The Wildcard Team for GW6 Onwards: Our Best £100m Squad for the Next Six Gameweeks
By Geomi George · Published 22 September 2026
The first international break is the classic Wildcard window: three weeks to think, a full fixture run to plan around, and a first Wildcard that expires at the GW19 deadline. This is our fifteen for Gameweeks 6 to 11 with a full £100m: the optimiser's raw squad, the three things we changed about it and why, and where you might still disagree.
Should you Wildcard at all?
Not just because it is the break. The test is simple: count the changes you actually want to make. If it is one or two, a free transfer and patience are cheaper. If it is three or more, or your team is carrying dead money, a Wildcard now buys a clean squad for the busiest stretch of the autumn without paying hits. Typical reasons after Gameweek 5: an Arsenal defence that just conceded three, a Chelsea attack with two flagged players after a 3-0 defeat, Watkins gone to Saudi Arabia, and a bench keeper who never plays. Our chip strategy guide covers the timing in more depth.
The fixture run that shapes the squad
Averaging FPL's difficulty ratings from GW6 to GW11, the kindest runs belong to Arsenal, Man City, Bournemouth, Fulham, Sunderland and Palace, with Coventry on paper the easiest of all. The hardest belong to Leeds, then Liverpool, Man United and Brighton. Two cautions before you build around that. Difficulty ratings describe opponents, not the team itself: Coventry's run is soft but they have scored one goal in five games. And the run is not uniform: City start with Liverpool away in GW6, so a City-heavy squad is buying GW7 onwards, not GW6.
The results so far matter as much. The tightest defences over five rounds are Everton and Leeds (three goals conceded each), then Arsenal, Brentford, Hull and Liverpool on four. The most dangerous attacks are Brighton (16 scored) and City (13). The full grid, with each team's run laid out, is on the fixtures page.
Where the model starts from
Left to itself, the Best XI optimiser spends the six-week window on a 5-3-2 built around Haaland, Groß, Saka and Bruno Fernandes, with Tarkowski, Gvardiol, Bogle, De Cuyper and Guéhi across the back, Brobbey and Calvert-Lewin up front, Tzolakis and Rushworth in goal, and two £4.5m midfielders on the bench. It is a sound squad with three things we would not leave as they are: it carries two City defenders plus Haaland, it spends £11.9m on a midfielder who has blanked three weeks running, and it leaves out João Pedro entirely, because the model only picks from players who are fully fit and he still carries a knee flag from a three-week break away.
Our fifteen: £99.1m, 4-4-2
- Goalkeepers: Tzolakis (HUL, £4.6m) and Rushworth (COV, £4.5m). Hull have conceded four in five and Tzolakis is the top-scoring keeper in the game; Rushworth is the cheapest route into Coventry's soft run as a rotation option.
- Defenders: Tarkowski (EVE, £6.1m), Gvardiol (MCI, £5.7m), Bogle (LEE, £4.6m), De Cuyper (BHA, £4.9m), Hall (NEW, £5.3m). Tarkowski and Bogle are the two highest-scoring defenders in the game on 43 and 42 points, both at clubs that have conceded three goals in five games. Gvardiol is the one City defender we keep. De Cuyper is Brighton's attacking full-back, and Hall replaces Guéhi (see below).
- Midfielders: Groß (BHA, £5.8m), Saka (ARS, £9.5m), Schade (BRE, £6.2m), Cherki (MCI, £7.8m), Belloumi (HUL, £5.1m). Groß is the season's top scorer, on penalties, free kicks and corners, and vice-captain here. Schade has 39 points at £6.2m. Cherki takes the City slot Guéhi vacates. Belloumi, on 31 points, is a bench midfielder who actually plays.
- Forwards: Haaland (MCI, £15.6m), João Pedro (CHE, £7.7m), Brobbey (SUN, £5.7m). Haaland is the captain by a distance every week he plays. João Pedro's case is below. Brobbey's hat-trick against City was not a fluke of the scoreline: his expected goal involvement is already above three, and Sunderland's next four are Brighton, Bournemouth, Leeds and Coventry.
Starting XI: Tzolakis; Tarkowski, Gvardiol, Bogle, De Cuyper; Groß, Saka, Schade, Cherki; Haaland (captain), João Pedro. Bench: Rushworth, Hall, Belloumi, Brobbey. It leaves £0.9m in hand for price rises during the break. Only City is at the three-player maximum (Haaland, Gvardiol, Cherki); Brighton (Groß, De Cuyper) and Hull (Tzolakis, Belloumi) have two each.
The three changes, with the numbers
- One City defender, not two. Over the six weeks the model projects Guéhi at 27.8 points and Hall at 28.2, so the swap costs nothing in expected points, saves £0.7m, and frees a City slot. City's run is kind from GW7, but their opener is Liverpool away and a squad with three City players already has enough riding on Pep's team selection. Hall has Coventry away and Villa at home next, and scored 13 last time out.
- Bruno out, Schade and Cherki in. Bruno projects 37.2 over the window, which is genuinely good, but at £11.9m after three straight blanks he is the most expensive way to get those points. Schade (36.5 projected, £6.2m) gets within a point of him for half the price, and the £5.7m released funds Cherki (32.4 projected) in the freed City slot. Two starters for the price of one.
- João Pedro in for Calvert-Lewin. Treated as fit, João Pedro projects 37.3 over the six weeks, second only to Haaland among forwards and above Isak (33.8), for £7.7m. Calvert-Lewin projects 24.9 and faces Leeds' run, the hardest in the league. A 75% knee flag with three weeks to heal is a bet worth taking, and it is one the Friday press conference will settle before you have to commit. If he is ruled out, Isak for him costs £1.4m: drop Belloumi to a £4.5m bench midfielder and it fits.
Added up by the model's own per-player projections, the raw optimiser's starting XI comes to about 431 points over the six gameweeks with Haaland captained; ours comes to about 446. The difference is almost entirely João Pedro, whom the raw run was not allowed to consider.
The case for Saka at £9.5m
Two points at Brighton and a £9.5m price tag make him the easiest premium to leave out, and many managers will. The numbers say keep him. His expected goal involvement per 90 minutes is 0.91, the highest of any midfielder with 300 minutes played, ahead of Bruno (0.78) and Cherki (0.67). Arsenal's fixture run is among the kindest in the league: Leeds at home, Forest away, Everton at home, then Liverpool, Hull and Newcastle. The model projects him at 37.6 points over the six weeks, second only to Groß among midfielders. If you would rather spread the money, the honest alternative is Tavernier (BOU, £6.1m, 33.8 projected) and £3.4m to spend elsewhere, not a like-for-like premium.
How to use this
Do not copy it blind. Open the squad builder, start from this fifteen and make the swaps that suit the team you are competing against in your mini-league: if everyone around you owns Haaland, Groß and Tarkowski, those are not choices, they are the price of entry, and the edge comes from the other eleven. Then wait. Nothing needs to be locked until Saturday 10 October, and the press conferences on Thursday and Friday that week will settle João Pedro, Palmer and Rice. A Wildcard played on the Monday of a three-week break is a Wildcard played without the information you will have by Friday.
