Manchester United: Can You Find FPL Points in the Chaos?

"We have top players and, sorry if I'm arrogant, we have a top manager" - thought every FPL manager who'd captained Bruno Fernandes after he scored hattrick against Ipswich. He got 23 points, 46 with the armband, and 69 for anyone brave enough to triple-captain him.

Then the hangover came. Looks like 23 points are 23 of his 32 all season. In his other five games, Fernandes has blanked every time.

United is playing poor, there is speculation about who is going to replace Carrick, but there might be still some good options there even if Fernandes doesn't look like a good option now.

United numbers this season

United have more of the ball than last season and take more shots, but worse ones.

Source: StatMuse's 2025/26 and 2026/27 season totals. This compares a full season with six matches, without adjusting for opponents. Lower xG per shot means a lower average chance quality.

The result: six points, nine goals and no clean sheets from six league games. Take out the Ipswich win and they've scored four goals in five.

That matters for who you pick. This isn't an attack you can trust to carry an expensive player every week, and it's not a defence to buy into.

United's fixtures

The next six look kind for attackers:

Our model expects United to score around two goals in each home game and about 1.6 away. It doesn't give them better than a one-in-three chance of a clean sheet in any of them, which is another reason to look at United's attack, not their defence.

United's value for money

Fernandes costs £4m more than Mbeumo or Cunha and has scored fewer points per game than either of them.

Mbeumo: top pick?

Mbeumo is £4m cheaper than Fernandes, and he's just as involved in United's attack: his expected goal involvements are slightly higher than the captain's. He's also played every minute of every league game, so there's no rotation risk eating into his points.

What you may like most is that his returns aren't all from Ipswich. He's scored against Everton and Tottenham too, and outside that one game he has 22 points to Fernandes's nine. He's getting the chances himself, not waiting for teammates to finish his passes.

The risk is United themselves. Their attack is patchy, so I wouldn't make him a captain. But as a £7.9m midfielder with nailed minutes, good atacking output and a good run of fixtures, he's the United player I'd buy first. Even if whole team plays poor he may still score something.

Verdict: buy.

Mainoo: the budget option, once he's fit

Mainoo is United's best value per million, and it's not from goals. He's hit the DEFCON threshold in all five of his starts, which is ten points from defensive work alone. That's a steady floor for £5.5m, and almost nobody owns him (1.5%).

The problem: FPL has him flagged with an injury, at 75% to play. I'd keep him on the watchlist until the news is clear rather than spend a transfer on a doubt.

Verdict: watch, maybe buy once he's fit.

Cunha: good returns, but I'd rather have Mbeumo

Cunha is United's top scorer in FPL, with 36 points from six starts. If you own him, there's no reason to sell.

But is he better compared to Mbeumo? Cunha's points have come from one goal and three assists, and he's been involved in far fewer chances than Mbeumo at the same price. That kind of return is harder to keep up.

Verdict: hold if you own him; Mbeumo first if you're buying.

Fernandes: looks like a liability not asset

The appeal is obvious. Fernandes plays every minute, takes the penalties and the set pieces, and he's owned by about a third of managers. Missing a haul from him hurts.

But that Ipswich game is doing a lot of work. It gave him all three of his goals and his only assist; the rest of his season adds up to nine points. He's also creating less than last season, shooting more instead, so it's not just a case of teammates missing his chances.

At £11.9m, that's not enough. I'd want to see him creating chances over a few games in a row before paying £4m more than Mbeumo for him. If you already own him, the question is what that £4m would buy elsewhere in your team: try the swap in the FPL planner and see.

Numbers are through Gameweek 6, with prices and injury news as of 15 October. Points per £m is season points divided by current price, as in our Best Value table: it measures returns so far, not a prediction. United's team averages use StatMuse for 2025/26 and 2026/27; expected goal involvements and fixture expectations come from our own data.