FPL 2025-26 Season Preview: Best Goalkeeper and Defender Picks

Adewale (The FPL Manual) previews the best goalkeepers and defenders to pick in your FPL fantasy team for the 2025-26 English Premier League season.

Hello, Rotoballers! Welcome to our second fantasy football article for the 2025-2026 Fantasy Premier League season. The official FPL game launched on July 21, and it's time for fantasy managers to tinker away before the first games of the new campaign.

Our preseason article series kicks off with a positional preview of the top goalkeepers and defenders to help you improve your defense this season. We will analyze each position using key statistics from the previous year, as we aim to capitalize on the latest modifications to the bonus points system.

The Gameweek 1 deadline for the 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League season is Friday, August 15, at 1:30 p.m. EDT, when Liverpool hosts AFC Bournemouth. Check out the rest of our excellent soccer coverage as the squad gets you all set for every EPL and UCL slate with our EPL DFS lineup picks and betting picks.

Best Goalkeepers: Premium, Mid-Priced, and Budget-Enablers

The goalkeeper serving as the last line of defense could be the key difference between finishing first or last in your FPL mini-league. As a result, ensuring you have the right goalkeeper from the start of the season can save you a lot of headaches down the road.

AB1 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/EZUuUmJK7o

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 24, 2025

The question is, who are the best goalkeepers to target across a broad range of premium, mid-priced, and budget-friendly assets for the 2025-26 season?

To find out, we'll delve into last season's rankings, highlighting the best goalkeeper for clean sheets and the best value picks, taking into account the updated bonus point system.

2024-25 FPL Rankings: Goalkeepers

Let's take a look at last season's FPL rankings. However, this time we'll match them with a few metrics, such as points per match, goals conceded, and total saves made, to give our findings more depth.

Note: The goalkeepers listed above racked up over 100 FPL points in the 2024-25 season, each logging more than 2,500 minutes for their clubs. These are solid picks with guaranteed game time for your fantasy team.

Table Summary: Matz Sels and David Raya topped the charts with 13 clean sheets apiece last season, but Sels edged out with 34 more saves, earning him 11 bonus points. Despite conceding 44 goals, Jordan Pickford proved his worth for Everton once more with 122 saves made and 12 clean sheets, showcasing his grit in goal.

Mastering the New Bonus Point System

In our recent article on the latest FPL updates, we briefly noted a slight adjustment in the bonus point system (BPS). Now, goalkeepers can earn three points for saves from shots inside the box and two points for those outside, adding a fresh layer of strategy to the game.

Using our current data, here is a brief look at which goalkeepers excelled in saves vs. clean sheets last season.

Everton's Pickford and Nottingham Forest's Sels made over 120 saves each last season, while Liverpool's Alisson Becker trailed behind with only 78 saves.

Best Value Pick (Goalkeeper):

Finishing back-to-back seasons with over 150 FPL points for a mid-table Everton side is no small feat. Our best value pick at goalkeeper is Pickford (£5.5m), and the extra £0.5m on his new price tag is well worth it. He also earned the most bonus points (15), thus proving himself as a reliable shot-stopper.

Best Defensive Rotation Pairing - Goalkeepers

For the first six gameweeks, Nottingham Forest and AFC Bournemouth provide a solid mix, offering Sels and Đorđe Petrović a feasible chance to rotate.

Bournemouth faces tough away trips against Liverpool in Gameweek 1, Tottenham in Gameweek 3, and Leeds in Gameweek 6, while Nottingham Forest enjoys favorable home matchups against Brentford, West Ham, and Sunderland during the same period.

Bournemouth has bolstered its squad with Petrović, who was quite impressive on loan at Strasbourg last season with 10 clean sheets. The club will lean on his shot-stopping skills to fill the void left by Kepa Arrizabalaga, who joined Arsenal this summer.

Announce Petrovic ✅ pic.twitter.com/EmzocsuFQ3

— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) July 16, 2025

Best Defenders: Premium, Mid-Priced, and Budget-Enablers

It's been a busy summer transfer window. Rayan Aït-Nouri joined Man City, and Jeremie Frimpong joined Liverpool. The heroics of Murillo and Milenkovic of Nottingham Forest, who finished among the top 10 defenders in the 2024-25 FPL rankings, will live on in our memories.

Which of these premium defenders will have the best season? 🛡️#FPL pic.twitter.com/UiflP1SKjH

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 22, 2025

However, who are the top defenders among the premiums (£6m), mid-priced (£5.0m-5.5m), and budget-enablers (£4.0m-4.5m)? Using the pre-existing framework, we analyze data from the 2024-25 season to identify which defender is poised to do well.

Mastering the New Bonus Point System

Let's start with the center backs, who stand to benefit from the newly updated BPS system on defensive contributions, before moving to the attacking wingbacks.

This season, a defender with a total of 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles (CBIT) in a single match earns two FPL points. Goal-line clearances are awarded nine points in the new BPS, while successful tackles earn two points.

These were the top 10 defenders for CBIT in the 2024-25 season.

James Tarkowski tops the charts 📊

No defender would have picked up as many defensive contribution points as the Everton defender if they were available in FPL last season 🔵#FPL pic.twitter.com/c5yQS9QeUT

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 18, 2025

Everton's James Tarkowski led the table with a total of 44 defensive contributions, followed by Nottingham Forest's Murillo (38) and Crystal Palace's Maxence Lacroix (34), who are still available picks for this season.

Among the traditional top six teams, Liverpool's captain, Virgil van Dijk, had 22 defensive contributions, while Man City's Joško Gvardiol had only 10 all season. Therefore, we can conclude that FPL assets who play for mid-table teams are likely to score you more CBITs this season.

These results might be explained by the fact that most mid-teams rely on a mid-block/structured defense, which increases the players' chances of contributing defensively and keeping clean sheets. To this end, among the center-backs, Tarkowski stands out as this season's best-value pick at £5.5m.

2024-25 FPL Rankings: Defenders - Fullbacks

While defensive contributions are for center backs, goal contributions (attacking returns) will be used to evaluate a promising fullback. For this category, we'll look at which defender was the most threatening in the opposition box based on projected goals and assists.

Note: The selected sample of fullbacks above racked up over 90 FPL points in the 2024-25 season.

Table Summary: Based on the obtained data, Aït-Nouri and Daniel Muñoz were the only two wingbacks who garnered double-digit attacking returns for their respective teams.

Despite finishing as the highest-scoring defender with 153 points, Gvardiol had zero assists due to his position switch to center back near the end of the season.

Best Value Pick (Fullbacks):

It was a close call between Aït-Nouri and Marc Cucurella for the best value award. Still, Aït-Nouri is likely to face team rotation under Pep Guardiola, and Cucurella just finished the Club World Cup with little or no rest in the summer.

To this end, our best value pick is Muñoz (£5.5m). The Colombian international was outstanding for the Eagles last season, finishing in the top five FPL ranking for defenders while playing for Crystal Palace, who finished in 12th place in the league. Absolutely remarkable!

New number confirmed ✌️🇨🇴

Daniel Muñoz will wear the number No. 2 shirt for the upcoming season.#CPFC pic.twitter.com/PQQuFSMQTZ

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) July 25, 2025

Keep a lookout for Fulham's Ryan Sessegnon (£5.5m) and Liverpool's Jeremie Frimpong (£6.0m). Sessegnon scored four goals for Fulham in the second half of last season, and Frimpong scored five goals for Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

These assets could be the new attacking duo you need for your fantasy team this season.

Fixture Difficulty Ratings: Data Market Projections

Looking ahead to the upcoming season, let's take a quick glimpse at the first six weeks and suggest which defenders/goalkeepers to target, as well as possible defensive pairings you could rotate with to steer clear of the tough matchups.

25/26 PL First 6 Gameweeks Team Clean Sheets 🧤

Here is a very early first look at team clean sheets over the first 6 gameweeks of 25/26. pic.twitter.com/HFxJIxmtUL

— elevenify (@elevenify) July 16, 2025

According to clean sheet projections for the first six weeks, Arsenal (2.28 xCS), Liverpool (2.06 xCS), and Man City (2.02 xCS) are the top three teams expected to deliver at least two clean sheets in their first six matches.

Based on market estimations, Brighton (1.30 xCS), Leeds (1.23 xCS), Wolves (1.21 xCS), Sunderland (1.06 xCS), and Burnley (1.03 xCS) rank among the five clubs least likely to keep a clean sheet over the first six weeks.

Best FPL Goalkeepers/Defenders Picks

The best players from the best teams to target between Gameweeks 1-6

Arsenal

• David Raya
• William Saliba
• Miles Lewis Skelley

Liverpool

• Alisson Becker
• Virgil van Dijk
• Jeremie Frimpong

Manchester City

• Ederson
• Joško Gvardiol
• Rayan Aït-Nouri

Good luck with your defensive picks this season!

Stick around for more 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League content coming soon. Hit us up on X @RotoBaller. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas!