FPL Budget Picks: The Best GK Under £5.0

Budget Keepers: Who's Actually Worth £5.0m or Less?

Twenty-eight keepers qualify at £5.0m and under, and the one our model likes most is a man barely 1 in 20 of you own: Trafford at Leeds, projected for roughly 24 points over the next six weeks. That's the best return in the whole bracket, and it costs you nothing extra over the other £5.0m options.

At this price the question is never "who's exciting". It's "who plays every week and keeps the ball out often enough". So here's the bracket, one line each, in the order our model prefers them:

• Trafford (LEE, £5.0m) — starts every week, and the fixtures are about as kind as Leeds will get all season. The catch: it starts at ARS (A), so expect a slow first week, and he's yet to prove it at this level. Still top of the pile.
• Kelleher (BRE, £5.0m) — proven, nailed, and Brentford's run is just as friendly. AVL (A) first up. The safe version of the same bet.
• Verbruggen (BHA, £4.5m) — the template pick, about 2 in 10 own him, and at £4.5m with a kind run starting SUN (A), you can see why.
• Lammens (MUN, £4.9m) — starts, but the fixtures are only average and TOT (H) first. Fine, not fun.
• Kinsky (TOT, £4.5m) — nearly 2 in 10 own him already. Decent fixtures, but he's unproven and opens at MUN (A).
• Martinez (CHE, £5.0m) — proven keeper, rotten fixtures. Pass.
• Petrović (BOU, £4.5m) — quietly projected around 20 points on a favourable run, owned by almost nobody. Our model still ranks him behind the names above, but at £4.5m he's the best pure value in the bracket if the budget's tight.
• Tzolakis (HUL), Leno (FUL), Roefs (SUN), Horníček (NEW), Sels (NFO) — all expected starters, all playable in a pinch, none better than what's above at the same money.

The honest caveat on Trafford: unproven keeper, promoted side, Emirates first. If that makes you twitchy, Kelleher gives you nearly the same projection with a longer track record.

But I'm not twitchy about minutes, and minutes are the whole game down here. He starts, the fixtures after week one are lovely, and hardly anyone owns him.

The call: buy Trafford at £5.0m. Kelleher if you want the proven version. Petrović if every last £0.5m matters.