Not quite had your fill of witless drivel after Jools Holland’s Hootenanny? Then good news! The traditional New Year message is here – a little later than usual.
First off, and most importantly, a very happy and healthy 2025 to our readers, from myself and everyone at Fantasy Football Scout.
The upcoming calendar year should be an interesting one for Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
The Mystery Chip, recently unmasked as the Assistant Manager, will become usable from February onwards.
It’s arguably the most significant evolution of the game in a decade. We’ve had the occasional tweak over the years, of course. Unlimited transfers granted midway through the World Cup-affected 2022/23 campaign. Free Hit in, All Out Attack out in 2017/18. The ability to roll five free transfers, new as of this season.
More ‘patches’, perhaps, rather than new software altogether.
The Assistant Manager is the first shift to a slightly different game. It’s teams we’re effectively backing with this chip, not players. There are other considerations, too, such as extra points for one club beating another (five places +) higher up the table.
Above: The Assistant Manager chip wasn’t universally panned in our on-site poll
Could this be the start of a wider move to FPL 2.0? There are reasons to believe this.
Gameweeks 8-11 of Fantasy Challenge, for those that don’t play it/didn’t see it, was entitled ‘Test Lab’. Said challenges were as follows:
- Gameweek 8 – Ball Winners: Interceptions and tackles are worth 1 point, recoveries are worth 1 point
- Gameweek 9 – Playmakers: Key passes and crosses worth 2 points
- Gameweek 10 – Foul Play: Fouls won are worth 2 points, fouls conceded are worth -1 point
- Gameweek 11 – Accuracy: Shots on target are worth 3 points
It’s not unusual for Fantasy Challenge to try something a bit different – but the accompanying blurb made it more intriguing:
“Shape the future of Fantasy Premier League by joining in on our experiments. This series we are running four tests that focus on earning points through different players and playstyles. What new FPL assets become must-haves?”
Just a throwaway line? Or were FPL trying to gauge user reaction to an evolving scoring system before potentially implementing it in FPL for 2025/26?
There’s also the job advert for a new Senior Gaming Manager. Maybe nothing to read into that but there is mention of “new FPL features” and “creative ways to improve the FPL experience”.
The questions are: do we want the game to evolve and does it need to?
The irony is that, after a few years of the game becoming perhaps a little stagnant, 2024/25 is being considered by many as one of the better FPL campaigns in a long while.
A lot of it has been down to pricing. The big hitters just being priced high enough to make the ‘threemium’ a questionable decision regarding squad balance, as well as Erling Haaland (£14.8m) now not being an automatic inclusion, has been a big success.
But just as important has been the lack of game-killing ‘magic beans’ emerging from the budget pool. There’s no real must-have Riyad Mahrez to be had in the sub-£6.0m group. Morgan Rogers (£5.5m), Antoine Semenyo (£5.6m), Amad Diallo (£5.4m) and Enzo Fernandez (£5.1m) have all courted interest in the budget midfield bracket, none of them being so spectacularly and consistently good to be deemed automatic picks. The same goes for the forwards, with Joao Pedro (£5.7m) and Raul Jimenez (£5.5m) drifting in and out of favour.
All of which has meant a welcome lack of herd mentality – or not as much as there usually is at this time of a season. There are always going to be some borderline essentials, like Mohamed Salah (£13.6m), but still enough variety to avoid the dreaded template. Just at a point when that was threatening to happen, an injury to Bukayo Saka (£10.3m) – and the lack of consensus over a replacement – has resulted in more heartening divergence.
So, do FPL rest on their laurels and hope that cracking the pricing again next season – and that no game-busting Lundstrams or Vardys emerge – keeps the game ‘alive’?
I’d personally be (marginally) in favour of a minor scoring system tweak, whether that be in the form of ball recovery/interception points or an adjusted Bonus Points System in which players other than scorers/assisters are more adequately rewarded. We don’t need revolution and more gimmicks, just the evolution of an already successful format.
Fantasy EFL is the latest game to offer points for things tackles, shots on target (UCL Fantasy, Sky etc have led the way for this). I’m playing it this season, and there are many weeks when defenders are in the captaincy mix as a result of the top-up points. How good would that be in FPL?
Change isn’t easy or always welcome. Look at some of the reactions to the introduction of the three chips in 2014/15…
But it is sometimes, if done right (no more Mystery Chips!), for the better. Let’s see what FPL have in store for us in 2025.
I’ll finish the waffle that no one asked for by thanking all those behind the scenes for their hard work in 2024, from my own editorial team (Marc, Tom) to the tech guys, mods, cons and beyond who contribute so much to the site’s output.
Most of all, though, thank you for reading, commenting and – if you do – subscribing to Fantasy Football Scout. The site, like FPL, may have changed from what it was 15 years ago. But thanks to the users, it remains the go-to place for Fantasy insight, discussion and community. And medieval speak.
3 months, 3 days agoWhat would you do?
A. Play Pedro and save transfer
B. Pedro --> Jesus