The Haaland, Salah, Palmer & Isak Super Draft

We recently posted our article highlighting the sheer depth of talent at the £4m defender spot. We also recently posted BigManBakar’s Haaland and Salah draft.

This got us thinking, what if the defensive contribution points actually carry some weight? What if plenty of £4m defenders will actually be great value? What if we went light at the back? No but… what if we went reeeeeeeally light at the back?

What if we went for 5, yes 5, £4m defenders…

What sort of team would we be able to build?

Ever wondered about fitting in Salah and Haaland? Tricky right? What about Salah, Haaland and Palmer? Even harder right? Try Salah, Haaland, Palmer AND Isak.

This is the sort of potential this setup can unlock. Now if you’re not an Isak fan then you can always dilute him into improving the other 2 midfield spots and picking a Solanke type instead. But we would hate to be the ones to bet against him going nuclear. Especially if he joins Liverpool.

So without further ado, we present to you, the all £4m defender super draft.

 

Formation:

3-4-3

 

Goalkeepers:

 

 

With FPL towers not getting ahead of the Martin Dubravka transfer, we now have a £4m keeper to start the season! Regardless of the fact he plays for Burnley, he should at minimum be everyone’s back up keeper. Although promoted teams keepers are generally not the best to start off with.

This means we’re fishing in the £4.5m range, where our favourite is Caomhin Kelleher. Now there’s a couple of options available in this range and not many wrong or right answers, but I think Kelleher edges ahead from other options like Petrovic.

 

Defenders:

 

 

The pièce de resistance of the team. This is the engine room that allows the magic happen. We once again recommend reading our £4m defenders article for a more in depth breakdown of the best options at this spot. It is also worth noting that as we get closer to the season and starting 11s become clearer, there may be some moving around here, e.g. Ki-Jana Hoever. But until then, from how teams are set up now, we’ve gone upside chasing.

We kick things off with a pair of staples, Maxime Esteve from Burnley and Gabriel Gudmundsson from Leeds. Both are nailed and both provide solid upside.

3,4 and 5 is where it gets a bit trickier. There are safely nailed options such as Joe Rodon and Jaka Bijol (post suspension). But we have decided to go upside chasing with Ki-Jana Hoever, who is currently Wolves’ starting right back, Reinildo Mandava, who will at least start the season as Sunderland’s left back during their great stretch of fixtures, and Luka Vuskovic, who is on the precipice of the Spurs starting 11.

As mentioned before, there is a plethora of options you can pick here if you prefer safer minutes or upside etc. But as the season draws closer you can always tweak the 5 defenders once we have a bit more information available. The good news is, we should have 5 starters at minimum

 

Midfielders:

 

 

Now the fun begins.

We do not need to breakdown our reasons for selecting Mo Salah and Cole Palmer, but where this draft does get interesting, is what you are still able to do at the other spots.

We start off with FPL budget icon Ismaila Sarr. At £6.5m, Sarr’s xGI per 90 of 0.6 offers fantastic value. Not least considering how good he and indeed Palace looked during the back end of the season. He is also projected far higher returns than anyone else within this price range and thus offers standout value. The likes of Kudus and Rice are also good shouts here.

The next spot belongs to Chelsea star Moises Caicedo. Caicedo is a standout at the £5.5m range and topped the league in defensive contribution points for midfielders last season. Finishing 2^nd in the entire league behind only James Tarkowski. He also chipped in with a goal and 4 assists, and is as nailed as they come. A standout option at this price range.

For us, this decision essentially boiled down to a key decision. Caicedo + Sarr vs Rogers + Baleba. Of which we felt fairly confident with the former.

The final back up spot belongs to Lewis Miley at £4.5m. Which, despite being the cheapest price point, does have a few gems who could see some meaningful minutes.

 

Strikers:  

 

 

Now this is where it gets downright outrageous.

We kick things off with the main man himself Erling Haaland. Absolutely zero explanation required here.

The 2^nd slot belongs to Alexander Isak. Last seasons superstar should have no problem replicating his performances. Especially with a move to Liverpool beckoning. Scary hours indeed.

The final striker slot belongs to Everton’s Beto. A pleasant surprise for those who brought him toward the back end of last season. With Calvert-Lewin gone, the starting spot appears to be Beto’s for the 2025/26 season as he hopes to build off of his breakout season, which saw him grab 5 goals in 4 games in February and 8 goals total in just 16 starts. A potential bargain at £5.5m.

 

Would we actually recommend this approach?

 

 

Short answer – A resounding yes, and this will be the official strategy of the Ingenuity XI.

We will also be putting our money where our mouth is in the official Ingenuity Fantasy League,  where the winner will take home a £200 amazon voucher, so make sure you join up.

Who knows how defensive contributions will affect the league? Why not break the template and take the risk?

One thing is for sure though, teams who end up doing more defending and operating in low blocks, will have significantly higher DC upside than defenders on more elite defences. This could slightly dilute the importance of clean sheets.

£4m Defenders may therefore never have this much value, not least considering how elite both Burnley and Leeds were defensively in the Championship. As a result, the gap between cheap defenders and expensive defenders has never been this close.

Even the promoted teams are coming off of generational defensive seasons, and arguably have a much higher propensity for clean sheets than previously promoted sides as a result.

Combine this with the increased prices for attackers, and there has never been a better year to target the cheapest possible defence.

Let us know what you think and best of luck all.

 

By: George Lean