The FPL Template: The Players Almost Everyone Owns
The call — The template's biggest secret is hiding in plain sight: Bruno Fernandes, at £12.0m, is projected for 51 points over the next six gameweeks — a full ten clear of anything else in the most-owned XI — and only about 5 in 10 of us own him.
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That's the gap we need to close first. João Pedro (£7.7m) and Haaland (£15.5m) are the true shields — roughly 7 in 10 managers have each of them, so a blank hurts everyone equally and a haul without them wrecks a rank. We hold both, no debate. But Bruno is where the crowd is under-covered relative to what our model expects him to score. He's the priciest midfielder here and he's still the clearest points machine in the template — good for a solid return most weeks and capable of going massive with a double-digit haul on his day.
The crowd is already moving, and mostly moving well. Over half a million managers brought in Gakpo this week, with Rogers (£7.6m) and Isak close behind. Rogers is the one we'd echo — projected around 39 points over the next six, owned by fewer than 3 in 10, and nearly 400,000 managers just jumped aboard. Getting there before the price rises is how we protect rank *and* sneak a little ahead. Mbeumo (£7.9m) is the quieter version of the same story: 41 projected points, only about 2-3 in 10 own him, and he sits second only to his teammate Bruno in our numbers. Doubling up on United's attack is genuinely defensible right now.
At the back, Raya, Calafiori and Gabriel make Arsenal's defence the template's engine room — all projected in the 22–27 point range, and clean-sheet potential is exactly what we want from defenders. Gvardiol at £5.6m is the cheapest way into City's back line and only 2 in 10 own him. Solid, unglamorous, safe.
The honest caveat: template XIs move fast in September, and Cherki is the piece we'd let go. About 3 in 10 own him, but he projects the fewest points of any midfielder in this side — meaningfully behind Rogers and Mbeumo at almost the same price. Owning a template player who's falling behind his own price bracket isn't safety, it's dead weight.
The call: hold João Pedro and Haaland as non-negotiables, buy Bruno if we don't own him, follow the crowd into Rogers — and Cherki is the one template piece it's safe to skip.