Wildcard · Gameweek 5

The gameweek 5 draft squad: 3-4-3

A legal 15 for 98.2m, with an XI projecting 65.3 points.

eBy the evmax model · 17 September 2026

The model's draft squad lines up 3-4-3 and costs 98.2m of the 100.0m budget, leaving 1.8m in the bank. The starting XI projects 65.3 points.

8.0HaalandMCIC6.7BarryEVE6.3Calvert-LewinLEE6.9SakaARS6.9Gibbs-WhiteNFO6.3Cole PalmerCHE5.4BarnesNEW5.0HallNEW4.9GuéhiMCI4.8N.WilliamsNFO4.0DonnarummaMCI3-4-3
The model's optimal XI · number = projected points (xPts)

The bench is deliberately cheap — four enablers that make the 15 legal so the spending sits in the XI. No club contributes more than three players, which is the squad rule that most often forces a compromise on the premium picks.

The data

#PlayerxPtsPriceCaptain EVCeilingOwned %
1Haaland MCI8.0215.516.0517.0672.7%
2Saka ARS6.939.513.8616.5912.5%
3Gibbs-White NFO6.908.013.8016.7513.3%
4Barry EVEDifferential6.675.613.3514.966.8%
5Cole Palmer CHE6.359.712.7116.1026.8%
6Calvert-Lewin LEE6.266.012.5214.7823.5%
7Barnes NEWDifferential5.396.010.7813.793.4%
8Hall NEW5.025.210.0411.7414.4%
9Guéhi MCI4.906.09.8111.4518.5%
10N.Williams NFODifferential4.815.09.6111.418.8%
11Donnarumma MCIDifferential4.025.58.048.897.7%
12McConnell LIVDifferentialBench0.774.41.533.530.2%
13Kipré IPSDifferentialBench0.653.91.303.220.9%
14Matthews CRYDifferentialBench0.534.01.073.381.7%
15Charlie Hughes HULDifferentialBench0.003.90.000.000.2%

Bottom line

Build around this 3-4-3: 65.3 projected points for 98.2m.

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How we get these numbers. Market odds (de-vigged) → Dixon-Coles scorelines → 50k Monte-Carlo simulations, scored on the official Fantasy Premier League points table. Ceiling = the average of a player's best 15% of our 50,000 simulations — the score when his best realistic games happen, not a fantasy cap. Every figure here is machine-readable at /api/fpl/gw5/wildcard.json.