Another Premier League season, another year of disappointment in Premier League Fantasy Football during which you will forget to make substitutions in time, falsely claim to have stopped trying, and silently curse into a pint as your captain gets sent off in the first half.
First things first, it all looks different. The website has had a facelift and at first glance the face fills a 15” screen with its bloated beauty.
The standard rules all remain the same. You create a squad of 15 players made up of 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 forwards, all with a combined value of no more than £100m.
This year there are a couple of changes and they genuinely improve the depth of the knowledge you can attain and put into practice; this naturally equates to sinking even more hours into the game and even more glares from family and friends.
New Search Features
Creativity, influence, and threat (ICT) make up some of the more important changes in how to pick your team this year. You can also search by an ICT index which grades all of the players based on these combined attributes.
It is also easier this year to chart the current and overall form of individual players by searching for them via the rise and fall of their value. You can also search by the amount of times a player was in the weekly Dream Team.
FDR (Fixture Difficulty Rating)
In what can only be perceived as an attempt to make Fantasy Football more user/beginner friendly, a fixture difficulty rating has been introduced. Using the rating you can see how difficult a game will be for different teams.
It’s even colour coded for your delicate sensibilities and inability to recognise numbers. For example, Arsenal’s away game against Watford on the 27th of August is a cool blue 1. Their away day at Leicester the week prior is an angry red 5.
The Chips Are Back
Last year saw the introduction of All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain ‘chips’. The three return this year and each can only be used once a season. With All Out Attack you can select just two defenders and use an extra striker or midfielder. Bench boost allows you to include your four man bench to earn points and Triple Captain triples the score of your captain rather than doubling it.
The Wildcard chip can be used twice for unlimited transfers, once in each half of the season.
Bonus Points
The bonus point system returns with the top performing players earning extra points. Once again, 3 points are awarded to the highest scoring player, 2 to the second and 1 for the third. Points accumulate over the course of a match and those with the highest earn
Some points to remember are that bonus points are awarded for a successful dribble (1), scoring the goal that wins the match (3), open play cross (1),
Considering Theo Walcott often struggles to cross his eyes at times that last one could be an important factor when selecting your squad.
Anthony Martial Is A Midfielder
A point which deserves its own sub-head. Martial scored 17 in all competitions last season largely playing as a forward. The powers that be behind Fantasy Football have declared that he will be a midfielder this year. It isn’t too difficult to understand why, Ibrahimovic will be leading the line and Mourinho insists that Rooney will be an out and out striker. Admittedly playing time may be limited, but when Ibra and Rooney get injured and a bench-warming Martial with a depleted 8.7 rating starts banging them in, you’ll be more smug than the first kid to bring a game boy colour to school.
The Balls.ie Fantasy League will be back with a bang and we'll have the code out ASAP if you didn't get involved last year.
