FPL Budget Picks: The Best GK Under £5.0

Budget Keepers: £5.0m or Less, and Who Actually Earns It

The best goalkeeper value in the game right now costs £4.5m, starts every week, and opens with Leeds at home. Verbruggen is projected for around 26 points over the next six — the most of any keeper in this bracket — off the back of a very kind run of fixtures, and about 2 in 10 managers have already worked that out. Cheapest price band, top projection, nailed starter. This is not a hard sum.

Here's the rest of the shortlist, priced £5.0m and under, in order of preference:

Kelleher (BRE, £5.0m) — starts, favourable fixtures beginning with Sunderland at home, good for roughly 22 points over six. Only 1 in 10 own him. The proper alternative.

Trafford (LEE, £5.0m) — plays every week, but the fixtures are tough, starting away at Brighton. You're paying £5.0m to watch him face the keeper ranked above him. Pass.

Roefs (SUN, £5.0m) — quietly projects around 23 with a friendly run. Barely anyone owns him. Legitimate if you want a route nobody else is on.

Petrović (BOU, £4.5m) — same price as Verbruggen, average fixtures, Newcastle away first. Fine. Just fine.

Horníček (NEW, £5.0m) — projected nearly as high as Verbruggen with a very kind run, but he's unproven at this level and owned by roughly 1 in 100. Interesting, not reliable. I prefer reliable.

Tzolakis (HUL, £4.6m) — starts, average fixtures, modest returns expected. An enabler, not a scorer.

Lammens (MUN, £5.0m) — tough run starting at Everton. 1 in 10 own him and I'm not sure why.

Emiliano Martinez (CHE, £5.0m) and Leno (FUL, £4.5m) — both start, both middling-to-tough runs, neither projects enough to matter.

Kinsky (TOT, £4.5m) — here's your warning. About 2 in 10 managers own him, and he projects the lowest of anyone on this list bar nobody. Popular and cheap is not the same as good.

Sels (NFO, £5.0m) — starts, decent enough, but the £5.0m names above him do more.

The call: Verbruggen is the buy — cheapest bracket, best projection, kindest fixtures, actually plays. If you want off the beaten path, Kelleher at £5.0m is the backup plan, not Kinsky. Save the romance for your forwards.