Player ratings and squad values: what the numbers are, and are not
Last updated 19 September 2026
The Scout, Young Talent, Team of the Season and Squad Value pages all rest on one number: a 0–10 rating for each player. It is a descriptive measure of output this season — useful for comparing players in the same position, and not a scout’s verdict on who is better.
Where the rating comes from
The raw material is the Bonus Points System (BPS) score from the official Fantasy Premier League data. The league computes it for every player in every match from a long list of on-ball actions — passes, tackles, recoveries, saves, shots, goals and more — so it is the broadest per-player measure the free data offers. SquadCheck turns it into a rating in four steps:
- Per 90 minutes. A player’s season BPS is divided by his minutes and multiplied by 90, so starters and substitutes are compared fairly.
- A minimum of minutes. Only players with at least half the minutes of the league’s busiest player are rated — never fewer than 90, never more than 600. On 19 September 2026 the busiest player had 450 minutes, so the bar stood at 225 and 193 of the 409 players who had played were rated.
- Pulled toward average. Each player’s rate is blended with the average for his position, weighted as if the average were worth 900 minutes (about ten full matches). A player with 900 minutes is half his own rate and half the average; a player with 2,700 is three-quarters his own.
- Compared within position. Goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards are rated separately. The average player in a position is 7.0, and each standard deviation above or below moves the rating by one point, within a range of 5.5 to 9.9.
Early in a season that last step is scaled down as well: until the busiest player reaches 600 minutes, one standard deviation is worth less than a full point, so ratings built on a few matches stay closer to 7.0. On 19 September the ratings ran from 5.5 to 8.9.
What the rating rewards
A rating built on BPS inherits BPS’s view of football. It rewards what can be counted on the ball — clearances and blocks for defenders, saves for goalkeepers, goals and chances for attackers — and sees little of pressing, positioning or the pass before the assist. Two players with the same rating can have very different games. Compare players within a position, and read the rating as a summary of output rather than of quality.
Team of the Season and Young Talent
The Team of the Season picks the highest-rated player for each slot of a 4-4-2. The shape follows the data: the official feed classes wingers and attacking midfielders as midfielders, so four midfield slots and two strikers fit the positions it provides better than a front three would.
Young Talent lists the 30 best-rated players aged 23 or under, with ages worked out from birth dates rather than stored, alongside every club’s squad age profile.
How an estimated value is calculated
The Squad Value page gives each rated player an estimated value in pounds, from four factors multiplied together:
| Factor | How it works |
|---|---|
| Quality | £5m × e^(0.9 × (rating − 6.5)). A 6.5 is £5m; every extra point multiplies the value by about 2.5. |
| Age | Rises from ×1.15 at 17 to a peak of ×1.25 at 23, then falls — ×1.15 at 26, ×0.95 at 28, ×0.70 at 30, ×0.45 at 32 and ×0.25 at 35, in straight lines between. |
| Position | Goalkeeper ×0.55, defender ×0.80, midfielder ×1.15, forward ×1.35 — the market pays most for goals. |
| Minutes | ×0.6 plus up to ×0.4 more as minutes approach 2,500, so proven regulars count for more than cameos. |
The result is kept between £0.5m and £200m. Two worked examples: a 23-year-old forward rated 8.0 with 2,500 minutes comes to about £32.5m; a 31-year-old defender rated 7.0 with 1,500 minutes comes to about £3.0m.
Players below the minutes bar have no rating, so they have no value either, and squad totals count only rated players. Early in the season that makes squad totals low and uneven.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- They are not transfer fees. Real fees depend on contract length, the selling club’s position and who else is bidding, none of which is in any public feed. The page calls its figure an estimate for scouting, and that is all it is.
- Early in the season they move a lot. A rating built on four matches is mostly the average plus a nudge; by March it is mostly the player.
- They see one league. A player’s record before joining the Premier League is not included.
For how a player’s importance to his own club is measured — a different number, built for a different question — see how Power Loss is calculated.