As part of our Top 50 series, we take a closer look at the most commonly used Fantasy Premier League formations during the 2025/26 campaign.
The full range of Top 50 analysis can be found in the Preseason Pack, where users can also evaluate their own season and identify their strengths and weaknesses using the Skills Benchmark tool.
For years, 3-4-3 has been one of the most reliable and widely used formations in Fantasy Premier League. It allows managers to maximise attacking players, reduce reliance on clean sheets, and avoid overcommitting funds to defenders — traditionally the lowest-scoring position group in FPL.
The 2024/25 season saw a clear swing back towards 3-4-3, helped by changes to the Bonus Points System that made defenders slightly less attractive. Managers often preferred to start just three defenders and push more money into midfielders and forwards, where goals, assists and bonus points were easier to target.
But the 2025/26 season brought a major new variable: defensive contribution points, or DEFCON.
For the first time, players could earn extra FPL points for reaching a set number of clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles in a match. This gave centre-backs and defensive full-backs another route to points beyond clean sheets, attacking returns and bonus.
As a result, the formation landscape became more balanced.
An interactive version of this graphic is available in the Preseason Pack.
The biggest takeaway from this season’s data is that 3-4-3 remained a key formation, but it was no longer the only obvious route for elite managers.
Among the 2025/26 Top 50 managers, 4-4-2 was used 21.1% of the time, while 4-3-3 accounted for 7.2%. That means almost three in every ten teams from the season’s best managers used a four-defender setup.
The trend was similar among the All-Time Top 50 managers, where 4-4-2 was used 21.5% of the time and 4-3-3 was used 4.6%.
That is a noticeable shift from the previous season, when the conversation was largely about managers moving back towards 3-4-3 and away from heavier defensive structures. In 2025/26, four at the back became much easier to justify.
The obvious answer is DEFCON.
In previous seasons, defenders were often reliant on clean sheets. If a team conceded, the appeal of starting four defenders could quickly disappear unless one of them had strong attacking threat.
The new defensive contribution points changed that. Centre-backs in particular had a more stable route to returns, even in matches where they lost clean-sheet points. Players who regularly made clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles could still tick along with useful scores.
That made certain defenders feel less like “clean sheet or bust” picks.
It also helped explain why more managers were comfortable starting a fourth defender, especially when there were reliable options with strong DEFCON potential, set-piece threat, bonus appeal or a combination of all three.
No player summed this up better than Gabriel.
The Arsenal defender finished the season on 209 FPL points, making him the highest-scoring defender of 2025/26 and the third-highest scoring player in the game overall. He also came close to the all-time defender record, finishing just four points behind Andy Robertson’s single-season defender record.
It is worth noting that this means Gabriel was not quite the top-scoring defender of all time, but his 209-point season was still an extraordinary return and one of the best defensive FPL seasons ever.
He was not alone either.
Six defenders finished inside the top 20 overall FPL points scorers:
That would have been much harder to imagine in the previous season’s scoring environment. The combination of clean sheets, attacking returns, bonus and DEFCON made defenders much more competitive again.
If the rules remain the same for 2026/27, the trend towards four at the back could continue.
That does not mean 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 will suddenly become the default. FPL managers will still be guided heavily by player pricing, fixture runs and where the best value appears at the start of the season.
However, the 2025/26 data suggests managers may no longer need to automatically build around three defenders. If DEFCON-friendly centre-backs are priced fairly, and if teams with strong defensive fixtures emerge early, four-defender formations could remain a serious option.
The key difference compared with previous seasons is that defenders now have more ways to score points.
Clean sheets still matter, but they are no longer the only foundation for defensive value. That makes formation flexibility more important than ever — and it could be one of the biggest strategic edges for managers going into the 2026/27 Fantasy Premier League season.
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