Pre-Season

Draft FPL 26/27 Pre-Season Thoughts & Team Previews

DraftFC

Friday, 17 July 2026

Thinking ahead to the 26/27 draft season

I enjoyed draft last year. The game felt more fun than perhaps it has done in recent seasons and I think that was in large part due to the new scoring and introduction of defensive contribution points. Main FPL aside, the addition for draft added much needed impetus to what was starting to feel like quite a stale waiver pile (particularly during mid/late season). The ability to pull out a useful player in any given gameweek and for defenders to really haul purely through sweat of their own labour made it feel balanced.

The main negative, is that the forward pool felt just as barren as it has done in recent years. The ability to post useful scores from defenders and midfielders further highlighted the limitations of most forwards out there. If changes aren't made to rectify this it seriously impacts our draft boards again, with the forward scarcity in full force once again.

So how could the forward issues be improved?

I think there are 2 easy options:

Create a new point-scoring avenue for the forwards along the same lines as defcons - the obvious one would Shots on Target (SoT), with perhaps 3 x shots on target registering an extra 1 FPL point
Widen the player pool categorised as a forward - if you line up in the front 3 of a standard 4-3-3 system, you are a 'Forward', scoring stays the same, but far more players now available.

I suspect option 2 will not massively appeal to standard FPL, which whether we like it or not, remains the main consideration for any fundamental changes to the format. Option 1 however, would add to all FPL formats and I do wonder if this happens in the next year or two. Suddenly a striker who has a good game but doesn't find the back of the net, could still provide your FPL team with an OK score.

The honest truth is that we will very likely see no changes that massively impact draft - we still need to see if the league renewal update from last year actually works this year!

Early thoughts on draft day 26/27

A top-2 draft position would be lovely!

If I'm 3rd pick on the clock, I don't know who I'm taking right now. In recent years the tiers have been relatively easy to navigate despite any personal biases we carry, but this year it feels most of the round 1 bracket come with serious risks. Be that coming off the back of a big injury, continuing to nurse an injury, inconsistent output in 25/26, potential moves and managerial changes with new systems.

The other thing that's creeping in to my calculations already, is the defcon kings climbing up the ranks. You know me, I tend to follow the numbers, but it still feels wrong having the likes of Rice and Anderson so high on the board, but this is the new paradigm.

Pre-season matches this summer are going to be more useful than I can remember due to the volume of teams with new managers. We simply don't know how half the teams in the league are going to set up and which players are preferred. Set-piece takers need to be scouted and final squad personnel also need sorting after the World Cup.

Team Previews

As part of my usual summer prep I make notes. Notes and usually around a dozen spreadsheets called book1, book2, book3 etc, so that if anyone steals my laptop would think it belonged to a mad man. As the work is kind of already there, I thought I'd share them, team by team. I'll update the links as each one is published:

Where our full rankings live

As I said, these previews are just some of my notes and early thoughts, my complete top 240 rankings live within our members area. The Top 20 reveal stays free so keep your eyes peeled for that episode in early August. The rest though, plus all our other member benefits, sit inside a Draft FC membership and if you want to find out more about that, head here.

Our main content as ever will be via the podcast/YouTube channel so make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss out on any of the preseason episodes or gameweek previews as the season gets under way!