Cheap enablers are how you afford the Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland end of the pitch. But “cheap” only helps if the player actually rates and actually plays — a £4.5 body who rides the bench does nothing for you. Here are the best budget options at £4.5–£5.0 for 2026/27, ranked by the engine behind our FPL AI Player Rankings, live as of the GW1 deadline.
The headline finding is simple: the cheap value is in defence, and there is a lot of it.
The best cheap defenders (£5.0)
Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham, £5.0) is the standout of the whole budget market — an £5.0 defender the model rates a huge 85, with a Buy verdict and still only 8.3% owned. Behind him, Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest, £5.0, 82) is the popular pick at 12.8%, while Chris Richards (Crystal Palace, £5.0, 82) is the differential twin — the same rating, but owned by fewer than 1% of managers. Malick Thiaw (Newcastle, £5.0, 81), Michael Keane (Everton, £5.0, 80) and Diogo Dalot (Man Utd, £5.0, 79) round out a deep group.
The £4.5 bargains
Drop to the very cheapest defender price and the value still holds. Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace, £4.5) is the pick — an 81 rating at rock-bottom money, and a genuine set-and-forget starter. Ferdi Kadıoğlu (Brighton, £4.5, 79) and Matty Cash (Aston Villa, £4.5, 79) are the next best, both attacking full-backs who free up £0.5m for elsewhere.
The cheap goalkeeper
Keeper is the other place to save. Caoimhín Kelleher (Brentford, £5.0, 71) is the best value in goal — the joint-highest keeper rating in the game at a £5.0 price — and Bart Verbruggen (Brighton, £4.5, 68) is the smartest £4.5 option if you want to squeeze out another £0.5m. Our goalkeeper guide has the full breakdown.
Where cheap does not work: midfield and attack
The budget pool thins out fast in the other positions. In midfield, Diego Gómez (Brighton, £5.0, 75) is the pick of a modest bunch — most £5.0 midfielders sit far lower, so this is not the place to save. And up front there is simply nothing this cheap: the cheapest forwards start at £5.5 and the model rates them at the floor, so do not try to skimp on your strikers. Our traps piece covers the cheap forwards the crowd chases but the engine fades.
The verdict
Save in defence, take one £5.0 keeper, and put the money into your midfield and attack. The cheap-defender pool is deep enough — Van Hecke and Mitchell at the top — to fund two or three premiums without weakening your back line. That is the whole point of an enabler: a cheap player who still earns his place.
See the whole board in our FPL AI Player Rankings, and read the rest of this series: best goalkeepers, best defenders, best midfielders, best forwards, captain picks, our value picks and the traps to avoid. New to the number? Start with how our AI Rating works and how to use it to build your team.
Our ratings are generated by an AI model from official FPL data and refreshed every gameweek. Fantasy PL Edge is an independent site and is not affiliated with the Premier League or the official Fantasy Premier League game.