{"id":281194,"date":"2025-07-22T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281194\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T00:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T00:30:00","slug":"fpl-2025-26-first-draft-team-reveals-wirtz-salah-double-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281194\/","title":{"rendered":"FPL 2025\/26 first draft team reveals: Wirtz + Salah double-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2025\/26<\/a>, we\u2019re welcoming back our team of guest writers for the new campaign.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here,\u00a0FPL Milanista\u00a0\u2013 who has three top 5k finishes in the last five seasons \u2013 shares his initial thoughts on the FPL rule changes and prices and puts together a first draft.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Make sure you sign up for the new season<\/a> to get all the Member-only articles, tools and features to make 2025\/26 your best FPL campaign yet! <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As the 2025\/26 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season kicks off, the game has introduced a series of new changes that promise to reshape our strategies and overall experience.<\/p>\n

Some of these updates are clearly designed to enhance player options and fairness, while others have sparked debate among the FPL community.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at what\u2019s new, what it means, and my take on the impact of these changes.<\/p>\n

DEFENSIVE CONTRIBUTION POINTS + ASSIST CHANGES: GOOD FOR THE GAME?\"FPL<\/p>\n

To start with, I want to highlight two changes that I\u2019m really excited about: the introduction of defensive contribution points<\/a> and the revision of the assist rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first broadens the range of players worth considering, which is always a welcome improvement in any Fantasy game.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the updated assist rule shows that the game\u2019s developers are committed to making meaningful progress toward reducing subjective, judgment-based calls \u2013 something that has often frustrated managers in the past.<\/p>\n

By implementing clearer, more objective criteria, the season should feel much fairer and less contentious.<\/p>\n

EXTRA AFCON TRANSFERS COULD STILL BENEFIT CAREFUL PLANNERS\"FPL<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most contentious change surrounds the rules for African Cup of Nations (AFCON) transfers.<\/a> The new system allows extra transfers without strict validity dates, meaning we can roll these over until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Many managers have criticised this, arguing that it rewards those who didn\u2019t plan properly for the AFCON period. <\/a><\/p>\n

However, from my perspective, this change could actually reward strategic planning.<\/p>\n

Since these transfers don\u2019t expire, a savvy manager can leverage them beyond Gameweek 16, potentially avoiding point hits during a traditionally tricky period.<\/p>\n

In essence, while it seems to benefit the unprepared on the surface, a thoughtful approach could turn this rule into a tactical advantage.<\/p>\n

PLAYER PRICES\"\"<\/p>\n

Looking at player prices<\/a> now that the game has just launched a few hours ago, my initial impression is that most valuations are quite accurate, with the game generally opting for the higher end in those 50\/50 cases.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are always exceptions \u2013 players like Florian Wirtz <\/strong>(\u00a38.5m), Mohammed Kudus<\/strong> (\u00a36.5m), Gabriel Magalhaes<\/strong> (\u00a36.0m) and Destiny Udogie<\/strong> (\u00a34.5m), and even Mohamed Salah<\/strong> (\u00a314.5m), in my opinion, could have been priced a bit higher while still maintaining strong appeal among managers.<\/p>\n

BENCH BOOST IN GAMEWEEK 1?\"Bench<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the Gameweek 1 Bench Boost strategy, which I\u2019m still exploring in detail.<\/p>\n

Using your Bench Boost chip right at the start of the season can be a clever tactic, especially now that we have two Bench Boosts to use throughout the campaign. <\/a><\/p>\n

Playing it early lets you capitalise on points from your entire squad, including those players who might not usually be in your starting line-up but still have scoring potential. This strategy often demands careful planning and sometimes even requires using a Wildcard to properly set up your squad.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve Bench Boosted, you can begin downgrading certain positions like your second goalkeeper or your eighth attacker, and redirect those savings to strengthen your starting XI.<\/p>\n

FIRST DRAFT\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2025\/26, we\u2019re welcoming back our team of guest writers for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[105737,105738,105739,79,42590,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-281194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-expert-team-reveal","9":"tag-first-draft","10":"tag-gameweek-1-team","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-team-reveal","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114894066492398568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}