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 fifth part of our Season Preview series, we’re taking a look at Fulham and newly promoted Ipswich Town, the first of the promoted sides to feature in our FPL Club Previews.
FULHAM – General preview for 2024/25
Perhaps the biggest compliment we can give Fulham manager Marco Silva is that he seems to have brought a sense of calm back to Craven Cottage. For years, Fulham were one of those clubs who would almost on a seasonal basis be either playing for promotion to the Premier League or fighting to avoid relegation from that same Premier League. After clinching promotion with the Cottagers in the 2021-22 season, the Portuguese tactician has managed two comfortable mid-table finishes at the highest level of English football: 10th in 2022-23 and 13th last season.
Throughout the 2023-24 campaign, the Cottagers were never in real danger of getting sucked into the relegation battle, in great part thanks to a strong first half of the season. At the same time, a major surprise like putting up their candidacy for a European spot was never on the cards either, though few fans will consider that a downside to the season. Especially when you consider that Fulham lost their main striker (Aleksandar Mitrovic to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia), while a deal for their best midfielder Joao Palhinha to Bayern Munich, much desired by the player himself, collapsed in the very last moments of last year’s summer transfer window.
What was narrowly avoided last summer happened very early this summer though, with the aforementioned Palhinha completing a £47 million move to Bayern. The free transfer of central defender Tosin Adarabioyo to Chelsea has been another major recent departure, while club man Bobby de Cordova-Reid almost left Craven Cottage for free (to newly promoted Leicester City). As has been Fulham’s style in recent years, much of the incoming transfer fees have been subsequently spent on seemingly very promising new signings. The one that stands out is Emile Smith Rowe, who was brought in for £27 million from Arsenal, though the transfers of central defender Jorge Cuenca from Villareal (£6.7 million) and left-back Ryan Sessegnon from Spurs (for free) are more than worth mentioning as well. The latter is actually a Fulham academy graduate.
Fulham: Tactical preview 2024/25
With Marco Silva going into his fourth full season as Fulham manager, FPL managers can have a pretty good idea of how he likes to set up his men and how he likes to approach games. Despite being considered a bottom-half-of-the-table side, the Cottagers usually line up in a fairly attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. This allows a team to field four almost purely attacking players without sacrificing much defensive stability, thanks to the double defensive pivot in the middle of the park. On top of that though, Silva likes his full-backs to offer attacking support as well, which explains why both Timothy Castagne (right) and Antonee Robinson (right) ended last season amongst Fulham’s highest-scoring players in terms of FPL points.
Considering the success of this tactical approach, we don’t think Silva will change much in this regard for the upcoming season. Instead, he will have to focus on how to replace key player Joao Palhinha as one half of the important double pivot in midfield. It will also be interesting to see how Emile Smith Rowe, who we assume has been brought in for a starting spot, will be integrated into the side. What makes this decision so interesting is the fact that ESR’s favourite position is also the best position of Andreas Pereira, one of Fulham’s main men in attack in the last few seasons. Assuming Silva finds a way to accommodate the both of them at once, the offensive creativity of the Cottagers could get a considerable boost this season.
FULHAM – Potential FPL picks
As a result of the positional uncertainty surrounding Smith Rowe and especially Andreas Pereira, we are starting our list of Fulham picks with good fantasy potential with neither of them. Instead, we are starting with Timothy Castagne (£4.5m), who is especially interesting for FPL managers in search of a budget defender with a high ceiling. The right-back was the highest-scoring Fulham defender last season, just a single point above left-back Antonee Robinson, but we opted for the Belgian as we’re not sure yet what role manager Marco Silva has in mind for new signing Ryan Sessegnon. On top of that, Fulham’s defensive abilities last season were quite underrated, as the Cottagers conceded 61 goals in 38 games, as many as number four Aston Villa and number five Spurs. Only Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Man United and Everton actually conceded less goals than them. As far Castagne, he also offers some attacking potential judging by his goal and 3 assists last season, and he looks nailed-on as part of Silva’s starting eleven.
After the departure of Mitrovic to Saudi Arabia, Rodrigo Muniz (£6.0m) was expected to fill the void after a year on loan at Middlesbrough, where the Brazilian had a mediocre season with just 2 goals and nine Championship starts. This didn’t fill the Cottages with too much confidence, so they also brought in Raul Jimenez from the Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Mexican did OK, scoring 7 goals in 18 games, but injury problems made it impossible for him to become the number one striker. Fortunately for Fulham, Muniz showed his class just in time. In 18 league starts, the 23-year-old managed 9 goals and 2 assists, while his consistency up front quickly transformed him into the team’s undisputed centre forward. We expect him to have the same role under Silva and at with Fulham’s decent run of fixtures after the season opener at Old Trafford, Muniz could provide great value for his current price.
For our last potential FPL pick from the Fulham roster, we are venturing in slightly more unknown territory. As mentioned earlier, it remains to be seen how Silva will manage the presence of both Emile Smith Rowe (£5.5m) and Andreas Pereira, two of the side’s best players who both prefer the number-ten spot. As it stands at the moment, we feel that ESR might get the nod as Fulham’s starting number 10, as we find it hard to imagine that the talented attacking midfielder left Arsenal for the Fulham bench. Similarly, we find it hard to imagine that the Cottagers would spend £27 million on a bench player. We have seen in past seasons what Smith Rowe is capable of when fit and at a price of just £5.5m, in combination with a favourable set of opening fixtures, he could be an excellent bargain addition to your FPL squad.
IPSWICH TOWN – General preview for 2024/25
Ipswich Town have returned to the Premier League for the first time since the 2001-02 season and they did so in incredible style. Sure, Leicester City were promoted as champions with a point more than Ipswich, but the Foxes had not just been promoted from League One a season prior. That’s right, after clinching promotion to the Championship at the end of the 2022-23 season, the Tractor Boys went on to the Premier League in just one season. This made them the only the fifth team in Premier League history to earn back-to-back promotions, after Watford in 1999, Man City in 2000, Norwich in 2011 and Southampton in 2012.
About half a year after a takeover by American investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited, Ipswich appointed manager Kieran McKenna, who was a first-team coach at Manchester United at the time and they could not have taken a better decision. After a dominant 2022-23 season in League One, the Englishman led his side to the Premier League last season, and he did so by implementing a very entertaining attacking brand of football. As a result, it will be fascinating to see how McKenna’s men will keep up at the very highest level.
Despite their wonderful story and even more wonderful performances in the past two seasons, our opinion at the moment is that Ipswich Town are in need of considerable reinforcement of their squad if they want to mount a serious fight for Premier League survival. They have made some moves in that direction already, spending about £63 million on new signings so far. Right winger Omari Hutchinson’s loan status from Chelsea was made permanent (£22 million), central defender Jacob Greaves came over from Hull City (£15 million), Liam Delap was bought from Manchester City (£15 million) and goalkeeper Arijanet Muric was transferred in from Burnley (£8 million). Right-back Ben Johnson was also brought in for free from West Ham. Further good news is that so far, none of last season’s core players have left the club and the club secured the services of their manager who at one point looked like being poached.
Ipswich Town: Tactical preview 2024/25
One of the main strengths of manager Kieran McKenna, and by extension of Ipswich Town as a whole, is the fact don’t stick (rigidly) to a certain style of football. For a newcomer in the Premier League, this quality can be of extreme use, as adaptation to the opposition (to a certain point) can make all the difference for a team that values every single point. They will neither rigidly stick to their successful Championship tactics like Burnley did last season nor will they completely switch up their tactics to accommodate a more defensive approach like Sheffield United did.
Having said that, it would be a big mistake to think that Ipswich don’t have a preferred playing style. More than a style though, they adhere to certain basic patterns that can easily be adapted to specific rivals and match situations. McKenna tends to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation and prefers, when possible, to build up from the back, including attacking full-backs and plenty of runs into the opposition box. We expect this to be considerably more difficult for them this season, also because they have no problem with playing the long ball and battling it out higher up the pitch. Seeing as fellow promoted side Leicester City lost both their manager and their best player to Chelsea, we are cautiously considering Ipswich as the most likely new side to stay up this season, in great part due to their entertaining but opportunistic approach to games.
IPSWICH TOWN – Potential FPL pick
Realistically, we don’t expect many gameweek 1 FPL teams to feature an Ipswich Town player, at least not as part of the preferred starting eleven. We add this last part on purpose, because one thing the Tractor Boys roster does provide is an abundance of bargain options. In defence, especially, there are a few £4.0m options who are guaranteed starters, and that is kind of the basis for a decent bargain pick. One of those options is right-back Ben Johnson (£4.0m), who was brought in from West Ham this summer. The reason why we are going with him over left-back Leif Davis, who tends to be more attacking but is also £0.5m more expensive, is his experience at the highest level. Johnson already has 69 Premier League appearances under his belt from his time at West Ham, which put him amongst the most experienced players at this level of the entire Ipswich squad.
With 10 goals and 6 assists from 44 Championship appearances last season (20 times as a starter, 24 times as a sub), Omari Hutchinson (£5.5m) had a big impact at Ipswich Town on loan from Chelsea. It therefore wasn’t surprising when the Tractor Boys announced a permanent move to Portman Road for the Jamaica international. In McKenna’s preferred system, left-back Leif Davis tends to get most freedom to bomb forward as the right winger, in this case Hutchinson, cuts inside to create both space for Davis and danger from a more central position. In other words, we can see the Chelsea academy graduate getting into promising positions this season and has shown his class last season to finish those off with a goal or two. Add to that his affordable price tag and the fact that he is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game, and you’ve got a budget pick that should definitely be on your scouting list.
We mentioned him before as the most expensive (or perhaps better said, the least cheap) part of Ipswich’ defending four, and it’s hard to finish this list of Ipswich fantasy picks without him. After all, left-back Leif Davis (£4.5m) got an incredible 21 assists and 2 goals from 43 appearance in the Championship last season. He is McKenna’s most creative and attack-minded defender, and a lot of Ipswich’ survival chances coming season will depend on, one, his improving connection with left winger Hutchinson, and two, on his ability to keep producing danger for opposition defences from the left flank. It’s also important to know that Davis is on most corners and indirect free-kicks, and it looks like he will be for the upcoming Premier League season as well. Competition in the ַ4.5m-defender bracket is fierce, but a punt on Davis could pay off handsomely.
For further thoughts and discussions on the new FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.