Who are the pick of the forwards for the 2016/17 Official Fantasy Premier League game ?

With the most expensive players in fantasy football inevitably strikers, it can be hard to get the attack you want for your squad without finding a brilliant bargain pick to balance the books.

As Sergio Agüero has been priced up at £13.0m by the Fantasy Premier League game for the new season, it is clear that anyone who plans to pick the Manchester City forward is going to have to make some serious compromises for their other selections.

Here at Fantasy Football Portal we have already covered goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders in our guides to the best value FPL picks for the new season, so let’s now turn our attention to strikers.

Read on for five affordable attackers to consider for your Fantasy Premier League team this year.

Shane Long – £6.5m

Shane Long can be snapped up for just £6.5m in this year’s FPL game, despite the fact he could well be handed a central striking role at Southampton following the sale of Italy international Graziano Pellè to Chinese club Shandong Luneng.

Long typically played off the wing last year but he was still able to hit 10 goals, reaching double figures for the first time in his Premier League career, while he also added four assists.

The Republic of Ireland international might not be the most glamorous selection possible for a Fantasy Premier League striker, but he is very reliable and a haul of 109 points during last year’s FPL season was just five short of his best ever tally in the game.

Andre Gray – £6.5m

A newcomer to the Premier League, Andre Gray has worked his way up the ladder from non-league football in a similar fashion to Jamie Vardy and now gets a chance to shine at the top level after winning the Championship last year with Burnley.

Gray was the top goalscorer in the division last year as his strikes fired Sean Dyche’s men to glory, with his pace and power likely to be a handful for Premier League defences, as long as he gets the right service from the Clarets’ midfield, which needs to be strengthened in the transfer market before the start of the new season.

The 25-year-old, who also takes penalties for Burnley as long as he is the man to win the spot-kick, tends to score his goals in bundles so his FPL value has the potential to move extremely fast if he starts the season in good form, so picking him early on in the season could prove to be fruitful for fantasy football players.

Callum Wilson – £6.5m

Callum Wilson started last year’s Premier League campaign in superb style before succumbing to a serious knee injury that meant he missed the vast majority of the season as a result.

Having been reportedly on the brink of an England call-up, Wilson then had to watch on from the sidelines as Bournemouth secured Premier League survival with a handful of games remaining.

One of the quickest strikers in the league before his knee injury, it remains to be seen how Wilson will respond to a long period out of the game, but if he performs as well as he did in the opening weeks of last season when the big kick-off finally arrives he could be a fantastic bargain pick.

Troy Deeney – £7.0m

The vagaries of the Fantasy Premier League pricing structure means that Watford captain Troy Deeney can be secured by players for just £7.0m for the new season, while in real life his club have rejected bids of £25 million for their talisman from the champions, Leicester City.

Deeney subsequently signed a new long-term contract to commit his future to the club and, under their new coach Walter Mazzarri, Watford will be looking to consolidate their position in the Premier League after surviving despite enduring a very poor second half of the season.

Watford’s main penalty taker struck 13 goals for his side last year, as well as providing nine assists for his colleagues, with 23 bonus points helping Deeney to a FPL haul of 166 points in what was his first season as a Premier League footballer.

Fantasy Premier League players will also be tempted by Deeney’s strike partner Odion Ighalo, who is slightly more expensive at a price of £7.5m, although he did score three more goals than Deeney, collecting nine more points over the course of the season.

Jermain Defoe – £7.m

Our final forward to consider for FPL squads in the 2016/17 season is Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe, who hit 15 goals to help his side to stay up last year.

The 33-year-old’s career is showing no signs of winding down and he will again be the main man for the Black Cats, who look set for yet another survival battle.

With Sam Allardyce looking likely to be given the England job, Sunderland will need to find a new manager at short notice, but whoever the new man at the Stadium of Light is, they will have a reliable goalscorer to call upon.