HAVING to use precious transfers on goalkeepers can be immensely frustrating for Dream Team managers.
Most gaffers want to set and forget between the sticks so they focus their attention on making strategic changes elsewhere with a view to collecting piles of points.
For our latest SCOUT REPORT, we’ve decided to shine a light on Matz Sels (£3.5m), a man likely to be popular among Dream Team bosses come Gameweek 1.
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Nottingham Forest’s keeper shared the Premier League Golden Glove with David Raya last season having kept 13 clean sheets in the top flight.
Clean sheets require a team effort but there’s no doubt Sels is worthy of individual praise.
The Belgium international has performed very well since his transfer from Strasbourg and his performances as the last line of defence were a significant contributing factor in a massive overperformance from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Having finished 17th the season previous, Forest ended up 7th in 2024/25.
But even that doesn’t tell the full story of their improvement.
Forest won half their league games last season with only champions Liverpool registering more clean sheets.
The centre-back partnership of Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic made life hell for opposition strikers but it’s simply a fact that Sels was required to make 120 saves in the league, a tally bettered by just three keepers.
From a Dream Team perspective, a goalkeeper that ranks highly for both clean sheets and saves is a hugely inviting prospect.
Sels racked up 190 points last season, putting him joint-fourth in the rankings among assets in his position.
A run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup gave the 33-year-old a few additional games but a lack of European fixtures meant he had fewer point-scoring opportunities than the likes of Raya, Emi Martinez and Andre Onana.
Looking forward to the coming campaign, Sels might be on the right side of the fixture deficit courtesy of Europa League commitments.
Having spent the majority of the season flying high in third, Forest’s form fell away in the final weeks.
In the circumstances, it was understandable that some members of the City Ground faithful felt disappointed about missing out on the Champions League but European qualification of any kind is a huge achievement.
As it stands, Forest are set to replace Crystal Palace in the Europa League with the Eagles dropping into the Conference League due to Uefa’s rules regarding multi-club ownership.
From a Dream Team viewpoint, the Europa League was a source of plentiful points last season with both Manchester United and Tottenham making the final.
It seems logical that Sels has a better chance of keeping clean sheets against the likes of Go Ahead Eagles, Genk and Dinamo Zagreb than Bayern Munich, PSG and Barcelona.
Whether Forest will be able to maintain their impressive domestic form while juggling European commitments remains to be seen but their opening league fixtures are relatively favourable: Brentford (h), Crystal Palace (a), West Ham (h), Arsenal (a), Burnley (a), Sunderland (h).
Sels currently features in 7.9% of teams created.
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