Sunderland Fantasy Premier League guide: Who’s the most-owned and who’s their hidden gem?
Sunderland fans will be able to choose their team’s players in Fantasy Premier League for the first time since 2016/17 ahead of the new season kicking off this week.
It’s unlikely that anyone who had Sunderland players in their FPL sides last time around did any good, as the Black Cats finished bottom of the table and were relegated to the Championship.
Jermain Defoe, who finished the season costing £7.4million, did his owners proud though, bagging 166 points thanks to his 15 goals, three assists and 24-point bonus haul. Only Harry Kane (224), Romelu Lukaku (221), Diego Costa (196) and Sergio Aguero (166) outscored him as forwards that season.
Now, after winning the play-off final at Wembley in May, Regis Le Bris has welcomed a host of exciting new players to the Stadium of Light to join up with his promotion-winning stars, who Mackems will be hoping can follow in the footsteps of Defoe and boost their teams up their mini-leagues.
Marc Guiu is most selected Sunderland player
Sunderland completed a deal to sign Chelsea striker Marc Guiu on loan for the season on Wednesday, 6 August.
After winning the Club World Cup with the West London club earlier this summer, and as of 10 August, the 19-year-old has checked in at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland’s most-owned player on Fantasy Premier League.
It’s likely that Guiu won most of his owners due to the fact that he was a cheap option at a team that’ll be chasing a top-four spot in the upcoming Premier League season.
However, those who’ve shelled out £4.5m to buy Guiu this term will likely see him play a lot more for Le Bris than he would have done for Enzo Maresca.
Guiu is ultimately a squad enabler option, though.
Not many people are expecting the Spaniard to pull up any trees this season and Le Bris is likely to opt to play Eliezer Mayenda or Wilson Isidor ahead of him.
Guiu is essentially tied with 21 other players for being the cheapest forward in the game at £4.5m so his inclusion is teams is going to be down to FPL players picking numerous expensive options in their squads, such as Mohammed Salah (£14.5m), Erling Haaland (£14m), Alexander Isak (£10.5m) and Cole Palmer (£10.5m).
Which Sunderland players should I pick?
It’s understandable that with Sunderland back in the Premier League, fans will want to choose one of their stars in red and white stripes to be in their team.
As is the case when teams are promoted from the Championship, there are a lot of cheap options in the Sunderland squad that could help enable some high-cost buys like the ones mentioned previously.
Dan Ballard and Trai Hume (both £4.5m) are going to be locked into Le Bris’ defence this season.
Dennis Cirkin (£4m) would likely have been as well. However, he’s out injured until mid-September, so you don’t want to be starting the season with him in your squad.
Hume is potentially the best option after contributing three goals and six assists last season in the Championship.
The Wearsiders’ season doesn’t start too badly, but you’re always going to be taking a risk with defenders for newly-promoted teams due to the low chance of clean sheets.
- All three promoted teams last season were relegated and conceded 80+ goals each
- All three promoted teams in 23/24 were also relegated and conceded the most goals
Defenders boosted by new FPL point-scoring metric
However, thanks to the introduction of ‘Defensive contributions’ as a point-scoring metric, Sunderland fans might be more inclined to pick defenders in FPL.
Robin Roefs, if he’s Le Bris’ number one, will score points for saves and accumulate bonus points through that.
Previously, defenders had to contribute in the attack or keep clean sheets to score points, but this season, FPL have added a new way to score so that defenders can add more importance to your team.
| Name | Position | Cost |
| Robin Roefs | GKP | £4.5m |
| Dan Ballard | DEF | £4.5m |
| Trai Hume | DEF | £4.5m |
| Reinildo | DEF | £4m |
And attackers?
Summer signings Simon Adingra and Habib Diarra (both £5.5m) are also viable options in the midfield.
Adingra, 23, scored 60 points in 2024/25 and 97 points in 2023/24 for Brighton and is bound to be more involved at the Stadium of Light.
He’s an attacker who likes to get in the box, fire shots at goal and create chances so he’s one to keep an eye on.
Diarra, 21, joined Sunderland from Strasbourg for a club-record fee of £30million last month so he’s definitely going to be playing as many games as he can.
| Name | Position | Cost |
| Simon Adringa | MID | £5.5m |
| Habib Diarra | MID | £5.5m |
| Wilson Isidor | FWD | £5.5m |
| Eliezer Mayenda | FWD | £5.5m |
The Senegal international scored four goals and supplied five assists in 30 Ligue 1 appearances last season, playing either as a central midfielder, attacking midfielder or on the right wing.
Both Adingra and Diarra have been on the scoresheet for the Black Cats in pre-season, too. Adinga netted in the 2-1 defeat to Hull on 29 July, while Diarra scored the winner over Augsburg on Saturday 9 August.
There’s definitely some low-cost potential in those two attack-minded players.
As for Isidor and Mayenda, it’s difficult because neither are rock-bottom cheap, but neither are likely to stack up against similar-priced FPL forwards.
- Isidor and Mayenda cost the same amount as solid performers from 24/25 FPL
- Only scored 20 goals between them in the Championship last season
- Minutes could be reduced with Guiu’s arrival on loan from Chelsea
For £6.5m, you can get Fulham’s Raul Jimenez, who scored 147 points last season, or Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen, who got 145 points last term.
Beto, Rodrigo Muniz and Eddie Nketiah are all the same price as Isidor and Mayenda, in comparison.
Isidor scored just 12 goals for a promotion-winning team last season and Mayenda netted only eight times.
Neither were prolific Championship goalscorers, so there’s little indication they could be good choices in your Fantasy Premier League team.
Hume is Sunderland’s hidden gem for FPL
We don’t expect Sunderland to get too many clean sheets, but the introduction of defensive contributions is a huge boost for defender at newly-promoted teams.
Even the most hardened of Sunderland fans will admit that their team will have their backs to the wall a lot this season, meaning players like Hume will have plenty more opportunities to win tackles and duels, make clearances and intercept possession.
- No Sunderland player won more tackles than Hume last season
- Only Jobe Bellingham blocked more shots and passes
- Hume ranked second after Dan Neil for interceptions
Last season, Hume won 74 tackles, more than any of his teammates, and only Jobe Bellingham (56) blocked more shots and passes than the Northern Ireland right-back (50).
Dan Neil led the way with interceptions (47) but Hume was just behind him with 45.
As mentioned, Hume scores attacking points, having chipped in with nine goal contributions last season.
There’s no doubt that he’d have scored a ton of defensive points as well, based on the numbers on show.
Should I get Sunderland players in my team right away?
In short, yes.
Sunderland have a very good opening set of fixtures to start their return to the Premier League.
West Ham (H) and Burnley (A) are their first two games and both rank at two on the FPL fixture difficulty index, meaning they’re fairly easy fixtures.
They then follow that up with three 3/5 fixtures against Brentford (H), Crystal Palace (A) and Aston Villa (H).
If you want to use Black Cats players in your side, August and September is the time.
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