The teams whose FPL players you should avoid at all costs - including Man Utd & Newcastle

With just a couple of weeks to go before the first deadline of the Fantasy Premier League season, I’ve been working hard to work out the best possible starting squad – and sharing my thoughts and findings along the way to make life a little easier for you, as well.

Yesterday, I took a look at the three teams whose pre-season form and fixture difficulty made me more interested in their players than I might usually be, so today it’s time to take a look at the other side of the coin, and explain why there are three sides whose players I’m giving a wide berth to as I pick my team.

Before I dive in, I’d also like to point you in the direction of my earlier articles explaining the impact of the new defensive contributions rules on squad selection and looking at the best budget buys among the goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards. I hope they’re helpful as you gear up for a new FPL campaign.

Manchester United players to avoid

Manchester United have several players that are extremely competitively priced compared to their typical FPL output, most notably Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, and I could see one or two of their defenders being useful signings as well – but I’m still steering well clear.

Partly, that’s simply because United were a mess last season, and it feels optimistic to expect them to have turned things around already. Mbeumo and Cunha should greatly improve their attack, but the baseline from last season was the fifth worst goalscoring record in the league. A 4-1 pre-season win over a rebuilding Bournemouth side doesn’t change my mind.

But it’s also because United’s opening run of fixtures includes some toughies. They play Arsenal and Chelsea at home and Manchester City away inside the first five, and they’ll need to have improved dramatically to pick up large numbers of points there.

It doesn’t help matters that with United trying to sign a centre-forward, it’s not clear who will play where. It could well be that Cunha, Mbeumo and Fernandes are rotating with each other, and there isn’t a clear berth for all three and a new striker in Ruben Amorim’s system. That’s a lot of uncertainty, so I’m steering clear until I know for sure that I’m going to get returns.

Fulham FPL signings not to make

Fulham may have struggled towards the end of last season but they had a few players who did well in the FPL and who could be tempting options this year, perhaps most notably Raúl Jiménez and Antonee Robinson.

They’ve also beaten Nottingham Forest and Al-Ittihad in their first two pre-season matches, scoring seven goals in the process, which suggests that Marco Silva’s side could be a very solid presence in the Premier League once more. Still, I’m not getting involved early doors, because Fulham have a pretty brutal run of games to kick the campaign off.

Trips to Brighton & Aston Villa and home matches against Chelsea and Manchester United all feature in the first half-dozen matches, and while there are slightly softer games against Brentford and Leeds United in the mix as well, it’s definitely still a set of matches in which I can’t see Fulham scoring as many goals or keeping as many clean sheets as I’d want to pick their players. Not the hardest swerve, but a swerve nevertheless.

Why Newcastle United players are a no-go for FPL

Carlsberg don’t do pre-seasons, but if they did, they’d probably do Newcastle’s. Because much like drinking Carlsberg, the past few months have been unpleasant, unpalatable and an experience that nobody involved wishes to repeat.

Not only have Newcastle struggled to strengthen over the summer having missed out on a number of key transfer targets, but they face uncertainty over the future of Alexander Isak – either they will lose their best goalscorer by far or keep him when he doesn’t want to be there. The squad looks thin, and performances in friendlies have been poor. They’ve been thrashed by Celtic and beaten by a K-League XI.

There’s only so much stock FPL players should put in pre-season results, of course, but the omens could not be any worse, and all evidence suggests a painful start to the new campaign, especially given that their first two games are against Aston Villa (away) and Liverpool (home), with Arsenal in Gameweek 6.

With all of that in mind, I just can’t envision signing any Newcastle players, especially given that only a handful are competitively priced anyway – Isak is probably too expensive at £10.5m even if he does stay with a smile on his face and keep scoring goals, their best defenders border on the overpriced, and Anthony Gordon is coming off a bit of a down season, at least compared to 2023/24. In the long run, I’m sure Newcastle will be fine. For the start of a new FPL season, I’m running a mile.