This article is written by Sankalp Nanda(@UnderstandingF8) who finished with an Overall FPL Rank of 355 and India No.11 in the 2021/22 season. This article will be a part of 4-article series titled- “Winning the Battle of Price Points“. In the first part of the series, he will be analyzing the “Best FPL Goal Keepers at each price point for 2022/23 season” which will be followed by articles on defenders, midfielders and forwards in the coming days.
“At the heart of it, FPL is an optimization problem made complex by putting it into a real world scenario with millions of possibilities over a period of time.”
My attraction to playing FPL has gotten higher and higher as I have started looking at it as a complex mathematical problem that we are looking to solve by preparing simple models in our mind ( or excel sheets). I know the number of variables that affect the outcome is a long list- half of which is real time and often not available to us as a pre deadline information. So, the idea of trying to play a perfect season is not really realistic- however, what’s realistic is playing it with the approximate picture we are aware of. At the start of FPL season, things are simpler if you look at it- price points are 0.5m apart and hence, you are primarily creating a structure that you are comfortable with & that you feel gives you the best way to start a season over the next 6-8 weeks ( not the whole season) !!
This is the reason I wanted to use the excuse of writing an article to merely look into each of the price points available to us & the best solutions available in them. This information I feel can be a building block for you to decide the final formation you want to go with.
Note- Most of the article is going to be subjective in the way I am seeing the games going currently, feel free to roast me when it doesn’t 😀
Now, the first part of the segment is going to be devoted to Goalkeepers and we shall use FFS ticker(sorted by best defenses for the first 6 GWs).
Best FPL Goalkeepers at each price point for 2022/23 Season
With GKs, we have only 4 price points available ( 4m, 4.5m, 5m & 5.5m), so it makes things so much easier to look at. Let’s use the above table for our discussion as well.
Best FPL Goalkeepers at 5.5 Million Price Point
Options available are Ederson, Alisson & Lloris alone. To be fair, all three options are easily the best choices in the position as they are only players with more than 150 points earned last season. Alisson was the best FPL Goalkeeper last year at 176 points. Looking at the fixtures and last year’s returns, Alisson is a clear winner here. Liverpool defense isn’t really expected to change its colors and will continue its strong defensive record under Klopp. Alisson manager to win bonus points as well (Last year he had 15 Bonus points compared to Ederson (4) & Lloris (11)– only Ramsdale came closest at 14 Bonus points.
The only dilemma to have here is Allison basically helps you sacrifice the third attacking Liverpool asset ( apart from solid choices Salah or Trent).The fight for Allison isn’t with other keepers but with his own teammates and thanks to Allison’s reduced pricing, it is a debate well worth. My personal way of looking at it (purely from a price points perspective) we have a 5.5m “player” who can give us a very consistent return of 160 points+ this season. I would rather save the 1.5m/2.5m over Robbo/ Dias and use it elsewhere.
Winner- Alisson.
Note- Lloris does have a good shout here except his defenders are available cheaper than him and can be used to cover him easily – a choice not available with Alisson or Ederson.
Further Read: How I landed up my first ever Top 500 finish | Sankalp’s column | FPL Tips
Best FPL Goalkeepers at 5.0 Million Price Point
Options available are Ramsdale, Emi, Mendy, Schmeichel, De Gea, Pope, Fabianksi & Sa.
I think we have a strong competition here among all 8 options available at this point, given all the returns are around 130-150 points range. If you ask me from a long term POV, I would definitely go with Mendy but Chelsea possibly do move to a 442 with a new CB pairing and the explosive addition of Sterling and 2 brilliant full backs(who we shall discuss in the next article), I would stay off at least to begin with.
Combining with fixtures, last season’s first half messiah- Sa seems a clear winner. Caveat being, do we see a rejig from Wolves who faded a lot in attacking side over second half of the season. A change in emphasis to attack might mean a compensation from the defensive side of things.
Ramsdale as a GK faded a lot in the second half of the season single handedly taking him out of contention for the best GK last season. I am comfortable starting with him this season as a fresh start with a deeper defence but I feel going with Sa seems an easy choice given the facts we have with us and information on last season.
Winner- Sa
Note- I have eyes on both Mendy and Pope as a possible long term pick during WC-1, use GW 1-6 to garner that information but don’t jump on them this early as you might even be able to pick them cheaper during WC.
Further Read: Talisman Theory – 2021/22 Report | Who Got The Assist(WGTA)
Best FPL Goalkeepers at 4.5 Million Price Point
List is really long so I would focus on best options available. Leno(if he moves to Fulham), Raya(if he stays in PL)/Strakosha(if Raya moves), Sanchez, Guaita, Pickford, Meslier.
For the sake of discussion and avoiding the riskiness of the options who might not be available from GW1, my focus is on the last 4 choices for now.
Sanchez is easily the wisest choice and his EO already shows it at 14%. The only con I see here is the first 4 matches aren’t easy from a CS POV and I will be hoping he gets it against new look Newcastle and Leeds. He is in my draft currently but I am very fidgety about him.
Guaita would have been my first choice but I think fixtures pretty much rule him out to start with. If Viera does cook up a miracle initially, he can be someone to look at during your WC1 draft.
Of the last 2, Meslier seems to be the more logical choice now, like Pickford he doesn’t guarantee a lot of CSs but has massive saves against him. This means any possible CS would be coupled with a strong bonus. Pickford had 12 bonus points last season – best in this price bracket & can be as much of a surprise package as Meslier but as things stand now, fixtures are pointing out towards the Leeds asset. I also trust Leeds coach better when it comes to his structures and I feel he will be able to carve out a better defence than we are used to seeing under Bielsa. There were signs of it during the last 5-6 GWs of the season.
Winner- Meslier
If you are interested in rotating your 4.5 million Goal Keepers/4.5 Defenders, this thread is a must read:
Further Read: Best £4.0 Million FPL Defenders for the 2022/23 FPL Season
Best FPL Goalkeepers at 4.0 Million Price Point
Options available are all backup GKs. The popular choices are Foster (11% EO), Gazzinga(10.3%) & Darlow (4.5%).
One of the most popular theories during start of season when picking a 4.5m GK from not a popular team is to couple him with his 4m backup GK. I like this idea more than rotation strategy which is very difficult to choose given you are choosing from 2 4.5m GKs who don’t play for a great team. This is the reason Steele, Begovic and Klaesson makes sense to me. Lesser EO means lesser choices of price drop in case, managers are looking to move to a suddenly starting 4.0m GK too. So, there is no clear winner in this bracket but if you are going for a 4.5m GK, I would advise just pick his backup as your one for the initial draft.
In my next article, I would be looking at the best defenders in each price bracket and a bit on the now popular Big at the Back theory. Stay Tuned!!
[kofi]
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Further reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of the 2022/23 FPL Season
Link to all our 2022/23 Pre Season articles including transfer tracker of all new signings, all team pre-season friendly updates, team previews, fixture analysis, position-wise analysis, and more. Completely free to access as well!
Link to all our FPL Forwards, FPL Midfielders, FPL Defenders, and FPL Goalkeepers series of blogs including the best 4.0 million defenders, and 4.5 Million midfielders.
Link to all Our FPL Team Analysis Series for all 20 PL Teams from our team correspondents
If you’re new to FPL, here is a link to all our FPL Beginners Guide including FPL Beginner’s Guide- How to play?, Bench boost, Team value, Triple captain, Effective ownership, Price Changes, Free Hit, Bonus Points, and more.
All our Best Pre Season Reads:
FPL Defenders:
Best £4.5 Million FPL Defenders for the 2022/23 FPL Season
Best £5 & £5.5 Million FPL Defenders for the 2022/23 FPL Season
Best Premium FPL Defenders (£6.0+) for the 2022/23 FPL Season
Best £4.0 Million FPL Defenders for the 2022/23 FPL Season
Best FPL Defenders at Each Price Point for The 2022/23 Season
FPL Midfielders:
Best Mid-Priced FPL Midfielders (£6.0 -£7.5 Million) | 22/23 Season
Best FPL Midfielders at Each Price Point for The 2022/23 Season
Premium FPL Midfielders Analysis Ahead of 2022/23 FPL Season
Best 8.0 Million FPL Midfielders- Stats, Comparison & Verdict
Best £5 & £5.5 Million FPL Midfielders For The 2022/23 FPL Season
Best £4.5 Million FPL Midfielders For The 2022/23 FPL Season
FPL Goalkeepers:
Best FPL Goalkeepers at each price point for 2022/23 Season
FPL Goalkeepers Analysis & Combinations with pros and cons
FPL Forwards:
Best FPL Forwards to Consider Ahead of the 2022/23 FPL Season
Mid-Priced FPL Forwards (£7.0 – £7.5m) | 2022/23 Season
Best FPL Budget Forwards(6.5 & below) for 2022/23 season
Team Previews:
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Best Man United FPL Players | Preview – 2022/23 season
Best Crystal Palace FPL Players | Crystal Palace FPL Preview
Best Liverpool FPL Players | Liverpool FPL Preview | FPL Flynn
Best West Ham FPL Players | West Ham Preview | 2022/23 Season
Best Brighton FPL Players | Brighton Preview | 22/23 FPL Season
Best Aston Villa FPL Players | Aston Villa Preview | 2022/23 Season
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Best Wolves FPL Players | Wolves Preview | 2022/23 FPL Season
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Best Leicester City FPL Players | Leicester City Preview
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FPL Player in Focus: Erling Haaland | Complete Analysis
Man City Midfielders/Forwards Analysis for 2022/23 FPL Season
Best Southampton FPL Players | Saints FPL Preview | FPL Pricey
Best Leeds FPL Players | Leeds Preview | 2022/23 FPL Season
Best Brentford FPL Players | Brentford Preview | 2022/23 Season
Best Everton FPL Players | Everton FPL Preview | 2022/23 Season
Best Fulham FPL Players | Fulham FPL Preview | 2022/23 Season
Best FPL Assets To Consider From Promoted Teams | 22/23 Season(Forest, Fulham, and Bournemouth covered)
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Set-Piece & Penalty Takers of All Premier League Clubs
FPL GW1 Scout Picks | FPLDaggaFC & AllAboutFPL
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Rotation Free FPL Assets Based on Previous Season Minutes
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Sankalp Nanda
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