Enabler
An enabler is a cheap player, typically priced between 4.0m and 5.0m, bought so that the budget he frees up can be spent on premium players elsewhere in the squad. The best enablers actually start for their club, so they return points as well as money; one who never plays is only a budget device and a bench slot.
The point of an enabler is what it buys elsewhere
An FPL squad is built against a fixed budget, so every 0.1m saved in one position is 0.1m available in another. Dropping from a 5.5m midfielder to a 4.5m one does not make your team better on its own. It makes the premium forward you could not otherwise afford possible, and that is the entire job of an enabler.
It is also why the same cheap names turn up in the template every season. When most managers want the same two or three premium players, they end up needing the same cheap fifth defender to pay for them.
A starting enabler beats a benched one
A 4.0m player who never leaves the bench contributes nothing but the money he released, and he occupies a bench slot that could have held real cover. A 4.5m defender who starts every week gives you appearance points, the occasional clean sheet and a defensive contribution on top of the budget, which is a very different purchase at almost the same price.
Rotation risk is what separates the two. Before you commit to a cheap player, check whether he is a first choice or one of two players sharing the position, because a benched enabler also weakens your automatic substitutions.
Example
You replace a 5.5m midfielder who sits on your bench anyway with a 4.5m one who does the same job. The 1.0m you free up turns your 8.5m forward into a 9.5m one: the bench looks identical, the first eleven is stronger.
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