Most-owned does not always mean best. Every season the crowd piles into a handful of picks that our AI Rating simply does not back — the players where ownership runs well ahead of the numbers. Fading those picks is one of the cleanest edges in the game. Here are the overrated names for 2026/27, straight from the engine behind our FPL AI Player Rankings, live as of the GW1 deadline.
First, the popular picks that are justified
Not every template pick is a trap, and it is worth saying so up front. Erling Haaland (74.8% owned, rating 89), Bruno Fernandes (48.7%, 90), João Pedro (54.2%, 87) and Dominik Szoboszlai (47.0%, 89) are all heavily owned and highly rated. The model and the crowd agree on these — no argument. The traps are the picks where the two pull apart.
The premium trap: Alexander Isak
Alexander Isak (Liverpool, £9.0) is the standout fade. He is still 11.3% owned on name and reputation, yet the model rates him just 60 and tags him Risky — by far the lowest number of any forward near his price. At £9.0 you are paying a near-premium fee for a rating in the low 60s. Whatever the engine is seeing, the gap between his price tag and his rating is the widest of any big name in the game.
The budget-striker trap: Brian Brobbey
Brian Brobbey (Sunderland, £6.0) is the cheap forward everyone wants — 19.6% owned, one of the most-backed budget strikers in the game. But the model only holds him at 71. That is not a disaster rating, it is simply the point: a £6.0 forward at nearly 20% ownership is priced and picked like a nailed points source, and the engine sees a squad filler, not a haul waiting to happen.
The clean-sheet defender traps
This is where the crowd buys the badge, not the player. Cristhian Mosquera (Arsenal, £5.5) is 16.4% owned on the promise of Arsenal clean sheets, yet the model rates him just 52 with a Sell verdict. Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal, £5.5, 74) and Joško Gvardiol (Man City, £5.5, 73) are both popular picks the engine is only lukewarm on — big-club defenders whose rotation and uncertain attacking returns keep the rating down.
The cheap enablers carry the same warning. Issa Diop (Ipswich, £4.0, rating 53) and Coventry’s Milan van Ewijk (£4.0, rating 18) are both 16–20% owned as £4.0 bench bodies, and both are Sell. They play, but that is all the model credits them with — as our promoted-team breakdown spelled out, there is no points upside there yet.
The goalkeeper traps
Goalkeeper is where managers most often overpay or over-punt. David Raya (Arsenal, £6.0) is the most-owned keeper in the game at 30.9%, but the model rates him a plain 70 — the same as several £5.0 options, so you are paying a premium for certainty, not a higher ceiling. At the other end, cheap keepers like Martin Dúbravka (£4.0, 65) and Antonín Kinský (£4.5, 47) are heavily owned bench punts the engine is cold on. Our goalkeeper guide has the full picture.
The verdict
Traps are not bad players — they are picks the crowd has run ahead of. When ownership sits far above the rating, that is your signal to look twice: fade Isak at £9.0, question the cheap-striker rush on Brobbey, and do not pay up for a defender or keeper the model does not back. The gap between the crowd and the numbers is exactly where you gain rank.
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 and our value picks. 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.