FPL launch 2015/16 – New Rules and Player Pricelist
Finally, after weeks of waiting excitedly like a child on Christmas Eve, FPL has been launched for the 2015/16 season. With GW1 still the best part of a month away, there will be countless hours of tinkering ahead as managers try and ensure they get off to the best possible start in their pursuit of global domination. The price list will be carefully scrutinised to find this season’s Harry Kane, while many a club’s pre-season tours and friendlies will be monitored to see who is showing impressive form and which of the new transfers appears to be settling in the best. All of this is of course normal July and August behaviour for us frustrated FPL managers, especially those who didn’t get involved in Fantasy MLS and the U21’s Euro Championships and certainly for those that despise the cricket!
FPL have however given us some other innovative changes to get our heads around as we contemplate the season ahead – and it’s these changes which we will concentrate on first before we then take a quick glance at the first reaction to the price list.
Rumours were rife days before launch date that FPL were tinkering with the game and they haven’t disappointed. There are four new elements to the game, all of which we need to understand fully to maximise our FPL performance this season.
CHANGES
[clear]Wildcards
Managers will have two Wildcards to use during the season – however, Wildcard 1 can only be used in the first half of the season (before 28 December 14.00hrs). The second Wildcard can only be used in the second half of the season. If you fail to use your Wildcard in the first half of the season, you will lose it. The January Wildcard has been scrapped and does not exist anymore.
Chips
A new feature of the game is the “Chips” that FPL has introduced. There are three different kind of chips:
All Out Attack
Bench Boost
Triple Captain
All Out Attack
Allows you to play a 2-5-3 formation in the next gameweek.
Bench Boost
Points scored by your bench players in the nominated gameweek are included in your total score.
Triple Captain
Your nominated captain’s points are trebled. In the event of your captain not playing, your vice captain’s points will be trebled. If neither your captain or vice-captain feature then you will not benefit from playing your “Triple Captain” chip that week and it will not be reallocated to your team.
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The All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips can each be used once a season and are played when saving your team on the “My Team” page. They can be cancelled at any time before the gameweek deadline.
However, please note that only one chip (including your wildcard) can be played in a single gameweek. For example – it would NOT be possible to play your wildcard in a big DGW and also utilise the Triple Captain chip.
What effect will these “chips” have on our selection?
Initially not a lot, unless you are planning to play one of the chips early on. However, we would advise caution and patience – as we know, early season can be very unpredicatable where it is not uncommon for promoted teams to gain surprise results, new transfers are still settling in and players who have represented their countries in summer tournaments will often be eased back into action slowly.
The Triple Captain feature seems the simplest chip to plan for – and the likelihood is that one will use it when one of your star names (Aguero, Hazard, Costa, Alexis etc) are either playing at home to a supposed weakened side or there is a DGW, which will likely only happen in the second half of the season.
Bench Boost will obviously require us to have a fully playing squad – the initial thoughts of this are that managers may avoid choosing two keepers from the same team (Foster, Myhill – West Brom etc) and will want to make sure that their fifth midfielder is likely to have a chance of contributing something more than a 2pt return (Gareth Barry fans be warned!).
The Gareth Barry example from above also applies to All Out Attack – managers will want five attacking midfielders and therefore it is recommended not to rush to use this feature to ensure that your fifth midfielder for that week (who is likely to be a cheapie), is not only a guaranteed starter, but that his attacking stats are good, as indeed are his fixture that week.
So those are the new features and at first glance they seem exciting innovations to keep us on our toes and will require us to concentrate our planning further.
Gone are the days of a simple RMT. It will now be, “Please RMT and I’ve activated my All Out Attack”!!
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Players Price List – initial reaction
Unsurprisingly, last season’s budget FPL gold, Harry Kane has shed his “cheap as chips” price tag and opens the season with a price of 9.5mln. So who is this season’s bargain basement striker? If you fancy a punt on newly promoted Watford or Bournemouth, then Troy Deeney and Callum Wilson start the bidding at 5.5mln. Among those priced at 6mln are Leicester’s Loenardo Ulloa & Jamie Vardy as is Liverpool’s new striker Divock Origi. If they don’t excite you then among the crowd at 6.5mln are Saido Berahino (WBA) and Daifra Sakho under the tutorship of Bilic at West Ham, who started the Europa League campaign with a brace. Bafetimbi Gomis of Swansea is priced at 7mln as is the fit again Jay Rodriguez at Southampton. If you’re still not enthused and if you can stretch to 7.5mln you have such names as Danny Ings at Liverpool and Falcao at Chelsea (what a bargain if Jose gets him firing).
New player prices – some of the new players to the Premiership or those who have changed teams that may interest you:
Petr Cech (Arsenal) – 5.5mln
Micah Richards (Villa) – 4.5mln
Gerard Deulofeu (Everton) – 6.5mln
Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool) – 5.5mln
Firmino (Liverpool) – 8.5mln
James Milner (Liverpool) – 7.0mln
Memphis Depay (Man Utd) – 8.5mln
Maarten Stekelenburg (Southampton) – 5.0mln
Andre Ayew (Swansea) – 7.0mln
Dimitri Payet (West Ham) – 7.5mln
And some selected old favourites:
Sergio Aguero – 13mln
Diego Costa – 11mln
Olivier Giroud – 9mln
Eden Hazard – 11.5mln
Cesc Fabregas – 9mln
Alexis Sanchez – 11mln
Theo Walcott – 9mln
David Silva – 10mln
Yaya Toure – 8.5mln
Angel Di Maria – 8.5mln
Wayne Rooney – 10.5mln
You will all have your own views and may spot the glaring bargain that I have missed. So please share your thoughts below on both the new changes to the game (the chips) and also your thoughts on the prices and maybe you’ve even begun to draft your initial squad.
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Here’s my take on 2015/16 so far but I know that I will be making changes due to transfers or injuries ir change of judgement but here we go
Hi SP, welcome back. Niceties over, now to kick you in the nuts!
Only joking, sort of. I’m not liking that midfield in all honesty. Fab and Sanchez yes, if Haz is out of range budget wise but the other 3 feel a bit weak to me. I’d like to see at least 1 more mid to big player in terms of price and maybe do so by downgrading 1 of the other 3.
niceties lasted 4 words there Init?
Just warming up for the season
How dare you bunch in Hendo in with the other bums, I mean cheaper options.
As is Mito I see!
Funnily enough I was just glancing at the price list (long story and how embarrassing it is) and noticed that Cesc and Sterling are 9.0 and managed 165 and 158 points last season. Hendo and Chadli ae 7.0 and managed 162 and 160. So maybe Slow mistakenly stumbled onto something. Nah, I am not giving him that much credit. Must be an auto select squad. 😉
Hi Slow – how you doing?
Tommie Hoban eh. Just a cheapie or you think he will play?
No Hazard in there either.
its so early that its hard to think too hard about it isnt it
Just a cheapie, I don’t even know iff hes s starter, hes just there
Everton Won 4-0 today with Mirralas scoring 2 goals.
What about Cleverley and Naismith – I assume they grabbed a goal each?
I’d probably keep my powder dry if my team was pinning it’s hopes on an ageing German who can barely walk and a right back that thinks there’s only one half to a football pitch.
another early bite, lovely :hippo:
Cookie you may delight that I took the bait but the reality is that there’s a serious point here – we don’t and aren’t competing with your team. We go into another season knowing we have no chance whatsoever of competing. 1 of 4 teams will win the league and realistically probably just 1 of 2. What do hope for? Stay in the league? Challenge for a Europa spot that nobody actually wants? Maybe look like we are competing for a CL spot because everything clicked and we are 6th come March? That won’t happen because the top 4’s bench is worth more than our starting 11 and that’s key come then. The only teams with any hope are the super clubs who were either lucky enough to be involved in the CL when it went bang or were bought by a billionaire. FIFA put in place the fair play but guess what the super clubs didn’t like it so hey that’s fine, sorry about that, carry on. So yeah we get Cleverley which on our level is ok because we aren’t competing in the same league. So what’s the hope and expectation for someone who supports a ‘normal’ club? None. I hate football for that.
If this is what you’re like after meeting a Scotsman, then don’t ever take the mrs to Edinburgh for the weekend 😉
I agree mostly with the ageing German remark, didn’t read the article you just wrote though. I need to build up for that.
I’ll add some pics later for you Mito. And then tweet it. Should go down a storm
Think he misses writing! The overall point about footy is a fair one and I wouldn’t disagree and I’ll be careful not to joke about Young Tom and Naismith again. Until August 😉
An ageing German then eh? Yet Milner, a year younger is a brilliant signing and Carrick who was vital to United, when fit, and got them playing is 4 years older. Let’s see how it works out.
Personally I think it’s a fantastic signing, in terms of bringing experience, leadership and class to a midfield which has been sadly lacking since Scholes left. And the squad in general should learn from the one legged German.
I think it’s a great signing if he is fit and ready to go. Class act and he’ll anchor that midfield superbly. Was being flippant.
I heard the Physio is holding out for a pay raise now. Something about being much busier now that Schhhweshh signed.
NIN, leave me your email address since you’re social media-lly challenged, and I’ll get in touch to start thinking about doubles.
pr8108@gmail.com :thumbup:
NiN you do have a twitter account! I know I have seen it.
Although it does act like a ghost ship.
I only set that up for the vote thingy, literally haven’t logged in once since then.
NiN just follow certain accounts and use it to check on FPL & MLS stuff and the occasional tits.
It’s full of those. In both senses.
It’s not for me mate, i can get info elsewhere. And tits.
You’ve got mail!
Look out doubles league, here come the NiNstars. :0
Elle, how do I enter a team mate? I’m with TomW13. Cheers.
NiN, you got mail.
Burnsy, drop us an e-mail, Elleffcee@fantasyfootbal247.co.uk
Ok, do we need to have a team ready now or can we just get ourselves a spot?
Just get yourselves set up, as per usual, then you have to start discussing your squad, simples.
Oh Burnsy, i’ll reply to your mail with the code.
Azpi & Morgan or Mertesacker & Alderweireld?
I think i have answer it above.
Azpi n mert
Azpi + Mert.
So where’s the “activate +5M” chip button?
As a two GW chip I wouldn’t mind that.