FPL best goalkeeper picks: Budget, differential and premium tips for Gameweek 9

Who should you be your pick in goal this week? We’ve got all the info you need ahead of Gameweek 9. 

One of the underrated assets of a successful fantasy football team is a safe pair of hands behind your defence churning out consistent points hauls.

Using our brand new rating system, the Squawka Score, we look at the best goalkeeping options for Gameweek 9. Our tool judges a player’s output per 90 minutes for a group of selected stats and spits out a percentage based on their potential to score FPL points.

What is the Squawka Score? You can learn more about how we devised our fantasy football ranking system here. 

If you think you can beat our FPL boffins, you can join the Squawka Challenge League here.

Best FPL goalkeepers
Top goalkeeper pick for Gameweek 9
Best cheap goalkeepers for Gameweek 9
Best goalkeepers with easy fixtures

 Vicario tops our goalkeeper charts

Here are the top 10 Premier League goalkeepers based on their FPL Squawka Score from the 2023 calendar year.

Is now the time to switch to Martinez?

As part of our FPL coverage, we are going to pick out a Differential Duel ahead of every Gameweek.

The idea is to pit two comparable assets against each other — one who isn’t necessarily being selected by most FPL managers, and one who is proving popular.

We will then give you the stats and it is your call as to who gets the final nod.

This week, we look for an alternative to Man City goalkeeper, Ederson (19.4%).

The Brazilian stopper has picked up 27 points so far this season, making him the 11th highest scoring keeper in FPL. His returns haven’t been great, especially in the last two game weeks, where he’s accumulated just two points.

Looking for an alternative might be a wise move but who should you turn to?

We believe the answer lies with Emiliano Martinez (6.8%) of Aston Villa. The Argentinian has grabbed 23 points this season but Aston Villa now have four ‘easy’ fixtures in a row (as determined by the Fixture Difficulty Rating).

As a small bonus, you’d also gain 0.7m by making the switch and could gain a key differential goalkeeper in the process.

Here is a closer look at how their 2023/24 stats compare on our Comparison Matrix. 

Johnstone the best cheap option available

It is fair to say that goalkeepers at the bottom end of the price scale might not start you many games, but that does not mean they should be completely ruled out when it comes to FPL.

For genuine starters, you might want to focus on our 4.5 picks, although Sam Johnstone looks like keeping the gloves for Crystal Palace as things stand. The below selections have been produced after running this year’s numbers through our Squawka Score super computer ahead of Gameweek 9.

The best 4.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Matt Turner, Nottingham Forest (51%)
2. Robin Olsen, Aston Villa (47%)
3. Fraser Forster, Spurs (46%)

The best 4.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

1. Sam Johnstone, Crystal Palace (59%)
2. Alphonse Areola, West Ham (54%)
3. Mark Flekken, Brentford (46%)

 Raya to shut out the Cherries

Giving you further food for thought, we have crunched the numbers using both the FPL’s official Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) and our Squawka Score tool to determine the best player to pick from each club facing an ‘easy’ fixture this weekend.

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