The Set-Piece Sheet: Pens, Free Kicks & Corners
Penalty duty is the cheapest edge in the game, and one taker costs £6.0m.
The read: FPL's own taker orders are published, and the top of our list is exactly who you'd expect. Bruno Fernandes takes both pens and direct free kicks for Man Utd, and our model has him best of the lot — around 31 points over the next six, £12.0m. Haaland is on City's pens with a similar projection at £15.5m. Both are fine. Neither is a decision. Roughly 5 in 10 have Bruno, nearly 8 in 10 have Haaland. Owning the template isn't a plan, it's a subscription.
Below them the sheet gets more interesting. Palmer is on Chelsea pens at £9.5m with about 29 points projected over six and only 1 in 10 managers on board. Isak takes Liverpool's at £9.0m, around 25 over six, again about 1 in 10. Saka shares Arsenal's pens with Gyökeres and has free kicks too — same price, similar territory.
But the one nobody owns is Chris Wood. First penalty at Forest, ahead of Gibbs-White. £6.0m. Our projections have him at roughly 22 points over the next six — that's Saka territory for two-thirds of the price — and fewer than 1 in 50 managers have him. Solid returns most weeks, and a striker on pens can go massive on his day.
The caveat, honestly: penalty duty is only worth what your side wins. Forest have to actually get in the box for Wood's spot-kicks to matter, and if they don't, he's a low-volume forward with quiet weeks. He's also sharing the goal threat with Gibbs-White, who's second in line for pens and takes the free kicks. This isn't a set-and-forget pick. It's a cheap one, which is the point — at £6.0m he frees up money elsewhere and blanks don't hurt.
One to keep an eye on: Kroupi Jr is listed ahead of Kluivert for Bournemouth's penalties. That's the kind of quiet promotion the ledger's been kind to me on before. Not yet, but watch it.
FPL VERDICT: BUY Wood at £6.0m. Around 22 points over six, penalties in his pocket, and under 1 in 50 own him. Bruno and Haaland are holds — everyone's already got them.