Another very popular aspect of being a Premier League club has been unlocked for Leeds United by the top flight on Saturday morning.
Fantasy Premier League, the division’s globally-popular fantasy football game, was launched on August 15 with a little under one month left for players to assemble their teams.
A little over 7.5m people played the game around the world last season, underlining exactly how popular the platform has become for football fans.
For the first time, the Whites have been incorporated into the match and United fans can now build their own 15-man squad including three familiar faces from Elland Road.
You can read up on the basics about the game and how to play it here, but with the launch of the game today comes the most crucial detail associated with FPL: prices.
Players have £100m to spread around their 15 slots and price, naturally, dictates who you can and cannot fit into the same squad.
As a newly-promoted club, United’s players are predictably among the cheapest options available to managers, allowing them to fill out those more minor positions.
The full price list
Here is a snapshot of every current players loaded onto the game and what their prices have been set at. These will go up and down across the season in line with each player’s popularity among fantasy managers.
Best value
Midfielders and forwards tend to deliver more points in the game, which means they are generally more expensive than goalkeepers and defenders.
Having Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas marked up cheaper than the likes of Pablo Hernandez and Mateusz Klich is no surprise.
However, as we know, Ayling and Dallas have delivered goals and assists from full-back. Their £4.5m price is attractive and stands out as the best value of the Whites options.
Clean sheets were racked up in the Championship and will surely not be delivered as frequently in the top flight, but Kiko Casilla and Illan Meslier, whoever starts, are also decently priced at £4.5m.
If Mateusz Klich finds himself on penalties, the clearest way to score goals and points, his £5.5m price may also be attractive.
Out-of-position possibilities
The makers of the game, of course, are not experts on the nuances of each and every player in the Premier League.
With a promoted side like United especially, they are not going to be fully up to speed with the variety of positions each player is capable of playing.
Dallas and Ezgjan Alioski have each been classified as defenders in the game. As we know, there is the very real possibility of them playing further forward during the season.
The closer to the opposition goal they get, the better their chances of delivering goals and assists, which equal points.
Tyler Roberts also stands out. He has been classified as a midfielder. If, at some stage, Marcelo Bielsa begins playing Roberts as the team’s striker, his goal and assist potential will rise.
