Fantasy Premier League 25/26

[Chipper]

Red Cafe 25/26 League Code: mcjm84

Often asked questions about how the chips work:

Chips

All chips can be used twice a season.
The first Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips become available from the start of the season and must be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline onTue 30 Dec 18:00. A second set of these chips then becomes available from Gameweek 20 and can be used right up to the end of the season. These chips are played when saving on the my team page. They can be cancelled at any time before the Gameweek deadline.
The first Free Hit chip becomes available after the first Gameweek of your season and must be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline on Tue 30 Dec 18:00. A second Free Hit becomes available from Gameweek 20 and can be used right up to the end of the season. This chip is activated when confirming your transfers and cannot be cancelled once confirmed.
The Free Hit chip cannot be played in consecutive Gameweeks. So if the first chip is played in Gameweek 19, the second Free Hit cannot be made active until Gameweek 21.
The first Wildcard becomes available after the first Gameweek of your season and must be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline on Tue 30 Dec 18:00. The second Wildcard will be available from Gameweek 20 in readiness for the January transfer window and remains available for use until the end of the season. The Wildcard chip is played when confirming transfers and cannot be cancelled once played.
No chips can be carried over from the first half of the season to the second, so the first chips must be played prior to the Gameweek 19 deadline on Tue 30 Dec 18:00.

Only one chip may be active in a Gameweek. For example, it is not possible to make transfers with your Wildcard chip and then use your Bench Boost chip in the same Gameweek.

Transfers

If you do not use your free transfer, you are able to make an additional free transfer the following Gameweek. If you do not use this saved free transfer in the following Gameweek, it will be carried over until you do. The maximum number of free transfers you can store in any gameweek is 5.

Afcon Transfers

Following the Gameweek 15 Deadline on Sat 6 Dec 13:30 and ahead of Gameweek 16 on Sat 13 Dec 13:30, Managers will be topped up to the maximum of 5 free transfers, regardless of how many transfers are available to them at that point.

These Free Transfers are provided to help Managers navigate through the tournament period and to be used to sell and buy back any potentially absent players. However, they can be used on any player, not just those absent due to AFCON.

They do not need to be used in Gameweek 16, they can be carried over between Gameweeks and used at any time.

Transfers after a wildcard

When playing a Wildcard, any saved free transfers are maintained. If you had 2 saved free transfers, you will still have 2 saved free transfers the following Gameweek.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

The colourisation of that table is a shambles. Give me that green to red business.

 

[CassiusClaymore]

The colourisation of that table is a shambles. Give me that green to red business.

Yeah doesn't really work does it.

The fixtures look like a mixed bag for everyone as well so might just ignore them this year. At the start anyway.

 

[Chipper]

Are there price reveals every season? Must be imminent if there are.

These are apparently the past launch dates. Think we're at 35 days and counting down until the big kick off right now.

2016​	Tues 19th July (1025 BST)	13th Aug (25 days)
2017	Weds 12th July (1115 BST)	11th Aug (30 days)
2018	Thurs 5th July (1540 BST)	10th Aug (36 days)
2019	Thurs 27th June (1200 BST)	9th Aug (43 days)
2020	Sat 15th August (1045 BST)	12th Sep (28 days)
2021	Tues 23rd June (1210 BST)	13th Aug (52 days)
2022	Tues 5th July (1610 BST)	5th Aug (31 days)
2023	Weds 5th July (1715 BST)	11th Aug (37 days)
2024	Weds 17th July (1430 BST)	17th Aug (31 days)

 

[Chipper]

This better for you colours? I don't know who made it or what they're basing it off. Sunderland with 2 greens in a row against anyone looks generous.

 

[Frostie]

I've always wanted to have a go at this, but I'm often really busy and would miss all the subs/swaps you can make so would end up with the end team as the one I picked before a ball was kicked. Which would have killed me last season as I'd have picked Rodri and Saka as my big money players.

 

[Andycoleno9]

The colourisation of that table is a shambles. Give me that green to red business.

Draft again this year?

I must defend my title.

 

[CassiusClaymore]

I've always wanted to have a go at this, but I'm often really busy and would miss all the subs/swaps you can make so would end up with the end team as the one I picked before a ball was kicked. Which would have killed me last season as I'd have picked Rodri and Saka as my big money players.

Yeah Rodri isn't a big money player. Saka would've been fine.

 

[Frostie]

Yeah Rodri isn't a big money player. Saka would've been fine.

Is he not? I'd have thought he would be.

That's why I didn't play FFL I guess. If pick a spine and some offshoots and be stuck with them.

 

[Maluco]

I've always wanted to have a go at this, but I'm often really busy and would miss all the subs/swaps you can make so would end up with the end team as the one I picked before a ball was kicked. Which would have killed me last season as I'd have picked Rodri and Saka as my big money players.

The same thing happens to me, wherein a just don’t have the time to see what’s happening or who is starting etc… but it’s good fun nonetheless.

It helps after last year where you can now keep up to 5 transfers, so if you do nothing for a month, you come back to 4-5 free transfers to make changes to your team.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

Draft again this year?

I must defend my title.

100%

 

[Chipper]

Surely it launches today/tomorrow or early next week at the very latest. I'm getting impatient!

29 days until the season starts now, already one of the later launches.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Surely it launches today/tomorrow or early next week at the very latest. I'm getting impatient!

29 days until the season starts now, already one of the later launches.

29 days of thinking; "Haaland or Salah".

 

[suheilsworld]

29 days of thinking; "Haaland or Salah".

Or both and which enablers to take

 

[suheilsworld]

Surely it launches today/tomorrow or early next week at the very latest. I'm getting impatient!

29 days until the season starts now, already one of the later launches.

I think the season has always launched with 1 months and 2-5 days to go. This is the first time in long time we’ve gone under 30 days and the game hasn’t launched

 

[Chipper]

29 days of thinking; "Haaland or Salah".

Could well be the case deoending on how they're priced.

Speaking of pricing, I imagine that's fairly difficult in certain cases right now with transfers that could happen. Jackson and Nkunku for example, could be priced as Chelsea backups which should still be a fair bit but if they were to move to another PL club and expect to start then they could be worth a bit more.

Don't think Mbeumo changes much compared to whatever they're originally thinking whether he comes to United or not, or Isak if he went to Liverpool.

Edit: Newcastle interesting too as Gordon struggled to get in the side towards the end of the season even when he was fit. They preferred Barnes and Murphy and have now added Elanga. If they get Wissa who they're linked with then his ideal price depends on if he's Isak's backup or starting if Isak goes.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Who will be this year's Wood, Bamford, Sels, Rogers?
Who will catch that train on first station? What premiums will flop?

Damn, i can't wait for start of this and creating 458 drafts and saying after every of them; "This is the one".

 

[Sandikan]

Oh flip is this one nearly starting again

 

[Pickle85]

LET'S GOOOOOO!

 

[Dudu]

Saw the thread and thought it had launched.

Booo. What's taking so long!

 

[JBG]

For anyone who doesn't have twitter. Defensive contributions now gets you points.

 

[Chipper]

For anyone who doesn't have twitter. Defensive contributions now gets you points.

First instinct is that this makes defenders from mediocre to bad teams a lot more valuable than they were.

Now looking at stats, clearances are by far the most common of those. Top 10's for some of those stats per 90 from last season.

Clearances
Huiijsen (Bounemouth) - 7.33 per 90
Murillo (Forest) - 7.03
Branthwaite (Everton) - 6.85 per 90
Bednarek (Saouthampton) - 6.76
Tarkowski (Everton) 6.55
Andersen (Fulham) - 6.55
O'Shea (Ipswich) - 6.48
Lacroix (Palace) - 5.98
Collins (Brentford) - 5.95
Faes (Leicester) - 5.91


Tackles & Inetecerptions (combined into 1)
Gueye (Everton) - 5.32
Mazraoui (United) - 4.73
Kristiansen (Leicester) - 4.77
Andre (Wolves) - 4.65
Munoz (Palace) - 4.65
Ndidi (Leicester) - 4.50
Onana (Villa) - 4.50
Robinson (Fulham) - 4.46
Caicedo (Chelsea) - 4.38
Gomes (Wolves) - 4.27

Getting quite a few midfielders here.

Blocks
Mac Allister (Liverpool) 2.11
Harwood-Bellis (Southampton) 2.07
Collins (Brentford) - 2.03
Mitchell (Palace) 1.98
Murillo (Forest) - 1.95
Semenyo (Bournemouth) - 1.88
Ndidi (Leicester) - 1.82
van den Berg (Brentford) - 1.81
O'Shea (Ipswich) - 1.79
Tarkowski (Everton) - 1.75

Blocks aren't that much of a thing.

Would have to do some sort of combined thing later. Spent some time building my own points predictor after the conclusion of last season which this now completely in ruins. This potentially changes things quite a lot.

Edit: Changed the last category to blocks - for some reason in my haste I did tackles again when that was already covered in tackles and interceptions combined!

 

[RobinLFC]

Meh. They don't need to make the game more complicated, it was fine as it was. Something like that is also hard to follow up on when you're watching games imo.

 

[SilentWitness]

Tarkowski would be the CB to get if playing. Shouldn't cost too much and he's always leading those kinds of stats for blocks/interceptions/clearances etc.

 

[Dudu]

I get what they're trying to do (expand the player pool), but don't think this changes things too much especially as its capped at two points. Unless they adjust pricing dramatically..

TBH, I'd still rather chase the upside with fullbacks on attacking returns.

 

[Chipper]

Tallied some of these up, might have missed a few here and there, it's based off the leaders in the clearances and tackles/interceptions categories. There might be some good all-rounders that weren't near the very top in each category I missed but should give a flavour of how it will impact things.

These are per 90s, FBRef doesn't have recoveries (applicable for midifelders only) as far as I can see. Edit: I tell a lie, it's hidinng in 'miscellaneous stats' and not defensive actions where there rest of them were. Top midfielders with 6+ recoveries per game. That puts someone like Caicedo on over 13 for this as his his total.

 

[Dudu]

Someone on Reddit got some inside info and predicted the Def actions change few days back.

Also predicts an additional triple captaincy - now that will be high variance change.

 

[RobinLFC]

I get what they're trying to do (expand the player pool), but don't think this changes things too much especially as its capped at two points. Unless they adjust pricing dramatically..

TBH, I'd still rather chase the upside with fullbacks on attacking returns.

Yeah exactly. The leader last season was apparently Tarkowski with 44, meaning he got there in 22 games over the course of the season.

If you get an attacking fullback and he scores 5 goals plus adds 5 assists, you're already on 45 points. Not to mention they could also reach the defensive points as well.

 

[JBG]

Just rumours so far, but we might get 2 TC chips and only 1 WC.

 

[Chipper]

Now that I found it, I'm struggling to work out if recoveries on FBRef includes tackles and interceptions or if it's exclusive of them where they show them.

If exclusive there's going to be a lot of midielders getting a point each week.

Thinking it might be inclusive, that's a rough top 20 and we're seeing all of them sneak a point more often than not, there'd be quite a few more too. Suspect that's not what they're aiming for but I really don't know. Maybe they want mids and forwards getting the extra point often?

If tackles and interceptions are already counted in recoveries on FBRef and recoveries are completely seperate for pouncing on loose balls etc. it looks more like this, and would be a lot more balanced. No idea though! How many times do players pick up loose balls on average, it's not a stat I'm familiar with to even hazard a guess?

Cleaned up the defender list too while I'm at it to remove mids.

 

[Apokalips]

For anyone who doesn't have twitter. Defensive contributions now gets you points.

I can imagine Bruno will be a must, he is usually high in defensive action charts isn't he?

 

[Chipper]

I can imagine Bruno will be a must, he is usually high in defensive action charts isn't he?

Definitely showing up high in my attempt to gather lasts season's stats. Mind you, his attacking output might go down if he's permanantly played deeper. Still, he'll be on pens no matter what.

So what's the general consensus of this? I don't think I'm a fan, it's adding a lot of complications to things. Mind you, everyone was saying the new BPS system screwed defenders over last season so I suppose this helps rectify it a little even though it's going to be the defenders who are under a lot of pressure who will benefit most from this rather than the ones you'd want for clean sheets most of hte time.

I know people have sometimes been calling for recognition for defensive midfielders, this might do something for them too. One Idea I saw a while back was a seperate playing position/category for a defensive midfielder and you had to one on your team/squad. That didn't sound bad to me, and I think I'd have preferred it to this.

 

[JBG]

Definitely showing up high in my attempt to gather lasts season's stats. Mind you, his attacking output might go down if he's permanantly played deeper. Still, he'll be on pens no matter what.

So what's the general consensus of this? I don't think I'm a fan, it's adding a lot of complications to things. Mind you, everyone was saying the new BPS system screwed defenders over last season so I suppose this helps rectify it a little even though it's going to be the defenders who are under a lot of pressure who will benefit most from this rather than the ones you'd want for clean sheets most of hte time.

I know people have sometimes been calling for recognition for defensive midfielders, this might do something for them too. One Idea I saw a while back was a seperate playing position/category for a defensive midfielder and you had to one on your team/squad. That didn't sound bad to me, and I think I'd have preferred it to this.

Personally won't pay too much attention to this tbh, maybe 4.5 defender from teams with low blocks will help alot(defenders in general where awful last season imo) and maybe that 4.5 or 5m mid will be more viable as 5th midfielder. But yeah don't think it will change too much.

 

[V.O.]

Looking forward to my defenders now being subbed off on a clean sheet in the 59th minute with 9 defensive contributions.

 

[Chipper]

Now that I found it, I'm struggling to work out if recoveries on FBRef includes tackles and interceptions or if it's exclusive of them where they show them.

If exclusive there's going to be a lot of midielders getting a point each week.

Thinking it might be inclusive, that's a rough top 20 and we're seeing all of them sneak a point more often than not, there'd be quite a few more too. Suspect that's not what they're aiming for but I really don't know. Maybe they want mids and forwards getting the extra point often?

If tackles and interceptions are already counted in recoveries on FBRef and recoveries are completely seperate for pouncing on loose balls etc. it looks more like this, and would be a lot more balanced. No idea though! How many times do players pick up loose balls on average, it's not a stat I'm familiar with to even hazard a guess?

Cleaned up the defender list too while I'm at it to remove mids.

Answering my own question regarding all that now that I've seen this.


Tackles and interceptions are completely seperate from recoveries on FBRef. If they weren't there's no way Caicedo could have got 42, literally hits the extra point nearly every week and must have had some mammoth games with 24+ defensive contributions.

Was a bit confused because I thought that when tackling succesfully or making an interception you are kind of recovering the ball for your team anyway.

So yes, it's the first one of those charts I made for midfielders/forwards and dfensive actions. There's going to be a lot of extra points for them, partiuclarly for those DMs.

 

[sullydnl]

 

[Chipper]

This is going to be crazy.

Was just contemplating what sort of fixtures we could target for the defensive contribution thing. Someone like Caicedo or Tarkowski will hit the points regularly, but there'll be some players more likely to pick them up in certain games only if there team is under a little more pressure than is usal. Was trying to figure out how we could pinpoint those players, whether it would be worth it or not as there's more chance of clean sheet wipes in those games too. Saliba and Gabriel away at Newcastle for example = less chance of clean sheet, but more chance than usual of 2 defensive contribution points compared to most Arsenal fixtures. You might want to keep them in if in the past you'd have though of benching them for a nasty looking game. Hope for the cleanie, but you might get 4 points anyway if they concede.

Could even go deep and look at teams with a run of games against sides like to cross a lot. I imagine the clearances would go up against such teams from heading it away all afternoon.

Anyway, then they hit us with this!

Carnage, but it should be fun. This one I can get behind! That one's going to be fun.

 

[StamsShinyHead]

No more assistant manager.

 

[Dudu]

Woah. Crazy season incoming. Lots of swings in rank.

GW1 BB anybody?

No more assistant manager.

Good. It was a rubbish chip.

 

[paulscholes18]

I'm sure I remember Mark Sutherns saying on Blackbox that he wanted a chip for each half of the season. Now he's working on the game this season looks like he has made it happen.