After a week of voting from the Fantasy Football Scout community, we’re now able to reveal our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Team of the Season for 2023/24.
Throughout our goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward articles, a total of over 9,700 votes were cast. Thank you for such an excellent response.
Once seven players were locked in (one goalkeeper, three defenders, two midfielders and one forward; the bare minimum for each position in FPL), our additional run-off poll decided the other four places. A further 3,075 votes were made, totalling 12,813 overall.
So here is our final XI.
TEAM OF THE SEASON
GOALKEEPER
Backed by many for Everton’s attractive early fixture run, home losses to Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Luton Town meant it took until Gameweek 8 for Jordan Pickford to collect his first clean sheet.
It was a poor start for the Toffees and, considering they later went 13 matches without a win, it’s initially a surprise to see Pickford finish ahead of David Raya as the top-scoring goalkeeper. But Sean Dyche’s streaky side picked up four consecutive clean sheets between Gameweeks 14 and 17, later securing a further five from seven outings. In the end, only Arsenal had more successful shut-outs than their 13.
Ultimately, what saw him edge out Raya was a higher number of saves (121 v 47) and bonus points (22 v 6). Ranked as the best value stopper (31.9 points per million), Pickford deserves his inclusion in this line-up.
DEFENDERS
Instead, we’ll cover Arsenal’s miserly backline with defenders. A trio of them, in fact, as our XI won’t be adhering to the ‘three players per team’ restriction.
Ben White, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes had a stranglehold on this position’s top-scorer charts, as the Gunners’ late run of 10 clean sheets from a possible 15 allowed them to finish far ahead of the rest with a final tally of 18.
Indeed, they conceded fewer goals (29), shots on target (83) and big chances (40) than everyone else.
Each brought an individual perk to owners. White’s 182 points were the most, boosted by four goals that only Cristian Romero could better, plus five assists.
Meanwhile, Saliba was one of only two outfielders to play every single minute of the season.
This certainly wasn’t the case for Gabriel, as the 2022/23 ever-present was shockingly benched for Arsenal’s opening three matches. Price drops soon took the Brazilian down to £4.7m but, once back in favour, he became a firm part of the FPL template.
He joins White on four goals, also being the number two defender for box shots (28) and expected goals (4.24).
MIDFIELDERS
Now onto the minimum two midfielders. It was a highly competitive area of FPL, where eight of the highest-scoring 11 individuals belonged. Five topped the 200-point mark as, for a while, 3-5-2 was the leading formation rather than 3-4-3.
Cole Palmer began September as a £4.9m Manchester City prospect but concluded this campaign as the game’s top-scorer with 244 points.
The sole player to bag 10 double-digit hauls, Chelsea’s star attacker gathered the second-most goals (22) and attacking returns (35). Not bad for someone who didn’t start a league match until Gameweek 7.
Things particularly intensified between Gameweeks 28 and 33, a five-match period where Palmer scored 10 goals and 79 points thanks to a hat-trick against Manchester United and four times versus Everton.
Obviously, he’s the first name on this team sheet, joined by fellow Man City academy graduate Phil Foden.
The Premier League Player of the Season and Football Writers Footballer of the Year has the next-best points total (230), successfully accumulating 33 starts compared to the previous season’s 22.
This maestro significantly contributed to his side’s fourth consecutive league title, grabbing two hat-tricks and three braces during the latter months. By the end, Foden was in over 4.7 million squads.
FORWARDS
Up front, it’s a fairly comfortable lead for Ollie Watkins. The overall top points scorer until Gameweek 34, he remained the best forward with 228 of them despite a quiet end to proceedings.
A league-high 18 assists and 37 attacking returns were recorded, helped by huge hauls against Brighton and Hove Albion (Gameweek 7) and Sheffield United (Gameweek 23). Those matches ended with five and four returns respectively.
His early consistency fired Aston Villa into the Champions League spots, something which they never relinquished, blanking just three times in his first 14 outings. Then came back-to-back 1-0 home wins over Man City and Arsenal.
As well as this, Watkins’ 29 bonus points rank joint-top amongst forwards alongside Erling Haaland.
THE RUN-OFF VOTE
Speaking of which, the Norwegian kept his Golden Boot by netting 27 times. He was also the best for shots (121), big chances (55), expected goals (29.32) and expected goal involvement (31.54) but this campaign saw more of a mixed relationship with FPL managers.
Erling Haaland was handed a joint-record starting price of £14.0m and missed five winter games via injury. Then came a sprinkling of knocks, rests and cameos in latter weeks.
Yet our run-off vote prefers to reward his good contributions, like the Gameweek 4 hat-trick at home to Fulham and Gameweek 36’s four goals versus Wolves.
Elsewhere, Bukayo Saka is another Arsenal representative because of his best-ever FPL season. He was number one for box touches (290) and created the fourth-most chances (91).
12 assists and 16 goals ensured he finished on more points than Haaland, including a fruitful spell of seven strikes and four double-digit hauls between Gameweeks 22 and 25.
Our final two picks belong to Newcastle United attackers. Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak helped the Magpies bag 19 more goals than their famous ‘Entertainers’ side of 1995/96, although they’ll be disappointed that seventh place didn’t secure European football.
Gordon scored past all of the supposed ‘big six’ and won six penalties, meaning he ranked second for assists (16). Nobody else delivered more home returns (22) but just five occurred on the road.
Isak’s 21 goals came at a brilliant rate – once every 108 minutes. And of all those with 15+ strikes, the Swedish international had the least game time, making it impressive that he concluded with the second-most big chances (40).
A late burst of essentialness means he gets the nod over Dominic Solanke and a fifth midfielder.
TEAM OF THE SEASON LINE-UP
STAY TUNED FOR MORE EURO 2024 COVERAGE!
A reminder that we’ll be covering the European Championship in great detail this summer.
Part of that coverage will be the usual team-by-team guides on all competing 24 nations in Euro 2024.
But we’ll also have team reveals, strategy guides and much more. The official UEFA Fantasy game will be the main game we’re covering, which you read about below:
There’ll also be £500+ worth of prizes if you join our mini-league! Click the below to sign up:
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