Ball recoveries, chips, positions: Five changes FPL could make in 2024/25

It’s silly season in the newspapers, with the back pages full of groundless conjecture over summer transfers.

And we’re entering into the speculative mood with this article.

Earlier on Monday, Fantasy Premier League (FPL) announced that the game was close to its yearly relaunch.

More intriguingly, they also revealed that there would be “exciting new features that will change your strategies and make this a season like no other”.

On that bombshell, here are five possible changes FPL could make to the game in 2024/25.

REVISED POINTS SCORING SYSTEM

If you’ve not been playing Euro 2024 Fantasy this summer, you may be wondering why there’s been an inordinate number of column inches devoted to ball recoveries.

For the uninitiated, outfield players in this Fantasy game – as they do in UCL Fantasy – get a point for every three balls recovered.

Suddenly, players who may have been an afterthought are more desirable targets. Marc Guehi, for instance, has already gained 11 extra points, in just four starts, for ball recoveries. That’s almost three extra clean sheets.

Were FPL to apply the same rule, Rodri, for example, would have bagged 67 extra points last season and finished on 226.

Presenting more players as viable Fantasy options can surely only be a good thing, with ‘template’ squads so easily formed.

There could be other ways to enhance the scoring system, too. Fanteam offer rewards for shots on target and being on the winning team. Midfielders get points for successful tackles in The Telegraph’s Fantasy game. Players score points through tackles, passes and shots on target in Sky Fantasy.

FPL wouldn’t want to make things too complicated, of course. Their game’s success can be partly attributed to its simplicity, so they are unlikely to introduce a complex, casual-deterring scoring system now. A slight modification, however, would be one of the more plausible changes this summer.

CHANGES TO THE CHIPS

“First Wildcard, second Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost, Triple Captain. What does that say to you about chips in FPL?”
“There’s too many of them?”
“That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is… people like them, let’s make some more of them.”

Some of us, including Hall of Famer Fabio Borges, yearn for the chipless days of yore.

But let’s face it, FPL aren’t about to take away any. Could they, in fact, add to or revise the existing ones?

With the prospect of fewer Blank/Double Gameweeks in 2024/25, there’s already been some preliminary talk of how we might change our strategy with the chips. The idea of a Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 might gain some traction, for instance.

FPL could force our hand by restricting chips to certain windows. This used to be the case with the second Wildcard, which we previously only had a month to use.

Or they could revise existing/change existing chips. The Free Hit could come with unlimited funds, like we get with Limitless in Euro Fantasy and the ‘Rich Uncle’ in Eliteserien Fantasy. That Norwegian game also offers ‘Attack Attack’ (double points for all forwards) and the self-explanatory ‘Two Captains’.

Given that FPL say these upcoming changes could “change your strategies”, some chip alterations seems one of the likeliest scenarios.

POSITIONAL RECLASSIFICATIONS

Every summer we get a handful of players changing position in FPL. These tend to be just minor and predictable adjustments, however, with classifications based on the following criteria:

A seismic change would be a redrawing of these boundaries this summer. A section of the Fantasy community have, in the past, called for players like Mohamed Salah to be reclassified as forwards. After all, they score as many goals as most orthodox strikers.

But where would the cut-off point be? Do the likes of Miguel Almiron and Dejan Kulusevski get rebadged as forwards because they also play on the right of a front three? Or is this a case-by-case scenario, leading to inevitable inconsistencies? If you get too many players reclassified as forwards, you also risk having an overload with just three slots available.

Having a standalone category for defensive midfielders is one option, of course. This would force us to pick from a crop of players we usually overlook.

IN-GAMEWEEK CHANGES

FPL is quite a hands-off game. You pick your team and once the deadline has passed, you’re in the lap of the gods. Nothing more to be done.

Many other Fantasy games need you to be much more involved. There’s UCL Fantasy and Euro Fantasy with its manual substitutions and captaincy switches, for instance. In Sky Fantasy, you can even transfer players out mid-Gameweek.

FPL could opt to go down that route, as they have sort of trialled with FPL Challenge. On the one hand, more engagement from so-called serious players during a Gameweek. On the other, more chance of ‘casuals’ being put off by too much involvement.

It’s the fear of the latter that probably makes daily interaction doubtful.

DEADLINE CHANGES

Given that the sales pitch said “exciting new features”, we’re going to assume it doesn’t mean something as lame as the deadline changing a bit. But would you be totally surprised if it does turn out to be that?

In fairness, the deadlines have been one of the most discussed aspects of FPL for years. Team leaks are the reason, the debate being over how right it is that some Fantasy managers are privy to them when others aren’t.

There are two schools of thought. One, bring the deadline right back to 12 or 24 hours before the first kick-off. Team leaks are going to be few and far between then.

The other repeated suggestion is to just allow transfers to be made right up until the kick-off in the Gameweek curtain-raiser. The problem with that, of course, is that there are still managers around the world who won’t be awake or able to see the teamsheets from the first game, so someone will still be disadvantaged. Also, you’re still likely to be getting team leaks for subsequent matches, eg the 3pm fixtures if the deadline is at 12.30pm.

It’s over to you, FPL Towers…

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