FPL launch 2016/17 – New Rules and Player Pricelist
Finally it is live! FPL is back, life as we know it will not be the same for the next 10 months! At first glance there seems little change to last season – budget and squad size is naturally the same and the four chips remain in place, including the two wildcards – one to be used in the first half of the season, the other to be used in the second half of the season. The first may not be carried over – so use it or lose it. The only change seems to be in the calculation of bonus points – a breakdown of which can be found under the Rules tab.
With less than a month to go before the start of the season, managers will be busily playing with different formations and strategies, so to help you on your way, let’s take a very brief look at some of the highlights of the price list for the players.
Players Price List – initial reaction
The most expensive player (as per usual!) is Sergio Aguero who again costs 13mln, while the success last season of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez sees their prices rocket to eliminate their bargain status! Nolito and Anthony Martial being listed as midfielders may attract decent support. Zlatan Ibrahimovic comes in at 11.5mln to make him the second most expensive player while Diego Costa costs just 9.5mln, making him cheaper than Harry Kane, Daniel Sturridge and Jamie Vardy. Daley Blind are Chris Brunt are now listed as defenders, while Eric Dier is now listed as a midfielder.
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New player prices – some of the new players to the Premiership
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 11.5mln
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 9.5mln
Michy Batshuayi 9.0mln
Nolito 9.0mln
Eric Bailly 5.5mln
And some selected old favourites:
Sergio Aguero 13.0mln
Harry Kane 11.0mln
Daniel Sturridge 10.0mln
Jamie Vardy 10.0mln
Diego Costa 9.5mln
Olivier Giroud 9.0mln
Wayne Rooney 9.0mln
Alexis Sanchez 11.0mln
Kevin de Bruyne 10.5mln
Eden Hazard 10.0mln
Dimitri Payet 9.5mln
Riyad Mahrez 9.5mln
Anthony Martial 9.5mln
Mesut Ozil 9.5mln
Firmino 8.5mln
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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FPL launch 2016/17 – New Rules and Player Pricelist. This article was written by Cookie
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Hello all
Great to be back here reading some interesting posts and comments. Was my 1st full fantasy last season, didn’t do too bad, in my books anyway.
The unlikely superstars of last season have really shot up in price so its tricky to fit your dreams players on that 100M budget. Still toying around with the squad this early but which team looks more reasonable to y’all?
kkjay
Personally I like bits of each of them but I would start with Aguero personally. No glaring warnings that I see. Keep an eye on Darmian during pre-season to see if Mourinho looks like using him.
Gallant,
Cheers for the input. Was thinking might be better to start with 2 proven hard hitter forwards to start with, even though Ibra doesn’t have PL experience.
Hi kk, Ibra and Kun are in mine. So much easier to walk away from that than to suddenly be found out wanting it.
Ibra in the EPL, just fucking great.
I think United are paying too much money for Pogba though. But this is modern football, tv money and crazy. I think Pogba alone costs more than what the Dutch Eredivisie will spent on transfers in 5 years.
He’s a game changer for them though, in more than one way. Been a while since they had a real dominant midfield presence. I’d be genuinely excited if I was Utd fan.
Raz, how much is too much? Pogba’s price would equate to less than 20% of annual turnover – less of a %age than Rio and Veron were.
To put it another way, in terms of an individual club’s finances, that’s comparable with Spurs spending 30mln on someone or indeed City spending 50mln on Sterling.
United are spending their own self-generated money.
Yeah I’m defending it of course I am – as Init has said we’ve been crying out for a world class dominant midfielder since Keane left.
Gareth Barry is £4.5m
Ssssshhhh you don’t wanna be breaking up that Barry / Young Tom midfield combo!
Unfortunately I have a feeling that if you land Pogba we’ll be getting yet another Manchester cast off somewhere along the line.
Maybe – you’ve been linked with Mata and Schneiderlin, who I assume you’d take. I’d offer you Fellaini back 😉
Mata for sure. He’d actually become fantasy relevant again then. Not sure on ‘ol Morgan. Feels like a German version of Barry now. Similarly consistent, slow output, probably just more efficient. I’d take Fellaini back actually. With consistent games he’s another that would again become fantasy relevant again. Assuming we had the wit to play him in the correct position.
Schneiderlin is French.
Hey guys, I’m having trouble locating some players. Is it safe to say the player/price list isn’t complete and will be updated? Where the hell is Gaston Ramirez for example?
Probably just a time glitch Red. He only just signed officially and was technically on loan last season. Often takes a few days to update new signings.
Right on, thanks init. I was curious what his price was and couldn’t find him listed. How’s it going with you, man? This place is about to go bonkers for the next 10 months or so, are you excited for the season?
Just trying to work it so I have more time for both my own team and also to post on site and be involved in the community element more than I’ve been able to since we started this. Almost sorted I think. Hate spending Friday nights sorting site stuff out behind the scenes, for example, when everyone else is on chatting away about their teams. And actually sorting their teams out. In all honesty.
A ton of work goes on behind the scenes that we don’t know/think about I’m sure. I used to be an admin on a busy site with dozens of message boards and it was a lot of work- and none of it paid! For what it’s worth, this is the best and only FPL site I hang out and post on, and I appreciate all the time you guys put in. I used to post on FFC way back in the day and thought that was great. But you guys have taken it to a whole other level! Hope you guys can find a way to keep everything running smoothly and enjoy it yourselves as well.
Red, Ramirez is still to sign a full tume contract with Boro – his previous one expired at the end of last season. It’s just a formality I understand and the new contract should be signed very soon.
Thanks Cookie. I’ll see your Gaston Ramirez and raise you a Marko Grujic, can’t seem to find him either! I think the suits at FPL headquarters should spend more time updating the player lists and less time shitting up the format and graphics of the website!!
Hey guys great site here just wondering if i can have some thoughts on my starer team thanks lads!
Hi soulas. Triple Southampton attack is way over the top, for me. One should be enough really. Some United cover is a good idea too i think, be it defence or attack.
Thank you for the response i was thinking that and yeah im thinking of getting luke shaw if hes a good option and who are the southhamton players you would trade out of my team? Not sure who because i have a reason for all of them to be in their lol, Just let me know some improvements and who are some united players that i can have for cover?
They’re not all gonna produce good fantasy points together though so it’s serious overload of a team that doesn’t really score all that many goals anyway. I’d drop all three to be honest. Shaw is a good shout, might buy him myself. Sigurdsson looks a great shout for at least two weeks then he can go for someone with better fixtures. Maybe drop Rodriguez to a 4.5m bench filler, and use that cash to get Mkhitaryan / Martial / Mahrez / Payet or basically any of the better mids in the league. Even Rooney is an option as he’s likely going to be sitting in the middle of an attack that is looking pretty tasty all of a sudden. Obviously there’s Ibra, too, but you’re a long way from getting him, cash wise. I like Andros Townsend, too. Great fixtures for Palace.
Hi Soulas. Good team imo but no Man U defence coverage? It’s Mourihno and even without him, they were solid in defence last season. Maybe if you could give Shaw or De Gea a look as a mainstay. Cheers! :popcorn:
I dont want ibra in all honesty hes to expensive and will scare the defence more than scoring goals so i think he will score about 10-15 but yeah il probably drop the 3 but il find cash somewhere
Hello all!
I’m new here as my old site (not mentioning any names as the ‘manager’ was a good friend of mine) has gone all clickbaity. Normally I would do a few updates on the ever changing squad so I’m going to post my thoughts + first draft now.
So, last night I did what I do every year and made a massive shortlist of 50+ players ready to stick them all into a team today. First off we have the goalkeepers and the defence. I’m a big fan of not skimping out on the defence, I’d much prefer to spend a bit more money to have a strong points scoring backbone. Often the defence is your most consistent way of scoring points, clean sheets are much more common than one player scoring goals, sometimes even from the very best strikers. Starting off in goal, I have two £5.5m signings, Lloris and Courtois. Tottenham have a pretty favourable start to the season and I fancy them picking up a few clean sheets there while Courtois covers Tottenham’s tough weeks (3, 7) for the first 9 games of the season. Chelsea have new manager Conte who is a defensive genius and I would think they would have the most clean sheets at the end of the season. Normally I would not have two defenders from the same team, but I have made an exception for Kyle Walker. With Spurs’ easy start to the season and Walker’s impressive performance last season and at the Euros I’m happy to have two from Tottenham especially when he comes in £0.5m cheaper than Danny Rose. Leighton Baines is a Fantasy Football favourite and with a new manager with a brilliant premier league record I fancy Everton to fix their defensive woes last season. Of course, Baines has a high chance of being on penalties, free kicks and corners which is music to everyone’s ears and available at £5.5m! With their reasonably easy start to the season I think this is a risk I have to take. Aaron Cresswell is an amazing attacking fullback who plays for a very strong West Ham team. He may not be on free kicks anymore but his ability to run up and down the pitch gives him plenty of opportunities to get assists and the rare goal. With 11 clean sheets last season it’s not like he won’t be lacking in this area either, plus he has some pretty favourable fixtures early on. Mourinho has returned to the premier league, this time with Manchester United. His very good defensive record made me want to pick up one of his players. My first reaction was to pick up Smalling but after seeing both Bailly and Shaw for £0.5m less it had to be one of those two. After much consideration I went with Bailly because 1. He is guaranteed to start I am sure, £30m is not cheap for a centre back and I’ve heard he was very good at Villarreal. Smalling has been crying out for a decent centre back partner for a few years now and now he has one. 2. Shaw has had SIX(!) yes, six injuries since joining United two seasons ago, including that horrible 300 day long double leg break. Although I do understand those who pick Shaw over Bailly. Finally, we have Wes Morgan. Leicester have lost a key defensive player in Kante but Mendy has been brought in as a good looking replacement. We all know Leicester play a counter attacking, defensive style and it’s very likely to win them more clean sheets this season. My cheapest defender at £5.0m I am very happy to have him rounding out the defence.
After finishing the defence, I have £62m to spend on the attacking players (midfielders + strikers). I prefer to finish and lock-in the defence first to make sure I don’t cheap out on it later on. Firstly I would like to point out that my view is that you are better off spending more on the midfield as there is a bigger point gap between cheap midfielders and expensive midfielders than the same with the strikers. My first two signings without a doubt are players who I was hugely impressed with last season and both are able to create and score goals (and points) out of nowhere. Kevin De Bruyne and Dmitri Payet. At 10.5 million and 9.5 million respectively they are not cheap at a combined £20 million, but their ability to create points single-handedly is massive for fantasy football. When you look at the strikers who can do the same they are all more expensive, Aguero at £13m, Ibra at £11.5m, Kane at £11m, Sturridge at £10m. For me, these two are no-brainers and were the first two in the side. From two expensive midfielders to a very cheap one. Danny Drinkwater for £5.5m to me is incredible value. Everyone saw how he linked up with Vardy last season and with the addition of Musa to the side, another super quick, clinical striker, and Mendy to hold in midfield while Drinkwater goes forward, Drinkwater has the potential to be even better than last season. I was also interested in another midfielder from Leicester, Demerai Gray, very cheap for £5.0m but right now I’m not confident he will be starting every week. One to keep an eye on through pre-season though! Next I moved on to looking at some budget strikers who will score at least 10 goals this season. For now I wanted two of them under £7.5m, on my shortlist was Musa (£7.5m), Deeney (£7.0m), Carroll (£6.5m), Long (£6.5m), Wilson (£6.5m) and Gray (£6.5m). First off the list was Gray due to my insecurities about Burnley this season and the tough fixtures they have for the first 10 games. He’s a very good striker though and even if Burnley don’t perform he should score goals this season, I will be keeping my eye on him as the season progresses. Next off is Deeney who has a horrible first 5 games of the season, but GW 6-10 is promising for the Watford penalty taker. Down to four: Musa, Caroll, Long and Wilson. At this point I decided to put Caroll in. He finished last season superbly and with West Ham’s midfield talent I think he could go on to surprise a lot of people next season. As Bilic said near the end of last season, he is the best header of a ball in the world. Having that ability will give him goals. No question. Especially with Antonio and Cresswell at full back and West Ham buying new wingers to float balls onto his head. My only worry is if West Ham buy a new striker, at the current point in time he is their No 1 and will start, and is the bargain of the strikers this season. Next, I took Wilson off the list. As a Coventry fan I know how good he is but I don’t like Bournemouth’s transfers so far or their chances of staying up next season. Left with a choice between Long and Musa, I chose the proven Premier League talent. Much like Vardy his pace and his clinical finishing are enough to give him goals and we don’t know how Musa will react to the Premier League despite his good goal scoring record in the Russian League and may be swiftly replaced with Okazaki. I just hope the new manager at Southampton is a good one. (Also Long’s fixtures fit in with Caroll’s very well imo).
3 places left in the side then, two midfielder and one striker to buy with £23.5 million a rough average of just under £8m for each player. These three are probably the ones I am going to be switching around the most as preseason develops. For now I have chosen Kane, Barkely and Gray. But I have changed these three numerous times in the few hours I have been making my team anyway… The rest of the team I am very happy with!
Many thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed my thoughts, would love to hear your thoughts about my team (especially that annoying three I can’t make my mind up on!!)
Karlis
PS: Apologies for the long post!! As a perfectionist with OCD this is the kind of this I do…
Wowzers! Will have a proper read later but that’s a monster post, thank you and welcome to the site Karlis! No click bait here mate.
Before I posted all my thoughts (I do this for cycling too) I was writing it all down on paper anyway because I’ve got a crazy necessity to write, so I decided why not post it all online hah. Done some work for a journo in the past and still do a similar thing part time (cycling again)! Perfect job for me really. Thanks for the introduction!
Karlis,
Firstly, welcome to FF247.
Great first post – apologies for the delay in replying but it took me ages to read as I was in the middle of something at work and had to keep coming back to it!
Excellent analysis – I’m liking your defensive cover, though having two stand-out keepers and five “first-choicers” if you like, is certainly one too many for me and is preventing you having a better 4th or 5th midfielder or indeed 3rd striker. Or indeed upgrading Kane to Kun.
2 x 6.5mln strikers seem like a popular route for managers this season – Carroll is especially interesting me for the exact reasons you have documented. Wilson I really like – he has preseason form but their fixtures are not great. Long is a decent option, Berahino may be one to consider also, if he gets his move to somewhere half-decent.
Barkley I’m not sure about – could go either way under Koeman – for the same or simialr price you have Siggy, Ayew, Lamela, Cazorla…..
I wouldn’t want both Gray and Drinkwater at this stage, but I’d definitely be keeping an eye on Gray to see if he can grab a starting spot.
Just my initial thoughts mate!
Happy tinkering!
Thank you very much!
I’ll have to think about the defenders but I’ve always done it this way, maybe it’s my Italian upbringing, I do love a good defender! I like Drinkwater but I agree about Barkley and Gray, I’ve stuck them in there for now but the’re certainly not concrete picks. Siggy is usually a great pick, and one I have every season but the Swans have been given a dreadful first couple of months! Lamela and Cazorla are high on my shortlist, just too much talent to fit in one team with the budget. Will definitely be tinkering a lot with those 3 spots I talked about especially.
Welcome to the site Karlis this is very in depth & I can understand some of your reasoning & the potential the def give you , it is an interesting way to look at it , have you used this system all the time & if you don’t mind me asking what rank did you achieve last season 😉
Hello Silvers
Yes, I’ve used this strategy for the last three years and it’s given me some pretty good results (I think). Last year I was around 40k if I remember rightly.
Great stuff Karlis and welcome to the site. It’s obvious that you have thought about this enough and if that’s your strategy I don’t really have any special comments. Well balanced team, not doubt.
My strategy is a bit different. I try to keep it balanced too but when I can’t find the right personnel – which is the case this year – I prefer to invest big up front and then respread it when things are more clear.
In what regards investing in the defense: I like to play 3-4-3 (or 3-5-2) so 3 top defenders are indeed needed and I like your Baines, Cresswell and Bally. The other two are 4.0 fillers waiting to be transferred to the first 4.0 gem/starter that shows himself.
I don’t like to rotate my GK so usually I pick someone from the big teams and another of 4.0. This year, though, this is a bit more difficult given all the hefty prices upfront meaning I have boruc (4.5) and jaku (4.0) for now. I see your point with KDB and Payet (I have the former myself) but the other 3 mids don’t seem capable of delivering the goods on a regular basis, except maybe barkley when on form. Drinkwater, for example, did very well in deed, but he blanked more often than not. For that price, I’d be looking at Feghouli.
Then your front men: nothing wrong with any of them. I just lack Ibra and or Kun. One of them, at least, seems essential, no?
Hey there DMC!
I understand your strategy and can see how it works. I understand your concern about not having Ibra or Aguero but in my opinion rotating Kane/Lukaku and Vardy (Second tier strikers as I like to call them) provides some pretty good results in my experience. I’m not so sure about Ibra yet but might have to stick Aguero in there. Plenty of time until the start of the season though!
Karlis – Welcome to the site mate and what a first post this is! I like this logic and I am the same as Silvers below, If you don’t mind me asking how does this system work for you? I also hope you don’t mind I have kind of followed some of this logic with a draft I’ve just done up but have switched it around a little bit. I’ll be sticking up two drafts later to see which people prefer so maybe you can cast an eye on it also.
As for your team I really like it. It may be a bit too strong in the goalkeeper area I would personally downgrade one of them to upgrade Gray as I wouldn’t have him in until I knew his place in the team, I think he’ll only be a sub player. Carroll is a really good pick and with the supply he should get and if he stays off the injury table then he could easily get a double digit goal tally.
Good luck mate!
Hello there Matt
The goalkeepers are a concern for me too in fact, usually I do not have two top price keepers in the team but none of the £5.0m ones have caught my interest yet. I’ll be keeping an eye on it during preseason so hopefully I can downgrade or perhaps transfer Karius in after the first difficult month! I will be keeping an eye on Gray during preseason and think he will be used in rotation with Albrighton but if he performs well he definitely could be a first team player!
Yeah Karius is looking very good in goals for us and I think Migs may return from Euros duty to find he’s already lost his place so at 5 mil he could be great. The only 4.5 goalkeeper I’m looking at so far is Valdes but haven’t really looked too much at fixtures yet. If he performs well he should definitely start and I like Gray he was a good player at Birmingham.
Welcome to the site Karlis, interesting read this gives me something to think about.
Hello Karlis,
I just wanted to say hi and thank you for posting. Nothing I love more than a good reasoned analysis to get the fantasy juices flowing.
Everything I wanted to ask has been asked and answered below so look forward to seeing you around the site when you can manage to post.
Best of luck for the new season.
Thanks a lot mate,
I am really looking forward to it, such amazing managers up against eachother. It’s going to be quite the battle for the top + european places!
Hope to be active throughout the season
Karlis
I agree, it is definitely shaping up to be the most amazing season, I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
Where are you from and which team (s) do you support? We like to get to know each other a bit here
Well, my father is Latvian which is where I get the name from. Mother is from Newcastle so I’ve got a soft sport for the Geordies. When I was young we were living in Milan, where my Dad worked and I grew up supporting AC Milan. In 2005 we decided we were going to move back to England next year and so I needed a team to support. The obvious choice would have been Newcastle but after the 2005 Champions League final I decided once we arrived in England I would support Liverpool. The Rossoneri had a soft spot for Liverpool anyway for some reason. It’s a strange story but life is strange 😉 Also, father supports Coventry so I’ve seen them play quite a lot too!
Great to have another Red on the boards!!
Excellent Karlis
Plenty of Reds on here to keep you company or commiserate with you
At least Liverpool, Newcastle and Coventry aren’t in direct competition this season!
Not sure Coventry will be in competition with anyone this year mate! What a shambles that club + the owners are…
Should be an exciting season for the Reds and Newcastle though! Two great managers!
FFS not another dipper
Where I live down in Surrey I don’t know a single other Liverpool fan so it’s nice to see a few on here
FFS, shut up Cookie!
I’m surrounded
Get ‘im lads :snorty: