If this is your first time playing Fantasy Premier League or you have never taken FPL seriously, but feel this is your season, then here are 12 tips on how to build your first FPL team…
1. DECIDE WHEN TO USE YOUR 1ST WILDCARD
Consider a strategy that you want to use as this will impact on your team selection. One strategy is to save your chips until the end of the season for the double and blank gameweeks, but to use your 1st wildcard in the first half of the season. This is best used over international breaks which are before gameweek’s 5, 9 & 13. Find a strategy that suits you.
2. VIEW FIXTURES & CREATE LONG-LIST
Download the FPL planning spreadsheet and look at fixtures up until your wildcard. Which teams look to have clean sheet or goal potential? Start to write a long-list of teams you might want to consider. E.g. LIV/BOU forwards.
3. RESEARCH
Who’s fit? Who’s likely to start gameweek 1? Who’s on set-pieces? How teams have set up and played in pre-season? Bear in mind that many players have had an increased holiday following the African Cup of Nations and Copa America so may not be fully fit by gameweek 1!
4. VIEW THE PLAYERS ON FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE
Are there any players that stand out as bargains or are listed out of position? E.g. Strikers listed as midfielders. Add these to your long-list for potential picks.
5. PICK YOUR FORMATION
Think there will be a lot of goals and there is value in attack? Pick an offensive formation like 3-4-3. Do you think there is more value in defence and there’s more likelihood of clean sheets? If so, pick a defensive formation.
6. CHOOSE YOUR GOALKEEPER STRATEGY
The 2 main strategies are to either:
a) Pick a premium (£5.5m+) GK & a bench (£4m) GK and always play the premium GK
b) Pick 2 cheaper GKs (£4.5m-£5m) and rotate between them to whoever has the easier game.
Both are good options!
7. PICK YOUR BENCH
You want to maximise the value in your starting 11 and minimise the value on your bench. I argue that you should have no more than £18m on your bench. Your research should have highlighted the players who are £4m or £4.5m and regularly play for their teams.
8. CHOOSE YOUR PREMIUM PLAYERS
Now it’s time to splash the cash. Pick 2 or 3 highly priced players who you think can score points against ANYONE. These will be the mainstays of your team and should provide excellent captaincy opportunities with the chance to score big!
9. FILL UP YOUR SQUAD
Choose attacking players with good fixtures. E.g. Costa, Neves and Cairney are arguably all better FPL picks than Kante/Dembele. Although Kante is a world class player, he is a CDM who rarely scores goals and doesn’t take set-pieces. Keep this in mind!
10. PLAN YOUR TRANSFERS
This is a what the best FPL managers do. You know the future fixtures so plan to have a strong squad! Look at ahead and think about which players you might want to get rid of and which players you might want to bring in. Plan until your first wildcard.
11. TINKER ALL DAY, EVERY DAY
There’s no doubt that you’re probably not 100% happy with your team, so make some changes! This is where experimenting with different players and combinations can become addictive but that’s why we love the game! You have until 9th August @ 1900 GMT!
12. JOIN LEAGUES
You now should have a half-decent side! If you found the guide useful, follow me to keep up to date with the page. Make sure you join my league and the others noted below:
HelloFPL!: bhjt29
FPL Updates: adju69
Written by Hello FPL (@HelloFPL)
