Where Should Your £100m Actually Go in 2026/27?

The one-sentence lesson from 2025/26

If you only take one thing from last season, take this: the best managers didn't commit to a spending template — they followed the value.

When defenders suddenly became points machines, elite managers started more of them. But — and this is the bit everyone gets wrong — they didn't suddenly pour money into defence. They found the cheap ones who did the job and spent the savings up front. Flexibility beat dogma. It usually does.

Defenders: suddenly fun, still cheap

The defensive contribution rules (DEFCON, as absolutely nobody at FPL Towers calls it officially) changed the position. Defenders stopped being clean-sheet lottery tickets and started earning points for actually defending — tackles, clearances, blocks. Revolutionary concept, we know.

The result: six defenders finished inside the top 20 overall scorers in 2025/26, with Gabriel topping the position on 209 points. Four-at-the-back formations like 4-4-2 went from "brave" to "normal" among top managers.

But here's the trap: that does not mean you should buy premium defenders in bulk. The whole point is that mid-priced defenders — the £4.5m–£5.5m bracket with heavy defensive workloads and nailed minutes — got closer to matching similarly priced midfielders. You start four defenders because they're good value, not because you've remortgaged your midfield to afford them.

Goalkeepers: the Raya exception

Standard FPL wisdom says never spend big in goal, and standard FPL wisdom is usually right. Last season produced the exception: David Raya finished as the top-scoring goalkeeper on 162 points behind an Arsenal defence that kept 19 clean sheets and conceded a league-low 27 goals.

So should you pay up for a keeper this year? Only if the whole defensive platform justifies it. A premium keeper is really a bet on a premium defence — you're paying for the clean sheets, plus save points as a bonus. If no team looks that dominant in August, go back to the £4.5m man and spend the difference on someone who takes penalties.

The premium problem: too few players worth the tax

Here's the awkward truth about 2025/26: most of the expensive players weren't worth it. Salah (£14.0m by season's end), Palmer (£10.3m) and Saka (£10.0m) all had stretches where owning them felt like paying club-shop prices for a training bib.

Two premiums delivered: Haaland (239 points, £14.7m at the end) and Bruno Fernandes (235 points and a record-equalling assist haul). That scarcity shaped everyone's budget. When only one or two expensive players are reliably excellent, you fund those and spread the rest — you don't force three premiums into the squad because that's what worked in 2023.

For 2026/27, watch the early weeks before committing to a second or third premium. If several £10m+ players start the season looking essential, budgets will tighten and you'll need to pick your luxury carefully. If it's Haaland-plus-nobody again, congratulations: you have money to spread and more interesting decisions to make.

Midfield: still the engine, no longer the whole car

Midfield has traditionally hoovered up the biggest share of FPL budgets, and it still commands the most money overall. But its dominance slipped last season, for a simple reason: with premium midfielders misfiring and defenders suddenly viable, the marginal pound often did more work elsewhere.

The modern shape among sharp managers looks like: one reliable premium or semi-premium midfielder, a couple of mid-price picks with genuine attacking involvement, and value everywhere else. Five £8m midfielders is not a strategy, it's a hostage situation.

A sensible 2026/27 starting framework

Treat these as starting guardrails, not commandments — the whole lesson of last season is to adapt when the game changes:

• Goal: cheap and nailed, unless one defence looks genuinely elite.
• Defence: start four when the value is there; hunt DEFCON-friendly mid-pricers rather than stacking premiums.
• Midfield: biggest share of budget, but earned pick by pick — no automatic premium slots.
• Attack: pay the Haaland tax (or whoever inherits it), keep the third striker cheap.
• Bench: playing fodder only. Every pound on your bench is a pound scoring zero most weeks.

And most importantly: hold your structure loosely. The managers who finished highest last season weren't the ones with the best August plan — they were the ones who noticed fastest when the plan stopped working.