FPL 2025/26: The players who could change position
Diogo Jota a forward? Nico O’Reilly a defender? Matheus Cunha a midfielder? No sure on the players who could change position?
As well as starting price rises and falls, the relaunch of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for 2025/26 will almost certainly see positional reclassifications for a handful of Premier League players.
In this article, we’ll outline the case for – or against – a change of position for a number of Fantasy assets.
We should stress that this is purely educated guesswork on our part and is based on how FPL have gone about classifying players previously.
As well as our Members Area, we’ve called upon Transfermarkt for help in this piece.
HOW FPL CLASSIFY PLAYERS
As a rough guide, FPL tend to classify players using the following criteria:
| Defenders | Centre-backs, full-backs, wing-backs (eg in a 3-4-3/3-5-2) |
| Midfielders | Central/defensive midfielders, number 10s, wingers/wide-midfielders, players on either flank of a front three |
| Forwards | Lone strikers, both strikers who play in a two-man attack, the central striker in a three-man frontline |
So forget what you might think about heatmaps, shot counts and penalty box touches: starting position on a teamsheet has traditionally been pretty much all that matters for the folk at FPL Towers, whether you agree with that or not.
Only with a revamp of the above criteria will we see the likes of Mohamed Salah become forwards, as the vast majority of their appearances in 2024/25 were as ‘wingers’ on paper.
The positional classifications are typically based on what each player in question has done in the previous season.
PLAYERS WHO COULD CHANGE POSITION
- Points in 2024/25: 37
- Points had he been a defender: 55
We start with one of the likelier changes this summer as Lewis-Skelly pretty much exclusively featured at left-back in 2024/25.
It started off as an enforced experiment in mid-December. Arsenal were without the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ben White for the UEFA Champions League tie against Monaco, leaving the Gunners short in the full-back department.
Lewis-Skelly excelled in the role, however, keeping his place for the Gameweek 16 clash with Everton a few days later.
The youngster never looked back, starting 15 of the Gunners’ 23 final league matches. Don’t forget that there was domestic rotation around the European fixtures, too: he was the left-back in all six Champions League knockout round ties.
Lewis-Skelly would have gained an extra 20+ points through clean sheets, bonus and his solitary goal had he been a defender in 2024/25. Four points would have been chipped off for goals conceded.
Even with a reclassification, the England international isn’t massively appealing as a Fantasy asset – price dependent, of course. He managed just one attacking return in 2024/25, registering just three shots and nine chances created in over 1,300 minutes of pitch-time.
Continue reading this article here!
