Brentford's FPL Opportunities Under Keith Andrews
Keith Andrews could hardly have asked for a kinder start to his second season in charge. Fresh from guiding Brentford to an impressive ninth-place finish, he now walks into a 2026/27 opening run that screams opportunity – for him and for Fantasy Premier League managers.
Across the first five Gameweeks, Brentford avoid every one of last season’s top five. No Manchester City. No Arsenal. No Liverpool. Instead, the Bees open with home games against Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland and Chelsea, with trips to Leeds United and AFC Bournemouth in between.
On the Fixture Difficulty Ratings, that run averages out at 2.8 – second only to Liverpool over Gameweeks 1-5. For a side with clear attacking focal points and a goalkeeper who quietly racked up points last term, this is fertile ground.
Fixtures built for Fantasy
Brentford’s first five:
- GW1: Spurs (H) – FDR 3
- GW2: Leeds (A) – FDR 3
- GW3: Sunderland (H) – FDR 2
- GW4: Bournemouth (A) – FDR 3
- GW5: Chelsea (H) – FDR 3
It’s a schedule that offers a mix of home comfort and beatable opponents. No fixture is marked as a 4 or 5 on the scale. For Fantasy managers planning an aggressive start, Brentford assets are no longer a differential punt; they’re close to a template consideration.
Igor Thiago, the undisputed focal point
Igor Thiago didn’t just have a good debut Fantasy season. He exploded.
Twenty-two goals. One assist. A total of 181 points. All from a starting price of £6.0m.
That bargain is gone. A price rise is inevitable. The question is whether he’s still worth paying up for. The numbers say yes.
Thiago racked up 41 big chances – 19 more than his closest team-mate, Kevin Schade. That gap alone tells the story. Brentford’s attack doesn’t just run through him; it revolves around him.
He also created six big chances for others, taking his total big-chance involvements to 47. The next best in the squad, Dango Ouattara, managed 30. That’s a 17-chance gulf between the main man and the supporting cast.
The caveat? Penalties. Nine of Thiago’s 22 goals came from the spot. Strip them away and his tally looks less outrageous, but the underlying volume of chances remains elite. As long as he keeps the penalty duties, he stays among the most dangerous forwards in the game.
Ouattara vs Schade: the second attacker
If you want to double up on Brentford’s attack, the choice behind Thiago is tight on paper but clearer in context.
Big-chance involvements in 2025/26:
- Thiago: 47 (41 big chances, 6 big chances created) – one every 69.8 minutes
- Ouattara: 30 (18 big chances, 12 created) – one every 77.1 minutes
- Schade: 29 (22 big chances, 7 created) – one every 94.6 minutes
Ouattara edges Schade 30 to 29 on total big-chance involvements. That’s marginal. The real separation comes in frequency. Ouattara is involved in a big chance roughly every 77 minutes, significantly sharper than Schade’s 94.6.
Those minutes matter over a season. They matter even more across a five-Gameweek burst where managers are hunting early hauls and price rises.
Schade brings goal threat, but Ouattara’s blend of chances taken and created, combined with that stronger involvement rate, tilts the balance. If Thiago is locked in as the premium Brentford attacker, Ouattara looks the smarter partner for a double-up.
Thiago remains the clear priority. The numbers don’t leave much room for debate.
Kelleher: points on paper, questions in goal
At the other end, Caoimhin Kelleher quietly finished as Brentford’s second-highest Fantasy scorer and the second top-scoring goalkeeper overall with 143 points. For a £4.5m starter, that was gold dust.
But the path to those points demands a closer look.
Kelleher kept 10 clean sheets. Five goalkeepers bettered that figure, and he finished nine shutouts behind Golden Glove winner David Raya. His total was propped up by three penalty saves – a huge bonus in FPL terms, but not something managers can bank on repeating.
A price rise is almost certain. Once that happens, the value equation changes. Without those spot-kick heroics, his season looks more solid than spectacular.
So the dilemma is clear. Do you pay extra for a keeper whose headline score leaned heavily on high-variance moments, or do you ride the upside of Brentford’s attack instead?
With those early fixtures, most will be drawn to the front of the team. Thiago, then Ouattara. Kelleher may still feature in drafts, but this time he’ll have to justify a bigger bill.
Brentford have been handed a platform. For Andrews, it’s a chance to build on last season’s surge. For Fantasy managers, it’s a test of nerve: lean into the Bees early, or risk watching those opening weeks sting from a distance.
