Salah or Haaland & what is the mystery chip? FPL 2024-25 tips

Fantasy Premier League is back and there are just hours until the first deadline of the season.

That is not just time to tinker with your FPL team, though - it is time to get your head around what could be the biggest rule changes in the game's history and how they could alter your approach.

Let's break down some key questions, explain the new transfer rule and give you some differential players to consider.

What are FPL's new rules?

The biggest change this season is to free transfers and how many you can accumulate at one time.

Previously, it was only possible to bank two free transfers, which was fairly restrictive if you wanted to make a significant change to your team - selling Erling Haaland, for example, to buy Mohamed Salah.

You can now bank five transfers at a time. And you can also keep these transfers when you play a chip such as a wildcard or free hit.

Why is this a big deal? It gives you the chance to play several 'mini wildcards' throughout the season and you have more creativity in the way you use your chips.

You can be super aggressive in targeting fixture swings, ditching three or four players in one go.

You could wildcard to build for a bench boost and quickly ditch four or five of those players a couple of gameweeks later.

Here is one example of how it could work early on:

• Gameweek 1 - pick a team and roll with it

• Gameweek 4 - (three transfers in the bank) wildcard a new team to target fixtures swings - Brighton and Villa for example

• Gameweek 6 - you now have five transfers in the bank, a mini wildcard - you can make another huge change or just keep your powder dry for later.

There are other changes this season too.

Bonus points have been tweaked. You could write a separate article on how this will affect things, but the simple explanation is that defenders are less likely to get bonus points and forwards who win fouls or shoot on target a lot will get more.

And there is a new chip, the Mystery Chip, which we will talk about later.

Mohamed Salah, left, and Erling Haaland are the two most expensive players in Fantasy Premier League

Salah or Haaland? Or can you afford both?

FPL has done well with pricing this season too, with the best midfielders such as Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka all coming in at £9.5m or more.

This forces you to make some tough choices, especially with the game's two juggernauts, Salah and Haaland, at £12.5m and £15m (a £1m price rise) respectively.

Can you fit both in your team? Yes, it is possible, but you have to make sacrifices elsewhere and you can only captain one of them each week anyway.

You would be left with a little more than £5.5m on average for each of the remaining 13 players in your squad, meaning you have to nail two or three budget midfield or forward choices. Very tough.

The sacrifice is arguably too great to try to get both Salah and Haaland in your team. So who to choose?

The answer is Haaland. At least for the start of the season.

The Norwegian missed time last season and still scored 29 goals with eight assists. He is guaranteed to return regularly and can you seriously go into week two without him as captain when Manchester City play newly promoted Ipswich at home?

I would adopt a wait-and-see tactic with Salah, coming off his worst FPL season as a Liverpool player, a year older and with a new manager.

The unknown is how quickly Liverpool will gel under new boss Arne Slot. Would it surprise you if there were some teething issues?

There are also more alternatives to Salah in his position who can match his output. You can have Haaland and also cram, for example, Saka and Palmer into your midfield.

Be patient on Liverpool, save some free transfers and you can always make a switch to Salah for Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth at home in weeks four and five.

Marcus Rashford managed just seven goals and 108 FPL points last season. Is 2024-25 going to be a bounce-back season?

FPL players to pick - seven differentials for £7m or under

No premium players here. The likes of Saka, Palmer, Watkins and Isak are all great picks for your team, but you need some affordable differentials too.

Here are seven players to choose from:

Marcus Rashford (Man Utd, £7m, midfielder) Despite a terrible 2023-24, he is only one season removed from a 17-goal, 205-point FPL campaign. Erik ten Hag has spoken about trying to restore his confidence and there is a chance he could play down the middle at times, with Rasmus Hojlund injured.

Fulham, Brighton and Southampton are in the first four games and if Rashford does not impress, £7m is an easy price to jump onto another midfielder in this range.

Niclas Fullkrug (West Ham, £7m, forward) It can be a risk picking players who are new to the Premier League from the start of the season, but Fullkrug could hit the ground running. We have seen what he can do for Germany and Borussia Dortmund - he is superb in the air and also does not waste any time getting a shot away in the box. In short, he is a handful.

At West Ham he will have the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Paqueta (for now) and Crysencio Summerville creating chances for him. Prediction - 20 goals.

Bryan Mbuemo (Brentford, £7m, midfielder) - There is every chance the Cameroon forward would have scored 15 goals last season had he not got injured. Mbuemo only started 22 games but still returned nine goals and seven assists.

He may take on penalties if Ivan Toney leaves and has home games against Crystal Palace, Southampton, West Ham and Wolves in the first seven.

Daniel Munoz (Crystal Palace, £5m, defender) - The Colombia full-back had a superb end to last season as Palace became a much more attacking side under manager Oliver Glasner. In his final 11 games, Munoz scored 47 FPL points, with four assists, 34 touches in the box and 1xG.

Those are sensational numbers for a defender, eclipsing Trent Alexander-Arnold for example. Palace have a decent run to start the season, but clean sheets are not the only way Munoz will be scoring points this season.

Emile Smith Rowe scored seven minutes into his Fulham debut in a friendly last week

Emile Smith Rowe (Fulham, £5.5m, midfielder) The former Arsenal man was a budget FPL darling in 2021-22 when he scored 10 times in 21 starts. That is the potential he possesses - it was injuries and Arsenal's strong squad that held him back.

With Fulham's kind early fixture run, it does not even seem like a gamble to take a punt on 'ESR'.

Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea, £6.5m, midfielder) The Frenchman was top scorer in the Bundesliga three seasons ago. Injuries ruined his first season at Chelsea, which is probably why FPL has given him such an enticing price tag.

Nkunku often played as a striker for Chelsea in pre-season. If that carries on in the Premier League he will be THE bargain of 2023-24. Even playing out wide, £6.5m for a piece of an attack that really got going at the end of last season is hard to pass up.

Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest, £6m, forward) The big striker averaged 5.7 fantasy points per game he started last season.

The issue was that he was not always first choice, with Taiwo Awoniyi often starting for Forest. But it looks like Wood will be the man at the beginning of the season for his side's juicy run of games that begins with Bournemouth (H), Southampton (A), Wolves (H).

Gameweek One fixtures

Friday, 16 August

Manchester United v Fulham (20:00 BST)

Saturday, 17 August

Ipswich v Liverpool (12:30)

Arsenal v Wolves (15:00)

Everton v Brighton (15:00)

Newcastle v Southampton (15:00)

Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth (15:00)

West Ham v Aston Villa (17:30)

Sunday, 18 August

Brentford v Crystal Palace (14:00)

Man City v Chelsea (16:30)

Monday, 19 August

Leicester v Tottenham (20:00)

FPL's Mystery Chip - what could it be?

FPL has announced a new Mystery Chip. It will not even be revealed until January.

What could it be? There was previously an All Out Attack chip, which was not that exciting as 3-5-2 is a popular formation anyway, so 2-5-3 is not much different.

Will it be a free hit with no budget? Could you have two captains? A free hit with no limit on the number of players from one team? Away points counting double?

It is anyone's guess.

Three tips for 2024-25

Patience is important: There is a difference between spotting a bargain like Cole Palmer last season early on and knee-jerking a player into your team because he scored a hat-trick the week before. Patience, especially early on when you can accumulate transfers, is a virtue.

Plan ahead: Fixture swings and form are two key elements of FPL. Good fixtures can lead to good form. Get yourself a good FPL planner and highlight teams' fixture swings to attack.

Be brave: No player is essential - even Haaland had a spell of just four goals in 12 games last season. You don't always have to follow the crowd.

And finally... follow the BBC Sport League on BBC Sounds

You can listen to the Fantasy 606 podcast each gameweek on BBC Sounds where Alistair Bruce-Ball, Statman Dave and Chris Sutton discuss and debate all things FPL including the latest news from the BBC Sport League - which you can join automatically by going through to the Fantasy Premier League website.