MANY Dream Team managers are making use of their unlimited transfer allotment to experiment with various line-ups during pre-season.
Gameweek 1 gets underway at 8pm on Friday August 16th, when Manchester United v Fulham kicks offs at Old Trafford, and so there's plenty of time for tinkering yet.
However, now is a good time to examine the state of play.
We've identified three players who are perhaps being overhyped ahead of the new season and three underrated players who probably deserve to be more popular.
OVERHYPED PLAYERS
Kobbie Mainoo (£3m) is a natural talent coming off the back of an impressive European Championship campaign in England colours but his ownership of 17.9% is rather curious.
At the time of writing, only five midfielders are more popular in the world of Dream Team and the list of players below the Manchester United youngster in the metric features Eberechi Eze (£4m), Bruno Fernandes (£6m), Kevin De Bruyne (£6.5m), Mohammed Kudus (£5m) and other assets who racked up plentiful points last season.
Mainoo mustered 135 points in 2023/24 at an average of 4.2 per game.
Granted, he's affordable at £3m and likely to improve this campaign but gaffers would be wise to consider more attack-minded alternatives.
Micky van de Ven (£3.5m) is currently the sixth-most selected defender in the game with an ownership of 12.1%.
This doesn't align with his average of 3.8 points-per-game last season.
The Dutchman started the campaign in imperious form and his recovery speed is truly remarkable but it's simply a fact that Tottenham conceded 61 league goals last season, more than twice as many as Arsenal.
Ange Postecoglou will hope to tighten up at the back this coming season and a fully-fit Van de Ven should help but Dream Team bosses might be better off waiting for signs of defensive improvement before piling in.
The rapid 23-year-old passes the eye test but at the end of the day, the points column is what really matters.
Marc Guehi (£3.5m) was arguably England's best player this summer and Crystal Palace's impressive upturn under Oliver Glasner is certainly a positive factor.
However, with Joachim Andersen (£3m), Daniel Munoz (£3m) and Tyrick Mitchell (£3m) all more affordable, there are cheaper routes into the Eagles' defence for gaffers that way inclined.
William Saliba (£5m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.5m) and Josko Gvardiol (£4.5m) are the only defenders who feature in more teams than Palace's No6 at present - those three are all top-tier options.
To be clear, we're not saying that Mainoo, Van de Ven or Guehi are bad selections by any means, it's just that their popularity doesn't seem to match their point-scoring ability in our humble opinion.
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UNDERRATED PLAYERS
On the flip side, we think the following assets are being unfairly overlooked by too many managers.
Take Bruno Guimaraes (£4.5m) for example.
Newcastle's all-action midfielder was one of just six players in his position who achieved 300+ points last season, thanks in no small part to his unmatched tally of 83 bonus points.
And a flurry of attacking returns at the back end of the campaign saw the Brazil international finish with 18 goal involvements in all competitions.
Guimaraes is a solid pick and his ownership should be higher than 5.2% - Anthony Gordon (£4.5m) features in 27% of teams for comparison.
Jarrod Bowen (£5m) has been categorised as a forward for the 2024/25 and that change has seemingly perturbed many gaffers as he currently appears in just 3.4% of teams.
West Ham's talisman finished on exactly 300 points last season via 20 goals and 11 assists.
For comparison, Ollie Watkins (£6m), Mohamed Salah (£7m) and Erling Haaland (£8.5m) were the only strikers who notched triple centuries last term.
Granted, Bowen won't have European fixtures to pad out his schedule this season but he's been a consistent performer since 2021.
Pascal Gross (£4m) is destined to be underrated in the world of Dream Team for eternity.
Only two midfielders collected more bonus points than the Brighton stalwart last season and only five provided more assists.
The experienced German is a set-piece threat and makes plenty of tackles too.
Gross amassed 260 points in 2023/24 and the Seagulls fixtures look relatively favourable until mid-September (barring a trip to Arsenal) and yet only 1.2% of gaffers are taking a punt on him at this stage.
