How to Pick the Best Forwards for GW1

best fpl forwards

1. If you pick a premium forward, make sure he is also a good captaincy option.

  • Usually, if you pick 10m+ player, you want him to be a captaincy contender in gameweeks to come

2. Do not overlook talimans

  • Also, consider forwards who are talismans for their teams – that are heavily involved in almost every goal of their team (for example, Wood for Nottingham last season)

3. Consider probabilities when picking forwards in FPL.

4. Defensive contributions will not affect forwards, expect that the points shift towards the midfield, and defence

  • Forwards will benefit the least from defensive contribution points
  • You will rarely see some forward getting DEFCON points.
  • For example, Bowen had the most defensive contributions last season among forwards – 211 in 34 games, which is 6.21 DEFCONs on average per match. Now, in order to forward to get extra 2 points for defensive contributions, he would need 12 per game – that is a huge gap
  • This is a huge factor when choosing a formation. I think playing on 3 forwards is out of the question (at least for me) for this season, and I am leaning towards playing 4-4-2. If we had 2 playing 4.5m forwards (but we do not), I would play 4-5-1.

5. Forwards are overpriced and have very few routes to points

  • Forwards are my least favorite category in FPL
  • They tends to be overpriced, and they do not have as many routes to points as MIDs or DEFs.
  • There are seasons, when even 5.5m defenders tend to score more points over the season than 7.5m forwards, and with the introduction of defensive contributions, 2025/26 could be that season again.

6. Have realistic expectations from your forwards (and patience)

  • Usually, the top-scoring forwards can get around 180-230 points per season (on some occasions even more, but this is the realistic expectation from premium FPL forwards) – that is 4.7 – 6 points per match
  • Good mid-priced FPL forwards (usually 6.5m – 9m range) can get approximately 140-180 points per season, so expect around 3.7 – 4.74 points per match on average
  • Budget forwards can get around 90 – 120 points per season = 2.4 – 3.15 points per match
  • The points of midfielders and forwards usually came in waves or in clusters – so the run of “form” can be followed with a run of blanks.

Reliable FPL forwards with stable points output in the previous 3 seasons

best long term fpl forwards 2025 26

Read more in our article: Best long-term FPL picks for 2024/25 season

Matej Šuľan

Fantasy Football enthusiast with two top 1k finishes in FPL. Best FPL overall rank: 119th in 2019/20 season. Five top 500 finishes in UCL Fantasy, best overall rank: 23rd in 2018/19 season. Founder of Fantasy Football Reports.

One thought on “How to Pick the Best Forwards for GW1

  1. hello, I just read your articles about the best players in every position, which says buy hold sell, etc
    but now I am confused about something maybe you can help me with it
    if you mention a player to BUY, but at the same time to buy that player I’ll have to sell a player that you say HOLD, so in this situation what should I do?
    i only sell the players that you suggest to SELL only?
    And what about the players you don’t mention at all either buy or sell or hold, that means I shouldn’t have them at all?

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