With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2025/26, we’re welcoming back our team of guest writers for the new campaign.
- READ MORE: FPL Milanista’s first draft – Wirtz + Salah double-up
- READ MORE: FPL Family Sam’s first draft – Bench Boost, then Free Hit?
Here, Zophar – who usually holds a weekly Q&A session for us – shares his initial thoughts on the FPL rule changes and prices, while putting together a first draft.
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Hello, everyone! It feels great to be back writing these articles for you again.
Almost a week has passed since the new rule change announcements started dropping and, while I’m not in favour of some of these, I have to reluctantly accept that we live in an instant gratification environment nowadays and this is more likely to be the norm than the exception.
Several articles have already been published about the impact of each of these changes, so I’ll instead discuss how they are impacting my current FPL draft.
- READ MORE: FPL 2025/26 – Huge rule change as defensive contributions come in
- READ MORE: FPL 2025/26 – Extra free Gameweek 16 transfers ahead of AFCON
The extra Bench Boost
First up, should we use the Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 or later?
It’s the most difficult chip to prepare for, with injuries and suspensions often putting paid to the best-laid plans. Keeping it for later means that you will likely have to dedicate transfers to your back-up goalkeeper, defenders and midfielders, rather than target in-form players that have good fixtures.
Yes, there may also be some team news uncertainty for Gameweek 1 but, given the resources on this site, one can make a reasonable guess at most starting XIs. Especially the more settled sides.
However, my biggest concern is that the teams targeted for a Gameweek 1 Bench Boost don’t have decent fixtures afterwards. I don’t want to focus too much on that line-up and cripple my pre-Wildcard squad. Not sure when that’ll be either. I’ll have to take a look at the fixture swings.
There’s also the issue of carrying extra money on your bench until that Wildcard, but I would rather do that then spend big on the bench after such activation. Using it in Gameweek 1 means I can afford to go a bit more minimal on the bench spend but, that being said, I plan to have a deeper bench this season anyway to cope with injuries and likely rotation.
As of now, I am building my squad with Bench Boost Gameweek 1 in mind.
Goalkeepers – spend £4.5m or more?
I’ve always been a set-and-forget £4.5m goalkeeper guy. I play them in tougher fixtures too, as a flukey clean sheet away to a top side can bring a double-digit score. But it’s slim pickings in that price bracket this season, as I don’t want to rely on a promoted stopper every week.
Djordje Petrovic, Caoimhin Kelleher, Alphonse Areola and Bart Verbruggen are the £4.5m names currently on my radar.
Of these, I trust Bournemouth’s defence the most, though the Gameweek 1 trip to Liverpool is off-putting. West Ham United are supposedly in the market for a new one, while Brentford are likely to be unsettled after this overhaul.
Verbruggen has a solid opening home fixture, but I don’t like putting faith in Brighton and Hove Albion’s backline. So, do I bite the bullet and get someone like Matz Sels (£5.0m), who is a significant upgrade costing slightly more?
Defenders – the impact of CBIT
