Diversify Your Midfield With Milijas

One of the tricky parts of any new FF season is choosing players from promoted teams that could represent good value. Established favourites like Cech, Lampard, Gerrard and Torres are always going to score points and be selected by thousands of managers. But its the new squads that often have the cheaper players that hit form early and whose value rockets as players jump on board the bandwagon early - think of Geovanni's early success at Hull last season.

Nenad Milijas is a new signing for Wolverhampton Wolves and is listed at £6.0m. He scored 22 goals last season for Red Star Belgrade and had a lot of chances in his debut against Bristol City as well as taking a couple of decent free-kicks and corners.

Further, Milijas likes to push forward and is likely to provide support for Ebanks-Blake (another usefully cheap Wolves player). Said Milijas in an interview after the Bristol game: "I do like to get forward inside the penalty area when I can and try and get shots in and score goals". This was shown as he had several shots and an excellent free kick that was turned around the post by Bristol's keeper.

Adding to his attractiveness is that Wolves have a decent opening set of fixtures, facing West Ham at home on opening day, followed by Wigan, Man City, Hull, Blackburn, Fulham, Sunderland and Portsmouth. Certainly kinder and gentler than, say, Burnley, who face Man Utd, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool before Gameweek 5.

One sticking point may be his £6.0m pricetag. Certainly there are cheaper players who will be easier to fit into a lineup, but will they provide as useful value, particularly early on? Lets look at last season's Value stats and continue our Milijas - Geovanni comparison. Last season Geovanni was the second cheapest player to crack 120+ points, and was the second best Value (Season) midfielder. The best value midfielder was Murphy from Fulham, and the third best was Brunt from West Brom. Clearly, value in midfielders is often found from the "lesser" teams - including those who were relegated. This season’s best value midfielders will probably come from a similar set of teams.

This season Milijas starts at £1.0m more expensive than Geovanni did last year, but the Serbian international is a likely starter and set piece taker for a squad with a significantly easier opening fixture list than the other promoted sides. He also somewhat unknown and will not be selected by many managers, meaning it is highly unlikely that managers will lose money on him, at least in the first few weeks. If you are looking to diversify your midfield away from the same old players that 35% of all other teams have, Milijas may be just the player.