Man Utd star increases £3.0m from last season and equals his highest ever starting cost

If you want Bruno Fernandes in your opening squad for 2026/27 Fantasy Premier League, the Manchester United midfielder will set you back £12.0m.

The Portuguese star has been handed the joint-biggest price rise from last season, up £3.0m from when he started at £9.0m in 2025/26 and went on to finish as the second top-scoring player in Fantasy, amassing 235 points thanks to nine goals and 24 assists. 

Fernandes equals his highest ever cost in Fantasy. He was also priced at £12.0m in 2021/22 after being the top-scoring player in the season beforehand, with 244 points.  

Following the price reveal of Erling Haaland (£15.5m) earlier today, this means buying the pair would cost a combined £27.5m, compared with £23.0m at the start of 2025/26 Fantasy.

With managers having a budget of £100.0m at the start of each season, a double-up of Haaland and Fernandes leaves you with just £72.5m to spend on the other 13 players in your 15-man squad.

Similarly to Haaland, it’s Fernandes’s high ownership last season and potential for huge captaincy hauls that are behind his price hike. 

He produced 12 double-figure hauls in 2025/26, at least twice the total of any other player apart from Haaland and Bruno Guimaraes, who had 10 and eight respectively.

Improvement under Carrick

An assessment of last season shows that the appointment of Michael Carrick as head coach took Fernandes to another level in Fantasy.

The Portuguese had enjoyed a reasonable start to 2025/26 under Ruben Amorim across the first 21 Gameweeks. Playing as one of two central midfielders in a 3-4-2-1 formation with wing-backs, he ranked fourth in his position in Fantasy on 106 points.

But after Carrick took charge in Gameweek 22, Man Utd’s move to a 4-2-3-1 set-up allowed Fernandes the freedom to thrive in a No 10 role behind a lone striker. 

Indeed, he was the top-scoring player in Fantasy across those final 17 Gameweeks of 2025/26, producing 129 points at an average of 7.6 per match.

As shown in the table below, Fernandes was far more likely to deliver big hauls under Carrick, producing eight of his 12 double-digit scores for the season from Gameweek 22 onwards.

Fernandes’s stats before and after Carrick’s appointment

Metric
GW1-21
GW22-38

Points
106
129

Points per match
5.9
7.6

Double-digit hauls
4
8

Blanks
9/18
3/17

Shots in box
28
12

Big chances created
11
22

Goal involvement
39%
61%

Fernandes’s consistency for attacking returns (goals and assists) was also transformed.

Remarkably, he scored or assisted in 14 of his 17 matches under Carrick, blanking on just three occasions. By contrast, he failed to deliver an attacking return in half of his 18 appearances prior to that spell.

In terms of underlying numbers, Fernandes’s goal threat actually declined under Carrick – he had just 12 shots in the box from Gameweek 22 onwards, less than half his total of 28 beforehand.

But his potential for assists more than made up for that. His 22 big chances created (situations where a player is expected to score) under Carrick was TWICE his total of 11 before the Englishman’s appointment.

This helped Fernandes score or assist a talismanic 61 per cent of the Red Devils’ goals for their new head coach, rising from only 39 per cent across Gameweeks 1-21.

Early captaincy potential

It’s fair to say that Man Utd could barely ask for a kinder opening pair of fixtures to start the 2026/27 campaign.

Back-to-back matches against promoted pair Hull City and Ipswich Town offer Fernandes the chance to immediately hit the ground running and bring in big hauls, making him a captain rival to Haaland.

And the Red Devils’ longer-term schedule also indicates Fernandes will be a popular pick for Fantasy managers’ early squads.

According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR), just one of their first eight matches scores more than three – their home derby against Manchester City in Gameweek 4.

Man Utd’s first eight matches

GW
Opp.
FDR*

1
Hull (A)
2

2
Ipswich (H)
2

3
Everton (A)
3

4
Man City (H)
4

5
Fulham (A)
3

6
Spurs (H)
3

7
Leeds (A)
3

8
Bournemouth (H)
3

*1=easiest possible fixture, 5=hardest possible fixture

Fernandes was among a host of key Fantasy players who were involved in this summer’s FIFA World Cup and he is set for a late return to pre-season action.

However, Portugal’s relatively early exit in the last 16 should ensure the midfielder is back in time to start Man Utd’s final friendlies.

If Fernandes can maintain his levels of consistency and huge hauls under Carrick, there’s every chance he will again be a must-have in Fantasy, even with his lofty new price tag.