Manchester United
Old Trafford
Manchester United FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid
The call — Attack yes, defence no — how to buy Manchester United's next six The sharpest thing our model says about United right now is the gap between the two ends of the pitch: one of the league's best four attacks bolted onto a defence ranked in the bottom half. The fixtures make that split matter — Everton away, City at home…
What has not being with FFIQ cost you this season?
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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Bruno Fernandes is the way in. Twelve million is a lot, but you're buying the one thing I actually trust: he plays every week, he's on penalties, free kicks and corners, and our projections make him the best points-per-week option at the club by a distance — roughly eight a week over the next six. Nearly half of all managers already own him, so this isn't clever, it's just correct. Template exists for a reason.
If £12.0m is beyond the budget, Mbeumo at £8.0m is the honest alternative — nailed, second in line on every set piece, and about 3 in 10 managers have already worked it out. He's the pick over Cunha at the same price, and that's deliberate: same cost, but Mbeumo carries the dead-ball work and the bigger share of the good moments. Cunha starts, but Cunha's the one who ends up with the pretty performance and the two-pointer. Tielemans at £6.0m, owned by barely anyone, is a quietly decent enabler who actually starts — the kind of midfielder who funds a premium elsewhere without blanking his way through autumn.
The defence is where I draw the line. Maguire, Shaw and Lammens are all nailed and all cheap, and none of it matters much when the model has this backline mid-table at best and the clean-sheet outlook reads as tough. City and Spurs at home, Everton and Leeds away — I'm not paying even £4.5m to watch Shaw concede at both ends of the projection. If you need a fifth defender who plays, fine, but don't kid yourself it's an investment.
The caveat on the whole package: two starts is a small sample for a new season, and City in gameweek two of this run could make the attacking numbers look silly for a week.
The call: buy Fernandes if you can afford him, Mbeumo if you can't, and leave the United defence for someone more romantic than me.