Best Premier League Strikers: Goals Are Only Half the Story

Goals are the obvious currency for a striker, but they are not the most accurate one. The league's scoring system gives a forward four points for a goal and a defender six, so the best Premier League strikers have to be judged on more than scoring rate. Availability and squad fit matter as much as finishing.

The mechanism: what separates the best Premier League strikers

The most transparent way to see this is the Fantasy Premier League scoring system, because it puts a number on every action. It is not a perfect ranking of real football quality, but it reveals the league's own weighting of contributions. A goal is worth 6 points for a goalkeeper or defender, 5 points for a midfielder, and 4 points for a forward. A clean sheet is worth 4 points for a goalkeeper or defender, 1 point for a midfielder, and nothing for a forward. An assist is worth 3 points for every position.

| Position | Points for a goal | Points for a clean sheet | | --- | ---: | | Goalkeeper or defender | 6 | 4 | | Midfielder | 5 | 1 | | Forward | 4 | 0 |

This matters because it changes what best means. A defender who scores from set pieces is not just a defender with a bonus; he is outscoring a forward who does nothing but score. That does not mean a striker's goals are worthless. It means a striker has to produce more from open play, passing, and penalty-box movement to justify his place in a club's most expensive squad slot. For Premier League clubs, the forward position carries a higher opportunity cost than any other.

The league structure adds to that cost. Twenty clubs play 38 matches each, home and away, making 380 matches per season. Three points for a win and one for a draw mean every league position is decided by accumulation, not by a single moment. A striker who misses a run of matches removes himself from a significant chunk of his club's season, and no single goal makes that back. In that sense, the best Premier League strikers are the ones who can be selected every week.

History/evolution: how the striker's job changed

The Premier League was founded on 20 February 1992, when First Division clubs broke away to negotiate their own broadcast deals. The first season in 1992/93 had 22 clubs. The league reduced to 20 in 1995/96, and that is the structure the modern striker plays under: 38 league matches, a title race where dropped points matter immediately, and a relegation battle decided over a full season.

Squad rules did the rest. Every club names a 25-player list for players over 21, and at least 8 of those must be homegrown. Homegrown means trained in England or Wales for three years before turning 21. Under-21 players do not count against the 25. A homegrown striker is therefore not just a player; he is part of the quota solution. An under-21 forward is even cheaper in squad terms, because he can be added without removing a senior player. The best Premier League strikers have always scored goals, but the squad list rewards the ones who also fit the structural rules.

European qualification adds another layer. In the typical structure, the top four go into the Champions League league phase, fifth and the FA Cup winner go into the Europa League, and the League Cup winner goes into the Conference League play-off. If a cup winner has already qualified through the league, that place passes down. This means a striker who pushes a club from sixth to fifth changes the club's entire season, and a run in the cups can open another route to Europe. Goal tallies do not capture that difference; context does.

Edge cases: where a simple goal tally fails

The first edge case is substitutions. Teams can make five substitutions in a maximum of three windows plus half-time. A striker who starts and reaches the 60-minute mark earns 2 appearance points; a striker taken off before 60 earns 1. That is a small difference in a game, but across 38 matches it adds up. It also gives managers room to protect a striker who is on a yellow card or coming back from injury, which is why the best Premier League strikers are managed rather than simply selected.

The second edge case is discipline and penalties. A yellow card costs 1 point, a red card costs 3, and an own goal costs 2. A penalty miss also costs 2. The scoring system does not add points for winning a penalty, only for the assist and the goal if they follow. That asymmetry punishes the striker who takes responsibility from the spot without rewarding the one who wins it. In a league where the bottom three are relegated, those small negative points can be the difference between a team staying up and going down. The same applies to the top four: one point lost to a red card can be the point that moves a club from fourth to fifth.

The third edge case is the clean sheet. Forwards earn no clean sheet points at all, while midfielders get 1 and defenders or goalkeepers get 4. This is not a quirk; it is the league's way of saying that defensive work is undervalued by a goals-only view. A striker who presses from the front and stops the opponent from building attacks contributes to a clean sheet without ever appearing in the box score. That is why a goals and assists table underrates the complete striker.

The fourth edge case is the homegrown quota. A 25-man squad list with at least 8 homegrown players means every club must make structural choices. If a striker occupies one of the non-homegrown places, the club has less room for other senior signings. If a striker is homegrown, he frees a place. That off-pitch value shows up in the squad list, not the highlights, and it is one of the reasons the best Premier League strikers in the country are so difficult to buy: their replacement cost is not just the transfer fee, it is the squad spot.

The fifth edge case is the prize structure. A winner gets three points, a draw gets one, and the bottom three are relegated. But those points are not equally valuable. A goal that turns a draw into a win changes the match result and adds two points to the table. A goal that adds to an already comfortable lead improves goal difference, which matters later because ties are broken by points, then goal difference, then goals scored. The striker who scores the first goal is usually more influential than one who adds to a rout, even though both go into the same goals column.

All of this points to a wider definition. The best Premier League strikers are not just the players who score the most; they are the ones who score at the right time, stay available for all 38 matches, fit the homegrown and under-21 rules, and create goals without costing points through discipline. That is the version of best the league's own rules reward.

FAQ

How many points does a Premier League striker get for a goal in FPL?

A forward gets 4 points for a goal. A midfielder gets 5, and a goalkeeper or defender gets 6. The system weights goals by position, so a striker's raw goal total is not directly comparable to a defender's.

What is the homegrown rule in the Premier League?

Each club names a 25-player squad list for players over 21. At least 8 players on that list must be homegrown, which means trained in England or Wales for three years before turning 21. Under-21 players do not count against the 25.

How many matches does a Premier League season have?

Twenty clubs play 38 matches each, home and away, for 380 matches per season. Three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw. The bottom three are relegated.

Key takeaways

• Forwards earn 4 points per goal in FPL, while goalkeepers and defenders earn 6, so the best Premier League strikers are not defined by goals alone.
• A 38-match season rewards availability; a striker who reaches the 60-minute mark in a match earns 2 appearance points instead of 1.
• The 25-man squad list requires at least 8 homegrown players, which gives a homegrown striker extra value beyond his goals.
• Five substitutions in three windows mean a striker's value includes how well he can be managed in-game.
• League tiebreakers go to points, then goal difference, then goals scored, which is why timing of goals matters as much as total output.