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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What are everyone’s thoughts with regard to Chelsea defenders?
The two stand out defenders form last year (Ivan and Terry) are at a costly price yet are their attacking returns worth paying that little bit extra for?
Azpi at £6m looks good with Zouma/Cahill a tricky one to call in terms of minutes.
But then if you’re paying £6m for Azpi, are you better off trying to find a defender who offers more attacking returns to counteract the clean sheets Chelsea will inevitably get. I’m seeing a lot of managers dismissing Chelsea defence this year with so much money needing to be spent up top.
But what are the other options?
Cedric and PVA have good fixtures and offer an attacking return, as does Clyne if Rodgers plays wingbacks. I’d be very interested to know your thoughts on this as before the price list went up it was unimaginable to begin the season without a Chelsea defender.
The other option is of course Courtois but cheaper keepers often outscore him due to save points.
It’s a tough one, AT. Always feels dodgy spending so much on a defender but they are that price for a reason. Once including them isn’t taking away a premium forward or mid then it’s not a problem. The problem is finding a balance of cheap player to make up your other four defenders. For me, it’s either Ivan/Terry + four budget type, or a well rounded balanced defence.
Once Luis leaves, Azpi-Terry-Cahill-Ivan is going to be our likely defense.
Incase, you dont want to go for Chelsea defender. Only alternative I would suggest is Kosc.
Ignoring my Chelsea defensive dilemma above, I’ve created my first draft. Too early for a real rate my team but any initial thoughts on it? Thanks, naff all in the bank!
Looks pretty well balanced to me mate. I did however discover last night -think it was GP who put me onto it- that Watford have signed a CB, making Hoban that bit more risky. Preseason will determine what’s what but keep it in mind. Pesky 4m players eh?
Damn! Looks like there are no £4m defenders to use this year then. Thanks for the post above too, would love Ivan but tricky to get him in.
AT,
Good first draft! I’d consider changing J Rod to Gomis. Is Payet going to be a good idea to get in at the start? Maybe go for Hendo and monitor him? Is Hoban going to be a sure starter? I’m not so sure.
Good team overall, very similar to mine 😉
Yeah JRod is in just for his potential. Will monitor him.
Payet looks excellent but again he may go too. Preseason should hopefully tell us more.
Risky team!
Ruddy as lone goalkeeper isn’t a smart move if you want to keep WC till GW15. Clyne’s fixtures are tricky aswell. Spurs/Arsenal’s defender would be better. Quality-wise, midfield is ok. Not a fan of Ritchie, but looks favourite. Walcott has gametime issues while Depay/Payet are newbies.
Cheers Zizou, thought behind it is Norwich fixtures are great for the time being and it wouldn’t be very hard to upgrade Rudd if needs be. Pool has okay fixtures, Rose is of cours an option. Bellerin at £5.5m feels like a high priced rotation risk.
Payet has looked superb for the last few seasons but will monitor in preseason. Has Walcott ever had gametime issues when fit?
Afternoon all, for those of you that are unaware, there is a new league for the site posters around here. Go to page 1 , post 8 on this thread, have a read and get in touch. :thumbup:
Awesome article.
Haven’t done an in depth analysis or anything but I think with the proper bench the best way to go is play your bench almost every GW?
Aaah yes, having your entire bench play does this include the goalie?
Hey Raz. Each chip can only be used once, so they have to be planned and timed right. Only one can be used at a time and they cant be used in the same GW as a WC either. Makes things very interesting, eh?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. OKAY! DAMMIT! :rant:
Hahaha. Personally, i still think it’s good to start with a good bench in the hope to build value and then get a beast 15 for a later DGW.
How are we all planning to attack the new EPL season this year, are we all going to fill our mini league quota asap or only join a few to make them feel like they’re that little more important.
How many teams will we be setting up as well, I used to frown on the multiple accounts created malarkey but I’ve mellowed to this of late as it’s a long old grinding season ahead of us and it’s never an easy game to play when you get off to a slow start.
Andy – I’ll be in my usual mini leagues and also all the FF247 leagues, and the MLSBoss league too. As for multiple teams, i have enough trouble with one!
No cash leagues NIN? Are non of your mates sucker enough to put there money where there mouth is on the EPL front, my main cash league was the first of my leagues to reappear, unfortunately I’ve been the sucker in that one so far only winning one MOM competition in three seasons.
One mini league has a buy-in. Nearly half the league didn’t pay up in the end so i’m not happy about that because i walked the league. There might be another cash league but it’s likely to be just the one. It’ll be interesting to see how the more casual managers use their chips this season. They could well be the key to winning mini leagues if used correctly vs managers making a total balls of them!
That commish wants shot for not collecting subs in the preseason, the longer you leave it the worse it gets, you should of hired cookie
Tell em about it. I still got €150 but it should have been more than double that. I was expecting around €320 ish. Cookie is a marked man in the betting world, too hot for my liking 😉
Everyone paid me on time #justsaying
You did it the right way. No league codes until the moolah was sorted. My mate made a twat of it altogether. Basically, anyone who payed up before the season started made up the pot and the rest were just non entities. Still, i’ll reg for it again, and take whatever cash is there again :hippo:
Your friend kept the other half. 😉
Clever guy 😉
Just a reminder to change your team link to your name on here as you will all have a new FPL ID number so the old link will take you to someone else’s team.
Easiest way is to click on ‘view gameweek history’ on the FPL site just below your name on your team page. Then copy the whole URL at the top. Then on here click on ‘edit my profile’ (should be top right under your grav) and then scroll down to Website. Delete what’s there and paste in the copied URL.
Silver I wouldn’t even try! 😉 :hippo:
I’m having a bit of trouble doing that. Tried it last night and again just now. Maybe it’s just not showing when i click my own link. Can someone else have a looksie and see if it’s working?
seems to be working, your team name is “Bertrand Ernie FC”?
Haha, yep that’s the one. It doesn’t work when i click it. My own team don’t like me.. what is the world coming to?
i can see my own when i click mine, maybe no one else can se my team then ? 😛
Yours is working fine mate.