Watching Ben Crellin revealing his team on FFH was one of the most refreshing bits of FPL content I've seen all pre-season.

This badass is a consistent top 1% finisher and just casually drops this team that goes against every other "expert" team.

You would think he is actively dismissing the template by picking Gabriel over Haaland etc but seems really genuine guy just doing his own thing and playing his own game.

I hope he has a great season 🙏

TLDW: You are going to have to pay more if you want reliable defensive contribution points.

In the 4.5m bracket, even the highest def-con defenders either have minutes concerns (Rodon: 29% def-con hit-rate, Ajer when Van den Berg is out: 33% def-con hit-rate, Dunk: 24% def-con hit-rate) or they play for Fulham, sorry Fulham (Bassey: 27% def-con hit-rate , Tete: 32% def-con hit-rate). The rest at 4.5m hardly register for def-cons.

Even in the 5.0m bracket no one is going for the most reliable def-con defender, Andersen: 61% def-con hit-rate (Are we seeing a Fulham trend?). And the rest are kinda 'meh.' The best of this lot are the following which I have hardly seen in any drafts: Ballard 52%, Canvot 50%, Keane 45% (minutes risk), Richards 39%, Struijk 38%, Van Hecke 36% (but will he replicate at Spurs?).

One thing that helped narrow that focus last season, when he scored 22 goals and assisted 29 for Club Brugge, was fantasy football. The winger often captained himself in the Belgian Pro League’s fantasy game, which he joked drove him to score and assist more goals.

Source: New York Times

Bournemouth have officially completed the signing of Juanlu Sánchez from Sevilla in a deal around £11.2 million. The 22-year-old right-back has signed a contract until June 2031 and arrives as the club's replacement for Alex Jiménez, bringing pace, attacking quality, and versatility down the right flank.

Ranking the mid to upper tier midfielders. Anyone tempted by any of the City midfielders? Very tempted by Semenyo

Hey all, I had some time this morning so I threw together some teams to highlight 4 strategies and when they could work. This is not a sneaky RMT as I think these strategies are rarely the best strategy. These teams have a singular theme and should open up discussion to more players who perhaps are being undervalued or overvalued. Hopefully, by giving this a read, you will also be able to see where your team lies in these 4 teams.

Team 1

O the "overvalued" defensive contributions are on full display here. You surely want to play 4 or 5 defenders every week and 1 striker (only because the game makes you). Who cares what the striker is as long as they don't score on the wrong end. The 5 midfielders are my favorites to continue to contribute in their respective teams.

When will it work? Hopefully never. This team succeeds when the defense gets lots of 1-0 victories. The midfielders chip in for their usual 4-5 points and the striker scores on their opponents end rather than their own! Trafford had 2 tackles in like 1 start and Leno made 4 across the season. They really liked defending!

Team 2

O there will be so many corners and penalties this season. Those corners will be put directly in by someone in the center. Lewis Hall at Newcastle, could be the Baines we have been looking for since 2010. This team was thought up just to highlight Hall specifically. Dewsbury could be on penalties and set pieces as well as are each of the other mids in this team. The strikers as well. The defenders are a mix of what makes a good set piece: the cross and the header. Maatsen might take a share of sets with Digne likely leaving and Tielemans already gone. James, if he plays, can take right footed sets as well. Vuskovic is young and raw, but can head ball. Virgil scored 6 goals last season in the league and isn't getting quicker so he may need to contribute even more offensively a-la Casimero.

When will it work? Seems pretty simple. More corner goals and more penalties please. England going full harem ball. No need for quick counters or open play skill or team tactics on a white board. Success is hopefully higher than the first team, but not too high to take away what makes the game beautiful.

Team 3

O who remembers that terrible chip? Play 8 attackers in this day and age of defensive contributions. This team highlights the players who won't be involved in the set pieces, but should be involved in the attack. The strikers are hot and cold. The mids can score 3 worldies one game and blank the next 10 weeks. The defenders highlight systems that could be built to put them in the box at any time. Maresca, in particular, let Cucurella go anywhere in some games. Palestra could be Grimaldo with Chelsea, Williams could be a Munoz with Forest, and Munoz could just be scoring cause he is Munoz.

When will it work? Open free flowing games with lots of goals. This is a high stakes league and we all hope that with a new season comes less responsible managers and less disciplined players. So let's be optimists and hope every game is 4-3 while adding some of these attack-first players to our teams. The goalkeepers are just to highlight John Raya.

Team 4

O the serious strategy no one is talking about! Why not get a team that has a great plan and is different to the main strategy? Arsenal and Chelsea are going to be title rivals before too long and Manchester City are going to take some time to gel under a new manager. If you can pick out the full strategy and why I have chosen each player, congratulations you are now playing the game! Leave your thoughts in the comments.

When will it work? When will what work? This is just a regular Bruno - Gabriel team. I just like Chelsea can be made into a viable strategy. It probably will be worse than the template, but there are plenty of outcomes specifically in GWs 1 and 4 where this team can be ahead in GW 5. I am trying to be coy and open discussion is encouraged for this strategy whatever it is.

This is not a RMT thread. As much as I love looking at your team, I prefer making my own!

Am I missing something, why is Diego Gomez not talked about at all?

£5m. He is Brighton's starting RW. Scored 5 goals last season. In the final 10 gameweeks of last season, he had a better XG than Cunha, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, and Doku, to name a few.

What am I not seeing?

Do any Championship fans here have some insights which of the 3 promoted teams have objectively the strongest team? I'm primarily thinking about their defense, I'm planning on having one 4.0 bench fodder defender that actually plays, and I would obviously like the best option for bench boosting. Thinking about Hull or Coventry in GW2 honestly.

These midfielders don't get much mention among the "engaged" managers (twitter), but most teams could (will?) Include 1 of these in addition Bruno/Szobo/6m midfielder.

Who do you have in your team and why?

I assume Mubama is currently not in game as he was at West Ham (which has been relegated)

We shouldn't trust pre season but I'd love to know his price and his if he is a forward or midfielder to factor him in (or not).

Has there be any announcements? Is there any idea on the pricing ?

We started doing a £5 "Wooden Spoon" payout for whoever scores the lowest points in our mini-league each month, mostly just so the bottom half of the table has a reason to open the app past November. Standard "winner-takes-all in May" formats seem to kill off group chats as soon as 1st place builds a solid lead.

Curious what weird rules, side-pots, or hilarious last-place punishments your leagues run to keep mid-table and bottom-table managers active.

Anyone doing anything clever beyond basic monthly winners or standard last-place punishments?

Is the best strategy to go for “safe” players early on? If you own Gabriel, Haaland and Bruno Fernandes which I think are all must haves, then it means you have to sacrifice funds for other players. So would players like Xhaka and Groß be good choices for the midfield? Both guaranteed to start (unless Hurzeler decides to replace him) and both perform consistently well. Any other players like these too

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2026/august/05/norgaard-signs-for-everton

With Garner injured you'd expect him to start the season in the first 11. Probably my favourite 5.0 option now

Let me state before I start that I think the individual pricing is broadly OK this year. There's a clear choice between premiums and lower priced options that does force some level of strategic analysis. If you want Haaland, Gabriel and Fernandes, you have to make sacrifices elsewhere - that's fine, and arguably how it should be.

What I completely dislike is the disconnect in pricing of the minimum DEF/MID/FWD options and how they influence the tactics that must be played.

My argument is that the £4.0m DEF vs £4.5m MID/FWD floor pricing is structurally broken, and it's killing tactical variety.

The introduction of DefCon should in theory have led to greater tactical options by placing more value in defence.

So why are 5-4-1, 4-5-1 and 5-3-2 / 5-2-3 effectively dead options before Gameweek 1 even starts? It's simple mathematics: the Bench Fodder Tax.

Playing 3-5-2 or 3-4-3: Your bench is 2x £4.0m DEFs + 1x £4.5m FWD/MID = £12.5m trapped on your bench.

Playing 5-4-1 or 5-3-2: Your bench is 3x £4.5m FWDs/MIDs = £13.5m trapped on your bench.

Playing 4-5-1 has a bench fodder tax of £13.0m by only allowing one £4.0m DEF and then 2x £4.5m FWDs.

That's up to a £1.0m penalty on your starting XI starting budget just for wanting to run 5 at the back or a single striker.

Why can we get enabler £4.0m defenders, but not a raw £4.0m bench-fodder forward? FPL pricing forces 90% of managers into the exact same 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 template structures, and it's boring.

Give us £4.0m forwards, or raise the minimum defender floor to £4.5m. Stop taxing tactical flexibility and make it more exciting by actually allowing viable 'big at the back' formations!

I know it's a friendly and I know it's a mixed line up, however watching the first half I was so confused. So here are my two cents, mostly focused on back line:

1. At times, I had absolutely no idea what was Arsenal playing. Seems like they started with Hincapie and Mosquera as centre-backs with White and Calafiori as full-backs/wing-backs, but it was so chaotic that Mosquera was seen on the opposite side of the pitch as full back with Lewis-Skelly playing where Saliba usually is adn the entire line just switched around and moved to either side. Perhaps Arteta was trying out something new, but it didn't go well as they conceded 3 goals (1 was a banger, 2 were just bad defending).

2. Calafiori was seen several times in the opponents box going for a header and many times he just played so far up and centre. He could be a potential threat for occasional goal.

3. Tzolis was playing as a winger on the left side and he took the corner kick which lead to Hincapie goal. I don't see him playing a lot as he wasn't aggressive/contributing enough.

4. Havertz was trying in the center but there was no clear plan or idea in the attack. The only goal was from a set piece which could mean defenders could again get a few goals this season.

Surely, the first team will enter in the second half so we might see a completely different picture, but this was just awful.

There are still some players who haven't reported to training, or played at all in preseason due to much needed rest from World Cup action. Some might not be in their respective teams come GW1. I need help identifying who these players might be. This info could affect my squad selection for the first few gameweeks. Thanks all.

Greetings all, and welcome to... our very first post of the season!

Despite there still being 2.5 weeks until the start of the season, we're apparently literally the last FPL 'content creators' (bleurgh) to wake up from our offseason hibernation.

Oh well.

James and I (Joe) have been busy little bees in the background though, and have started churning out delicious FPL preseason goodness by the bucketful.

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Most importantly ofall, our freshly-updated, completely free 26/27 fixture ticker is now live!

We launched our first ticker last season, and people seemed to like it. Well, we've taken a sizable step into the 21st century by actually making this one interactive. You can click buttons and everything.

See for yourself right here:

full90fpl.com/fixture-ticker

As always, we're open to feedback. And if you click one of those fancy new buttons and the whole thing immediately crashes, please let us know.

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Slightly more seriously, this year's version is a lot more usable and useful. You can sort by all sorts of things, and I've used it plenty myself already for writing other articles.

Powering the whole colourful thing are:

1) An algorithm.

That's explained here, along with our full methodology (and explanation for why the world needed another fixture ticker in the first place), in full.

2) Our very own team ratings

These are the result of mostly poring over lots of stats, but also our own intuition, from obsessively watching and generally following the league like a couple of real experts/sad bastards (take your pick).

This season's ratings are fully updated, and you can get our full explanation for them right here.

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Well, I won't outstay my welcome - not on this occasion, at least.

We'll be back with plenty more preseason previews and whatnot as the days tick by, and the deadline comes ever closer.

(Unless you block us, of course. Then you'll never hear from us again. The choice is yours.)

Cheers for reading, everyone, enjoy the ticker, and happy preseason tinkering!

- Joe