Games

The FPL Bonus Points – Moving the Goalposts?

While the Fantasy Premier League player list is taking up the bulk of our time, sapping our energies and thinking – some will no doubt have noticed that Wednesday’s launch also brought several rule changes. One such tweak involved the allocation of Bonus Points. The “man in the stand” from the Press Association is no longer the “judge and jury” behind these points – from this season the FPL have gone back to a method driven by an Index, fuelled by statistics that measure player actions and team performance.

The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index (EA SPORTS PPI) will now be the recipient of our post-match wrath – although given that cold hard statistics will be behind it, it’s going to be more difficult to justify the bile.

Such a change inevitably poses some questions but for us at Fantasy Football Scout, it also gives us the opportunity to offer a new feature to offer Members a helping hand.

What is the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index?

The Premier League site offers a full explanation of this right here so we won’t go into too much detail. Effectively the index uses an algorithm to provide a single value which offers an appraisal of a player’s performance in a Premier League match. That algorithm takes into account a variety of statistics gathered from a match reflecting player actions on the pitch such as – shots, clearances, saves etc. Goals scored, assists and clean sheets are perhaps the biggest factors in the calculation of the index score but crucially, the outcome of the match is also very significant. A player in the winning team is far more likely to register a high EA SPORTS PPI score than a player on the losing side.

What does this mean for the Fantasy Premier League Bonus Points?

It’s hard to say. While we are likely to have more visibility on the factors that affect the award of the Bonus Points, it’s still very difficult to predict which players will benefit next season. The fact that winning performances are crucial suggests that players amongst the top sides will be far more likely to earn big totals of Bonus Points than those turning out for struggling sides. To put this into perspective, Charlie Adam had the highest Bonus Point total in the Fantasy Premier League game last season. However, he ranked just 20th overall in the EA SPORTS PPI.

It’s also notable that, out of the top 25 EA SPORTS PPI ranked players last season, 10 of them were Man United or Chelsea players, 3 were at Man City, 2 at Liverpool and 1 at Arsenal. Charlie Adam was the only player from a relegated club in the top 30. Scott Parker – the player of the year last season – was not in the top 10 midfielders and was ranked 70th overall.

The jury is very much out on the effectiveness of the EA SPORTS PPI then but we can only really speculate on how it will distribute the FPL Bonus Points until the season is underway. One thing we’re pretty sure on – we noticed last season that goalscorers were big beneficiaries of Bonus Point awards – our guess is that this will continue with the implementation of the EA SPORTS PPI. Goalscorers on winning sides are set for regular gains then. Is that any different to the old PA Sports method? Only time will tell.

How can Fantasy Football Scout help?

At least now we know that the statistics available to our Members have a definite impact on a player’s likelihood of earning FPL Bonus Points. Our Members already have access to the statistics that contribute to the EA SPORTS PPI via our Opta data. By interrogating last season’s data now, you can already get a view on the top performers across the statistics that matter. We will be publishing members articles to aid this process too.

As you no doubt will have heard, Fantasy Football Scout are also contributing articles to the FPL this season. “The Scout” will examine the Bonus Point allocation each gameweek and attempt to breakdown the factors behind the awards using the EA SPORTS PPI data.

We’re going to provide something new however. Something a little extra…

The Scout ICT Index – Influence, Creativity and Threat

We have a new way for Members to read and analyse statistics this season. We’ve built our own Fantasy Football Index – the Scout “ICT” Index. This measures the performance of Premier League players in three key areas – Influence, Creativity and Threat. The first of those, a player’s Influence, will use similar performance indicators to the EA SPORTS PPI via our Opta data, although our algorithm will be different.

Our index score for Influence won’t take the results into consideration and will therefore offer a level playing field to those players who suffer defeat in a match. In this way our Index will hopefully be effective at finding influential players within struggling clubs, but should still offer our Members a view on which players are more likely to score highly in the EA SPORTS PPI and therefore be in line for Bonus Points. While the FPL Bonus Points arriving “the morning after matches” – our members can get access to our ICT index once we update our data – often just 10-20 minutes after the final whistle has blown.

In basic terms the ICT index will help to make our Opta data more digestible. It will offer one single index score for Influence, one for Creativity and one for Threat. These will help to measure a player’s importance to their team and to a match, a player’s likelihood to earn assists and to score goals, or at least get in goalscoring situations. Those three figures will then be combined to create a single ICT Index score to measure a player’s overall performance contribution from a Fantasy perspective.

Index scores will be generated on a gameweek basis and cumulatively over the season. The full Opta data will still be available of course, but Members will now have an easy route to identify how players are performing across the key statistics.

The index, like any football index, will be far from perfect. There will be tweaks along the way. Plenty of discussions as we go. Even so, the ICT Index is already providing us with plenty of talking points and insight behind the scenes and we think it’s going to be a valuable addition for our Members. It will also give us plenty of material to discuss in a series of new Members articles.

We currently have the ICT Index in test and will be creating new tables and new sidebar widgets that will give Members quick access to the top performers on our Index on a gameweek basis and over the season as a whole. These widgets will also form the basis of our new dashboard available to Members when they log into the Members area.

Keep ‘em peeled for more news on this in the next few weeks.

Mark Mark created the beast. He's now looking to tame it.

2,654 Comments Post a Comment
  1. donners
    • 13 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    Top performer from each team last season according to the EA index:

    Chelsea - Florent Malouda - 661
    Man Utd - Dimitar Berbatov - 583
    Liverpool - Dirk Kuyt - 563
    Man City - Carlos Tevez - 541
    Everton - Leighton Baines - 515
    West Brom - Peter Odemwingie - 504
    Fulham - Brede Hangeland - 496
    Arsenal - Samir Nasri - 463
    Aston Villa - Darren Bent - 453
    Wigan - Charles N'Zogbia - 442
    Tottenham - Gareth Bale/ VDV - 430
    Newcastle - Jonas Gutierrez - 423
    Blackburn - Christopher Samba - 398
    Bolton - Gary Cahill - 395
    Wolverhampton - Matthew Jarvis - 389
    Sunderland - Phillip Bardsley - 359
    Stoke - Ryan Shawcross - 356

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    1. Barry Frys revenge
      • 12 Years
      12 years, 8 months ago

      mmmm...wheres Adam....????

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      1. donners
        • 13 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        About 100 points behind Kuyt.

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      2. Damo.
        • 14 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjkzbCkZEuQ I never heard this acoustic version til the other day. It's class isn't it.

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      3. FantasyADE
        • 13 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        Malouda started off very well. 1st 5 games.. then off the boil.. surprised by Ryan for stoke.. i just assumed it would be huth.. given that he was the highest goal scorer for stoke.. and Ryan is normally a red card merchant!!

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    2. jimnastics
      • 14 Years
      12 years, 8 months ago

      Most interesting for me there are Guti, Bardsley and Shawcross.

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      1. Lucky_2010
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        hi jim, guti from rmadrid???

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        1. donners
          • 13 Years
          12 years, 8 months ago

          Gutierrez - Nolan was actually top but he's gone.

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          1. Barry Frys revenge
            • 12 Years
            12 years, 8 months ago

            visa issues perhaps...!!????

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  2. DAV087
    • 13 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    Thoughts on this team. Havnt had much of a look at preseason form.

    Given Kenny

    Vidic Kompany O'Shea (Simpson brown)

    Murphy albrighton vdv Moses sinclair

    Rvp Rooney holt

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  3. streetkids.com.au
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    Looking for a roughie

    Simpson looks fair enough

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  4. Alex
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    RMT if you don't mind.

    (3-5-2)
    Begovic (Mignolet)

    Rafael, Luiz, Kompany (Williams, Simpson)

    Van Der Vaart, Malouda, Taarabt, Yaya Toure, Dyer

    Suarez, Hernandez (Graham)

    - I think Nathan Dyer may be the weak link here - doesn't score much and is not on set-pieces. Any advice on swapping things around to fit better? Cheers.

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    1. Bob.
      • 13 Years
      12 years, 8 months ago

      I like your midfield. Not sure about Hernandez, Rafael and Luiz though. Id think about upgrading Luiz to A.Cole and downgrading Rafael, unless you are very confident that Luiz will start every game!

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      1. Alex
        • 12 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        Thanks for your reply. I see what you mean re: Luiz, but who could I possibly replace Rafael with? I think that Rafael will be first choice RB for Utd next season see.

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        1. Bob.
          • 13 Years
          12 years, 8 months ago

          Well replace him with someone who rotates well with Simpson or Williams and you should have plenty of choice as I assume you will play the other 2 defenders every week... Just an idea!

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          1. Alex
            • 12 Years
            12 years, 8 months ago

            There aren't many cheaper, better defenders if I remember rightly, I'll have a look.
            Do you think I need to alter the Nathan Dyer position?
            Again, cheers for the comments.

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  5. Goodkat
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    Question for you

    A) Dempsey and Silva

    or

    B) Yaya and Malouda

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    1. streetkids.com.au
      • 12 Years
      12 years, 8 months ago

      Latter

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  6. HazardThiago
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    RMT ;
    Reina (Mingolet)
    Kompany Luiz Distin Rafael (Simpson)
    Taarabt VDV Dempsey Yaya (Bannan)
    Rooney Rodellage (Graham)

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  7. applebonkers
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    m

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  8. Max
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    RMT if you guys wouldn't mind. First year so it would be very helpfull!

    Given

    Luiz, Hughes, Kompany,

    Taarabt, Bale, Wilshere, N'Zogbia

    Van Persie, Drogba, Suarez

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    1. streetkids.com.au
      • 12 Years
      12 years, 8 months ago

      It's a bit different this year as last year and previous years you had a wildcard which you could play at anytime to change your whole team.

      This year the wildcard is for weeks during January only so you have to get your team set up right. I used to find the previous wildcard arrangement to be great as if you didn't get it right or a handful of roughies performed great, you could transfer the whole team.

      Who's your four subs Max.

      I'd say Given's a given (I know, it's an old one). You need another goalkeeper who will play every game, even from a lower team.

      Luiz, Hughes, Kompany sound fair enough but we have to see who Chelsea's new Manager favours and who he beds in for Luiz. Need a solid sub here in case of injury, suspension etc. Last year I had five out in two weeks and if I had had non performing subs I would have been in real trouble.

      Taarabt, Bale, Wilshere, N'Zogbia. I wouldn't bother with Taarabt as although QPR have said they aren't going to let him go, his temperament may see him turn into a baby. Bale sounds fair enough although I'd maybe go with Modric... it's a toss up at this stage. Wilshere, yes he should get match time and be a reasonable player for FFL. N'Zogbia for sure, especially if he goes to Villa.

      VP, Drogba, Suarez. Not sure about VP as Arsenal's shape may have changed somewhat and it just depends on how they pan out. Drogba, see Luiz. Suarez sounds like a fair bet.

      And we haven't even got onto who has the favourable run of games for the first weeks yet.

      Good luck.

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      1. Lanley Staurel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        Your wrong. The two wild card system introduced last year is still here this year.

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      2. The ghost of a Pug's g…
        • 12 Years
        12 years, 8 months ago

        Streetkids....may have read ur post wrong but are u suggesting we only have 1 wildcard this year and thats in the January window? Coz if so that simply isn't true.

        You get one you can use anytime and one you can use in the Jan window?!?!

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        1. Crazylegs
          • 13 Years
          12 years, 8 months ago

          The rules for Wildcards are as follows..

          Wildcards

          A Wildcard allows you to make unlimited free transfers throughout a Gameweek. You can use up to 2 a season.

          One Wildcard can be played at any time, the January Wildcard can only be used between Gameweeks 20 and 23 (2 Jan 11:30 to 4 Feb 11:30).

          When playing a Wildcard, any saved free transfers will be lost. You will be back to the usual 1 free transfer the following Gameweek.

          Afraid streetkids is completely misinformed on this topic!

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          1. The ghost of a Pug's g…
            • 12 Years
            12 years, 8 months ago

            Yep...thought so.

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            1. streetkids.com.au
              • 12 Years
              12 years, 8 months ago

              No not misinformed, just misread it. Cheers, that suits me.

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  9. Jammer
    • 12 Years
    12 years, 8 months ago

    My team. Any opinions? Should i try replace simpson for another def same price?

    Schwarzer, Given

    Rafae, Gibbs, Luiz, Kompany, Simpson

    Albrighton, Taarabt, Ben Afra, Nani, VDV.

    VP, Zamora, Graham

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