Best Value FPL Players 26/27, Ranked by Position

Only two players in FPL 2026/27 cost more than £9.5m — Haaland at £15.5m and Bruno Fernandes at £12.0m, down from five premiums last year — so the best value this season isn't at the top, it's in the £6.0–8.5m band of proven attackers and nailed defenders. This is the picks layer: the underpriced players worth owning at each position, and why. If you want every price in one place, the full sortable list lives in our FPL 2026/27 player prices guide — this page is the shortlist that comes out of it.

How we judge value

Value in FPL isn't "cheap" — it's points per £m, judged within a position. A £4.5m keeper and a £15.5m striker are never competing for the same slot, so we rank each player against the others who play his role. A defender is good value if he beats other defenders on returns for the money; a forward is good value if he outscores other forwards per million. Sorting the whole squad by raw price tells you nothing; sorting each line by output-for-cost tells you everything.

To go beyond last season's totals we lean on our expected points model, which projects what each player is likely to score per match from his shots, chances created, expected minutes and fixtures — see expected points explained for how it works. We quote a few of its Gameweek 1 numbers below as a teaser; a single-Gameweek expected-points score above 5 is elite, and captaincy doubles it. The one thing no model nails in pre-season is minutes, so treat every projection as a filter, then trust your own eye on who actually starts on 21 August.

Best value goalkeepers

Player	Club	Price	Why
Kinsky	Tottenham	£4.5m	Undisputed #1, cheapest route to nailed minutes
Verbruggen	Brighton	£4.5m	Brighton's settled starter — saves you £1.5m on Raya
Petrović	Bournemouth	£4.5m	Busy keeper, save points give a solid floor
Lammens	Man Utd	£5.0m	Our model's top budget keeper (4.43 GW1)
Roefs	Sunderland	£5.0m	Soft opener, 3.69 GW1 expected points

The goalkeeper rule this year is simple: pay £4.5m, not £6.0m. There are eight first-choice keepers at £4.5m or under, so there's no reason to tie up premium money in the sticks. Kinsky is the standout — an undisputed number one with Vicario as backup, the best nailed-minutes keeper under £5.0m — and Verbruggen is his mirror image at Brighton. Pair either with a £4.0m non-playing keeper and you've spent £8.5m on the position instead of £10.0m.

If you'll stretch to £5.0m for a bit more ceiling, Lammens at Manchester United tops our model's budget-keeper board and Roefs at Sunderland has a gentle opener. The one premium worth debating, Raya, gets his own line in the traps section below.

Best value defenders

Player	Club	Price	Why
Tyrick Mitchell	Crystal Palace	£4.5m	135 points last season, best sub-£5.0m defender
Guéhi	Man City	£6.0m	5.08 GW1 expected points, City clean-sheet ceiling
Muñoz	Crystal Palace	£5.5m	Most-cited attacking wing-back differential
Tarkowski	Everton	£6.0m	Nailed 88 xmins, back-to-back promoted sides early
Leif Davis	Ipswich	£4.0m	18 Championship assists, softest promoted fixtures

Defence is where FPL moved the goalposts: no defender who scored 20+ defensive-contribution points last year is available under £5.0m anymore, so the very cheapest specialists got a price bump. That makes the ones still priced low genuinely valuable. Tyrick Mitchell was the best sub-£5.0m defender in the game last season (135 points) and is the model enabler. Up a rung, Guéhi at £6.0m is the clearest bargain on the whole line — our model has him at 5.08 for Gameweek 1, with a Manchester City clean-sheet ceiling behind him — and Muñoz is the attacking wing-back differential everyone keeps circling.

Below that, every defender from the three promoted clubs is priced at £4.0m, so role and fixtures are the tiebreaker, not price — Leif Davis creates like a midfielder and Ipswich have the softest promoted run, but our model treats promoted players as cold starts, so there's no projection to lean on there. See the promoted teams guide for who's actually nailed, and the budget enablers guide for how these £4.0–4.5m picks fund the rest of your squad. Tarkowski (£6.0m, a reliable 88 expected minutes, Everton facing back-to-back promoted sides early) is nailed but no longer cheap — a floor pick, not a steal.

Best value midfielders

Player	Club	Price	Why
Semenyo	Man City	£8.5m	5.92 GW1 expected points — our top midfielder
Gibbs-White	Nott'm Forest	£8.0m	15 goals last season, 5.17 GW1, soft opener
Morgan Rogers	Chelsea	£7.5m	4.45 GW1 expected points, ~£2m cheaper than Palmer
Szoboszlai	Liverpool	£7.0m	Nailed 90s and set pieces, pen favourite for now
Ndiaye	Everton	£6.0m	Everton's penalty taker, best all-round sub-£7.0m mid

Midfield is the value engine of 26/27. Semenyo (£8.5m, now at Manchester City) tops our expected points model for Gameweek 1 among affordable midfielders at 5.92 — the caveat being he over-performed his underlying numbers last year, so mind some regression. Gibbs-White brings 15 goals and a soft Forest opener at £8.0m, and Morgan Rogers — at Chelsea per the official game data, though plenty of coverage still lists him at Villa — is roughly £2m cheaper than Palmer for a similar profile.

The penalty-taker cluster is where the real bargains sit. Szoboszlai (£7.0m) is nailed for 90 minutes, takes free-kicks and corners, and is the favourite for Liverpool's spot-kicks until Isak's fitness settles. Ndiaye (£6.0m) is Everton's number-one penalty taker and the best all-round option under £7.0m. And if you want the cheap defensive-contribution route to points, Ampadu (£5.5m, Leeds), Stach (£6.0m, Leeds) and Caicedo (£5.5m, Chelsea) are hard-running mids who clear the defensive-contribution threshold more weeks than not. Foden (£7.0m) is the wildcard — his cheapest price since 2020/21 — but our model flags rotation risk at 58 expected minutes, so he's a punt, not a lock.

Best value forwards

Player	Club	Price	Why
Igor Thiago	Brentford	£8.0m	22 goals last season, 5.22 GW1 expected points
Calvert-Lewin	Leeds	£6.0m	On Leeds pens, 4.43 GW1 — a genuine budget haul
João Pedro	Chelsea	£7.5m	Stable value off a 20-goal-involvement season
Welbeck	Brighton	£6.0m	Shares Brighton pens, 4.01 GW1 expected points
Gyökeres	Arsenal	£7.5m	£1.5m drop looks like an over-reaction

Strikers had a poor collective season, which means the cheap ones are unusually good buys. Igor Thiago (£8.0m, +£2.0m) scored 22 goals and finished Golden Boot runner-up, and our model rates him 5.22 for Gameweek 1 — the standout mid-price forward. At the budget end, Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) is the safe haul: he's on Leeds penalties, our model gives him 4.43 for the opener, and he's been at Leeds since 25/26, so he's a known quantity, not a gamble. Welbeck (£6.0m) shares Brighton's spot-kicks and lands close behind.

For a bit more, João Pedro (£7.5m) is stable value off a 20-goal-involvement season — he's lost Chelsea's penalties to Palmer, so it's open-play output now — and Gyökeres (£7.5m, −£1.5m) looks like an over-reaction to a price drop, with the caveat that he shares Arsenal's penalties rather than owning them. One to watch: Watkins (£8.0m) is our model's top forward for Gameweek 1 at 6.36 — he barely featured at the World Cup so he's fresh — but the community consensus is cautious amid transfer links. The model loves him; the transfer window might not.

Traps at every price

Value cuts both ways — some of the most-discussed names are priced above what they'll return:

• Raya (£6.0m) is the first £6.0m goalkeeper in five years. The clean sheets are real, but the consensus reads it as a trap when £4.5m buys you a nailed number one and £1.5m elsewhere.
• Kroupi (£7.5m) jumped £3.0m on a forward-to-midfield reclassification, but Bournemouth's penalties look like Kluivert's first, with Kroupi only in the mix — his role isn't the settled one his price implies.
• Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) is the consensus vice-captain and has penalties and a soft opening run, but £12.0m for a midfielder is a genuine "overpriced?" debate, especially if you also want Haaland.
• Isak (£9.0m) dropped £1.5m after an injury-hit season and could take Liverpool's pens — but our model gives him just 46 expected minutes in Gameweek 1. He's a fitness punt, not an opening-day lock.

Turn the picks into a squad

The shape this points to is familiar: two premiums at most, a mid-tier stacked with penalty-takers, one of the well-priced forwards, and £4.0–4.5m enablers soaking up the rest. Shortlist the names above in the player pool, then build and compare drafts in the planner — it prices every combination against our expected points model so you can see, before you commit, whether the value actually adds up.