Pre-season Hub 2019/20 FPL season
Hello and welcome to the Pre-Season Hub 2019/20 season. A new season of FPL action is ahead and as some of you may now have become accustomed to FF247 will run an article detailing all relevant pre-season news focusing specifically on the team line-ups, goal scorers and assisters. This is the article and here’s how it works;
This article is a living document which we update daily during pre-season. The intention is to offer a one-stop-shop for all fantasy relevant pieces of information as we begin to assemble our new squads over the coming weeks and months.
I intend to personally update this as we go but as always, I’m not precious about it and your help is appreciated in copy/pasting all relevant and salient pieces of information against each team’s comment thread with reference to which game the information relates to.
Each team will be listed alphabetically, and a Hot Comment will be created for each one and kept in the usual place so that for example, all of Aston Villa’s or Sheffield United’s pre-season progress and team news is only a click away. To this end, all we ask is that you keep all talk of any particular team to their own comment thread – this makes it easier to follow the discussion and for any returning persons to locate all chat relating to that team easily enough – and that’s really it.
Firstly, the Venue Key:
(H): Home
(A): Away
(N): Neutral
TBC: (Fixture) To be confirmed
Teams:
Arsenal
6th July
Boreham Wood (A)
15th July
Colorado Rapids (A)
17th July
Bayern Munich (N)
20th July
Fiorentina (N)
23rd July
Real Madrid (N)
24th July
Barnet (A)
28th July
Lyon (H)
31st July
Angers (A)
4th August
Barcelona (A)
Aston Villa
17th July
Minnesota United (A)
21st July
Shrewsbury Town (A)
24th July
Walsall (A)
27th July
Charlton Athletic (A)
31st July
RB Leipzig (A)
Bournemouth
16th July
TBA (N)
20th July
Girona (A)
27th July
Brentford (A)
2nd August
Lazio (H)
3rd August
Lyon (H)
Brighton & Hove Albion
13th July
TBC
19th July
Crawley Town (A)
20th July
Fulham (A)
27th July
Birmingham City (A)
2nd August
TBC
Burnley
20th July (Fixture 1)
Crewe Alexandra (A)
20th July (Fixture 2)
Port Vale (A)
23rd July
Fleetwood Town (A)
27th July
Wigan Athletic (A)
30th July
Nice (H)
Chelsea
19th July
Kawasaki Frontale (A)
23rd July
Barcelona (N)
28th July
Reading (A)
31st July
Red Bull Salzburg (A)
Crystal Palace
9th July
Luzern (A)
13th July
Young Boys (A)
19th July
Nottingham Forest (A)
20th July
Bromley (A)
27th July
Bristol City (A)
30th July
Wimbledon (A)
3rd August
Hertha Berlin (H)
Everton
7th July
Kariobangi Sharks (A)
14th July
Sion (N)
19th July
Monaco (N)
24th July
Wigan Athletic (A)
3rd August
Werder Bremen (A)
Leicester City
16th July
Scunthorpe United (A)
20th July
Cheltenham Town (A)
23rd July
Cambridge United (A)
27th July (Fixture 1)
Rotherham United (A)
27th July (Fixture 2)
Stoke City (A)
2nd August
Atalanta (H)
Liverpool
11th July
Tranmere Rovers (A)
14th July
Bradford City (A)
19th July
Borussia Dortmund (N)
21st July
Sevilla (N)
25th July
Sporting (N)
28th July
Napoli (N)
31st July
Lyon (N)
4th August
Manchester City (N, Community Shield)
Manchester City
17th July
West Ham United (N)
20th July
Newcastle United/Wolverhampton Wanderers (N)
24th July
Kitchee United (A)
27th July
Yokohama F Marinos (A)
4th August
Liverpool (N, Community Shield)
Manchester United
13th July
Perth Glory (A)
17th July
Leeds United (N)
20th July
Inter (N)
25th July
Tottenham Hotspur (N)
30th July
Kristiansund (N)
3rd August
Milan (N)
Newcastle United
17th July
Wolverhampton Wanderers (N)
20th July
Manchester City/West Ham United (N)
30th July
Hibernian (A)
3rd August
St Etienne (H)
Norwich City
24th July
Brentford (H)
27th July
Luton Town (A)
30th July
Atalanta (H)
3rd August
Toulouse (H)
Sheffield United
12th July
Real Betis (N)
16th July
Burton Albion (A)
20th July
Northampton Town (A)
23rd July
Chesterfield (A)
27th July
Barnsley (A)
Southampton
14th July
SCR Altach (A)
20th July
Preston North End (A)
23rd July
Guangzhou R&F (A)
28th July
Feyenoord (A)
3rd August
Cologne (H)
Tottenham Hotspur
21st July
Juventus (N)
25th July
Manchester United (N)
30th July
Real Madrid (N)
4th August
Inter (H)
Watford
27th July
Queens Park Rangers (A)
West Ham United
11th July
SCR Altach (A)
17th July
Manchester City (N)
20th July
Newcastle United/Wolverhampton Wanderers
27th July
Fulham (A)
3rd August
Athletic Bilbao (H)
Wolverhampton Wanderers*
17th July
Newcastle United (N)
20th July
Manchester City/West Ham United (N)
25th July
Crusaders/B36 Torshavn (H, Europa League Qualifying)
1st August
Crusaders/B36 Torshavn (A, Europa League Qualifying)
*Wolves are a big one to note here as they will begin their season competitively on 25th July as they attempt to qualify for the Europa League Group Stage proper where they will have to negotiate three rounds.
Second Qualifying round – above.
Third Qualifying round – 8th and 15th August.
Play-off round – 22nd and 29th August.
And that’s it – all we need now is to see how the managers begin to shape their squads and integrate new signings. We would advise you pay close attention to the end of the pre-season programme as that is when it is most likely to be the best indication of how the sides will line up come opening day.
Any questions, queries or observations please leave them in the thread for comment or open discussion.
This article was written and will be maintained by GP.
Thanks for reading Pre-season Hub 2019/20 FPL season. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer 
The Fixture Tracker…
FIXTURE TRACKER LINK
For those who want their own tracker to play with, just make a copy using the link below (GW’s 1-19)
Here’s my latest team. Downgraded the defence a bit to get siggy in. Will rotate dunk and taylor (or two other 4,5’s, pre season will tell) depending on fixtures…
Looks ok?
The compromise is Dunk – and a B&HA double-up, which may not be great for your heart rate.
But the 4.5m defender pool isn’t overly inspiring, is it.
I’m clasping my hands together and praying for Kelly to get regular starts.
Whoever is first choice right back at crystal palace could be a good shout. Rumours Max Aarons might transfer there, could potentially be the next doherty.
Other than double Brighton at the back it looks ok! Maybe switch Dunk to Smith
i don’t fancy man city keeping a clean shit at week 1, hence am avoiding city defense to focus on Liverpool, Spurs, and Bournemouth defense
This would be a great tactic in something like starting 11 but this is not that game. Don’t set your team for GW1 plan for at least s block of fixtures (4-8) and plan your team around that.
I agree with Rosco (though I am also keeping an eye on Bournemouth players (though not necessarily their defence), with a vague plan of moving them on).
A Freudian would have a lot to say about your post.
:big-lol:
:big-lol:
Can’t wait to get playing again. Thanks for all who put in an enormous effort to keep us informed here.
Pre-season draft v0.0.149…..What are your thoughts?
Ok, I’ll be be brutally honest…The obvious omission seems to be City which seems a strange decision! I also think you have spent too much on your bench it’s currently £19.5 million at a minimum, I’d probably revise that! I’d also say your defense is a little under stocked, no pool coverage screams out. Many will double on pool defense and this could really hurt you, I’d have at least one. I think you’ve spent too much on rotating keepers and I think Fab is over priced. On the plus I like salah, Kane, Siggy and Vardy!
Before I go too deep into things, can I ask why have you ignored City and (mainly) Liverpool? There could be some sort of complex my rules thing going on.
It’s definitely different to most others on the site. Don’t think that is necessarily a good thing, though. Bring in a City mid for Pulisic/Siggy and at least one defender from Liverpool/City?
Brighton / West Ham ; don’t look they rotate first 6 weeks, unless they rotate later & def not playing WC in first 10 then its not good.
WHU,Tot,Eve +4.0 looks better for that money. Rotating 5 defenders chasing Clean sheets rarely works, better to have 3/4 set & forget plus bench.
You don’t need 15 active every week, early doors its normal to go 11/12 & the rest bench.
Suggest Vardy & Stevens to 4.0 & 4.5 ; get 2,3 defenders from top 6, spend the rest in upgrading the mids to have another big hitter in there and alternates to Townsend & Doucoure , add 0.5 or more theres likely much better choices.
Thanks all! That is exactly the kind of input that I was looking for and why I read and lurk this site. Back to work with this team.
With all the talk of VAR, this looks a bit important. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48903289
“I actually think handball is in a really good place in this country, and that’s the message that we get from all the clubs – from the managers and the players – when we go and talk to them.
“We have a philosophy that says we want handball to be something that has an impact on the game.
“We are not looking for the ball to be striking arms and we do accept, when we are looking for what is an unnatural position for the arm, that arms move. We don’t expect players to defend with their arms behind their back, nor do we expect forwards to try and drill the ball to the hand to win a free-kick.
“The way we’ve actually implemented handball for the past two or three seasons is the way we are going to continue to do it in the future.”
He said, as an example, that the winning penalty for the Netherlands against Japan at the Women’s World Cup would not have been awarded in the Premier League.
“We consider that to be a natural position of the hand. You don’t expect defenders to have their arms glued to their side, so if the hand is in a natural position then it’s not an offence,” he said.
That penalty was beyond ridiculous.
As was the excessive use of VAR as if the refs couldn’t make any decisions without consulting at length.
Hopefully they go the way of no VAR, unless the VAR people scream in their ear “you just F&!%#d up”.
‘Correcting clear & obvious errors’ as they initially said.
Yes Mito this is exactly what I was referring to in my response to Izzy’s second commandment (see 78.2 in previous article). I think Riley’s comments are very important.
I have 0.5 floating in my latest draft which unfortunately includes a double up on Burnley at the back (Heaton + Taylor).
What would you do with it to improve either of those players?
Burnley seem to be priced pretty nicely considering they won’t have Europa issues this season so I think having one at the back is ok but two is just plain wrong
Taylor is the one I think you should stick with. Heaton has rejected a contract extension so I think you’ll need to get rid of him in any event. If you really want to spend that 0.5 then there is a bunch of 5m keepers you can toss a coin over.
I think this is the issue I’m having. None of the 5m keepers seem likelier to keep clean sheets than the Burnley keeper and none of the other 4.5m defenders seem to be worth considering over a non-Europa Burnley defence.
Heaton becomes Pope if he does move/doesn’t sign a contract, still the same conundrum. I’ve seen a few backing double BHA in Dunk + Ryan but I think BHA are destined for the drop.
Looking at the fixture difficulty for the first 6 weeks, I would have to say change them both to not Burnley.
Bunch of mid table teams with better starts.
Unless you really believe Burnley are the utter clean sheet kings again somehow.
Hi everyone, hope you are good, here is my very first draft!
What do you think?
I like it, I like it a lot! No premium forwards in my team at the moment either, I fancy Salah and Sterling over them and I think there’s great value in those three 6.5m forwards…
Looks good this mate! Thumbs up from me!
Looks good. Let’s hope a good value option for City defense come through.
Looks fine.
I’ve been holding a few testy internal debates with myself about Spurs’ players, especially which one if I don’t have Kane. Moura has a short-term appeal but putting Spurs to one side completely, Fraser is worth a thought.
In terms of bargain strikers, Everton have a couple cheaper (6m) than even your selection. Given fixtures etc may not be the worst of punts. I have no idea, however, if either of them are nailed.
I currently have Deulofeu as well, moving between him and Deeney in an irresolute way.
Can’t make my mind up between King and Wilson.
Almost identical to mine, other than Moura (I have Fraser). Nice choice I think…will have to contemplate that. All the best!