FPL Wrapped - All The FPL Changes

Table of Contents

• Change 1: Defensive Contributions

• Change 2: Double Chips

• Change 3: More Assists

• Change 4: More Transfers For AFCON

• Change 5: Changes to Bonus Points

• Change 6: Elite Leagues

FPL have made huge changes for 2025/26 - double chips, more assists, defensive contributions points and 5 free transfers for AFCON. ⚽

Let's talk about the first major change - defensive contributions now result in points. How does it work?

Defenders, midfielders, and forwards will now earn points from defensive actions, meaning more points and more ways to score them! 🥅

• Defenders: Will earn two FPL points if they achieve a combined 10+ clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles (CBIT) in a single match.

• Midfielders and Forwards: Will also be rewarded, with "ball recoveries" added to their criteria (CBIRT), but they will need to achieve 12+ defensive contributions to earn two FPL points.

• IMPORTANT: All players are capped at a maximum of two FPL points for defensive contributions. This means that even if a player were to achieve 30 defensive contributions in a single game, they would still only gain two FPL points.

So, how would this have affected last season's scoring? The table below, courtesy of the Premier League, shows which players would have benefited the most.

• Tarkowski would have scored 44 more points, nudging him from 105 to 149 points.

• Caicedo goes from 98 to 140 points.

• Interestingly, the defensively poor sides benefit a lot given they're constantly having to try and make defensive actions to stop the other team. This will be great news for those £4.0m defenders on our benches that we never want subbed on. Bednarek scored an extra 40 points, Faes an extra 34 points, etc.

To put into perspective how defensive contributions may have changed the scoring of those key defenders in FPL last season, here's the top scoring defenders with contribution points added last season.

So what do you think? We think this is a fantastic change; it opens up our choices so much more now. More points is more fun! Those £4.5m defensive mids might actually do something for once, and this new rule combined with BPS changes could see a big shift towards CBs being the new meta in FPL, whereas traditionally we’ve gravitated towards attacking fullbacks for the extra goal threat that CBs don’t provide. Perhaps 4-4-2 will be making a big return in FPL!

The second major change is that we will now receive two of EVERY chip this season, one for each half of the season. You will have a Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Bench Boost chip to use in each half of the campaign, meaning eight chips in total.

Importantly, after the negative reception last season, there will be no Assistant Manager chip in Fantasy this season.

Similarly to the use of the first Wildcard in recent seasons, this first set of chips must be played before the Gameweek 19 deadline passes. They cannot be rolled over into the second half of 2025/26.

The first Triple Captain looks great against the promoted teams, we have identified these as possible opportunities:

• Saka vs Leeds (GW2)

• Palmer vs Sunderland (GW9)

• Haaland vs Burnley/Leeds/Sunderland (GW6/13/15)

• Salah vs Sunderland (GW14)

The first Bench Boost could work very effectively straight after wildcarding, but if a gameweek pops up where you have a very strong bench, we advise that you don't hesitate. We also think that Bench Boost in GW1 could be a very feasible strategy, as it means you wildcard you can then take money out of your bench.

The first Free Hit is likely to be a chip that is more team dependent. One possible strategy is to play it in a GW where your team looks relatively weak (e.g., In GW3, Arsenal and Liverpool face off, and if you have 5+ players from these teams, this could offer an opportunity). Equally, keeping the Free Hit in the back pocket for potential postponements (and therefore blanks and doubles) could also work very well.

The third major change is that there have been updates made to how assists are awarded in FPL this season! Here they are:

• Intended destination no longer matters when the ball is either: a) received inside the box; b) there is only one defensive touch before the ball reaches the goalscorer.

• If a pass takes two or more defensive touches before reaching a goalscorer, no assist is awarded.

• Defensive errors no longer disqualify assists (except misplaced passes).

• The "forced" element is no longer necessary for assists (e.g., last season Pickford's long ball to Beto, who won a penalty, would now be a Pickford assist).

If these new 2025/26 rules had been in operation last season, there would have been 41 extra Fantasy assists awarded! More assists has to be a good thing, right?

The fourth major change is that there will be extra transfers for AFCON! We aren’t sure about this one…

Timeframe: AFCON will take place between GW17-22 (some players might leave before GW16).

Transfer Top-Up: In GW16, our free transfers will be topped up to a maximum of five. This helps to react to early departures and avoid price drops. Importantly, this is not an additional five free transfers, this is a “top-up”.

To maximise the benefit, FPL managers should aim to have zero free transfers in their bank by the end of Gameweek 15. This would give them a total of five free transfers in Gameweek 16 (one regular + four extra). If you have banked transfers (e.g., three FTs going into GW16), you'll only receive enough to reach the five-transfer cap, missing out on potential extra transfers.

Notable players expected to participate in AFCON include: Salah, Mbeumo, Wissa, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Jackson and I.Sarr.

This is easily the most controversial of the changes, AFCON was an element in FPL that has always required some foresight and planning, those on top of it were rewarded but now we’ll be essentially given a third wildcard. Five free transfers is so overkill, as per the list above there’s barely 5 notable FPL assets going to AFCON!

Anyway, the takeaway is to make sure you use all of your available free transfers by GW15, because you’ll be topped up to 5 in GW16.

The fifth major change comes in the form of tweaks to the Bonus Points System (BPS). As a reminder, the players with the top three BPS in a given match receive bonus points - three points to the highest-scoring player, two to the second best and one to the third.

Here's a summary of the key changes related to the BPS:

• Goalkeeper Saves: Goalkeepers will now earn points in the BPS based on the shot location. They will receive three points for saving a shot from inside the penalty area and two points for a save from outside the box. A penalty save will result in an eight-point reduction in the BPS, down from nine previously.

• Goalline Clearances: To emphasise the importance of goalline clearances, a player will now earn nine points in the BPS for such an action, a significant increase from the previous three points.

• Penalty Goals: A new "Penalty goals scored" metric has been introduced. Players will earn 12 points in the BPS for scoring a penalty, regardless of their position. For non-penalty goals, the previous BPS points (24 for forwards, 18 for midfielders, and 12 for defenders) remain unchanged.

• Successful Tackles: The calculation for successful tackles has been simplified. Instead of "Successful Tackles (net)" (tackles won minus tackles lost), each "Tackle Won" in a match will now be rewarded with two BPS points.

If you’re thinking “yeah sure but what impact does that have on which players we pick?” - we hear you. Early thoughts:

• Penalty takers are slightly weaker now due to the reduction in their bonus points for penalties scored.

• Centre-backs will be very interesting with CBIT (discussed earlier) and it being easier to accumulate bonus for tackles won.

Lastly and definitely least, they’ve added a Top 1% and Top 10% “elite” league based on your rank finish last season.

Managers who finished in the top 114,319 places have qualified for the Top 1% League.

Managers who finished in the top 1,143,193 places have qualified for the Top 10% League.

There are prizes up for grabs for winning the leagues.

Next time you hear from us FPL will be live and we’ll be sharing our teams, thoughts on the pricing and all those good things. Thanks for reading and see you soon!

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