Fantasy Premier League Intro 2018/19
Welcome to Fantasy Premier League Intro 2018/19. As most of you are aware, FPL has been live for a couple of weeks now, but due to England’s surprising progress to the semi-finals and many of you playing both the Fantasy World Cup game and our very own Predictions Competition we have delayed any FPL articles until today. It’s full speed ahead now though as we look forward to the start of the season which kicks off on Friday 10th August.
If you’ve not been with us over the summer then we hope you feel refreshed and renewed and enjoyed some fantasy-free time. We extend a particular welcome to our new friends who have migrated over from Fantasy Football First – we hope you feel welcome and at home with us.
The purpose of this article is kick off FPL but also to provide you with all the necessary links that you will need…
FPL LEAGUES
First things first and some housekeeping – please be sure to join the main FF247 league here (autojoin link) League Code: 1581-751
There is a ‘Regulars’ league too but for access to this you need to contact Elle via elleffcee@gmail.com
This one is specifically for those who join in on the site conversation on a daily / weekly basis. Please respect that criteria before applying and wasting Elle’s time and ours.
FPL RULES
The rules for the game are simply as per last season – you have two wildcards to use, one in the first half of the season only and one to use in the second half of the season only. The other chips also remain the same – namely Triple Captain, Bench Boost and Free Hit.
So really it’s just time to start building your team if you haven’t already. No doubt the tinkering will continue right up until the GW1 deadline as players impress or not as the case may be, in preseason friendlies.
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
Usually we run an article and ask people to get involved and cover the friendlies with any info they can gather. And it’s usually fun but in all honesty it’s usually also a bit messy and difficult to refer back to. This season we have one link that you will need need for all such info, courtesy of Mito –
Here you will find all the pre-season info you could ever wish for in one place – line-ups, scorers, assists, match info, sarcastic comments….
FPL FIXTURE TRACKER
(It’s scrollable btw, just swipe left or right)
FIXTURE TRACKER LINK
It’s been a busy summer already with Arsenal, Everton, West Ham and Chelsea appointing new managers, Manchester City adding to their already dominant squad, Man Utd continuing to splash the cash and Liverpool trying to protect Karius by beefing up their midfield. Spurs may even have a new home soon.
And FPL wise, this is the place to discuss strategy, learn about the promoted teams and their players while in the days and weeks to come we’ll have plenty of articles, interviews, player analysis, Bore Offs, Tips, etc, etc.
So be sure to get involved in the discussions, the RMTs and the banter as we look forward to another season of Fantasy fun!
The League Codes for FF247 for the 2018/19 season are as follows –
The main public FF247 League , which anyone is welcome to join, can be accessed using the following code 1581-751 (auto-link below).
The prize pool for this one will be confirmed in due course.
Join Our League – Quick Link
League Code: 1581-751
View league standings
Our Regulars League* for 2018/19 is now open and has a cash prize pool of £300 paid directly to the winners from the FF247 management team. The first 5 places are paid out in a tiered system.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code – elleffcee@gmail.com
*terms and conditions apply and are available upon request. Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis. If you enter and win a prize you have to have commented on the site at least 5 times for 8 consecutive months between August 2018 and March 2019 or you will not be considered for a prize. That’s basically 1 comment a week all season, we think that’s a reasonable ask to be considered a ‘regular’.
In your e-mail could you please supply:-
Your name.
Your site user name.
Your team name from last season and your new team name if it has changed.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Intro 2018/19. This article was written by Cookie
Picking a 15 i’m happy with including salah aubameyang and Aguero is hard. Anyways i’m going to stick with this for now till we know more from the friendlies.
I like it
Not keen with 4 3 3 but it might grow on me
Kenedy and Cairney probably would not stay on bench though. Guessing you would rotate them in
Yeah, that’s a nice side. I am toying with starting with a back 4.
Cookie,
Thank you for the into article and I’m delighted we’re back in FPL mode.
Had a good read of all the comments so far. I’m getting excited!
Props to The Legend for that pre season document. Absolutely immense mate :clap:
Cheers GP, but can we now drop the Legend for our Colombian Yank….. 😉
Here’s what I have so far. Its not a RMT as such as its far from finalised in a few spots. But there’s a clue as to the formation I’m leaning to!
Wow. Love.
Plenty of attacking potential in that backline!
I would look at Arsenal after their first two fixtures; maybe have a couple of players in for the first couple of games and bring in Arsenal players after the dust has settled.
So I’d look at Baines / Bailly maybe for Bellerin and Siggy/Walcott/a wild punt on Jota/Gross/Keita et al for Ramsey.
Kralin, yes I’m an Everton attacker short – I had Tosun in for most of the time but may lean to Lookman if it looks like he’ll get starts.
Baines or Bailly for Bellerin could also work for 2 weeks, thanks.
As much as i love the backline I do feel I’m at least one attacker short in the front 5.
I posted something earlier about the 5-3-2 formation. It’s nice in that you can get a lot more elite players in the same XI but it’s an extremely inflexible formation.
And based on my experiments with that formation last season, the bad weeks are very bad indeed, points wise. Just imagine what can happen.
Kralin, yeah I see what you are saying….but surely there is more value in a 5.5/6mln defender than a midfielder priced at that level? Obviously on a selective basis….ie the ones i have chosen above I can justify to you now individually. But if i try and find similar priced mids that i feel will score decently I’m struggling.
I was having exactly the same debate last year. And I brought the 5-3-2 home at 20k, so it did OK – had I not doubled on Azpi and Alonso practically the whole season it would have done better. I got lured into the formation by the explosive potential of superdudes like Alonso – defenders playing as if they were strikers. I convinced myself the 5-3-2 was more a 3-5-2. But in the end bonus points went more to the Phil Jones’ of this world and I started looking at centre backs more.
Not one week though did I captain a defender in that side though, for fairly obvious reasons. While defenders, especially your attacking wing-backs, can have spectacular returns some weeks, defenders’ points tallies can be ruined so easily.
In terms of mids at 5.5 and 6 yes, it’s thin gruel – Gudmundsson, Fraser, Townsend, The Duke (Doucoure).
And in terms of the similar priced mids thing, why not compromise and play a 4-3-3?
Kralin, that’s probably the way to go.
I feel I’m a striker light to be honest.
I’m laughing while I write all this mate because by GW3 i’ll probably have ripped it all up and wildcarded to a 3-4-3 with cheap defenders!!!!
I never go big at the back but I really like this
Think I like all your defenders, not sure about having them all at the same time though.
Ramsey feels worth it. If Burnley get through in the Europa you will probably need a different player in to replace Wood.
Damn, forgot about Burnley’s Europa tour….thanks
Looks good Cookie. I’m also investing more than usual in my back line, as that’s where the points were early last season and I can see a repeat this season. Still making my mind up on Salah but can afford him if I move to two up front.
It goes without saying that there will be a few dozen more drafts before the season kicks off.
How is the WC playing into your thinking? I’m generally avoiding players who got a lot of game time for the first few weeks – unfortunately I haven’t really paid attention in previous years to how much the tournaments impact on playing time.
Posted this on here yesterday.
Based on previous years, you would think we will have to avoid any player who made it to semis at the very least, unless we are told different by the manager or what we see in friendlies. There was 34 days between the start of the PL and the final of the World Cup in 2014. There will be only 26 days between those two dates this year, so that feels like a lot of trouble. In particular since Belgium and England made it to semis and their teams are littered with PL players.
This quote from Jose in the last day or two > “I believe that three weeks of rest is the minimum time that the body needs and the spirt to return to think about football. The players who took part in the World Cup will return in the same weekend that the Premier League starts. This means that they will not be ready to play matches. Another week is needed so that everyone can be ready physically.”
Also this from some paper ‘ After the 2014 World Cup final between Germany and Argentina, Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski did not start a match for Arsenal until the end of August, and neither did Pablo Zabaleta and Sergio Aguero for Manchester City.
It will not only be England’s players who could miss the start of the Premier League season after Russia 2018.
Almost half of Belgium’s squad currently play in England, as do five of semi-final opponents France.
Croatia have only one Premier League player in their squad, Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren.’
Hey Robbo,
re the WC, I’m avoiding any of those that played at the weekend.
Some interesting picks there…i really like Mendy but he’ll still be having a holiday and then late preseason despite his lack of minutes. Same with TAA – he may easy miss the first couple.
Daniels I think is a trap – I’ve had a good look at him and I remember having him for quite a while last season and he did nothing for me so i’m avoiding, though I see the attraction. But I’ve been burnt by him before.
Alonso….hmm the jury seems to be out on him as to whether the new manager plays 4 or 5 at the back – if he plays 4 I’m not sure if Alonso fits in….which is why i went with Azpi.
Mahrez, Sane, Mane, Aubayemang & Tosun could work really nicely.
No Salah is a concern but is a budget buster.
AT will love to see Hughes in there!!
Considering there is 7-8 days less between the final and the start of the PL, it could mean that guys who made semis will not only miss GW1, but GW2 also, if they are given the same time to recover as four years ago. I am sure some will make it back sooner and some might have sub appearances, but I expect it to be about GW3 before we see the full sides out on all teams.
That’s really useful thanks Mito. I’ll certainly steer well clear of the semi finalists.
Just another normal start to the season ahead for Kane if he doesn’t play until after August
Hey Cookie.
I already have other versions of the team without the ones you mention in it
Daniels really is the FPL equivalent of just picking a random chocolate from the box. Last year GW1 I got burned by starting the season with both him and King – who seems to get most of his points in the second half of the season. Fool me once…
Azpi will likely be the better pick and can see Alonso being rotated far more this season. Mahrez & Sane I think will get a lot of game time early doors while the other midfielders have a rest.
Hughes showed enough for me last season to think he’s undervalued so well worth a punt
This can do very well or very badly. I would stay away from that idea until the defences find their feet and we can safely say who is performing and who is not. It can work though, I had this tactic for around 8 weeks last year and rose the ranks like a rocket.
Hi everyone, first time poster here. Looking forward to the season ahead (though will likely fade into obscurity after Christmas – but let’s hope not). I’m Salahing, Kuning, and De Geaing so far. Everyone else is coming and going at a rate of knots.
There are a few faces (well, names and avatars) I recognise from Fantasy Football First (Secret Zorro, mosc, Ivan etc al). If any of those old FFFers can let me know what happened to FFF, I’d be grateful . Happy to be here, however!
FFF’s gone for a Burton. A few of us were dug out of the wreckage. I’m sincerely hoping everyone else got out OK and will materialise here.
I miss Old Goat, Kumast and Zwischenzug in particular.
Good to see you survived, Kralin. FFF was a top quality site with top quality debate and insight. I do hope someone thought to go back and look for the emojis – the :jawdrop: was my favourite :(! Glad to see many of the old guard made it
.
And yourself, Loud Atlas.
I got a bit fed up of the emojis, especially that awful one of someone being repeatedly punched in the face.
I just thought, use words.
Welcome Atlas, glad you made it over! As most have said I’m sure you’ll find it easy to settle in here as it’s a very similar vibe to there. The emojis were discussed heavily when a lot originally transitionined. We have our own and yes they are generally a bit calmer! I’m with Kralin on this one I’m afraid! Just one note on using ours, you have to have a clear space either side of it or it won’t post –
,not :)! for example.
@Loud Atlas, happy to have you mate. Many questions left to be answered in terms of fantasy. Think there will be so much tinkering done there is no telling what we will end up with. No matter what I know won’t be happy with my team come GW1, but we can’t have everybody.
As far as FFF, I will let one of the guys from there answer that as I don’t want to misinform you.
Many thanks, Mito. Looking forward to getting stuck in and the inevitable palpitations on Saturday mornings hovering over the last minute captain selection
.
Welcome Loud Atlas – we were genuinely sorry to see FFF go but we hope you and the rest of the gang can be happy with us on here – you’re certainly more than welcome.
Cheers, Cookie. I’m sure the FFF brood will bring their good vibes along :)!
Hey Loud Atlas
Welcome along mate.
Thanks, Pioneer :)! 10th August can’t come soon enough! (Not that we’ve been football-deprived, of course!)
Absolutely not.
But this is a whole new level of excitement . . .
Nice to have you onboard LA!
I’m sure you’ll find us to be a like minded group to what you’re used to, and there are already many ‘faces’ you’ll be familiar with to help the transition!
Thanks, Rosco! First impressions are good so far :)!
Early days rmt…
Obviously no Salah…
Pancho, its a well balanced squad mate. Shows what you can do with no Salah!
Thanks Cookie! Really feels like that’s the main decision and the rest follows :/
I’ve had him in a few drafts, but it leaves me really weak elsewhere.
Nice to see I’m in good company with Daniels in my squad.
I’m avoiding spurs attackers for the first few weeks as a lot of them played in the WC. The flip side is that Davies should be nailed on and getting forward a lot at the start of the season.
I hear you Red. I think Eriksen is essential for Spurs and he’s on most set pieces. I think he’ll be ready by Gw1 because he’s been done for a few weeks already.
Think you need Salah mate! Any particular reason for excluding him?
Chances are I’ll end up making a last minute decision between one squad with him and one without. He is a lot of money. You going with him from the start?
Init, I know. As I said to Cookie above, that really feels like the main decision. I just can’t bring myself to plump up the cash in these early drafts. Everyone that’s had him in has had a cheap 3rd 4th and 5th mids, as well as weaker defense. I think I’ll probably end up with my wife’s team playing 5 at the back with something like Salah/Mkhi/Kane/Aguero/Firm as the front 5.
Pancho,
I’m persuaded. The only question I have is what one does about captains. There are a number of close calls. Just go with Aguero? Curious.
I really like the inclusion of Sane – he’s had no WC involvement to worry about (only Pep’s rotation).
I’ll be playing Cedric for GW1 – good chance of a CS and attacking potential, too.
Morning
What do you reckon to this? (No salah)
I’m avoiding Arsenal players for their opening two fixtures.
Of the Palace defenders Sakho, with his gift of grabbing bonus points, is the more appealing to me. I think he’s cheaper than vA as well.
What’s made you go for Neves? Lack of other 5m midfielders? There’s not a lot around at that price.
I think in your shoes I may downgrade one of my attackers and bolster the defence a bit (someone like Robertson). One good thing this year s that we have a couple of 7m attackers to punt on.
Couldn’t think of any other decent £5m midfielders, plus I caught a couple of glimpses of neves last season and he looked decent. Cheers Kralin
talksport have just been bigging up Neves
Morning Mitro. Not sure on double Arsenal attack to start. Neves is a defensive midfielder so won’t do much. 5.5 for a Palace defender seems a bit much for me. I don’t like the Mane pick I can see him going off around 60 minutes a lot for Shaqiri
Probably following my heart on the arsenal coverage! Defo will have PEA regardless! Cheers smash
Mitro,
I love that but I don’t like the lack of Salah. You start with him and work back IMO.
I will have another tinker tomorrow, cheers mate
Are we ignoring Chelsea assets to our peril? Sarri produced excellent attacking and defensive stats at Napoli…..90 odd goals scored, just 30 conceded……
Morning mate,
Depends where Hazard starts the season.
on holiday I would imagine
Probably.
I’d love to see Chelsea go for Mertens.
It’s who’s going to be there and who’s going to play is the question
I’ve Azpi at the moment. But the turbulence around Chelsea may be putting a few people off. Hazard and Courtois could be saying saluu. No idea who they’ve got coming in. New manager. Azpi’ll do for now.