Haaland and Salah Draft for FPL 2025/26 – Can It Actually Work?

If you’re searching for the best Haaland and Salah draft for FPL 2025/26, this team reveal shows how to make it work without breaking your budget. With both premium assets locked in, we’ve built a balanced squad around them – covering key positions, value picks, and opening fixtures.

To do this we brought in Fantasy Football Scout Hall of Famer @dmpwright, so let’s take a look at what he has come up with.

Haaland and Salah Draft

The budget I’ve allocated to goalkeepers hasn’t changed since my first draft.

Karl Darkow is seemingly no longer an option. So, Antonín Kinský looks to be the £4.0 million ‘keeper that stands the greatest chance of starting. Although, I’d look to upgrade him to another £4.5 million GK, such as Đorđe Petrović, if you’re considering playing your Bench Boost in GW1.

In defence, I have Virgil Van Dijk as my only ‘premium’ defender. He, Murillo and Maxence Lacroix all rank highly in terms of defensive contributions and/or their respective teams’ xGA based on last season’s numbers.

Joachim Andersen (0.6% owned) and Marcos Senesi (0.7% owned) seem to be going under the radar in that regard and also make my team. Fulham and Bournemouth defenders also rotate well in terms of fixtures

Looking to go big at the back to stat the new season? Then check out our big at the back draft!

Salah joins Elliot Anderson, Jhon Arias, Eberechi Eze and Youri Tielemans in midfield.

Eze is only really an option if he stays at Crystal Palace. If so he should continue to be the main penalty taker. Anderson did well for defensive contributions last season. This goes for Tielemans, who may also be on penalties for Aston Villa. If that’s the case, £6.0 million looks to be a bargain.

Arias is my one punt. He played well for Fluminense at the recent Club World Cup, where he was on set pieces and penalties. While he lacks Premier League experience, he’s likely to be reliable for minutes. Because of this he could make a mockery of his initial £5.5 million price tag.

Upfront, Haaland is joins Evanilson and Igor Thiago.

Evanilson was also in my first draft and has a favourable run of fixtures after Liverpool away in GW1. Thiago becomes an option should Yoane Wissa leave Brentford this summer.

Thiago would very likely be the starting striker. So with no Wissa or Bryan Mbeumo, he should also be in contention for penalty duty, having regularly taken them during his time at Club Brugge.

Nevertheless, my third forward slot is one area of the team I’d ideally upgrade. Although, that would require additional sacrifices elsewhere.

There are merits to having both Haaland and Salah in your team. They both have high xMins, should be on penalties (Haaland may be one to watch having given one to Omar Marmoush in last season’s FA Cup Final) and are the standout captaincy options most weeks through GW8.

On the flip side, taking both Haaland and Salah does mean making sacrifices elsewhere. In particular, it likely requires you to go without Cole Palmer. That may be unwise given Chelsea’s opening fixtures. A ‘threemium’ draft that includes all three is possible. But, it requires too many sacrifices for it to be viable in my opinion.

I’d also argue that not captaining a £14+ million player in any given week is a poor use of funds. For that reason – and given the sacrifices needed to make the draft work – I will likely start the season with only one of Haaland or Salah.

However, having both is more viable compared with previous seasons, particularly now that defensive contributions have unlocked a larger pool of players with which to build your squad.