The best FPL goalkeepers are not often the most expensive ones. Picking a top keeper is the easiest choice and is recommended for newbies. Picking a £4.5M keeper from a midtable team is a riskier choice. Rotating two mid-priced (£4.5M) keepers is the professional choice.
Goalkeepers get most of their points in FPL from clean sheets (4), minutes played (1-2), and saves (1 for every three saves).
The most expensive FPL goalkeepers are not the best
The best FPL goalkeepers are not necessarily the most expensive ones. This is the first rule of thumb you must understand before selecting a keeper in your FPL team. It’s a bit controversial, but there is a good reason for this.
The most expensive attackers and midfielders, a.k.a. the premium players, are pretty much worth every penny. You can almost guarantee that players like Haaland, Saka, and Salah will be among the highest-scoring players without long injuries.
This is because they play on a team that wins many games and scores many goals. When their team scores goals, attacks often go through these premium players. But this is not the case with goalkeepers.
Goalkeepers rarely save a top team from losing by making a lot of saves. They seldom even get a chance to save a penalty because top teams don’t concede many of them.
Also, goal amounts have risen in the Premier League in the last two seasons. Even teams like Manchester City concede goals in almost every match. They rarely keep a clean sheet, even on home soil against weaker opponents.
This means that a top-team goalie doesn’t get that many (more) clean sheets than a cheaper one. But he has fewer save points and barely ever any bonus points. This is why goalkeepers from average teams get about the same points as the most expensive goalkeepers.
Tips for selecting FPL goalkeepers
There are three different ways to pick an FPL goalkeeper:
- Pick one of the top team keepers (£5.5M) and forget it
- Pick one of the midtable team keepers (£4.5M) and forget it
- Rotate two midtable team keepers (£4.5M + £4.5M/£4.0M)
Next, let’s investigate these paths more closely.
Picking a top keeper
Picking a top keeper is the easiest choice and is recommended for newbies. Even if I wrote earlier that the most expensive keepers are not often the best ones, especially if you count points vs. price, it is still the choice for beginners.
You can pick a keeper from one of the top four teams and leave it until you use Wildcard for the next time. Then, you can consider changing him if needed.
Image below: Liverpool’s Alisson Becker has been a solid choice for a top keeper for many years.
The positive side is that you’ll get decent points and won’t make a big mistake. If it’s a team where you know you won’t pick outfield players, you can choose the backup goalie from this top team. It guarantees you are safe even with injuries.
However, be careful with this! If you choose the backup keeper from the same team, you can only have one outfield player because FPL has a limit for a maximum of three players from one club. Hence, it’s often wiser to pick some random backup goalie.
The negative side is that you’ll end up spending £9.5M on keepers, and this £1M could make one of your £5.5M midfielders to £6.5M, etc.
Picking a midtable keeper
Picking a £4.5M keeper from a midtable team is a riskier choice. Top clubs in the Premier League have solid performance levels these days, but any of the midtable clubs might perform horribly and even get relegated. This means you could get only a few points for your goalkeeper.
However, there will always be plenty of other £4.5M keepers if it looks like you made a massive mistake. You can also change a keeper when you Wildcard.
You spend only £8.5M on two keepers, which could help you upgrade, for example, two £4.5M defenders to £5.0M defenders or use the money elsewhere.
Rotating two keepers
Rotating two mid-priced (£4.5M) keepers is the professional choice. It requires long-term planning but has the best potential of these choices. There is also a chance that one of the £4.0M keepers is the first choice, which means you can even get away with £8.5M spending.
Rotating two keepers is the same as rotating defenders or other outfield players. Your goal is to pick goalkeepers who have good and bad matches during different Gameweeks so that one of your keepers has a decent chance of keeping a clean sheet every game.
Read more about rotation from our How to Play FPL guide.
Rotation sounds like an intelligent pick on paper, but it isn’t easy in practice. It means you must pick two keepers from midtable or lower-midtable clubs, and many times, these teams fail to meet expectations. If one of the keepers fails badly, it could ruin your rotation plan, and finding another keeper with similar fixtures might not be easy.
All in all, each tactic has its pros and cons. If you are a beginner, it’s easiest to pick a top keeper, even if it’s not the wisest choice regarding how many points you get for the money spent.
How do goalkeepers get points in FPL?
Goalkeepers get most of their points in FPL from clean sheets (4), minutes played (1-2), and saves (1 for every three saves). They can also get bonus points like any other player (1 to 3). On rare occasions, they also save penalties, which is 5 points.
Goalkeepers also receive minus points from yellow (-1 per card) and red (-2 per card) cards.
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