Sky Sports – Formation Analysis

In our next article on the Sky Sports Fantasy game we unveil a new contributor to the Fantasy Football Scout team. Luke Williams, or “d1sable” as he is known to the community, joins the ranks to add his expertise to our coverage of this game, having established himself as “Hot Topic” specialist in recent weeks.

In Luke’s first article, he analyses the available options in formation for our Sky Sports starting XI. Ultimately our intention is to ascertain which tactical set-up is optimal for giving our teams the greatest chance of success, whilst also assessing the potential need for flexibility in our approach.

Firstly, let’s look at the five highest scoring outfield players per position last season. Our objective here is to gain an idea of the spread of points available from defence, midfield and attack – a vital aspect to consider when selecting formation.

Sky Sports Top Five Defenders 2012-13

Sky Sports Top Five Midfielders 2012-13

Sky Sports Top Five Forwards 2012-13

As the tables highlight, the highest scoring defender (Leighton Baines, 154) scored just over 100 points less than the top midfielder (Santi Cazorla, 262) and attacker (Luis Suarez, 255). This won’t come as a shock to the experienced Fantasy manager: this tends to mirror most Fantasy games; it only serves to remind us where we should be spending the majority of our budget.

Another important point to note is that midfielders offered very similar returns to attackers but, for the majority of the time, at a reduced cost, as highlighted by their points per million. Obviously, costs have been adjusted for this season but with midfielders having a maximum value of 9.0 and attackers 10.0, your budget will be stretched that little bit further to acquire the services of the top attackers rather than the premium midfielders.

In terms of formations, Sky Sports offers you five different options: 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-2, 3-5-2 & 4-5-1. We have chosen to dismiss 5-3-2 and 4-5-1 on the basis that they seem slightly counter-productive, five defenders will surely limit our Fantasy returns and a formation with a single forward seems far too negative in our quest for goals. With that in mind, let’s cast an eye over the pros and cons of the three more offensive tactical set-ups and assess the optimum time to put them to use.

4-4-2

Pros

• Flexible: if this season’s Michu or Christian Benteke crop up you can adjust accordingly to 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 with a single transfer.
• You should be clear to acquire an expensive front two due to the cheaper prices offered in defence and midfield.

Cons

• Having four at the back could hinder your overall points potential due to the relatively low scores achieved by defenders in comparison to midfielders and attackers.

Best time to use
Due to its flexibility, the 4-4-2 is certainly useful as an initial formation for the more cautious Fantasy manager.

4-3-3

Pros

• Having three strikers clearly offers the potential for more goals.
• Arguably, this formation also provides more captain options as you are more likely to hand the armband to an attacker.

Cons

• If you wish to move to 3-5-2 it will take you two transfers.
• Again, having four defenders is a slight risk due to the rarity of clean sheets.
• Attackers come with a higher price tag and it can take a large chunk of your budget, potentially having a big impact on your midfield and defence.

Best time to use
This formation is most useful for the run-in. Perhaps the most efficient tactic is acquiring a big hitter in defence to cover the business-like performances from the top teams and a value attacker that has come to light from one of the lesser sides fighting for survival: they should be highly motivated whilst offering guaranteed starts.

3-5-2

Pros

• Five midfielders gives you a higher chance to receive the bonus points on offer for completed passes and tackles.
• You can field seven attacking players, more than any other system in the Sky Sports game as 3-4-3 is unavailable.
• A three man backline means fewer players can lose points for goals conceded.
• Midfielders offer the best points per price value.

Cons

• If you wish to keep your current attackers but want to add a third in-form frontman and shift to 4-3-3, you need to make two transfers, replacing a pair of midfielders with a defender and attacker.

Best time to use
Most of the season, if not all of it, It’s pretty hard to make a case for any formation over the formidable 3-5-2, which could well be the default set-up for many of our teams.

Data suggest that this set-up should carry the most potential to gain Fantasy points, although as mentioned above, there is a small case for a shift in formation towards the season run-in to a 4-3-3. Of course, each season is different from the last and it’s important to back the in-form players regardless of their position. With an added 10 transfers this season giving us 40 in total and with no monthly cap, we should perhaps find it easier to be flexible and adjust our formation accordingly.

Fantasy Football Scout League

Once again, we’ve set up an official Fantasy Football Scout league for those playing the Sky game – we’re looking to defend our crown, having finished as top-rated league in 2012/13. If you fancy the challenge, you can enter with the pin 8000112 and with Sky offering a cool £1,000 for the winner of our official “FFScout” league, there’s every incentive to get on board.