2025/2026 FPL Team Structure Guide with Drafts & Ratings

In this article, let us take a detailed look at the FPL Team Structure, Price Points, and discuss all the possible team structures with Drafts, Pros, Cons, and Keynotes.

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A Guide to FPL Team Structure | 2025/26 FPL Season

FPL Team Structure refers to nothing but the orientation or the making of your FPL team based on positions, prices, and formation. It is important to understand team structure while building your FPL team due to a variety of reasons, especially at the start of the season, due to the large number of unknown variables in the game. It is crucial to know your team structure due to a variety of reasons-

Importance of FPL Team Structure

Flexibility(Moving from one player/position/formation to another)
Reduce the number of Hits
Potential Routes to highly owned EO players that you don’t own
Money in the Bank

Price Points and Players to Target:

Goalkeepers

£5.5 – LIKELY AVOID– Raya, Pickford
£5.0 – TARGET- Sels, Sanchez
£4.5 – TARGET– Petrovic, Areola, Kelleher
£4.0 – BENCH FODDER– Kinsky(Not a likely starter though)

Defenders:

£4.0 – BENCH FODDER– Esteve, Reinildo, Gudmundsson (Read More: Best £4.0 Million FPL Defenders for the 2025/26 FPL Season)
£4.5 – TARGET– Konsa, Cuyper, Truffert/Senesi, AWB, Udogie/Van De Ven, Guehi/Richards, Andersen
£5.0 – NEUTRAL– Colwill, Mykolenko, Aina/Williams, Lacroix, Robinson
£5.5 – MUST TARGET– Munoz, Milenkovic/Murillo, Tarkowski/Branthwaite (Read more: Best £5.0-5.5 Million FPL Defenders for the 2025/26 FPL Season)
£6.0 – TARGET– Virgil, Gabriel(if fully fit), Gvardiol

Midfielders:

£14.5 – MUST TARGET– Salah
£10.0- 10.5 – TARGET– Palmer, Saka
£8.5- 9.0- TARGET– Bruno, Wirtz, Marmoush
£8.0 – AVOID– Odegaard, Foden, Mbeumo, Cunha
£7.0- 7.5 – TARGET- Eze, Rogers, Semenyo
£6.5 -WAIT and WATCH- Ndiaye, Sarr, Kudus, Rice, Enzo
£6.0 – AVOID- Rutter, Minteh, CHO
£5.5 – TARGET- Reijnders, Wilson, Adingra, Anderson, Tavernier, Gruda, Alcaraz, Elliott*, Arias (Read more: Best Budget FPL Midfielders for the 2025/26 FPL Season)
£5.0 – WAIT and WATCH– Le Fee, Baleba, Wharton
£4.5- AVOID- No starters available right now. Faivre, Devenny, Miley on watchlist(None of them starters though)

Forwards:

£14.0- NEUTRAL– Haaland
£10.5- WAIT and WATCH- Isak
£9.0- TARGET– Watkins, Gyokeres
£8.0- WAIT AND WATCH– Bowen
£7.5- MUST TARGET– Solanke, Joao Pedro, Wood, Wissa, Mateta (Read more: Best FPL Mid Priced Forwards (£6.5 – £7.5 Million)
£6.5- 7.0- NEUTRAL– Welbeck, Larsen, Evanilson
£5.5- 6.0- WAIT AND WATCH– Muniz, Mayenda, Fleming, Barry (Read more: Best FPL Budget Forwards (£4.5 – £6.0 Million)
£5.0- AVOID- No options
£4.5- TARGET– Guiu

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FPL Team Structures

Salah(£14.5) and Haaland(£14.0) are priced as Tier 1- The most expensive players in the game. They are in a league of their own, and they don’t fall under any price point. So we will use their names directly in the article. So, for the easy understanding and convenience of the article, the next set of expensive midfielders(Palmer, Saka) are listed as Premium Midfielders. Watkins, Gyokeres, and Isak are classified as Premium Forwards. Defenders between £5.5 and-6.0 are listed as Premium Defenders.

Salah – Salah
Haaland– Haaland
Premium Midfielders– Saka, Palmer
Premium Forwards– Isak, Gyokeres, Watkins
Premium Defenders– All DEFs from 5.5- 6.0 million- Van Dijk, Gabriel, Cucurella, Gvardiol, Milenkovic, Murilo, Tarkowski, Munoz, etc

For the understanding of this blog, we have divided this article into 6 Team structures built around them-

Salah + Haaland + Two Premium Defenders
Salah+ Haaland + One Premium Midfielder + One Premium Defender
Salah + Two Premium Midfielders + Two Premium Defenders (No Haaland)
Salah + 1 Premium Midfielder + 1 Premium Forward + 3 Premium Defenders(No Haaland)
Haaland + 2 Premium Midfielders + One Premium Defender (No Salah)
2 Premium Midfielders + 2 Premium Forwards+ 1 Premium Defender(No Haaland and Salah)

Note: The players mentioned here in the drafts are just a placeholder for the price points, and you can switch around if you feel it would be better.

FPL Team Structures

Team Structure 1 – Draft with Salah + Haaland + Two Premium DEFs

AI Team Rating: 92%

This Draft has Salah + Haaland along with 2 Premium Defenders in Van Dijk and Murilo. There are no Premium Midfielders in Saka/Palmer, but it has two good Mid-Priced Midfielders in Wirtz and Rogers.
The advantage with the Price Points of Wirtz+ Rogers is that you can get to Saka/Palmer later if needed without sacrificing Salah and Haaland. You can do a Wirtz to Saka if there is a standout £5.5 MID(Sacrificing Rogers)/£6.0 FWD(Sacrificing Solanke) emerging in the initial weeks.
This draft also offers the flexibility to reach to a Premium Forward(Watkins/Gyokeres/Isak) later if needed by either downgrading Haaland or upgrading the £7.5 FWD slot.
The 10th and 11th players are slightly weak in this Draft structure, as you will be depending on Van De Ven, Lacroix, and Le Fee to cover up the last two spots. Bench is slightly weaker.
There are plenty of exciting options in the £5.5 Price bracket, like Anderson, Wilson, Malen, etc. We have mentioned Anderson for that price point in most of the drafts, as he is the safest pick- Wilson, Malen have more risk and can get better returns as well. In this structure, you can upgrade Le Fee to another £5.5 Midfielder by downgrading Lacroix to a £4.5 Defender.

Team Structure 2 – Draft with Salah+ Haaland + One Premium Midfielder + One Premium Defender

AI Team Rating: 90%

This is the Team Structure with Salah + Haaland + One Premium Midfielder(Saka)+ One Premium Defender(Murilo).
There is a £6.0 Midfielder in this Draft in the form of Mineth, who has 2 goals,1 assist in pre-season so far.
£5.0 GK Sanchez is the set-and-forget Goal Keeper in this Draft
Attack is really strong with 3 Premium Attackers- Haaland + Salah + Saka/Palmer. However, the defense is weak in this structure with one Premium Defender + one £5.0 Defender + 2 £4.5 Defenders along with a £4.0 Bench Defender.
The major issue with this draft is that there are not many reliable forwards in the £5.5-6.5 Million Price range. In this draft, we have mentioned Welbeck with Barry, and Larsen is also another pick to consider when fixtures ease. If Wissa leaves, Thiago(£6.0) is also an option, who is also likely to be on penalties. You can also have Evanilson(£7.0) along with a £5.5 Million Forward if someone reliable emerges.

Team Structure 3 – Salah + Two Premium Midfielders + Two Premium Defenders(No Haaland)

AI Team Rating: 95%

Money in the Bank: £0.5

This is one of the highest-rated Drafts with a 95 % Overall Team Rating and 96% GW1 Team Rating. This Draft also has 0.5 million in the bank. 0.5 million in the Bank is always good, team structure-wise wise, as it allows you to swap players around easily without any hits.
This is also a Penalty + Set Piece Attack FC as all the 8 attackers are involved in Penalties/Corners/Free Kicks for their respective teams. Expect Anderson, all are penalty takers, and Anderson is on Corners and Set Pieces for Forest. This means that the Full Midfield is involved in Corners and Set Pieces.
This Draft uses the £4.5 Goal Keeper Rotation in Kelleher + Petrovic as it completely avoids Last Season’s Top 6 in the first 8 Gameweeks. Read more: FPL Rotational Pairs & Combinations for the 2025/26 FPL Season

One of the major cons of this Team Structure is the difficulty in getting back Haaland if he goes on to have a brilliant start to the season. You will probably need to sacrifice 2 out of these 3 players(Salah, Saka, and Palmer) to get Haaland. This means that you will be breaking your structure and making 3-4 transfers just to get back Haaland in your team.

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Team Structure 4 – Salah + 1 Premium Midfielder + 1 Premium Forward + 3 Premium Defenders

AI Team Rating: 94%

This draft almost has the players at all important price points- £7.5 FWD, £9.0 FWD, £7.0 MID, £10.0-10.5 MID, £5.0-£5.5 DEFs(Three of them) and a £4.5 DEF, which is why we like this Team structure a lot.
There are good routes and flexibility to get to other players who you don’t own now but might need later like Isak and Haaland.
You can go Watkins to Isak later if Isak’s future is certain by downgrading Kudus to a 5.0 MID or Rogers to a 5.5 MID.
There are 3 Premium Defenders in this Draft- Van Dijk, Murilo, and Tarkowski, who are all DEFCON masters and can be played irrespective of fixture. Lacroix is the 4th Defender who is again good at Defensive Contributions. Konsa completes the defense as the safe and reliable £4.5 Defender.
With no Haaland, there is pressure to make the right call between Saka and Palmer. Both are reliable Premium picks, but there could still be variance. You could pick one of them and they could score 15 points from 4 games, while the other pick could get 30+ points in that time. Palmer has the overall better fixtures in the first 6 weeks and is also 100% on penalties. Saka plays Liverpool and Man City in the first 6 weeks, but has a tempting high-ceiling fixture in GW2 vs Leeds(H). Saka might also share penalty duties with new signing Gyokeres. Here are the fixtures and Predicted Points for Saka and Palmer for the first 6 Gameweeks via Fantasy Football Hub.

**Predicted Points from FFHUB. For OPTA Stats, Predicted Points, FPL Planners, AI Recommended Transfers, etc- Subscribe now with a 50% discount**

There is another variation of this draft, which is one of our personal favorites. In this variation, we have Kudus upgraded to Eze by compromising on the bench.

Variation of the above draft:

**AI Team Rating: 96%(Get your FPL Team Rated for FREE)**

This Draft goes one step beyond and hits 96% on the Hub Rate my Team Free Tool. There is nothing to hate in this draft, as it almost covers all the bases that are needed, except that the bench is not very strong.

Team Structure 5 – Haaland + 2 Premium Midfielders + One Premium Defender (No Salah)

AI Team Rating: 93%

This is a Draft with Haaland + 2 Premium Midfielders in Saka and Palmer. There is no Salah in this Team Structure.
No Salah was tried to cover with 2 Premium Midfielders and a Semi-Premium Midfielder in Wirtz. Wirtz can’t obviously cover Salah, but can get some Liverpool cover, and you can hope other Premium combine to match Salah, if not do better.
Pedro is the £7.5 Million Forward in this forward. He can be any £7.5 Forward of your choice- Solanke, Mateta, Wood.

Team Structure 6 – 2 Premium Midfielders + 2 Premium Forwards+ 1 Premium Defender(No Haaland and Salah)

AI Team Rating: 91%

This is a Draft with no Haaland and Salah as well. No Haaland and Salah helps you to get 4 Premium Attackers(Saka+Palmer+ Watkins+ Gyokeres) along with a semi-premium in Wirtz.
Easy route to Isak as well if needed later.
Looks really solid on paper with 8 good and proven Attackers along with 2 Premium Defenders.
But, Captaincy is a question(in the long run) whether the likes of Palmer, Saka, and Watkins can be considered strongly every week for captaincy. They are all good performers, but Haaland and Salah are more reliable for Captaincy, as suggested by previous seasons and also the pricing.
It’s also difficult to get Salah and Haaland later if you wish to do so a little later, as you would need multiple transfers.

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Conclusion and Key Points- FPL Team Structure

Importance of £7.5 Forward: You must plan to have at least one £7.5 Forward in your teams because that is the price point that allows you to upgrade to a £9.0 Forward or Downgrade to a £5.5-6.0 based on the first few games. Also, there are quite a lot of quality and reliable options in your £7.5 million price bracket- Wood, Pedro, Mateta, Solanke, Wissa, whom you can swap around among them based on fixture runs.
BIG AT THE BACK is so back: £5.0-£5.5 Defenders are value for money compared to Midfielders in the same price point.

Most Points among DEFs & MIDs(£7.0 & Below) after Defensive Contribution Points are added:

Milenkovic- 178 (£5.5 DEF)
Semenyo- 169 (£7.0 MID)
Murilo- 169 (£5.5 DEF)
Rogers- 166 (£7.0 MID)
Murphy- 165 (£6.5 MID)
Van Dijk- 164 (£6.0 DEF)
Gvardiol- 162 (£6.0 DEF)
Iwobi- 159 (£6.5 MID)
Munoz- 157 (£5.5 DEF)
Kluivert- 155 (£7.0 MID)
MGW- 155 (£7.5 MID)
Trossard- 154 (£7.0 MID)
Collins- 153 (£5.0 DEF)
Schade- 152 (£7.0 MID)
Eze- 152 (£7.5 MID)
Bruno G- 151 (£6.5 MID)
Tarkowski- 151 (£5.5 DEF)
Sarr- 150 (£6.5 MID)
Elanga- 149 (£7.0 MID)
Szoboszlai- 149 (£6.5 MID)
Damsgaard- 147 (£6.0 MID)
Lacroix- 157 (£5.0 DEF)
Rice- 146 (£6.5 MID)
Mac Allister- 146 (£6.5 MID)
Tielemans- 146 (£6.0 MID)
Mitoma- 145 (£6.5 MID)
Enzo- 143 (£6.5 MID)
Anderson- 143 (£5.5 MID)
Saliba- 142 (£6.0 DEF)
Norgaard- 142 (£5.5 MID)
Caicedo- 141 (£5.5 MID)
Cucurella- 140 (£6.0 DEF)
Ndiaye- 140 (£6.5 MID)
Johnson- 140 (£7.0 MID)
Kerkez- 137 (£6.0 DEF)
Maddison- 136 (£7.0 MID)
Burn- 136 (£5.0 DEF)

?Big at the back will be back this season. It’s a good option to play 4 at the back this season, where it wasn’t much of an option in the last few seasons.
?£5.0-5.5 DEFs are good value for money picks. DEFs in this range can easily outscore Midfielders at the same price point or even higher.
?Murilo, Milenkovic, Lacroix, Munoz, and Tarkowski are excellent picks & can be long-term options even with tough fixtures due to the Defensive Contributions scoring system.

These are all important price points that allow flexibility around your Team Structure – £7.5 FWD, £9.0 FWD, £7.0 MID, £10.0-10.5 MID, £5.0-£5.5 DEFs, and a £4.5 DEF.
Marc Guiu has completed his loan move to Sunderland, which means that there is a potential £4.5 million starting Forward. There is still Isidor and Mayenda, so watch for pre-season to confirm if Guiu will be the first choice forward. If he is a starter, he is almost a must-own as it enables a solid 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 and also a potential early Bench Boost(GW1/GW2).

Lack of Budget Forwards: The Budget Forward Pool is not very attractive as there are not many standout options in the £6.0 and below range. There are a few options like Barry, Piroe, Thiago, etc, who we can keep an eye on. So it will be better to invest in a cheap £4.5 Forward(Guiu) and then jump onto the Budget Forwards as they emerge.
£6.0 and less MID > £6.0 and less FWD: The 5.5 Midfield market is really strong with lots of exciting/safe options to choose from. If you want to play it safe and catch up on Defensive Contribution points, you can pick Anderson/Caicedo. If you want to go for exciting attacking options, you can go for Wilson/Malen. There is also Minteh in the £6.0 MID Price point. These Midfielders are at the moment better than the Budget Forwards at the same price range.

There is no starting £4.5 Midfielder at the moment.
Planning for Isak: Isak comes at a £10.5 million Premium Price Point. And at the moment, there is no clarity on his future due to his links with Liverpool/staying at Newcastle. If he moves to Liverpool, he is a no-brainer at that price. So it is better to have a £9.0 Forward at the start(Read Watkins/Gyokeres), who you can switch up to Isak later if needed.
Rotating 4.5/5.0 Defenders is a legit option(Read more: Best FPL Rotational Pairs and Combinations for 2025/26 FPL Season). Finding starting 4.0 million defenders is also not difficult.
Looking at these Team structures, going with Salah looks to be a more secure option, mainly due to the high EO and also because of the difficulty of getting to Salah later in the season without using a Wildcard. Salah is priced at £14.5 million and you would need to break your team to get to him later. He could also be close to 15.0 million in no time.
Don’t go with NO SALAH AND HAALAND: Going without both Haaland and Salah may look good on paper to start with, but you would need reliable captaincy picks in the long run. There will be lots of managers who have captained them, it might be a difficult start and heavy rank drop if you don’t own both, and both have excellent starts to the season, which they have done in the past few seasons. It is very difficult to get them back, and you will need multiple transfers to get them back in your team. Have at least one of them- Preferably Salah, as he is a midfielder and you can easily switch to Saka/Palmer/Bruno/Wirtz later if needed.
Team Structure 3 and Team Structure 4 are our favourites right now due to the reliable and consistent performers. Also offers flexibility to other picks who did not make it.

There is no right or wrong team in FPL. This is just a Team structure guide and more like an open conversation to understand the structures better. Play your own game. Hope this article was useful, Good luck for the season!

Further reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of FPL GW1 of the 2025/26 FPL Season

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Link to all our 2025/26 Pre-Season articles including all position-wise analysis, team previews, fixture analysis, position-wise analysis, and more. Completely free to access as well!

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2025/2026 FPL Team Structure Guide with Drafts & Ratings

2025/2026 FPL Team Structure Guide with Drafts & Ratings