11 expert tips for guaranteed* fantasy football success
The start of the new Premier League season means one thing: the return of FPL. But you can’t just fill your team with your expensive dreamboats – see David de Gea, Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Harry Kane – unless you balance it out with some high-scoring bargains. But how do you spot them?
We’ve enlisted the help of Fantasy Football Scout, a site that counts two previous FPL winners and four of last season’s top seven FPL managers among its members, plus Greg Wright, a former winner of The Telegraph’s £40k prize. Heed their advice for the dos and don’ts of fantasy football. With these top tips you can’t go too far wrong...
1. Have a solid pre-season
"You need to start your research in the summer. A few weeks before the season starts I’ll look at injury news, transfers and so on, trying to find those lesser-known names that other people miss,” says Wright.
A number of players will have been late back to first-team training after the World Cup, so don’t forget to take that into account when constructing your initial squad. Keeping an eye on the teamsheets for recent friendlies should help steer your opening selections and avoid picking players still getting back to match fitness.
2. Find the best promoted players
The step up from Championship to Premier League can be tough to take, but players from promoted teams tend to offer kindly-priced options that free up cash to spend elsewhere.
Assess the main players from the promoted sides. Their squads tend to be smaller than those of established Premier League teams, so look for guaranteed regular starters – particularly those on set-piece or penalty duties – and pinpoint defenders who perform well for clearances, blocks and interceptions. Even if they spend the majority of their games under siege, being busy helps their bonus point potential.
3. Identify the outliers
Analyse the player list and pinpoint any who are wrongly classified, or those who might get deployed in a more advanced role than their category would suggest. Midfielders who often play as strikers can be real goldmines, while the trend for playing three at the back means some full-backs will get pushed up into midfield, making them more likely to bag assists.
"Attacking full-backs are always good, because you might get points at both ends – I played three left-backs in some games last year," says Wright.
4. Choose your big names wisely
Utilise your three-player allocation for the top clubs wisely. N’Golo Kante is a popular pick due to his budget-friendly price tag but FPL just isn’t designed for defensive midfielders to be big point-scorers.
“The best players don’t always make the best team. I used to fall for the flashy, skilful players, but they weren’t earning enough points," says Wright. Focusing on the goal-getters or raiding defenders should reap greater rewards.
5. Forget the new signings
Don’t go overboard on new arrivals. It’s easy to succumb to the allure of a big-name signing, but there’s a definite risk in overloading your squad with players unproven in the Premier League.
Give them time to acclimatise, then reconsider if they show signs of settling. Brighton’s Pascal Gross took a few games to get used to the league, but once he did he was a reliable source of goals and assists for the rest of the season.
6. Know your fixtures
Always keep an eye on the fixtures. Those teams with favourable upcoming schedules are more likely to bring in the points, so it’s wise to be aware of runs of easy or tough fixtures and plan your transfers accordingly.
The same applies to your three Chips. Both the 'Triple Captain' and 'Bench Boost' chips are particularly effective when wielded during double gameweeks. These are best played when explosive options such as Harry Kane or Mo Salah are handed a pair of fixtures in a gameweek to maximise their points potential.
7. Build a strong bench
Keep your squad well stocked for Christmas. The threat of rest and rotation is rife over the festive period and strong benches are essential as top-flight managers shuffle their options to cope with the hectic fixture list.
Look for regular starters in the budget bracket that can step in and give you a decent chance of replacing the points lost when your big names are being rested. Someone like Palace’s Luka Milivojević is likely to play every minute and will also chip in with the odd penalty or set-piece.
8. Watch out for influential players (and injuries)
As certain pundits are so keen to remind us, statistics can only tell you so much. There’s nothing quite like seeing your targets in action, so sit down and watch games to help guide those vital transfer decisions.
“Don't be afraid to take form players out when they've gone cold,” says Wright. “Especially if you know most people around you have them in their teams." Pre-empting a slump can make all the difference to your points total, and a long-term injury lay-off can suddenly promote players from the fringes, offering up a cheap option with the security of starts.
9. Don’t be afraid to gamble…
Fantasy football is all about scoring points that your opponents don’t, so while there are some players you can’t afford to ignore, if you’ve got the same squad as everybody else nothing will ever change.
"You have to gamble a bit, especially at the end of the season,” says Wright. “In defence, a lot of people go for five players from different teams, playing it safe. I’ll go for three from one, two from another. That way I’m only relying on two teams to keep a clean sheet.”
10. Be mean in the market
Just because a player has scored in three games running, don’t be too hasty with transferring him into your squad. Think about it: would you normally want to buy him?
"If I’ve got 30 transfers overall, I’d want to still have 20 left by New Year,” says Wright. “You want the maximum games out of potential signings, so look at their upcoming fixtures and possible suspensions – no matter how desperately I want someone, I won’t buy them if they’re on four bookings. And, most importantly, don’t make drunken decisions at 1am."
11. Recharge the batteries
Managing your fantasy football team can feel like a full-time job, but you only need to miss one week and you can find your league rivals out of reach.
"People's teams usually go wrong when they forget about them, so I have a regular routine," explains Wright. "I'll follow the managers' press conferences on Thursday and Friday and check the predicted line-ups. As soon as the weekend games are finished, unless there are midweek fixtures, I switch off until Thursday again - you get too into it otherwise. And I stop altogether in June. It's a long season. You need a life as well."
