Crafting an FM26 team using real-life stats: League One

Huw Davies digs into this season's numbers to find the players who can boost your Fantasy Football squad and give your Football Manager save a head start

Huw Davies

Yes, as promised (some might say threatened), I’m back with a study of League One’s best players of 2025/26. Specifically, the idea is to isolate the statistics that indicate quality in each main role on a football pitch, and use those individual metrics to identify who does it best.

I explained in last week’s deep dive into League Two how and why I selected the metrics used for each position, but I don’t expect you to have to do homework before reading this article. This isn’t the MCU. I’ll still outline what I’m looking for, although you may find the League Two piece useful.

And remember: this is not a League One Team of the Season. There’s no attempt here at tactical cohesion, not that there ever is, and the format won’t be kind to quality all-rounders. These are simply the statistical stand-outs.

Let’s go!

Sources used: Opta Analyst, Wyscout, FotMob, fbref

Not to be technical, but the best goalkeepers save more shots than they should. So, League One glovesmen, park your passing for the moment and show me how often you bail out your defenders and/or manager.

Well, that’s pretty convincing. Nathan Trott was the bookies’ favourite in this niche market, because he’s having a fantastic first campaign with Cardiff, but the astonishing numbers being posted by Burton’s Bradley Collins make the Coventry loanee an early contender for signing of the season.

It isn’t just that he has the division’s highest save percentage; he’s saving good shots as well. Based on xGOT, which uses a shot on target’s placement to estimate the likelihood of it going in, Collins has prevented Burton Albion from conceding an extra 6.6 goals when no other League One keeper has reached 5, even though Collins has played just 60% of available minutes. He is, so far, ‘half a goal per game better’ than the league’s number two No.1. Such numbers can’t last, but for now, it’s ridiculous.

“Head it, kick it, get in the way” was how I poetically described this role last week, and I stand by it. We’re assessing success rate in aerial duels (‘head it’), clearances per 90 minutes (‘kick it’) and also blocks per 90 (‘get in the way’). Blocks are far less common than headers and clearances, though, so we’ll weigh the importance of those a little less heavily.

With that in mind, here’s our overall top 20:

Chris Forino is the only player thriving in each of the three metrics, not that it’s helped him to keep his place in the Bolton side. However, I can’t look past Charlie Goode being the one defender in England’s top three tiers who wins four in five of his headed contests. He has been given 96 aerial tests and passed 78 of them. He also understands the assignment to GET RID but, more than anything, he’s… sorry, I can’t avoid it: he’s Goode in the air. Plus, he has helped Stevenage to concede the fewest goals in the division, and what more could you ask from a no-nonsense defender?

Analysing League Two taught us that carrying the ball up the pitch can be every bit as important as passing it there. The old ‘BPD’ on Football Manager should really stand for ‘ball-progressing defender’, to reflect the value of centre-backs who are also happy to stride out of defence in possession. Sorry to upset the Big Diag Ultras out there. Fortunately, in League One we’ve got ourselves a man who can do both.