Dream Team Player Value Calculation

Every season, Dream Team managers face the same challenge: finding the players who can deliver the biggest returns while making the most of their budget.

The obvious approach is to select the biggest names, but fantasy football is not always that simple. A player who scores the most points is not necessarily the best value pick if their price has increased significantly, while a cheaper player who consistently delivers can become one of the most important players in your squad.

To identify the players who offer the strongest combination of performance, affordability and potential, I have created a Dream Team Value Figure Calculation.

This figure is a score out of 100 designed to rank players based on six key factors that could influence their fantasy potential throughout the 2026/27 season.

Each individual metric has been normalised to produce a score out of 100 before being combined using the following weightings:

How the Dream Team Value Figure is calculated

Points Score Last Season – 35%

Previous Dream Team points are the strongest indicator of future potential, rewarding players who have already demonstrated their ability to deliver goals, assists, clean sheets and performance points.

Value Score (Points per Million) – 25%

Budget is one of the biggest factors in Dream Team, so this measures how efficiently players converted their price into points last season compared with their new value.

Players who offer a high points return relative to their price score strongly, identifying potential bargains before the new season begins.

Points per 90 Minutes – 15%

This measures how effectively players scored when they were actually on the pitch, helping identify players who may have been limited by injuries, rotation or reduced minutes.

Minutes Played Last Season – 10%

Availability is crucial in fantasy football. Players who regularly start games have more opportunities to accumulate points throughout the season.

Expected Score – 15%

The expected score estimates whether a player is priced fairly based on their potential output.

This is calculated using the assumption that a player should deliver approximately 50 Dream Team points per million of their price, with players outperforming that benchmark receiving a higher score.

Adjusting for European Football

European football can have a significant impact on a player’s Dream Team potential, with additional fixtures providing more opportunities to score points through goals, assists, clean sheets and other performances.

Rather than giving European involvement its own weighting, I’ve adjusted each player’s last-season score to better reflect their European opportunities for 2026/27.

For players who played European football last season but will not have European football this season, I’ve removed the points they earned in European competition from their previous score. This gives a more realistic indication of what they could score with fewer fixtures available.

For players who gain European football this season, I’ve added an average based on the additional points that can be expected from those European fixtures. This gives them a boost to reflect the increased opportunities they will have in 2026/27.

The result is an adjusted last-season score that better reflects the circumstances players face this season, rather than simply using their raw points total from 2025/26.

This adjusted score is then used as part of the wider Dream Team Value Figure to identify the players offering the best overall fantasy potential.

I’ve highlighted the top-ranked players in each position in an exclusive blog for subscribers, and subscribers can also access the full Dream Team Value Figure data set to explore the rankings in more detail.

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