FPL Budget Picks: The Best GK Under £5.0
The call — Budget keepers: who's actually worth £5.0m or less Twenty-seven keepers qualify at £5.0m or under this week, and every one of them exists to do a job: start every match, keep the odd clean sheet, and free up money for the players who actually win you the league. Here's who does that job best.
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One squad, picked before a ball was kicked and run for six gameweeks on three transfers — no hits taken. Scored on FPL’s own results.
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Trafford (LEE, £5.0m) is our top pick. He starts, Leeds have a very kind run of fixtures, and our model has him good for around 25 points over the next six — the best of any keeper at this price. Only about 1 in 20 managers own him. The honest caveat: he hasn't done it in this league before, and it starts with Newcastle at Elland Road. But the fixtures after that are the argument.
Verbruggen (BHA, £4.5m) is the sensible man's version. Half a million cheaper, proven, nailed, a very kind run starting at Coventry, and projected barely a point behind Trafford over six weeks. About 2 in 10 already have him — the template knows.
The rest, briefly:
- Roefs (SUN, £5.0m) — proven, starts, favourable run once Arsenal at home is out of the way. Nearly nobody owns him. Genuinely decent.
- Kelleher (BRE, £5.0m) — proven starter, favourable fixtures, opens at Bournemouth. No complaints.
- Petrović (BOU, £4.5m) — proven, starts, kind run, and at £4.5m he's proper value. Owned by about 1 in 30.
- Kinsky (TOT, £4.5m) — starts, decent fixtures, but projects a chunk below the names above. About 2 in 10 own him anyway.
- Horníček (NEW, £5.0m) — projects well, but unproven and £5.0m buys you Trafford instead.
- Tzolakis (HUL, £4.6m) and Rushworth (COV, £4.5m) — both start, both fine as bench fodder, neither a first-choice pick.
- Sels (NFO, £5.0m), Martinez (CHE, £5.0m), Lammens (MUN, £5.0m) — all start, all facing runs that don't justify the price. Pass.
The romance pick is Trafford — best projection, lovely fixtures, hardly owned. The value pick is Verbruggen — nearly the same points, £0.5m cheaper, and that half-million is a bench defender upgrade or a step towards a premium.
The call: if the £0.5m doesn't matter to your squad, buy Trafford. If it does — and at this end of the market it usually does — Verbruggen at £4.5m is the buy. Either way, stop paying £5.0m for keepers with tough fixtures.