As the dust settles on a really good FL season and we fire up the 2025/26 stove, we thought we would share some thoughts on the player list, player player position moves and manual assists.
Player List 2025/26
While not wishing to spoil the surprise of the launch of the list, we were aware of the dilemma surrounding classifications of strikers and some midfielders last season. In the run up to last season, we took the view, that with so many EPL teams playing 2 wide and 1 through the middle, that these wide men had to be either ALL strikers or ALL midfielders.
This created a small imbalance between the categories, that was similarly slightly unbalanced in favour of the MF pool in previous seasons. It is an impossible task, very tricky to make everyone happy all of the time. So this year, we have adopted an even more detailed statistical approach to the classifications
Where a “winger” whose secondary position is a MF, he has been classified as MF. If their secondary position is a ST, they have been classed as a ST. There are a small group of of wingers who have no secondary position, who are statistically classified as a (100% winger), these have largely remained as a striker. We have used a number of statistical websites for the analysis and we are confident that the balance will be welcomed by most. This has meant a minor reduction in the striker pool, so may want to give some thought to your auction strategy.
Manual Assists
In an effort to increase the points in the game (after all, that’s what makes it tick), we will adopt a more generous approach to the award of manual assists (An assist not automatically awarded by Opta, such as deflected crosses, and goalkeeper saves) This absolutely does not mean it will be open season on MA’s, that just wouldn’t be in our nature, but we think you’ll see a more generous awarding of in 2025/26, after all, our Christmas day auction happens just once a year.
Penalty assists
For the 2025/26 season assist will now be awarded to the same player if he is fouled AND converts the penalty, so both the assist and goal points will be now be given to the player.
Supersubs and Email confirmations
We understand these are not universally loved by managers, but after setting supersubs, it’s just a click and a small wait! They help the FLHQ (Bootroom) massively when attempting to resolve any league queries, so we would really appreciate a routine requesting of them from managers. We will be actively encouraging managers to scan the subs bench for GREEN background players when setting their supersubs. Fixture block changes for TV are increasingly impacting supersubs, so in the 25/26 season confirmation emails will be key.
Game Guide
We have updated the scoring section of the Game Guide for the 2025/26 season. These changes will clarify a number of questions raised last season. Please read the following section, which has outlined our changes in a grey background.
As always, we are here to help with ANY query. Manager Support (FL Bootroom) is full of FL game experience, we play the game each season, just like you and have done for decades 😉 so if you want some advice, drop us a line, if its easier, stick your number on the email and we’ll call you back.
Thanks.
FL HQ (The Bootroom)
