Fantasy Premier League Team Selection Tips

With the Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 1 deadline approaching there has been  an abundance of Rate My Team posts filling the  Fantasy Football Scout community. With this in mind, I thought I’d put together a little article explaining how I would recommend putting your team together. It seems to me there is a system you can put into place that will allow you to not only build a decent team from the off, but be able to be flexible in switching out players who may underperform in the first few weeks for the top scoring players, crucially without taking too many hits or using your wildcard.
I have seven years FPL experience, achieving a best rank of 3829. While never setting the world alight I have a decent track record in the game, so I like to think I have some wisdom to impart. I hope some of you benefit from this article, and any feedback would be much appreciated.

The Template

The template I advise is as follows:

GK:    4.5 / 4.5  OR    5.0 / 4.0    total: 9 mil

DEF: 6.0 / 4.5 / 4.5 / 4.5 / 4.0     total: 23.5

MID: 10.5 / 10.0 / 9.0/ 6.0/ 4.5        total: 40.0

FWD: 10.5 / 8.5/ 8.5             total: 27.5

And here’s the reasoning.

Goalkeepers

The way I choose goalkeepers is by picking one goalkeeper who has a tendency to keep a lot of shut outs at home. This year I would put Stoke, Crystal Palace and Hull’s goalkeepers in that category. Another alternative is to go for a cheap goalkeeper who’s likely to rack up the saves. This year, this could be Newcastle’s TimKrul or West Brom’s Ben Foster. This is the area of the team that you don’t want to have to waste transfers on. A steady stream of six points is nice, but getting the other areas of your team right should be your priority. I would never spend over 9m on a goalkeeper pairing, although I do see the sense in goalkeeper rotations. Last year I had great success with a Vito Manoone and Artur Boruc rotation.  A Krul  and Foster combination could also work well this year.

Defence

A Chelsea defender is a must in my book. Two newly promoted teams in the first two weeks and excellent defensive tactics mean going without one is likely to be foolish.  The 6m priced César Azpilicueta and Filipe Luís are the picks here, with the former getting my vote due to greater liklihood of gametime.

Rotation works very nicely in defense. West Brom’s Andrew Wisdom is a good option and Kyle Bartley of Swansea has had a fine pre-season. Both of these options are only 4.0m and present excellent value. The final 4.5m slot is yours to choose. Sunderland have a number of good picks (such as Patrick Van AanHolt and John O’Shea) as do QPR and West Brom.

Midfield

This year, there is an abudance of options in midfield, and with the jury out on who is going to rack up the points, the best policy in my view is to load up on the big guns. Yaya Toure is overpriced for me, so I’m staying clear, however,  Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez, Juan Mata, Aaron Ramsey, Cesc Fabregas, Raheem Sterling and Christian Eriksen all seem like stand out options in the 8m – 10m range. My advice? Spend big. Go for Sanchez and Hazard and a 9m of your choice. This means that if Sanchez and Hazard blank in the first few weeks, the transfer down to Ramsey and Fabregas is easy if they perform. If you’re holding on to Ramsey and Fabregas for example and Sanchez and Hazard start racking up the scores, you’re more than likely going to have to pop that wildcard to bring them in, and if this can be avoided then it should be. Supplement these big boys with a 6.0 midfielder – there’s plenty to choose from this year, such as  Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jason Puncheon. You’ll want to play all these midfielders every week, so a 4.5m bench fodder midfielder is fine. Marc Albrighton was the stand out until his injury.

Attack

In previous years, I’ve always focused on my strike force. This year, I think the value is in the midfield. Daniel Sturridge comes in at too big a price for me, with some tough fixtures and no Suarez, this is a case of ‘Wait and see’ for me. Two fantastic options exist at 10.5m, with Wayne Rooney and Diego Costa – although I am a bit skeptical of Costa’s ability to score bucket loads of goals under Mourinho. I think Hazard at 0.5 m cheaper is the better option here. Going for two 8.5m strikers affords quite a lot of freedom. Much talk exists over Manchester City’s Stevan Jovetic vs Edin Dzeko. Going for Dzeko allows you to make the trade down to Jovertic with ease. Swansea’s Wilfried Bony also seems good for 8.5m, after having a year to settle in the Premier League and penalties in his locker. A few more options exist around this price, Loic Remy at 7.5 would be great if he can work his way into QPR’s first XI. Pelle at Southampton has potential to tear the premiership up with his tasty fixtures. Having two 8.5m strikers will also allow us to monitor the striker situation at Spurs. Another good option Olivier Giroud also comes in at this price.

Conclusions

The trick is to pick players who are easy to switch to lower priced players if they explode. Having a strategy to get in players like Ramsey, Sterling etc. who may be in your thinking but don’t quite make the cut is key when correcting mistakes in the first few weeks. Spend big in midfield, there’s plenty of cheaper options in attack and defence who can make up for it. The team I’m sitting on currently is:

Begovic (Myhill)
Azpil   Chester   Van AanHolt   (Shackell, Wisdom)
Hazard, Sanchez, Mata, Puncheon (Tiote)
Rooney Bony Dzeko