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It is always a tricky task to choose your FPL goalkeepers. To find yourself a goalkeeper we need to consider different factors than the ones we do while choosing other positions.
To decipher how we might do this, first, we'll look at the top 5 goalkeepers last year and how different they were in the way they got their points.
We will also look at various goalkeeper strategies that you might want to implement while looking at these goalkeepers.
Top 5 GKs 2018/19
#1 Alisson Becker - £6 million
Liverpool signed Alisson Becker from Roma and he had a stellar season for the Merseyside club. Alisson played every minute of the Premier League season and kept 21 clean sheets whilst only conceding 22 goals all season, scoring an astonishing 176 points in FPL.
He was crucial for his team's astonishing season and will be important again if Liverpool are to reach last season's heights again this season. Alisson is quite literally the definition of premium and even though there is little doubt he will be good again this season, he will cost £6 million.
Whether it is worth it shelling that much on him is the big question, for that, we also need to consider the other £6 million option who we'll be discussing now.
#2 Ederson - £6 million
The Man City shot-stopper was not so far behind Alisson, keeping 20 clean sheets and conceding only 23 goals all season, scoring 169 points. Interestingly, he also got an assist which we know he's capable of with his tremendous distribution from the back.
Ederson's amazing attributes other than shot-stopping are crucial for his team, sometimes acting as a fifth defender.
The way the champions go about their business, he doesn't have to make many saves, so most of his points will always be from clean sheets.
Rest assured, he's a confident keeper who will most likely provide consistent returns throughout the season.
Premium Goalkeeper Strategy
If you decide to get a premium goalkeeper in, what should be your strategy? First of all, if you're spending £6 million on a goalkeeper, only do it if you're going to play him every single week.
No rotation goalkeeper should be needed and if you do not trust the goalkeeper enough, then he isn't worth it. So, sign a £4 million bench fodder, spending £10 million in total on your goalkeeper.
In case of any injuries, the premium goalkeeper is easily downgradable, so this strategy shouldn't cause any problems throughout the season, and you wouldn't need to worry about the goalkeeping position.
Secondly, who to go for out of the two Brazilians? Both offer similar kind of value and on the face of it, so there's not much to separate them. However, what could be the deciding factor is the team they're playing for. We all want Liverpool and Man City defenders - Liverpool defenders are more or less nailed on and offer tremendous attacking threat. City's defence is always subject to rotation as Pep Guardiola wants to keep all his players fresh.
So, it might be better to use your City slot on Ederson, rather than wasting one on Alisson and using it on one of their 3 premium defenders.
#3 Jordan Pickford - £5.5 million
At number three is Everton's Jordan Pickford, and this is where it gets really interesting. Pickford conceded 46 goals in the Premier League last year, twice what Ederson conceded and kept 6 less clean sheets. Remarkably, he scored 161 points, only 8 less than Ederson. So where did he make up this difference?
First of all, Everton are much more likely to concede a bunch of goals in a game compared to City, as the champions rarely conceded more than 2 goals, if at all they did. Once a goal is conceded, every goal conceded now is much less costly. So, a lot of goals Pickford conceded weren't as costly as Ederson's were.
Secondly, Pickford made 94 saves in the league, whilst Ederson only made 58. This meant Pickford was much more likely to get save points. He also got 13 bonus points, which is 7 more than Ederson, even though his BPS score of 706 isn't much different to Ederson's 700. This is because in a team like City, who score a lot of goals, every player's passing record is fantastic and every game normally has 2-3 standout performers. Hence, it's difficult for a goalkeeper to do enough to get bonuses, especially if he doesn't have many saves to make.
However, Pickford could stand out better in an Everton game with lots of saves in a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 win. which are rare occurrences for City. He also saved three penalties while Ederson didn't save a single one all season.
This also means Pickford's points are much more inconsistent and come in bunches rather than on a consistent basis, which is why it's difficult to trust him in a big game or when Everton are going through a difficult patch.
#4 Hugo Lloris - £5.5 million
Another goalkeeper of a similar type is World Cup winning captain Hugo Lloris. He scored just 145 points but he did that in 33 games. On an average of 38 games all season, he would have around 166 points, almost as many as Ederson.
Again, keeping only 12 clean sheets, he made 100 saves in the league last season and just like Pickford, stood out for bonuses more than Ederson, scoring ten bonus points. He also comes with the trust of a top four side, and Spurs are also known to be a well set up defensive unit.
Lloris could be a good investment at £5.5 million and provide a similar return to the £6 million goalkeepers, with Spurs strengthening by signing defensive midfielder Tanguy Ndombele. There's a good chance Lloris becomes a better option just because of the £0.5 million we save on him.
What's the strategy?
David de Gea in the 2017/18 season was a revelation, that's because he provided the best of both worlds. He kept 18 clean sheets and made 115 saves, even though the current £5.5 million options may not be able to provide that much, they certainly provide enough for us to consider them.
Hugo Lloris wins this round for me as he comes with the trust of a top four defence and the better potential for clean sheets and saving points than Pickford on a more consistent basis. Pickford's returns may be more inconsistent and up and down all season, while we can expect Lloris to be much more predictable.
This means with Lloris we can easily have a £4 million bench fodder as the second keeper. I would be much less comfortable doing that with Pickford, thus, saving that crucial £0.5 million.
This also means that if Man Utd can step up David de Gea could again be a good option at 5.5 million, but that seems difficult to imagine currently.
#5 Lukasz Fabianski - £5.0 million
At number 5 is West Ham United's Lukasz Fabianski, scoring 143 points and costing just £4.5 million, providing more than good value.
Here's the catch, West Ham only kept seven clean sheets all season, and yet Fabianski scored so many points. One of the main reasons were that he made an astonishing 148 saves in the league, about two and a half times more than Ederson and almost four saves per game on average.
He is what we call a save monster and through those saves, he gained 15 bonus points. This way, he was able to provide satisfactory returns in many of the games where he didn't end up keeping the clean sheet and when he did he provided massive hauls.
He is available for £0.5 million more this season, so it might be difficult to justify his price tag in our team when he plays for a side that doesn't keep that many clean sheets. But this provides the roadmap for the kind of cheaper goalkeeper that we need to identify.
Goalkeeper Rotation Strategy
When you decide to go for cheaper goalkeepers, there are a couple of strategies that you might go for. Cheaper goalkeepers rarely provide enough confidence and a lot of times we want a second playing keeper to rotate with. As of yet, there's not a single £4 million playing goalkeeper in the game that we know of like there was in previous seasons. So, if you're going to follow this strategy, you're going to have to look at fixtures and find goalkeepers whose fixtures rotate well. Let's look at the following graphic to understand it better:
Looking at it we can see Matt Ryan offers good fixtures at the start if you want to go that route. Burnley offer good fixtures post GW4, so a Burnley or Brighton goalkeeper to start with is a good strategy.
Another strategy that early wildcarders use is buying the first and second choice goalkeeper from the same team, with the second choice usually being £4 million. Say we buy Ryan and Button, spending just £8.5 million on the keepers, and once we have better information four weeks into the season, wildcarding and changing it up entirely.
This strategy could work very well, especially at the start of the season, if you invest the money elsewhere well. Later on though, this could reduce flexibility, as any changes in goalkeeping strategy require more than one transfer. However, this is one I'd recommend that you consider at the start of the season.
That's all from my side, I hope you figure out your best strategy while picking your men between the sticks. Best of luck and happy FPLing.
So, which strategy will you go for? Do mention in the comments.
