Today's article is a special one, we'll be looking at the all-time FPL dream team, a squad built from the greatest FPL performances in Premier League history. The team spans from as early as the 2002/03 season, to as recently as the 2024/25 season. How many names can you guess?
Brad Friedel
Let's jump straight in, and in goal it's Brad Friedel 🧤 from the 02/03 season, where he got 187 points with Blackburn Rovers. He made 37 appearances, and kept 15 clean sheets. That season Blackburn got 16 wins, 12 draws, and just 9 losses. He actually scored vs Charlton the following season but 02/03 was the record-setter.
Remarkably he remains in the all-time dream team despite appearing in the very first ever edition of Fantasy Premier League. Bonus points worked very differently back then, it wasn't automated by an algorithm like today's bonus system, it was decided by a person who judged the game for who had the best performance. Additionally there was no 2 or 1 points bonus, just 3.
Friedel also holds the record for consecutive Premier League games played, with an unbelievable 310 games in a row, spanning from 2004 to 2012 across 3 clubs and 8 years.
Honourable mention to Emi Martinez who was just 1 point off tying Friedel's score in the 2020/21 campaign.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Next up is Trent Alexander-Arnold who got 210 points in the 2019/20 season. He smashed the record for assists by a defender that season, with 15, and also picked up 4 goals, 14 clean sheets and 24 bonus along the way. Trent actually knocked Joleon Lescott out of the dream team with this score, with Lescott having scored 196 points back in the 07/08 season. Kieran Trippier later scored 198 points in 2022/23 but not enough to earn himself a spot in the team.
Virgil van Dijk + Andy Robertson
The next two are Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson who remarkably both joined the dream team from their 2018/19 season, the year before Trent joined them. They scored 208 and 213 points respectively.
With both Robertson and Trent making the team it's a clear example of how football has evolved, with fullbacks being much more heavily involved in modern football and attacking much more than they used to.
In the 2024/25 season FPL introduced changes to the Bonus Points system, whereby conceding goals is punished more, and attackers are more heavily favoured with shots on targets and fouls won rewarding extra BPS. Will we ever see the Liverpool trio's scores beaten?
Mohamed Salah
One name we all expected to see is Salah 👑, who set the all-time record for FPL points is his magnificent 17/18 campaign, where he finished on 303 points from 32 goals, 12 assists, 15 clean sheets, 26 bonus. It was his first season with Liverpool and a truly extraordinary performance. He's the only player to ever break 300 points. 7 years later, under Slot in the first post-Klopp season he exceeded all expectations by obliterating the points record he'd set himself once upon a time, 29 goals, 18 assists, 55 bonus points, 344 points! Will we ever see that record beaten?
Frank Lampard
Next up is Frank Lampard, who finished on 284 points in the 09/10 season. He scored an impressive 22 goals from midfield, and picked up 14 assists en route to winning the league with Chelsea. Although both Salah and Lampard are considered midfielders on FPL, Lampard can be considered a true midfielder in footballing terms having played in a central attacking mid in all games.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is still a fixture in the team, from his penultimate 07/08 season with Man United. He got 284 points from a staggering 31 goals, and 6 assists, at a rate of 0.92 goals per game. That season Ronaldo did it all, scoring:
- 4 free kicks 🎯
- 4 penalties 🥅
- 5 headers ⚽
- 5 with his weak foot 👟
He missed 3 games following a red card, and could have certainly tied or beaten Salah's record otherwise. That season he only lost 3 games as Man United went on to win the league.
Alexis Sanchez
Alexis Sanchez completes the midfield from his 16/17 season with Arsenal, where he got 264 points. He scored 24 goals, and 10 assists and only 2 of his goals were penalties too. Sanchez never hit the same heights again after that season, scoring just 7 goals the following season before moving to Man United. He was a truly elite pick at the peak of his powers during his Arsenal tenure. Salah scored 265 points in the 21/22 season, and 303 in 2017/18 meaning he's scored high enough to join the team three times! Sanchez will be the first to leave the team if another midfielder joins.
Luis Suarez
The first of our three strikers is Luis Suarez from his 13/14 season where he scored 295 points. This was an iconic season in FPL history - Suarez missed the first 5 games through suspension. So he made 33 appearances, where he scored 31 goals, and got 12 assists. Even more remarkably, that season Gerrard took Liverpool's penalties, and that season scored all 10 in the league. Who knows what could have been if he'd had penalty duties or the extra 5 games under his belt. Although Haaland's 36 goal season fares marginally better, Suarez's 0.94 goals per game without penalties is unmatched. We can only speculate what could have been had he been on duties. Some would argue this was the greatest individual season in Premier League history and the most complete performance by a striker.
Erling Haaland
Haaland's debut season could not have gone any better, winning the treble and destroying the golden boot record with 36 goals, with a further 9 assists along the way. He'd bagged 25 goals by GW19 which was already more goals than the golden boot records the previous season (Salah and Son with 23), and that was only halfway into the season! The previous golden boot record belonged to Only Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, both with 34 goals however that was in a 42-game season! Haaland's incredible campaign knocked van Persie out of the all-time dream team who had 269 points in the 2011/12 season.
Thierry Henry
The final player in the team is who else but Thierry Henry 👑, who like Friedel still remains in the team from the season that FPL began, all the way back in 02/03. He scored 271 points, playing 37 games, scoring 24 goals, and getting 20 assists. His 20 assists is still the record to this day for the most in a PL season. Interestingly back then it was possible to play a 2-5-3 or 5-5-0 formation in FPL, not that you'd ever want to play a strikerless formation with Henry in the form he was in. The following season Arsenal would go on to have their iconic Invincibles season.
Lastly, that brings us to the full team!
If this was a theoretical team, assuming you had Salah set and forget captain this team would finish on 3,175 points, and that's before you even consider the use of any chips, which is 331 points more than any manager has ever achieved.
That completes the All-Time FPL Dream team.
If you enjoyed this article please consider becoming a subscriber to support me.