Welcome back to Fantasy Premier League and welcome back to FISO!
Looking at the top of the Premier League table at the end of last season, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was almost a replica of the season before that. As they have done in six of the last seven season, Manchester City finished on top, followed by Arsenal. The Gunners once again lost out to their skyblue Manchester rivals, though they did manage to limit the gap to the top to just 2 points, compared to the 5 points between the top the season prior. At this point in the pre-season last year, we asked ourselves whether or not Arsenal would be able to compete for the title until the very end once again? Now we are asking themselves, will this be the season in which the Gunners finally bring the Premier League title back to North London, for the first time since the legendary 2003-04 season?
Now, on to more serious business, because the Fantasy Premier League has undergone a significant facelift in the build-up to the 2024-25 campaign. We recommend FPL managers to explore the changes in detail, but we’ll already list them here below to give you a head start:
Banking 5 free transfers: This season, fantasy managers can save up to FIVE free transfers instead of the usual two. In other words, great news for the patient managers and the big planners. On top of that, however many free transfers you have saved up will NOT be reset to zero after activating either a Free Hit or a Wild Card.
Mystery Chip: Talking about Chips, we’ve got a new one this season! It’s called the Mystery Chip and fully in line with its name, it’s use is well… a mystery. FPL towers say that all will be revealed towards January 2025, so keep an eye out for that.
Updated points-scoring: Good news for goalkeepers with a penchant for goalscoring, because a goal by a goalie will be worth 10 points this season, up from 6 points last season. As far as the Bonus Points System (BPS) goes, a saved penalty is now worth 9 BPS (down from 15 BPS). Also, conceding a goal now results in -4 BPS for goalkeepers and defenders. For any player, a goal line clearance is now worth 3 BPS, a foul won 1 BPS and a shot on target 2 BPS.
New look: The design of the in-game FPL pitch has been improved as well, copying the format that is already being used in FPL Challenge.
The Premier League 2024-25 season is set to kick off on Friday, August 16th, at 20h00 (UK time), when Manchester United host Fulham at Old Trafford. The free to play FPL or pay to play games like FanTeam (which has a £200,000 prize fund) are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
In the build-up to gameweek 1, we will be taking an in-depth look at each of the 20 teams competing in the Premier League this season, including a general team preview, a tactical preview and some FPL recommendations per side. In this ninth part of our Season Preview series, we’re taking a look at newly promoted Southampton and a Spurs side going into its second full season under Ange Postecoglou.
SOUTHAMPTON – General preview for 2024/25
Looking at the statistics, Southampton were the most unexpected club to be promoted from the Championship to the Premier League out of all three promoted sides. The Saints finished fourth with the least number of points (87 vs 96 for Ipswich and 97 for Leicester), the least goals in their favour (though not by much) and the most conceded goals. The lack of defensive stability at times, in particular, will be a major point to address in preparation of the coming season.
Having said that, there were also plenty of positives to note at St Mary’s Stadium, the biggest of which, of course, being the immediate bounce back to the Premier League after getting relegated in the season prior. In a competition as exhausting as the Championship, that is no small feat, especially not when you consider that Southampton did so via the play-offs. They first dispatched of West Brom before beating favourites Leeds United 1-0 in the final. On top of that, they did so with a very organised, possession-based brand of football, but more about that in the brief tactical review below.
As with most promoted sides throughout the years, Southampton will need some reinforcements if they want to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle from the beginning this season. The Saints made two key loan signings permanent (£20 million for Man City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis and £18 million for West Ham’s Flynn Downes). They also signed a couple of new names, including left winger Bene Brereton Diaz from Villareal (£7 million) and right-back Yukinari Sugawara from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar (£6 million). Southampton also offloaded a few players already, including central defenders Lyanco and Duje Caleta-Car, who were on loan to Al-Gharafa SC and Olympique Lyon respectively last season, and left-back Romain Perraud, who was sold to Real Betis for around £3 million.
Southampton: Tactical preview 2024/25
Soon after their relegation to the Championship was confirmed, Southampton appointed former Scotland international Russell Martin as their new manager. An unexpected choice for some, perhaps, but one that turned out exactly as they wanted, as he led the Saints straight back to the Premier League. On top of that, the club wanted a manager who could give their team a clear playing identity in their quest for an immediate return to the English footballing elite and Martin delivered exactly that.
Last season, Southampton most often lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, though the manager employed a 4-4-2 at times as well. Much more important than the actual starting formation though, are the principles drilled into the side by Martin. He wants his teams to be dominant in terms in possession in order to be able to dictate play for large chunks of games. This became abundantly clear last season, as no Championship team had more possession on average than the Saints. He wants the ball to move around quickly and to force passes into the opposition’s penalty box. Martin’s Southampton crosses into the box relatively little and does not focus on counter-attacks, despite the high press they adopted last season. And it brought them success, because including the play-offs, no Championship side scored more goals than the Saints.
Or as Martin himself put it, “I played in teams who were dominant with the ball and loved it. I also played in teams who didn’t have much of the ball and hated it”. He later gave an interesting insight into his plans for this season as well, saying “I love what we do and I’m not going to change and I’m sure it will start – it probably already has – that we won’t play this way in the Premier League and all of that stuff, the scrutiny and the intensity that will come with that. It is up to us to prove ourselves right and make sure we embrace it without losing who we are.”
SOUTHAMPTON – Potential FPL picks
Purely based on their roster, we wouldn’t have a lot of Southampton players on our scouting lists, but their opening run of fixtures does inspire a bit more confidence. After their Gameweek 1 visit to Newcastle, the Saints have Forest at home, Brentford away, Man United at home, Ipswich at home and Bournemouth away. In other words, if you really want to include a Southampton player or two, there seems to be some potential. The one with most potential is probably Adam Armstrong (£5.5m), their striker and last season’s talisman as he scored 21 goals and gave 13 assists in 46 Championship starts. He also added another 3 goals to that total in the playoffs, including the only and thus winning goal in the final. He is nailed-on as a part of Russell Martin’s starting eleven and takes penalties as well (plus a few direct free kicks), so his price tag of £5.5m makes him an interesting option for the third forward spot in your squad.
Armstrong will most likely be joined in attack by Ben Brereton Diaz (£5.5m), another budget-priced attacker who is actually listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game. More than a few FPL managers will have missed the Chilean’s efforts in the Premier League last season (that’s right, he played in the PL) because he was part of a Sheffield United side that rarely managed to show why they should be part of England’s highest football division. Diaz joined them on loan during the winter transfer window and he actually did more than decent in a side that was struggling overall. He got 14 league starts and got 6 goals and 1 assists out of those starts, for a total of 62 FPL points. Not bad, right? We expect him to slot straight into Martin’s starting eleven this season, either on the left wing or as part of a two-man forward line.
Martin likes to play with wing-backs with attacking intent. For coming season, it looks like Kyle Walker-Peters will take up that role on the right and Charlie Taylor (£4.0m) will do so on the left. Generally, it’s the former who finds himself a bit higher on the pitch, in big part because he takes up the role of inverted wing-back more often than Taylor, which also explains why he got more attacking returns than Taylor last season (3 goals and 3 assists from 43 league starts vs. 1 goal and 1 assist from 28 league start). We have still decided to go with Taylor though, mainly because we don’t have a lot of confidence in Southampton’s backline at the moment. We expect few clean sheets and less attacking contributions from the wing-backs in the Premier League, compared to last season in the Championship. Both wing-backs look nailed-on under Martin though, and Taylor’s £4.0m price tag makes him a true bargain defender pick worth considering.
SPURS – General preview for 2024/25
Tottenham Hotspur are going into their second full season under the management of Ange Postecoglou and there is plenty to look forward to, especially for the fans of attacking football. Spurs impressed with their positive style of play, mainly provided by a front four full of creativity and goal threat. And the Australian manager did so in the first season without club legend Harry Kane up top, who moved to Bayern Munich last summer.
At the same time, the Spurs defence will need a serious upgrade if they want to have any hope of clinching a Champions League spot at the end of the 2024-25 season. They finished in fifth place last season, just two points off Aston Villa, but their defensive numbers were well below what the top three recorded after 38 league games. Tottenham conceded 61 goals, which placed them in tied-seventh place overall, but their Expected Goals Conceded sat at almost 64, which placed them 13th in the league. The fact that Postecoglou’s Spurs managed just 7 clean sheets kind of says it all.
As we are writing this season preview, Spurs have just announced the signing of Dominik Solanke from Bournemouth for a whopping £55 million. Not exactly a defensive reinforcement, but definitely an interesting addition to the side after his spectacular last season. Earlier, they also spent £40 million and £8.5 million on central midfielders Archie Gray (Leeds) and Lukas Bergvall (Djurgardens), respectively. Right-back Emerson Royal (£13 million to AC Milan) and centre back Joe Rodon (£10 million to Leeds) were sold, while the likes of Eric Dier (Bayern Munich), Tanguy Ndombele (OGC Nice) and Ivan Perisic (Hajduk Split) made free transfers. Perhaps the most surprising outgoing movement was the free transfer of key player Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg though, who joined Marseille.
Spurs: Tactical preview 2024/25
We mentioned Ango Postecoglou’s love for free-flowing attacking football already and we don’t expect anything different from his Spurs side this season. At all. They will continue playing the high line combined with a high press, with a front four supported by wing-backs who get plenty of freedom to bomb forward the opportunities present themselves. On the one hand, that means big risks for Spurs as they will continue to be vulnerable in the back, especially on the counter. On the other hand, Postecoglou has achieved successes with his style of play before and will now have had the time to perfecting it and most importantly, adapting it to Spurs, including the signing of players who he specifically considers key to the evolution of “Angeball”.
We expect Spurs to keep lining up in a 4-3-3 formation with James Maddison spearheading the midfield, in front of a more defensive double pivot. Perhaps more than almost any new signing, the return to full fitness of central defender (and fastest player in the league) Mickey van de Ven will be crucial to this season’s tactics, as the Dutchman’s incredible pace allows to compensate for some of the space left behind by the high defensive line. As we said earlier, it’s a high-risk-high-reward approach, very entertaining, and it will be fascinating to see if Postecoglou can carry its end results to the next level.
SPURS – Potential FPL pick
Dominik Solanke (£7.5m), the first player ever to be included twice in our Pre-season Club Preview series. At the time of writing our preview of Bournemouth, sometime last week, the forward was still part of the Cherries roster and naturally the first Bournemouth fantasy pick on our list. How could he not be, after scoring 19 goals and providing 3 assists in 37 league starts last season? He has now just transferred to Spurs though, for a cool £55 million, and we expect him to slot right into Postecoglou’s starting eleven. In theory, Solanke should improve on last seasons numbers now that he is part of a better team, and a much more attacking team at that. That means that for just £7.5m, he provides an in for fantasy managers into one of the league’s most promising attacking setups.
We started this list of potential Spurs FPL picks with Solanke as he was just brought in to the club. The former Bournemouth striker has enormous potential at a friendly price, but the main man in the Spurs attack is and will still be Son Heung-Min (£10.0m). The South Korean superstar costs £2.5m more than Solanke, but will be as nailed-on if not more than the Englishman. And why wouldn’t he be, after scoring 17 goals and giving 10 assists in 34 league games last season? Son is now on eight (8!) consecutive Premier League seasons with at least 10 goals and at least 6 assists, and those thresholds were recorded in his lesser 2022-23 season. He has become one of the most reliable fantasy assets in the entire FPL in recent history and with a decent share of set-pieces in his locker as well, we don’t see why he cannot equal or surpass his totals from last season.
While at this moment we don’t expect Spurs to dominate too many games defensively, we do want to include left-back Pedro Porro (£5.5m) in this list. The Spaniard is £0.5m more expensive than Destiny Udogie, who has a similar role on the right flank, but he could very well be worth it. Despite being part of just 7 clean sheets last season, Porro collected 136 FPL points last season, courtesy of 3 goals and 8 assists. And the best part of that is that those numbers were pretty much in line with his Expected Goal Involvements. We don’t expect his role to change this coming season and we hope that he will continue to be on a fair share of corners and indirect free-kicks as well.
For further thoughts and discussions on the new FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.