Wesley Moraes – Fantasy Football Potential

Wesley Moraes is a 22 Brazilian footballer playing as an out and out Striker. He has signed a permanent deal with Aston Villa moving from Club Brugge (Belgium) as they return to the premier league after winning the play off final against Derby at the end of the 2018/19 season.

The fee paid amounts to around £22 million and is the clubs record signing. He still had four years left on his contract at Club Brugge but was excited about the “physicality and high level” of the premier league and felt it could strongly suit his style of play. He is 6 foot 3 and plays mainly as a target man with a play style similar to that of Higuain or Ashley Barnes. He has not made any appearances for Brazil and so there will be no issue of injuries during international breaks to potentially put off fantasy managers.

Player History

Wesley began his career as a youth player for Itabuna Esporte Clube in Brazil before moving to start his senior career at AS Trencin who play in the Fortuna Liga, the Slovakian first league. During his time here he scored 8 goals and 5 assists in 22 appearances with an attacking return ever 125 minutes, amounting to one in every game and a half.

In January of 2016 he moved to Club Brugge for £1 million at the age of 19. At Club Brugge he played 130 matches scoring 38 goals and making 14 assists and so provided an attacking return once every 157 minutes close to once every two matches. In his most recent season he was involved in 27 goals in all competitions producing once every 144 minutes. He also only picked up 17 yellow cards and two red cards throughout his whole senior career meaning his discipline is unlikely to be an issue for managers.

In 2017/18 Wesley was awarded the young player of the year award as he scored 7 goals and two assists as Club Brugge topped the league qualifying for the champions league. This award has previously been won by the likes of Vincent Kompany and Youri Tielemans showing that Wesley has the potential to be a very talented footballer and FPL asset. If he performs as Tielemans did when arriving in the premier league he will be a very sought after asset.

He has proven himself in the few European matches that Club Brugge have played whilst he has been at the club scoring 3 goals in the four qualifying matches and 2 goals in the 11 champions league matches with both goals coming against Monaco. However, he did fail to score in both matches he played against Leicester in the Champions League group stages the year after Leicester won the premier league in 2015/16.

Fantasy Football Potential

Wesley has the potential to perform well for Aston Villa as they begin their campaign back in the premier league. However, one of the main questions will be whether he will be able to perform in the premier league which is of a much higher standard and intensity than anything he has experienced previously.

Aston Villa currently play Tammy Abraham in his position, but with his loan from Chelsea ending and Wesley being a club record signing there seems to be no reason why he should not start and be first choice to lead the line. He is likely to line up in a front 3 with El Ghazi on the left and a new winger, potentially the new signing Jota on the right. Aston Villa will rely heavily on these three for goals and so Wesley will be one of their main hopes for keeping them in the premier league. As well as this with no other commitments for Aston Villa he is unlikely to be rotated and so can offer a safe and secure option.

Aston Villa have mixed opening fixtures but do look much more favourable after the away trip to Tottenham in gameweek one. This means that Wesley could occupy the third striker role either as a differential starter or offer a strong rotation with others in manager’s squads.

The next point to note is the price that he is likely to cost when the game is launched. With strikers in their first season for promoted clubs, for example Jimenez at 5.5 and Mitrovic at 6.5 as well as Josh King at 6.0 and Callum Wilson at 6.5 he is unlikely to be priced any higher than 6.0 but it seems more than likely he will come in below this. Therefore, combining the price potential of Wesley with his goal scoring record he should not be written off by managers as a cheaper route to goal or even a player to help the strength in depth due to the likelihood that he receives a large number of minutes throughout the season.

Written by FPL Tipz (@FPLTIPZ)

1 Response

  1. June 27, 2019

    […] 23 year old is Villa’s fourth signing of the transfer window after Jota, Anwar El Ghazi and Wesley Moraes, showing that Dean Smith is looking to increase the squad depth in preparation for the upcoming […]

Leave a Reply

You may also like...