Last updated: 21 August 2026

Originally published during the 2016/17 Fantasy Premier League season, this article records our thinking ahead of Gameweek 7, when Son Heung-min, Adam Lallana, James Milner, Marcus Rashford and Daley Blind were among the players under consideration.

The individual fixtures and prices belong to another FPL era, but many of the principles behind the selections remain relevant today: form, expected team goals, set-piece responsibility, positional classification, injuries and the value created by players operating outside their nominal fantasy position.

Five Players on the Gameweek 7 Shortlist

Our squad moved further up the FPL rankings after collecting 88 points in Gameweek 6, leaving us with the question every fantasy manager faces after a strong week: could the momentum continue?

We identified five players deserving closer scrutiny ahead of Gameweek 7: Son Heung-min, Adam Lallana, James Milner, Marcus Rashford and Daley Blind.

Son Heung-min

South Korean international Son Heung-min had been in outstanding form and was on the scoresheet again as Tottenham got their Champions League campaign moving.

Despite that form, a difficult fixture against title favourites Manchester City and a growing Tottenham injury list were enough for us to overlook Son for this particular Gameweek.

That decision illustrates a principle that remains central to fantasy football today: strong individual form does not always outweigh fixture difficulty, team context and expected opportunity.

Adam Lallana and James Milner

Adam Lallana had produced three goals and three assists from six matches, an excellent return that made him difficult to ignore.

James Milner was also attracting attention. He had scored three penalties and appeared to be winning Liverpool’s left-back role ahead of Alberto Moreno.

Milner was particularly interesting from a fantasy perspective because he was listed as a midfielder despite playing regularly in defence.

Players operating outside the position assigned to them by a fantasy game can create unusual value. That concept is still important today, whether it involves a defender playing in midfield, a midfielder operating as a forward or an attacking player benefiting from an unusually advanced role.

Marcus Rashford

Instead of selecting the Liverpool pair, we decided to bring in Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Daley Blind, largely because United had the stronger projected team-goals outlook for the Gameweek.

Stoke City had struggled defensively and were missing goalkeeper Jack Butland, increasing the appeal of Manchester United’s attacking players.

Rashford appeared likely to start, with Wayne Rooney expected to remain on the bench, and we were prepared to give the young forward the captain’s armband.

The reasoning was straightforward: expected minutes, opposition defensive weakness and projected team scoring potential all pointed towards Rashford having a strong opportunity to return fantasy points.

Daley Blind

Blind had returned to corner-taking duties against Leicester City and recorded two assists as Manchester United’s aerial threat became increasingly important.

Set-piece responsibility remains one of the most useful pieces of information available to fantasy managers. Corners, free-kicks and penalties can materially increase a player’s expected attacking involvement even when their normal position is relatively defensive.

Blind’s previous record from corners had been modest, but United now possessed more imposing targets in the penalty area, changing the context around those deliveries.

His growing importance to the team also suggested greater security of starts, another factor that continues to matter enormously in fantasy football.

Leighton Baines and the Rest of the Squad

We reshuffled the remainder of the squad for Gameweek 7 but kept Leighton Baines despite concerns over his fitness.

That decision captured another permanent fantasy football dilemma: whether to retain an injury doubt with strong long-term value or use a transfer immediately to reduce short-term risk.

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What This 2016 FPL Selection Still Teaches Us

The names and fixtures have changed, but the analytical framework behind these selections remains remarkably familiar.

Modern fantasy football managers now have access to far more data, including expected goals (xG), expected assists (xA), shot maps, expected minutes, bookmaker projections and detailed set-piece information. Yet the basic questions remain the same.

Is the player likely to start? How strong is the opposition? How many goals is the team expected to score? Does the player take penalties, corners or free-kicks? Is the player’s fantasy classification more valuable than the position they actually occupy on the pitch?

The discussion around James Milner is a particularly good example. Identifying an out-of-position player was an important fantasy football edge in 2016 and remains one today because role and classification can influence both scoring potential and value.

Likewise, the use of projected team goals to support the Rashford selection anticipated a much wider shift towards probability-based football analysis. Metrics such as xG are now part of mainstream football discussion, but fantasy football managers had already been using similar ideas to assess fixtures and player potential for years.

This article therefore remains useful not because anyone needs a Gameweek 7 team from 2016, but because it records the decision-making principles that continue to underpin successful fantasy football management today.