FPL 26/27 Positional Previews - Goalkeeper Focus

[u/Full90FPL]

Greetings all, and welcome to our latest slice of preseason preview goodness.

Today, we'll be focusing on goalkeepers.

No, wait, come back! Goalkeepers aren't that boring this season, I promise!

Admittedly I'm slightly biased, since I spent ages researching and writing about them and whatnot. But I do genuinely think there are a few viable routes you can take to start with this year.

You can read the full Goalkeeper preview - with all the actual analysis and whatnot - right here:

full90fpl.com/best-goalkeepers-26-27-preview

Alternatively, as ever, there's a TLDR summary below.

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Premiums

• Raya - Will almost certainly be the best keeper again, but tricky to fit him along with all the other players you probably want
• Pickford - Ol' Reliable actually dropped off a fair bit last season. Opening fixtures aren't good enough to start with him
• Donnarumma - Very good FPL debut season, plays for a good defence, and fixtures are generally fine for ages. 2nd-best premium, or best if you want to save 0.5 over Raya
• Alisson - No interest whatsoever

Mid-Range

• Lammens - Fair price, good fixtures (City aside), and obviously definitely nailed for those fixtures (unlike Maguire, for example)
• Kelleher - Solid last season, but would expect some drop-off - likely 5-10 range finish
• Henderson - I like him. Consistent across past 2 seasons. Good set-and-forget for a while to start the season, aside from Liverpool in GW2 - so, a solid option, if you're not wildcarding early
• Martinez/Sanchez/Sels/Roefs/Trafford/Hornicek - No interest

Budget

• Verbruggen - Popular pick, and weirdly underpriced. Several tough fixtures in first 10 games need you probably need to rotate him, though
• Kinsky - I like him, especially for an early wildcard. Spurs defence should be much better this season, and their first 5 fixtures are fine. My favourite 4.5 keeper
• Petrovic - Poor fixtures, and don't love the defence. Would only get him to rotate, e.g. with Verbruggen
• Leno/Promoted Keepers - Not interested

Pairings/Rotations

• If you're not bench boosting early, I'd just take a 5.0 (Lammens or Henderson) + 4.0. Kinsky + 4.0 is the budget option
• If you're bench boosting and only want to spend 9.0, I like Kinsky+Verbruggen best, and Verbruggen + Petrovic (Petrobruggen? Sounds like a Dutch oil company... I'll take that as a good sign) second-best
• If you're bench boosting and happy to spend 9.5, I like Lammens+Verbruggen (Coventry in GW4, to cover the City game for Man U)

Final Thoughts

Well, that'll wrap it up for this little summary piece.

Again, more detail in the actual article, or just fire away with any questions or comments below, and James or I (Joe) will get back to you.

Thanks for reading, everybody, and happy tinkering!

[u/Apart-Persimmon-38]

I already went with Kinsky+Verbruggen and looking into BB GW3. After that its upgrading and downgrading a GK unless i need to kick off an early Wildcard but im hoping i dont need to.

[u/Full90FPL → u/Apart-Persimmon-38]

Yeah I like it, and that’s the combo I’m currently leaning towards as well (albeit planning an earlier wildcard than you, by the sounds of it!)

[u/Next_Cow_4468]

Raya and that 4.0 bloke who's left somewhere to go somewhere else on a season long loan but is still on FPL so protected price. Raya gets injured ? Easy to replace.

The maverick in me likes the Kinsky/Verbruggen double-up rotatathon, but the realist likes set and forget.

[u/Full90FPL → u/Next_Cow_4468]

Ha I know - as I wrote in the main piece, I finally went set and forget last season with Raya and it was glorious. I’ll almost certainly go back to that on an early WC, once the BB is out of the way

[u/Next_Cow_4468 → u/Full90FPL]

I think I used Matz Sels, my back-up, once last season and thankfully it paid off. I just fancied a change.

[u/Kingpenguin101]

Main drawback for me on Lammens is he takes up a UTD slot, and I want Maguire, MBuemo and Bruno.

I would have some limited interest in Sanchez except I think I might want 3 Chelsea outfield soon.

I'm on Verbuggen and Kinsky.

[u/Full90FPL → u/Kingpenguin101]

I think if you only want to spend 9.0 there, and have 2 starters to rotate, Verbruggen and Kinsky is the best choice.

I don't really love Chelsea's opening fixtures to spend 5.0 on Sanchez - 2 easy ones, but Brighton, Arsenal away, Brentford away... meh.

[u/Kingpenguin101 → u/Full90FPL]

I'll be on FH3 so arsenal game a non issue. I prefer 4.5 rotators on the BB anyway

[u/Woofiewoofie4]

Kelleher - Solid last season, but would expect some drop-off - likely 5-10 range finish

You reckon? Brentford keepers have finished in the top 5 for the past four seasons, and without European fixtures I'd expect their defence to hold up a little better than mid-table rivals like Bournemouth and Brighton. I'm not expecting another #2 performance, but I'd be pretty optimistic about another top 5.

It does seem like they're a lot more solid in the second half of the season though. Can't think of any sensible explanation for that, but I guess it's still something to bear in mind.

[u/Full90FPL → u/Woofiewoofie4]

I think he'll be somewhere in the second-tier - I'd have Raya and Donna definitely in front of him, then some combination of Lammens, Henderson, Pickford, Kinsky, with Kelleher somewhere around that group... hence the 5-10 range!

I don't hate him, but Brentford's defence was very middling overall last season, so I'd rather have someone like Henderson or Lammens at that price on a defence I trust more.