Sponsored by FanTeam
We take a look at the stand-out goalkeeper picks in FanTeam’s £1m season-long Premier League Fantasy game.
FanTeam is essentially paid-entry FPL with huge cash prizes, with a guaranteed prize pool of £1m and £200,000 going to the winner.
There is no catch here, only a €20 entry fee – a payment you’ll make up just by finishing in the top 5,000.
To learn more about the rules of the game, click here.
HOW GOALKEEPERS SCORE POINTS
Before we delve into the player pool, here’s how goalkeepers can accrue – and lose – points in FanTeam and how the scoring system differs from FPL:
| FanTeam | FPL | |
| Playing up to 60 mins | +1 | +1 |
| Playing over 60 mins | +2 | +2 |
| Clean sheets | +4 | +4 |
| Penalty save | +5 | +5 |
| Every two goals conceded | -1 | -1 |
| Saves | +0.5 per save | +1 every three saves |
| Bonus | +0.3/-0.3 “impact points” if a team is winning/losing when the player is on the pitch | +1/2/3 based on Bonus Points System |
There are, of course, other ways to gain and lose points such as yellow cards, sendings off, own-goals, goals scored and penalties conceded (we’ll refer you to our ‘How To…’ for more details) but the above table is a good indicator of the main sources of points.
GOALKEEPERS: FPL V FANTEAM
Saves are even more important in FanTeam as every stop is rewarded, rather than multiples of three in FPL.
Take Emiliano Martinez (£5.5m), the highest-scoring goalkeeper in both FanTeam and FPL, as an example: the Villa custodian’s 142 stops were only worth 36 save points in FPL but a massive 71 in FanTeam.
Being on a winning (or at least drawing) side was also key – although the big change for 2021/22 is that players will only get +0.3/-0.3 ‘impact points’, rather +1.0/-1.0 as before.
Here is a selection of the highest-scoring goalkeepers from FanTeam last season and their respective points in FPL:
| Player | 2020/21 FanTeam Points | 2020/21 FPL Points | 2021/22 FanTeam Price |
| Ederson | 196.5 | 160 | £6.0m |
| Martinez | 195 | 186 | £5.5m |
| Lloris | 173 | 149 | £5.5m |
| Meslier | 168 | 154 | £5.0m |
| Alisson | 162.5 | 140 | £6.0m |
| Mendy | 158 | 140 | £6.0m |
| Fabianski | 155 | 133 | £5.0m |
| Schmeichel | 154 | 128 | £5.0m |
| Leno | 153 | 131 | £5.0m |
What’s striking looking at the goalkeepers in FanTeam is that pretty much all of them outdid their achievements in FPL last season.
The importance of impact points was noticeable when it came to the goalkeepers playing for the bigger clubs. Ederson (£6.0m), for example, made a net profit of 19 points thanks to Manchester City’s title-winning form.
Next season, though, that’ll be less of a factor: Ederson would only accrue 5.7 impact points if he repeats the exact same win/lose ratio in 2021/22.
So premium goalkeepers for the top-performing teams are still better off in FanTeam – but a little less dominant than they were last year.
PLAYERS TO CONSIDER
A lot of the goalkeeper pricing is identical in FanTeam and FPL.
All three of the £6.0m-rated shotstoppers are the same, as is the trio of £5.5m options.
Even among the cheaper custodians, there is little difference – although Wolverhampton Wanderers new-boy Jose Sa (£4.5m) is half a million cheaper than he is in FPL.
Given the strong suggestion that Bruno Lage will bring a more attacking brand of football to Molineux, perhaps that’s more of a sensible figure.
£5.0m and Above
While many of us stick to the cheaper end of the scale in FPL, it’s worth considering a more expensive purchase between the posts in FanTeam.
It’s not just the save and ‘impact’ points but the lack of a Bonus Points System, which the premium goalkeepers tend not to fare well on in FPL because of the free-scoring, chance-creating players in front of them.
Edouard Mendy (£6.0m), for example, boasted Chelsea’s best points-per-match average in FanTeam last season.
| FanTeam points per match in 2020/21 | FPL points per match in 2020/21 | |
| Mendy | 5.1 | 4.5 |
| Chilwell | 4.9 | 5.1 |
| Rudiger | 4.9 | 4.9 |
And Alisson (£6.0m) outscored Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) by over 20 points in FanTeam, which represented a huge swing from the gap in FPL:
| FanTeam points in 2020/21 | FPL points in 2020/21 | |
| Alisson | 162.5 | 140 |
| Robertson | 150 | 161 |
| Alexander-Arnold | 142 | 160 |
Chelsea and Manchester City both had the two best defences in the division last season but languish at the wrong end of the spectrum on the Season Ticker in the opening months of 2021/22.
Martinez has a good chance to get off to another flyer with Aston Villa’s three matches and is an obvious selection for those looking at playing their Wildcard early, as he could be jettisoned thereafter – although his ability to rack up the saves means that hauls could still follow even when the schedule gets worse in Gameweek 4.
Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) is perhaps worthy of consideration for those with a longer-term plan: Everton sit top of our Season Ticker from Gameweeks 1-10, meeting just one of the ‘big six’ in that time.
Rafael Benitez’s reputation as a strong starter and savvy organiser is also in Pickford’s favour.
The save-accumulating Illan Meslier (£5.0m) is also worth a look (particularly from Gameweek 5), with Leeds making defensive strides in the second half of 2020/21 and now with a full complement of centre-halves to choose from – something that wasn’t the case for much of last season.
£4.0m-£4.5m Options
There doesn’t seem to be any £4.0m goalkeepers in the running for regular first-team football, although Mark Gillespie (£4.0m) and the unpriced Freddie Woodman may have to deputise in Gameweek 1 with Newcastle’s first two options between the sticks serious doubts.
Robert Sánchez (£4.5m) could provide excellent value and stands out amongst the best budget goalkeeper options.
From Gameweek 13 onwards, only Ederson and Mendy accumulated more clean sheets than the Albion man.
It’s also worth noting that Brighton play only two of last season’s top nine teams in the first eight Gameweeks.
Daniel Bachmann (£4.5m) and Watford also sit high on our Season Ticker early on and the Hornets return to the Premier League on the back of a series of strong defensive displays.
They conceded the fewest goals (30) in the Championship last term, which included 23 clean sheets.
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