PlayON – The FFS Strategy Guide

As we announced late last week, we’ll be supporting www.playon.co.uk as our weekly Fantasy Football pursuit this season. Having dabbled with the game at the end of the previous campaign, we’ve picked up one or two pointers along the way that have, to our surprise, brought us a fair share of the prize pots.

With our £2 multiplayer game now open and offering a guaranteed £500 pot for Gameweek 1, we thought we’d share some of that wisdom and encourage you to try out what we think is an excellent addition to the Fantasy Football world.

Find the Untouchables
A PlayON lineup needs 11 starters who are more than likely to play for 90 minutes. With 5 points available for every minute played, there are 450 points available for finding reliable starters who can see it through to the final whistle. Sometimes you can compensate for an absentee and a few goals can carry a 10-man team but as a rule, be sure to focus on the players that will ensure you get a full starting XI out on the pitch.

Hunt out the Bargains
This is without doubt the key to success. PlayON’s pricing algorithm does its thing in advance of every Gameweek, basing player prices on performances over the prior number of gameweeks. Very often, this can create a select band of players who, for one reason or another, are clearly underpriced and offer value.

In particular, look out for those returning from injury or suspension – they will often have taken a price dip having missed several matches.

Play the Stats
This game is one of the few that recognises defensive work and rewards players who put in a shift. Actions like clearances, interceptions and tackles play their part and you should take the scoring matrix into account when making your team selections. Finding a cheap midfielder who can earn defensive points or, more importantly, a budget defender who can hoover up clearances, can be the key to freeing up funds for investment elsewhere.

The canny PlayON manager will also assess the fixtures with these stats in mind. A centre-back facing West Ham is more than likely to face a lot of crosses and aerial balls – it stands to reason that he’ll earn more clearances as a result.

Shameless plug but, if you’re an FFS member, you do, of course, have access to all the stats used in PlayON with the ability to filter by Gameweek and Gameweek range and a compare tool to run head-to-head player comparisons. We’re also planning to add specific PlayON tables very soon.

Dare to be Different
You can sometimes kid yourself that you’ve put together a strong lineup when, in reality, others will be going into the Gameweek with very similar players. A differential or two is always handy and taking one or two calculated risks can give you the edge when it comes to the shake-up for the cash prizes.

Watch for Late Injuries
Harking back to our first point, that late nugget of team news can be all-important when it comes to finding bargains. If a regular starter is crocked, this could open the way for a undervalued second string player to come in – while this is a big gamble when dealing with attacking players, it’s often handy at the back with defenders earning points for clearances and interceptions.

Read our Player Picks
Every Friday we’ll bring you three player picks – one for each position, that will help provide the foundations of your PlayON lineup. Just three, mind – we want to maintain our chances of winning some of that prize money too.

Tomorrow we’ll be taking a look at PlayON’s more advanced features and we’ll also be giving you an exclusive look at the brand new PlayON site that’s on its way soon.

Our first player picks article due on Friday, ahead of the opening Gameweek.