With a favourable early season draw, especially over GWs 1-2 (Sheffield United (H), Aston Villa (A)) most FPL managers are looking to include a Bournemouth attacker in their side.
As we will discuss in our Bournemouth team season preview which will be released over the coming weeks, we believe that Ryan Fraser is the top FPL target from Bournemouth. However, forwards Josh King (£6.5 - TSB 20.4%) and Callum Wilson (£8.0 - TSB 23.2%) are also options. We will now compare and contrast the stats of King and Wilson to decide who appears to be the better FPL option.
Over the past 4 seasons, Wilson has bettered King’s PPM in all but the 2016/17 season. Last season was Wilson’s first playing 2000+ minutes in the Premier League. Although playing 435 minutes less than King, Wilson scored 27 more points. This is largely down to his increased goal threat, as well as creative ability.
Wilson’s shot frequency last season was 1 every 38.9 minutes, compared to King’s 1 every 41.2 minutes. King’s 23 shots on target were also bettered by Wilson’s 30. It is now 2 seasons in a row where Wilson has bettered King in these categories.
Despite King (12 goals) registering 6 more shots than Wilson (14 goals), Wilson squandered 21 clear cut goal scoring opportunities. This is more than double the amount of big chances King missed.
This reveals that Wilson was more wasteful than King, but it also suggests that Wilson has greater goal scoring potential because he gets himself into more goal scoring opportunities than his Norwegian teammate.
In terms of creativity, King created 11 more chances than Wilson last season. However, Wilson created 13 big chances, 3 better than King.
Now moving away from underlying stats, we will examine the 2018/19 FPL returns of King and Wilson.
Last season, there was only 27 points separating the two players. But, Wilson rewarded owners with a return in 52% of his games, while King’s return percentage of 29% is poor.
Having scored 6 double digit hauls compared to King’s 4, Wilson also had a higher ceiling.
In terms of home and away form, King was only really an option when playing at home last season. This is because 80% of his returns came when he was playing at the Vitality Stadium. In contrast, Wilson’s returns were more balanced, because 53% came at home and 47% away.
Furthermore, having averaged 7.6 PPG against bottom 6 sides last season, Wilson could be used as a captain when playing bottom 6 sides. The same cannot be said for King, who only averaged 2.3 PPG against bottom 6 sides.
Clearly, Wilson is a far superior FPL option. Even priced at £1.5 more than King, we would still opt for Wilson.
