What a budget enabler does
A budget enabler is a cheap player who plays. His job is not to win you gameweeks but to free money for the players who do: every pound saved in a defensive slot or on the bench is a pound towards a premium forward or midfielder. The two parts of the definition matter equally. A cheap player who does not start is not an enabler; he is a gap in your team.
The board below lists the cheap players at each position who are available and playing a regular starter's minutes, ranked by points.
The live enabler board
Four per position, at or under the price ceiling for each, and only players who are available and playing most of their club's minutes. Ownership is alongside, so you can tell the enablers the rest of the game already uses from the ones it has missed.
| Player | Pos | Club | Price | Owned | Pts | Form | Next 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leno | GK | FUL | £4.5m | 4.5% | 34 | 5.3 | AVL (A)NEW (H)MCI (A) |
| Kinsky | GK | TOT | £4.4m | 15.0% | 32 | 4.7 | CRY (H)LEE (A)IPS (H) |
| Petrović | GK | BOU | £4.5m | 2.9% | 22 | 4.3 | LEE (H)IPS (A)NFO (H) |
| Rushworth | GK | COV | £4.5m | 0.9% | 22 | 2.0 | SUN (H)EVE (A)CRY (H) |
| Justin | DEF | LEE | £4.5m | 2.3% | 40 | 4.7 | BOU (A)TOT (H)CHE (A) |
| Egan | DEF | HUL | £4.1m | 7.2% | 35 | 3.0 | IPS (H)ARS (A)BHA (H) |
| Castagne | DEF | FUL | £4.5m | 1.2% | 35 | 5.0 | AVL (A)NEW (H)MCI (A) |
| Ajayi | DEF | HUL | £4.2m | 12.9% | 34 | 2.3 | IPS (H)ARS (A)BHA (H) |
| Belloumi | MID | HUL | £5.2m | 9.7% | 43 | 4.0 | IPS (H)ARS (A)BHA (H) |
| Gomez | MID | BHA | £5.0m | 4.0% | 39 | 5.0 | MCI (A)BRE (H)HUL (A) |
| Lewis-Potter | MID | BRE | £5.5m | 2.0% | 35 | 4.3 | NFO (H)BHA (A)EVE (H) |
| McGinn | MID | AVL | £5.4m | 3.2% | 34 | 5.7 | FUL (H)MUN (A)SUN (H) |
| Kostoulas | FWD | BHA | £5.8m | 10.2% | 43 | 5.0 | MCI (A)BRE (H)HUL (A) |
| Emersonn | FWD | IPS | £5.5m | 3.4% | 31 | 1.7 | HUL (A)BOU (H)TOT (A) |
| Barry | FWD | EVE | £5.6m | 7.3% | 30 | 3.3 | NEW (A)COV (H)BRE (A) |
| Brobbey | FWD | SUN | £5.7m | 5.1% | 26 | 0.7 | COV (A)CHE (H)AVL (A) |
At or under £4.5m for goalkeepers and defenders, £5.5m for midfielders and £6.0m for forwards; available, and playing a regular starter’s minutes. Four per position, ranked by points. Fixtures are coloured by FPL’s own difficulty rating, green easiest to red hardest.
The minutes test
Minutes are the whole case for a cheap player. Check that he has started most of his club's matches, that nobody has arrived to take his place, and that his club is not about to rotate for a cup or European tie. A cheap defender who starts every week will outscore a slightly better one who starts half of them.
The board applies this test for you, but it only sees the past. Before you buy, read the latest team news for anything that changes the picture.
Enablers by position
Goalkeeper: one starting keeper at a low price, with the cheapest possible second keeper on the bench, is usually the most efficient spend in the squad. Defence: cheap defenders from sides that keep clean sheets, or attacking full-backs who add assists, are the best value. Midfield: the fifth midfielder is often a cheap starter who can come off the bench; set pieces lift his floor. Forward: the third forward is frequently the cheapest starting striker in the game, and he only needs to play.
Where the £100m goes
The most common winning shape spends most of the budget on a few premium attackers and fills defence and the bench with enablers. The best FPL team guide builds a full legal squad from live prices each week and shows its budget split, which is the clearest picture of how the money divides in practice.