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Greetings all, and welcome to our comprehensive look at the best goalkeepers, heading into the 26/27 FPL season.
‘Keepers?!’ I hear you cry in dismay. ‘Pfft! Boring.’
Not so, my friend!
In fact, with money being as tight as I can remember it heading into this season (through a combination of DefCon defenders being more expensive, and so many must-have/semi-must have players), I think this is the most the keeper decision has mattered in years.
So, who should we actually pick – and, indeed, why?
Let’s find out!
Right, let’s get stuck straight into it.
With all due respect to Coventry, Hull, and Ipswich, here are all the keepers actually worth considering in FPL heading into the 26/27 season, broken down by price tiers.
For basically my entire managerial career (that’s how I like to refer to it), I’ve cheaped out on goalkeepers. Halfway through last season I got sick of 2pters every week, and just splashed out on the best keeper in the game, for the best defence by miles in the league.
I started him every single week after, didn’t have to think about GK again the rest of the season, and it was glorious.
Coming into this FPL season, I’d intended to do so again. I still haven’t completely given up on that idea, but – having put some drafts together – it unfortunately seems unlikely.
To somewhat state the obvious, he’s pretty expensive. Now he was also expensive last year, of course (starting at 5.5), but the difference then was that we had a ridiculous amount of money sloshing around, largely due to FPL underpricing DefCons, and premiums like Haaland and Bruno being much cheaper.
Sadly, none of that is the case this year, so it’s much harder to fit him in.
You can definitely still put a decent team out, but you can’t really have Haaland+Bruno+all the mid-range players you’d quite like (like JP and Szob).
The other argument – as with most keepers – is that you can get the same exposure to clean sheets through defenders, and get the potential for attacking returns and DefCons. If we get a good idea of who’s going to start out of Cala/Hincapie/White/Mosquera – all 5.5 – you can save some money this way too.
Obviously there’s nothing foolish whatsoever about getting the best keeper in FPL by a distance. Right now, however, I’d regrettably have to say that he’s not so much better than your other options to justify the sacrifices you’ll have to make elsewhere in your team to get him in.
Ah, Ol’ Reliable.
Pickford dropped off considerably last season from his previous two, going from 153 and 158pts down to 135. That was still good enough to finish joint-4th among keepers though.
I’m sure he’ll finish among the top keepers as usual this season, but I wouldn’t begin with him. At 5.5 you really want to be starting your GK every week, and in the first 9 GW’s he gets Bournemouth away, Man U, Spurs away, Chelsea, Arsenal away, and Newcastle away. On paper, it’s easy to see none of those being cleans, especially since Everton’s defence is just fine nowadays, and nothing special.
He gets on an easier run from about GW14 onwards, so we can look again then, but I’d stay away for now.
The previously unknown Donnarumma had a solid debut season in both real PL and FPL.
He finished on 135pts, tied-4th with Pickford, despite starting 4 fewer games. He was 1pt behind Roefs too, who started one more game – so basically, if he’d played a full season, he almost certainly would’ve been a top 3 keeper.
He made very few saves, which will likely always be the case for a City keeper. But he also racked up an excellent 15 clean sheets – 2nd in the league, and 4 ahead of Pickford in 3rd place.
City were the 2nd-best defence for goals conceded and xGA last season, and it’s very hard to see them not being really good again this year.
He also has pretty good fixtures… basically forever. They play Man U and Liverpool away in GW’s 4 and 6, but none of the other fixtures in the first 11 weeks are particularly scary. Even after Arsenal away in GW 12, they have 2 fine fixtures until Chelsea in 15, then 7 fine fixtures until Arsenal again in 23.
In short, if you’re happy to get a premium, and you just want a set-and-forget keeper you can keep in your team indefinitely, I think he’s an excellent choice. Raya will probably be better, but at 0.5 saved you could definitely make the argument Donnarumma is the smarter pick.
Nope. No interest at all. Liverpool’s defence was poor last season, and I don’t have any confidence it’ll immediately be better now.
If he was 5.0 (which obviously he wasn’t going to be), it’d be more interesting. But there is no world in which I’d take him over Pickford or Donnarumma.
Man U defenders are pretty popular right now, and with good reason. They start the season with Hull, Ipswich, and Everton back to back, then get Fulham after Man City in GW4.
It’s unsurprising, therefore, that Lammens is currently the 2nd-most popular starting keeper, after Raya.
I do think you want at least some coverage of these Man U defensive fixtures, and he’s fairly priced at 5.0. Similarly to Raya though, you can get that same coverage while either saving money (Shaw is 4.5), or having DefCon upside (Maguire got 151 playing roughly half a season last year – which is very good).
I’d fall in the latter camp, and just take a defender instead, especially since I don’t think we’re blessed with amazing defensive options elsewhere this year.
Nah. I enjoy his antics in real life, but am not even remotely tempted in FPL.
Villa’s defence is fine overall, but poor at keeping cleans. In the last 3 years Emi has got 7, 8, and 8, playing 32-37 games per season. He doesn’t get that many saves either.
I see absolutely no appeal here.
He finished as the second-best keeper last season. I’m sure I had him for basically the entire first half of that season, and I can’t remember getting any points from him whatsoever.
So it goes, in FPL.
He got 10 cleans last season – 6th-best in the league – and a solid number of saves too, at 109.
That said, Brentford’s defence was middling overall last season, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop off a fair bit into that top 5-10 range. At which point, I’d rather just spend less on a Verbruggen or Petrovic, who will likely register pretty similar points.
In real-world football, I cannot believe he’s still Chelsea’s goalkeeper. I was shocked they didn’t replace him about two years ago, they’ve spent a gazillion pounds since then and brought in about a thousand new players… and he’s still there!
In FPL, I’m not really interested.
I do think Chelsea’s defence will be significantly better this year, and he’ll probably finish higher than his 11th-place last season in FPL. But I’d rather buy into that defence with Reece James, for example, and have the attacking upside too; or Lacroix, for his DefCon potential.
I don’t hate it, actually.
He was right in the Tier 2 mix last season, finishing 1pt ahead of Verbruggen, and 4pts behind Donnarumma and Pickford. He got basically the same number of points the season before too (135 vs 131), and hit 11 cleans in both seasons, and got 104 and 106 saves. He’s been pretty consistent, in short.
Palace have lost Lacroix, on the back of losing Guehi, which obviously isn’t great, but I doubt they’ll be rubbish defensively.
Do I wish they didn’t have City in GW2? I certainly do. But aside from that, they have an excellent run of defensive fixtures in their first 9 gameweeks. Even after Liverpool in GW10, they get Coventry and Hull back to back.
Similarly to Donnarumma – but cheaper! – if you’re looking for a set and forget keeper, and aren’t wildcarding early, I think Henderson is a solid option.
Nope, not interested.
Forest outperformed their 4th-worst xGA last season by almost 14 goals, which is ridiculous. Maybe Glasner improves that, but I wouldn’t bet on it to start the season.
Like Sunderland as a whole (the football team, not the city), Roefs came out of nowhere to surprise us all last year. He somehow finished 3rd among keepers, which is frankly ridiculous.
That being said, I still wouldn’t be interested to start the season. Partly because Sunderland were the 6th-worst team for xGA last season, and somehow managed to finish 4th in goals conceded. But also because he has Arsenal and City back to back in GW’s 4 and 5, plus Chelsea in 10, plus Bournemouth away… basically he’s not really suited to either an early or later wildcard.
I’d much rather have Henderson, at the same price.
Definitely not.
Leeds were 5th-worst for goals conceded last season, and we’ve still got absolutely no idea whether Trafford is a Premier League quality keeper or not.
You could look twice at him if he was 4.5. Unfortunately FPL set their prices ridiculously early, and he was City’s backup when the game launched, hence being clearly overpriced at 5.0.
He’s reportedly the new starter at Newcastle, and I’m no more interested in him than I would’ve been in Pope.
The fixtures are actually fine, after Liverpool in GW1. But between the change in manager, all the transfers, and the mediocre defence last season, I wouldn’t go anywhere near this situation to start 26/27.
A very popular pick, and understandably so. James and I both currently have him in our GW1 drafts, along with a whole host of other managers.
I’ve got absolutely no idea why he’s 4.5, when the likes of Sels and Martinez – both worse than him, and playing for worse defences last season – are 5.0. He finished 1pt behind Henderson (5.0), 5 behind Pickford (5.5), and 6 behind Roefs (5.0).
Not that I’m complaining, to be clear – the fact that he is only 4.5 is why we’re all leaning towards him right now.
You get a nailed on keeper, for the 3rd-best defence in the league last season in goals conceded, and 4th-best for xGA. Losing Van Hecke hurts, but I’d assume they’ll still roughly be a top 5-8ish defence this season.
The major question mark is fixtures.
If you’re planning an early wildcard, you’ve got to accept/rotate for Chelsea in GW 2 and Arsenal in GW 5, albeit with Leeds and Coventry in between.
If you’re not wildcarding, you also have to deal with Liverpool and City – both away – in GW’s 8 and 9. No thank you.
Basically, if you’re taking him, you need to have a rotation option. And – as I’ll get into more shortly – remember that 4.5 + 4.5 = 9, just as 5.0 + 4.0 = 9.
Is that rotation actually better than just rolling Henderson out there, or Lammens? I’m not so sure.
He’s basically like Verbruggen, but had a significantly worse defence last season.
I don’t like his fixtures at all – City GW1, Liverpool in 5, Chelsea in 6, Man U in 8 – and all with a new manager.
No thank you.
The only reason to have him would be to rotate with Verbruggen – which, again, we’ll get onto shortly.
Meh.
Leno used to be really good in FPL, mostly because he made a ridiculous number of saves. He put up 133 and 142pts in 23/24 and 24/25 respectively, driven largely by getting 144 and 134 saves.
Now he just… doesn’t really do anything. 9 clean sheets – meh. 98 saves – meh. 9 bonus points – meh.
Oh, and his opening fixtures are rubbish.
Meh!
Currently the 3rd-highest owned starting keeper, and just ahead of Verbruggen in the 4.5 ownership ranks.
I don’t hate it. Obviously if you’re cheaping out on your keeper, you’re accepting some downside – and the downside in this case is that Spurs are rubbish again.
Realistically though, you’d have to expect them to be much better. Not just because of the manager, but also they’ve gone and invested the GDP of a small country in the transfers/free agent signings of Van Hecke, Senesi, Robertson, Tonali, and Fernandes.
Also, while they were rubbish as an all-round team last season, they actually had the 6th-best xGA. Admittedly they conceded the 4th-most actual goals, but the truth surely lies somewhere in between!
The fixtures aren’t incredible, but they’re fine. None of the first five games scare you. Man U and Chelsea away, in GW’s 6 and 8, isn’t good, but they also have Coventry home in between, and their fixtures get good again afterwards.
Frankly, going into this article, I was not expecting to talk myself into a Spurs keeper. And yet, here we are!
If you’re splashing out on a premium keeper, part of the reason is that you’re happy starting them every week. For that, and to balance out the spend, I’d pair any 6.0 or 5.5 keeper with a budget 4.0 backup.
None of them are starting any time soon, and probably none of them will start, so don’t overthink which one.
I’d go for Steele at Brighton, since they were good defensively last year and he’s currently the only other keeper in the squad. This is not an important decision, however.
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If you’re going with a 5.0, I’d really prefer not to spend on a backup keeper, but you probably can without making too many sacrifices elsewhere.
There should really only be 1 or 2 games out of the first 10 you really wouldn’t want to start your 5.0 keeper. Check our fixture ticker (sorted to View > Defence), identify those fixtures, and see who’s got easy fixtures in that particular week.
If you’re taking Lammens, for example, you really don’t want to start him in GW4 against City. Verbruggen happens to have Coventry that week – lovely jubbly!
Likewise, Henderson has City in GW2 – yuk. But Leno has Sunderland away, or Petrovic has Everton at home – better!
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If you’re taking a 4.5, you can – but don’t have to! – pair him with another 4.5.
Complicated maths alert, but I’ll remind you that 4.5 + 4.5, and 5.0 + 4.0, both equal 9.0.
So, it’s a fair and worthwhile question to ask whether you’ll be better off effectively spending that 9.0 on a 5.0 (+filler) and starting him every week, or spending it on two 4.5’s who rotate.
I’d assume more serious players are leaning towards the latter route, but I wouldn’t say there are any perfect combos.
Verbruggen + Petrovic might be the best of a mediocre bunch.
Petrovic has Everton home in GW 2, when Verbruggen plays Chelsea away. Unfortunately in GW5 you’re then choosing between Arsenal and Liverpool (both at home) – I guess you just pick whichever attack is looking worse at that time, and cross your fingers, but probably neither of them are rotating.
If you’re not wildcarding early, Petrovic also covers Verbruggen for his GW9 fixture away to City, since he’s playing Leeds at home. Again though, they’ve both got rubbish fixtures in GW8 – Man U and Liverpool away.
Obviously, this isn’t perfect, but that – probably having two weeks of guaranteed no returns – is the sacrifice you’re making for saving 0.5-1.0 over taking a premium instead.
An argument in favour of Kinsky is that – if you’re wildcarding early – you don’t really have to rotate him at all. None of his first 5 fixtures are amazing, but none of them are bad either.
If you’re keeping him longer than that, however, you either will have to rotate him in 6 and 8 to avoid Man U and Chelsea, or just accept he’s almost certainly getting you 1-2pts.
And thus concludes our look at the best FPL goalkeepers for 26/27.
See – I told you it wouldn’t be boring!
If you actually weren’t bored, consider checking out our growing mountain of other preview pieces here. Even if you were, those might be more entertaining.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and happy GW1 tinkering!
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