Manchester United FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Manchester United: buy the front end, not the back

The value question at Old Trafford answers itself once you look at which end of the pitch is doing the work. Our model has United's attack among the league's five best — and their defence down in the bottom third. That tells you everything about where your money should go.

The fixtures are a mixed bag rather than a gift: Spurs and Bournemouth at home are fine, Leeds away is winnable, but Chelsea and Liverpool away lurk in the run. An average slate, in other words — good enough to buy the attack into, not good enough to gamble on clean sheets from a defence ranked 16th.

Fernandes is the headline act and the model's top pick here, and he earns it the boring way: penalties, free kicks, corners, and he starts. The catch is the price. At £11.9m you're paying premium money, and nearly 4 in 10 managers already own him — so you're mostly buying protection, not getting ahead. He's a fine hold if you've got him. If you're buying fresh, the sharper value sits £4m below.

Mbeumo at £7.9m is the one I'd actually sign. He's on the second ball at every set piece — penalties, free kicks, corners behind only Fernandes — he's started every week bar none that matters, and only about 2 in 10 managers have him. Same price as Cunha, but the model ranks him clearly ahead, and set-piece duty is exactly the kind of dull, repeatable points source this column exists to champion. Cunha's the shinier name; Mbeumo's the one who never blanks.

The temptation trap is the defence, because it's cheap — Maguire, Lammens and Dalot all sit under £5m. But cheap defenders behind the league's 16th-best backline aren't value, they're just cheap. A £4.9m defender who doesn't keep clean sheets costs you a bench slot and your patience. Tielemans at £5.8m is the more interesting budget play if you must go cheap here — he starts every week and he's third in the penalty queue.

The call: buy Mbeumo, hold Fernandes if you own him, and leave the United defence on the shelf until the model stops ranking it in the relegation places.