Best Budget FPL Players 2026/27: Cheap Picks Under £5.5m That We Expect to Surprise
You have £100m to fill 15 places. Erling Haaland costs £15.5m on his own. The maths only works if part of your squad is genuinely cheap and genuinely playing, and that is what a budget pick is: a player who costs £4.0m to £5.5m and still starts every week.
Two things changed this season and they pull in opposite directions.
Prices at the top are flatter. Only two players cost more than £9.5m, Haaland at £15.5m and Bruno Fernandes at £12.0m, down from five last season. Most of the proven attacking talent now sits in the £6.0m to £8.5m band. You are therefore unlikely to be funding three premium players at once, which means you need fewer extreme budget picks than you did last year.
Prices at the bottom went up. Defenders in particular are more expensive, so the cheap slots you do fill are harder to fill well.
The net effect is quality over quantity. Three or four cheap players who all start will beat a squad carrying six cheap players where half of them sit on the bench. This post is about picking the right three or four.
Every player below costs £5.5m or less. Prices are correct at the game's relaunch on 23 July 2026 and will move during the season.
The picks at a glance
| Pos | Player | Club | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Antonín Kinský | Tottenham Hotspur | £4.5m |
| DEF | Tyrick Mitchell | Crystal Palace | £4.5m |
| DEF | Neco Williams | Nottingham Forest | £5.0m |
| DEF | Bobby Thomas | Coventry City | £4.0m |
| DEF | Charlie Hughes | Hull City | £4.0m |
| DEF | Matty Cash | Aston Villa | £4.5m |
| MID | Ethan Ampadu | Leeds United | £5.5m |
| FWD | Haji Wright | Coventry City | £5.5m |
| FWD | Chuba Akpom | Ipswich Town | £5.0m |
| FWD | Oli McBurnie | Hull City | £5.5m |
One rule change you need to know first
Defensive contribution specialists got a lot more expensive. Not a single defender who scored 20 or more defensive contribution points last season is available for under £5.0m this time. FPL priced them too generously a year ago and has corrected it.
The Bonus Points System has also been rebalanced so centre-backs stop double-dipping. Clearances, blocks and interceptions now earn less in the bonus system, and players are no longer punished for being tackled. The practical effect is that attacking full-backs and hard-running midfielders gain, while orthodox centre-backs lose a little of their shine.
That changes where the value sits. The £4.0m to £5.0m bracket is now mostly wing-backs and promoted defenders rather than the defensive contribution machines that carried so many squads last year.
Where to spend your money, and where to save it
Before picking anyone, it helps to know which positions actually score. FPL's scoring system is not symmetrical.
- Goalkeepers and defenders: 6 points a goal, 4 for a clean sheet, plus 2 more for making 10 or more defensive actions in a match
- Midfielders: 5 points a goal, 1 for a clean sheet, plus 2 more for making 12 or more defensive actions
- Forwards: 4 points a goal, nothing for a clean sheet
Defenders score more per goal, but they score far fewer goals. What matters is the realistic ceiling in each position, and last season showed it clearly.
| Pos | Best in position | Club | 2025/26 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| FWD | Erling Haaland | Manchester City | 239 |
| MID | Bruno Fernandes | Manchester United | 235 |
| DEF | Gabriel | Arsenal | 209 |
| GK | David Raya | Arsenal | 162 |
Gabriel's 209 was the third-highest defensive total in the history of the game. So the top of the game is worth roughly 30 points more than the very best defender, and roughly 77 points more than the best goalkeeper. Gabriel's season was also exceptional rather than typical, so the gap in a normal season is wider than those numbers suggest.
Spend your money in midfield and attack. This is where the points ceiling is highest and where a captaincy pick can return 20 points in an afternoon.
Save it in goal. My view is that goalkeeper is the cheapest place to economise, because the spread between the best goalkeeper in the game and a competent £4.5m one is the narrowest of any position. A £1.0m saving here is close to free money.
Save it on your fourth and fifth defenders. Two good defenders who start every week, plus cheap cover, will serve you better than five mid-priced ones.
Goalkeeper
Antonín Kinský
£4.5mTottenham Hotspur · The strongest sub-£5.0m keeper in the game
Spurs finished 17th in each of the last two seasons, which is exactly why Kinský is this cheap. The interesting part is what happened after Roberto De Zerbi took charge in Gameweek 32: across those seven matches Spurs conceded a league-low 10 big chances, the best record in the division over that stretch. Kinský started all seven of them, having made only those seven starts all season.
Tottenham have also spent on the back line. New centre-backs Marcos Senesi (£6.0m) and Jan Paul van Hecke (£5.0m) join attacking right-back Pedro Porro (£5.5m), so the defence in front of Kinský is materially better than the one that shipped goals for most of last season.
One thing to watch: Martin Dúbravka is also a Spurs keeper at £4.0m and is widely owned as a cheap bench option, so confirm the pecking order in pre-season. My view is that Kinský is the strongest sub-£5.0m goalkeeper in the game. A £4.5m keeper who keeps 10 clean sheets does more for your squad than a £5.5m keeper who keeps 12.
Defenders
Tyrick Mitchell
£4.5mCrystal Palace · Best value defender in the game on last season's numbers
Mitchell scored 135 points in 2025/26, the highest total of any defender priced under £5.0m this season, and finished just one point behind his Palace teammate Daniel Muñoz, who costs £5.5m.
You are paying £1.0m less for a player who scored one point fewer. The risk is real: Palace are one of eight clubs starting the season with a new manager, with Pierre Sage replacing Oliver Glasner. Sage played a 3-4-2-1 at Lens, which is the shape you want, but Mitchell's value depends on him keeping it here. Watch the pre-season friendlies before you commit.
Neco Williams
£5.0mNottingham Forest · A Glasner wing-back at a club that defends well
Forest have appointed Oliver Glasner, and Glasner's wing-backs have been productive FPL assets everywhere he has managed. Williams is an attacking full-back at a club that defends well, which is the combination you want at this price.
The same caveat applies as with Mitchell. A new manager means the system and the team sheet are both unknown until we see them, so check Forest's pre-season line-ups and confirm Williams is playing the advanced role before you buy. If Glasner sets Forest up the way he set up Palace, this is a defender's price for attacking returns.
Bobby Thomas
£4.0mCoventry City · The promoted defender with real attacking threat
Every promoted defender in the game is priced at £4.0m, which makes this bracket the cheapest way to fill your squad. Thomas is the pick of them for attacking threat: he produced three goals and four assists in the Championship last season, the best attacking output of any centre-back in the division.
He averaged 8.6 defensive actions per match in the Championship. He will be busier in the Premier League, which puts him within reach of the 10-action defensive contribution threshold on a regular basis.
Charlie Hughes
£4.0mHull City · The defensive contribution angle at the lowest possible price
If you want the defensive contribution angle rather than the attacking one, Hughes is the promoted defender to own. He averaged 11.8 defensive actions per match last season, more than any other defender at Coventry, Hull or Ipswich, and comfortably above the threshold that earns a defender two extra points.
A goal and an assist all season tells you the attacking upside is limited. That is fine. At £4.0m he is a bench player you can start without wincing when someone picks up a knock.
Matty Cash
£4.5mAston Villa · Guaranteed minutes at a bench-filler price
Cash started 34 Premier League matches last season and is priced at £4.5m. Regular minutes at a starting-defender price is the whole game at this end of the squad, and Villa's opening fixtures give him a reasonable run at clean sheets.
Midfielders
Ethan Ampadu
£5.5mLeeds United · The cheapest route into repeatable defensive contribution points
Ampadu earned 38 defensive contribution points last season, the third-highest total of any midfielder in the game and only two behind Everton's James Garner, who now costs £6.0m. On consistency he was the better of the two: Ampadu returned defensive contribution points in 54.3% of his matches against Garner's 52.6%.
Elliot Anderson, last season's outstanding defensive contribution midfielder, has moved to Manchester City and risen to £6.5m. That leaves Ampadu as the obvious route into cheap, repeatable midfield points.
A warning on £4.5m midfielders
Be careful here. Fantasy Football Scout assessed all 25 midfielders priced at £4.5m for 2026/27 and struggled to find one who will reliably get minutes. Unlike cheap defenders, who are often first-choice at promoted clubs, cheap midfielders are usually cheap because they are squad players.
If you need a £4.5m midfielder to make your squad work, treat that slot as bench filler and never plan to start them.
Forwards
Haji Wright
£5.5mCoventry City · Promoted-club striker on penalties
Coventry's attack was direct and aggressive in the Championship and Wright was central to it, with penalty duty adding a reliable route to points. Promoted-club forwards who take penalties are historically good value in this bracket, because a single spot-kick can double a week's return.
Chuba Akpom
£5.0mIpswich Town · Top-flight pedigree at a bench price
Akpom's loan has been made permanent following Ipswich's promotion and he has top-flight pedigree, having scored 23 goals in 71 games for Ajax. At £5.0m he only needs to start to justify the slot.
Oli McBurnie
£5.5mHull City · Hull's promotion hero and only real attacking asset
Hull's promotion hero, with 17 Championship goals and the play-off final winner. He is on penalties and he is the only Hull attacking asset genuinely worth the money at launch. That is the classic budget striker profile.
Three mistakes novice managers make with budget picks
Buying cheap players who do not play, and buying too many of them
One £4.0m defender who never starts is a legitimate squad decision, because that saving might be what funds a premium attacker. Two or three of them is a problem, because you no longer have 11 players who can score on any given weekend. Treat non-playing cheap players as a deliberate trade, not a default.
Loading up on promoted defences
Cheap promoted defenders are useful because they are cheap, not because they will keep clean sheets. Own one or two as bench cover, not four as a defensive strategy.
Assuming last season's price is this season's value
Igor Thiago went from £6.0m to £8.0m and Gabriel from £6.0m to £8.0m. The bargains from last season are mostly gone, and the new ones are in different places.
How to find these players before everyone else
The picks above are already reasonably well known. If they start returning points, the transfers in will follow and their prices will rise, which means the managers who bought early get both the points and the extra budget. The players who win mini-leagues are the ones you own two weeks before everyone else notices them.
That is the problem The Assistant Manager was built to solve. It watches minutes, underlying numbers and fixture swings across all 20 clubs and flags cheap players whose output is running ahead of their price, before the ownership catches up. You do not need to watch every match or listen to six podcasts a week to stay ahead, which is the point.
If you are new to the game and still working out how it all fits together, start with our guide to beating your colleagues at Fantasy Premier League. And if your team still needs a name, we have 80+ of them here.
Budget FPL players FAQs
What counts as a budget player in FPL?
Any player priced between £4.0m and £5.5m. The £4.0m floor is the cheapest a player can be. Most managers carry three or four players in this range so they can afford one or two premium attackers.
Which position scores the most points in FPL?
Midfielders and forwards have the highest ceiling. Last season Erling Haaland topped the game on 239 points and Bruno Fernandes finished on 235. The best defender was Gabriel on 209 and the best goalkeeper was David Raya on 162. Defenders earn 6 points a goal against a forward's 4, but they score far fewer goals, so the money is better spent further forward.
Who is the cheapest good defender in FPL 2026/27?
Tyrick Mitchell of Crystal Palace at £4.5m. He scored 135 points last season, the highest total of any defender priced under £5.0m for 2026/27, and only one point fewer than teammate Daniel Muñoz, who costs £5.5m.
Are promoted club players worth picking in FPL?
Yes, in the right roles. Every promoted defender is priced at £4.0m this season, which makes them the cheapest way to fill bench slots. The better strategy is targeting promoted attackers who take penalties, such as Haji Wright at Coventry (£5.5m) or Oli McBurnie at Hull (£5.5m), rather than stacking promoted defences and hoping for clean sheets.
Why did FPL defender prices go up in 2026/27?
FPL corrected the underpricing of defensive contribution specialists. No defender who scored 20 or more defensive contribution points in 2025/26 is available for under £5.0m this season. The Bonus Points System was also rebalanced so clearances, blocks and interceptions earn less, which shifts value towards attacking full-backs.
When is the FPL 2026/27 Gameweek 1 deadline?
Friday 21 August 2026 at 18:30 BST. You have unlimited free transfers until that point, so your squad can change as often as you like before the deadline.
How many chips do I get in 2026/27?
Eight in total, two sets of Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Bench Boost. The first set must be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline at 13:30 on Saturday 2 January and cannot be carried into the second half of the season.
Find next season's bargains before everyone else
The Assistant Manager tracks minutes, underlying numbers and fixtures across all 20 clubs, then recommends your transfers, captain and lineup every gameweek. Free to start, and ready before the Gameweek 1 deadline.
Prices correct as at the FPL 2026/27 relaunch on 23 July 2026.