Top 7 best budget forwards in Fantasy Premier League 2023/24

Budget forwards can be essential in enabling you to get big hitters into your FPL team, but picking the ones that are most likely to serve you well from the bench is a struggle. Here are our recommendations for the best cheap forwards in FPL 2023/24.

Cheap forwards can be some of the most important players on your team, if selected wisely. For example, Evan Ferguson was a 4.5 pick last year and finished the season with a regular run of minutes and two goals in the final six games.

While this isn’t always likely to be the case, you don’t need to always pick the likes of Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, and Gabriel Jesus with an all-out attack mentality in FPL.

That’s why we recommend taking a look at these forwards, all of whom have a maximum price of just 6.0. To make it easier, too, I’ve split them into playing forwards and budget punts that can really pay off.

Best cheap FPL forwards

Cheap playing forwards

Yoane Wissa (6.0, Brentford)

Wissa is a player who has flown under the radar so far in the pre-season FPL drafts, but he should be under serious consideration for anybody who doesn’t want to spend the 8.0 it would cost to get Gabriel Jesus or Ollie Watkins.

He scored just 14 fewer points than Jesus with 500 fewer minutes, and with Ivan Toney out until January, both Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo (midfielder, 6.5) could see improved points hauls as a result.

Danny Ings (6.0, West Ham)

West Ham should perform better in the league this year than they did in the previous campaign, especially with a European trophy to their name now.

While Ings didn’t get much glory in his first season with the Hammers, he could be the easiest replacement for an Antonio that is slowly faltering in delivering the goods and that could well be the chopping block more.

Evan Ferguson (6.0, Brighton)

As mentioned before, Ferguson started stringing together some proper playing time and even a few goals towards the tail end of last season, so he will be hoping to become a regular name on the team sheet when Gameweek 1 kicks off.

With so much rotation across the Brighton front line, it’s hard to be sure that this will happen for him, but the upside on Ferguson is huge and both manager De Zerbi and FPL managers alike should seriously consider making him a core component of their team.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (6.0, Everton)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is perhaps the best player on this list from a pure footballing perspective, with interest from top teams throughout his career and incredible goalscoring ability.

The issue, as everyone knows all too well, is his fitness. He spent the majority of the last two seasons with a physio and struggling to find match fitness, but in the 20/21 season, he earned himself 16 goals and 3 assists from 33 Premier League appearances, making him one of the best forwards in the league that season. With consistency and no injuries, DCL could be a steal at 6.0.

Budget punts

Cameron Archer (4.5, Aston Villa)

Archer was the 4.5 bench fodder of choice for much of the 22/23 season, but he could be in line to play a bigger role in 23/24 after an impressive U21 EURO campaign, winning the tournament with England with 2 goals from 5 attempts on target.

He had some runs in the first team last year but he’ll be hoping for a chance to push through, so he could well be worth the punt.

Divin Mubama (4.5, West Ham)

Mubama is a player who could prove to be a solid pick for similar reasons to Danny Ings. During the 22/23 season, he only managed 36 minutes in the league, but neither Antonio nor Ings had exemplary displays throughout.

With a bit more first-team experience under his belt, and the possibility of Ings and Antonio struggling to find form, West Ham might have to start integrating Mubama into the squad far more than they did last year.

Ellis Simms (4.5, Everton)

The strength in picking Ellis Simms is actually that he’s leaving Everton. While this may seem counterintuitive, it actually would work hugely in your favor for one simple reason: team value.

With Simms leaving, he’s not likely to face any value drops, meaning that you don’t have to worry about losing transfer value when it comes to swapping your team around. If anything, you can almost consider this a safe option.

Obviously, this isn’t the extent of the options: you might look at someone like Clinton Morris or Iliman Ndiaye, the forwards of choice for newly-promoted sides Luton Town and Sheffield United for 5.5 each, or maybe a punt on Folarin Balogun (4.5), whom many hope will leave Arsenal on loan before the season starts.

Be sure to also check out our best budget FPL defenders and best cheap midfielders while building out your team.